🌱 Wellbeing: Should you work at all when travelling and in transit?

Have you considered the impact of where and when you choose to work on your overall wellbeing when you are in travel transit? Maybe it is a bad idea!

Sure, you can work-from-almost-anywhere but that doesn’t mean you SHOULD work from from-almost-anywhere…. there is so much narrative around “productivity" in work, which I prefer to call “focused and fruitful work” - but little on where and when you choose to work during travel and whether that is a contributing factor to our wellbeing and general disposition as human beings.

Photo by Genine Alyssa Pedreno-Andrada on Pexels.com

Some people also find travel itself a source of stress, suffering from motion sickness, fear of the unexpected or worry about making connections, or the such like. So maybe even deciding to try and work if you are feeling bothered, is a really, really bad idea in the first place.

Constantly connected during the ACT of travel

Nowadays, practically all forms of travel - from road, to sea, to air - has enhanced connectivity. Not only on the various forms of transportation themselves but also while you wait, you can find wifi to connect everywhere, almost regardless of location. This connectivity can be useful when accessing via our handheld device, for checking weather, advise our accommodation of any delays, download e-tickets etc. etc. but also we need to be mindful of the differences between:

• being connected for convenience (and to support organisation) during travel

• doing effective work using that connection and during the act of travel

For me, these are two distinct options that need to be approached with care. Effective work for me, let me qualify, includes work that does not result in any pain, strain or discomfort whilst sitting but also later in time. Later is important, as posture is a sneaky one and can be unforgiving, more than a few minutes in a strange position e.g. your neck jerking slightly - can often lead to aches and strain in the following days.

Read on to hear about how a recent trip reminded me of the importance of this…

Remote working (using a laptop for typing) needs a table and chair

During an a long day of train travel in Italy, I could not work - well, work effectively - but more importantly, I could not work without putting myself my own wellbeing at risk. Why? Simples, there was NO tray table on any train seat of the three trains I took from Ancona to Genoa (during a slow travel experiment, that reduced carbon emissions).

I really enjoy train travel and when it comes to writing and creativity, I often find that the movement of a train, can spark ideas and focus. But, let me qualify that, over the last 5 years, much of my train travel has been on Renfe trains in Spain, which have a decent comfortable set up, plenty of power points and with the (what I now call!) luxury of tray tables regardless of the carriage you choose to travel in. So I got a shock when I discovered that tray tables were no where to be found anywhere!

Precariously balancing a laptop on my lap, is not an option for me and also it certainly does not work for my neck, back or general posture. After walking about in the most modern train of the connecting trip, looking for an alternative seat with even a makeshift laptop perch - with no luck, I resigned myself to forgetting work that involved typing on my laptop and did the following:

1. Looked out the window to enjoy the beautiful views, reminding myself how much I loved train travel

2. Checked in on my self-talk and did a reframe “whatever work can wait, you have loads of time” - so as not to distract myself from the enjoyment of the travel itself

3. Popped on a podcast to listen to (yes, this could be work related, if you choose)

4. Grabbed a notebook to write some notes and do some doodling. I also spent some time writing and contemplating the situation

The train stopped in many small coastal towns on the Italian Adriatic coast, so I admired the views and took some random photos of train station signage, including the one pictured above taken at Senigallia train station.

Body scan check in exercise, before deciding to work

Remember, we are all human beings and we want to endeavour to work well where and when we can, therefore, wellbeing needs to be a constant consideration. But for many it isn’t, the laptop is almost too accessible, easy to flip open, fire up and get going. What if we stopped after we sat at our device and FIRST scanned our bodies from head to toes, from eye alignment to screen, stopping at those (are they hunched?) shoulders and checking in with the position of our legs and feet, we often might reconsider that decision to work in travel transit, given the potential negative impact to our bodies.

To add, you also don’t have to be connected to do remote work. Many other tasks - which are analogue - can be done without a connection, from editing notes on offline files, to listening back to the audios of webinar playbacks to writing on a pen and paper.

Or doing nothing and enjoying the scenery and the travel journey itself, otherwise what is all the effort for? And could the world be passing you by, outside that window - while you are looking down at a device?

THANKS for reading 💚

Yours with Gratitude, Ro