If you travel even a few times a year you can benefit from some efficient workflow, some of which depends on technology. For starters, let’s talk about packing your bags.
Head over to the website Onebag.com and check out the many useful tips they have to offer. The One-Page Checklist is a good place to start. Also, check out their tips on how to pack clothes.
Now, that you know what to pack and how to pack it let’s turn to something else: efficiently managing your itinerary. For this we shall make use of a free website called Tripit.com.
Tripit turns all your flight, hotel and rental car confirmation e-mails into simple, mobile travel itineraries just by hitting forward. First you have to register with Tripit and let them know what your email address is. Once they can figure out who you are by your email address, you simply forward any confirming email you get for flight, hotel, or rental car to plans@tripit.com and they build an itinerary automatically.
I have the iPhone app (free) which means that I get all of the aforementioned itinerary info pushed out to my phone, which of course is with me at all times. So when I want to know what time my connecting flight leaves I can check on the phone. When I arrive and need to know the address of my hotel to give the cab driver I have that handy too.
The paid version of Tripit sends you text alerts when your flight is delayed. It also gives you gate information for arrival and departure, which I’ve found to be pretty accurate. Tripit Pro will even send your itinerary to your family members automatically (assuming you want that to happen). You can try the Pro version for free for 30 days, and then it’s $49/year if you want to keep using it.