Hi! Howard from StartupRemarkable.com here.

Today I’m going to share with you 6 Secrets to keeping very productive while you’re away travelling especially for long periods of time. How do I know? Well I’m just back from 6 weeks travelling across the world. Quite literally. From starting off in Australia doing a road trip from a campervan across the desert to Malaysia in Asia and also up to jungles of Northern Thailand, over to Ireland for a whirlwind weekend and then over here to London which I’ve just move in to a new house which is really exciting.

But during those 6 weeks, I learned a lot about what it’s like [to keep] trying to keep a really [really] productive with your business because when I go on holidays [I] as much as I love the experiences I’m there I also want to keep my businesses momentum going so I can reach all my goals and my targets that I’ve set myself. And after 6 weeks of being away I’m putting my hands up and saying, “I failed, failed miserably.” All the plans I had in place for keeping my businesses really [really] pushed down to be at least productive while I was leaving in Australia. They just didn’t work out for one reason or another. I’m going to share those with you. So hopefully you can put the plans in place.

If you’re going away for any period of time really, anything over 3 or 4 days. If you are away for a week or a month or 6 months. That you can put these plans in place so same thing won’t happen to you and you’d be able to keep very [very] productive.

So what are these 6 secrets? Okay. Well the first one is Systems. Now, systems this really is the holy grail of being able to leave your business, go on holidays and for it to remain really [really] productive and earning money for you. Now I thought I had great systems in place. All these systems, I had my week’s plans that I give to my VA’s in Philippines and they’d manage. But, it’s not until you’re not actually looking over the progress that’s made everyday and you’re not actually there to manage it that you realize where the holes on those systems are. So I’d really recommend expanding a good better time making sure that your systems are as water tight as possible and believe me it’ll [you know] probably take a few attempts but ones you get those systems in place you’ll be [you really will be] a step away from your business and relax a lot more. Now if you’re a little unclear of what I’m talking about with systems I’d recommend reading the bible of businesses’ books which is the E-Myth by Michael Gerber. Just a quick read no matter what kind of business you’re in. It really gives you a new perspective on what a business should work like. So that’s the first one, Systems.

The second one is, Be Prepared. Now I had heard from Chris Guillebeau – I read one of his books, and he recommended before you launch a blog have at least 30 days worth of content just ready setting there for on the occasion that you don’t have time or you’re not able to post to your blog. Now, I was in such a hurry to [Laugh] launch StartupRemarkable.com. I was like. “I don’t have time for that I’ll try and build up a bit of a database of a couple of post and stuff as I go along.” But I didn’t have time to do it before I went away. And boy, I wish I did. Because you just don’t know what’s gonna come up while you’re away. You may have plans; I have plans to write blog content every single day on my laptop while I was travelling across the Australian outback. But then when I was there [you know] there was no electricity for my laptop. I couldn’t power it and I was hours from any plug point and so it’s just not possible. So definitely [definitely] be prepared whatever. Have a look forward and the very least what you will need to do while you’re away and have that stuff already wherever you go. And then at least at the very end you won’t be disappointed with the commitments that you’re not able to keep. That’s the second one.

Then the third one which really _____ nicely into it is Expect the Unexpected. This is really from a productivity point of view I suppose. Again, I’ll use the example of being in the Australian Outback. Beautiful and this campervan but wanting to do some work and not having a laptop or the ability to connect to the internet or even just type up a word document. So I definitely also recommend expect the unexpected.

Another example was I made some videos while I was away and I wanted to upload them into my blog and while I was in Thailand and just the upload speeds were the only internet connection was the equivalent of a dial up connection. And for me to upload the video which is gonna take [I think] close to a day of upload speed. So just expect the worst with the technology and any kind of internet connection while you’re away and hopefully you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Okay.

Now, the fourth one is to Be Realistic. I, probably in _____, set myself too much ambitious goals while I was away. I wanted to [you know] keep developing new business while I was away and I wanted to make sure that I kept them top of all my clients for my Web Design and Internet Businesses clients. Which is really I was able to do the bare minimum but I don’t think it was quite realistic enough with what I was able to achieve while I was still out having a great time; Most of your time while you’re travelling you’re gonna be experiencing new things and seeing new places and you just got to factor in for that be realistic that maybe your productivity won’t be as high. Maybe I was a bit naive on that regard but I definitely thought that I’d be able to keep really really uber productive and [you know] when you set yourself expectations and don’t meet them it just ends up with disappointments so set realistic expectations.

Now, the fifth one is, Do Your Research. When you’re going to this places wherever you’re going maybe Thailand, Australia or anywhere at all any place you go. Do some research before you go specifically in who else is leaving there in your field. Because it’s a great thing if you’re from out of town and maybe there’s another blogger or just a specific entrepreneur that lives in that particular town that you’re visiting town or city and If you’re saying that you’re just gonna be there for a day or two and you want to hook up for a coffee it’s great because the person knows that you’re just in town and they like [always nice] they’d always like to make you feel hospitable and welcome. Now I had a great experience with that when I was travelling across Australia. I was in Sydney for 1 night and I connected with a great guy called Richard who I have an interview here in the blog about. It was a great opportunity to do to definitely take advantage of it you can make some really really great connections. So that’s the fifth.

And then the sixth is one of the most important as well it’s just to relax and slow down and allow the inspiration that will come wherever you are whether be in Thailand and you’re elephant riding through the jungle or you’re doing a Thai boxing camp. You’ll get great inspiration for your business. And it’s well well worth it. So just allow that. Don’t expect while you’re there to be working all the time and just switch off and allow the inspiration to come.

So hope that helps anyway wherever you’re going have a great time and if you have any other tips on keeping really productive while you’re away, please add them. I’d love to hear them add them as a comment in the bottom of this blog and hopefully [we can] next time I’m away, which I’m gonna be experimenting later on this year. I’m gonna head away for a couple of more weeks as well and see have I improved in keeping my business productive while I’m away. Lovely chatting with you and this is Howard from StartupRemarkable.com and chat to you soon.