Flight time is the only time it’s possible to achieve inbox zero. There’s nothing wrong with having a show on in the background, but the opportunity where no one can really reach you – come by your office, call, have a video meeting – is a fantastic heads down chance for crossing things off your list, finishing documents, or even just thinking about a problem and taking notes.
There are two types of travelers: People who are productive on planes or people who watch movies and sleep.
I just sent 30+ emails and caught up on all my work… we are not the same.
— Elana (@TradingFemale) March 2, 2023
I don’t do much work on late flights. I’m just too tired. I might respond to a few emails, but if I’m flying after eight I’ll be just as likely to zone out to inflight entertainment.
I also don’t work nearly as effectively on long haul flights. I might sleep a little bit, but I’m probably not getting sufficient rest. Plus the length of time pressurized to 6,000 or 8,000 feet probably makes me less energetic and therefore less effective.
Inflight internet was truly a game changer for me. Flying during the week, during the day, I found working inflight to actually be relaxing on a portfolio basis, across my day. That’s because, pre-internet, I’d get off a cross-country flight with a deluge of unanswered urgent emails. That was stressful! It didn’t matter how ‘relaxing’ a flight was, that self-indulgence was quickly wiped out by the need to catch up.
Of course to make any of this work I need enough space. Regular coach on Delta, American or United won’t really let me open my laptop and work. I need, at a minimum, the seat pitch offered on Southwest or extra legroom coach on one of these other airlines.
There’s an internet meme that’s often way overdone about working when other people aren’t to get ahead. Maybe it’s why I always loved work during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Everyone else was out of the office, on holiday, so no one was bothering me and I could be heads down and really make progress on things that didn’t require interacting with other people. Plus, not traveling when everyone else is (‘amateur days’) was a benefit as well.
Have a drink, have a snack, strap in and churn out. Life is what you make it.
If you don’t need to work, if you prioritize leisure, you do you. I’d hate to miss out on the focused time I get on a plane. Some of you like to close your eyes and doze off, too. I’m more likely to say I’ll sleep when I’m dead. And the truth is I don’t give up on valuable leisure time. Work hard and play hard. Sitting in front of a screen, watching something that’s not good or valuable enough to watch at other times, just seems like letting the clock of life tick away.
If you’re flying on the company dime, you’re being paid to fly.
If you’re being paid to fly, you’re being paid to work.
And if you’re not working, you won’t be being paid to fly for long.
Only LOSERS work/have to work on airplanes. Period. Full Stop.
During my working life I would travel about forty weeks a year. While flying to far flung destinations I would take the time to work on projects that would require quite time. I found that I was productive early in the flight and would ask the flight attendant (FA) to wait on any service for me until I was ready. Midway through a flight I would sit back and make every effort to review what I had done or was proposing. Towards the end of a flight I would review any and all options that I had conjured up while flying. This would then prepare me for the meetings I would be attending while at a job site. With headphones on and some music in the background I found that I could be productive.
I always envied people who could work on the plane, but for me, I am too nervous of a flyer and couldn’t focus/concentrate, so it just wasn’t possible. Even in retirement and traveling for pleasure, I find it hard to read a book or watch a film due to the kenetics of the aircraft.
If you work for someone else and are working more than your agreed number of hours per week and/or outside of scheduled hours (probably M-F, 9-5, you are a chump. Simple. Regardless of whether you’re on a plane, in an office, at home, or in a cave.
Also, if your boss/company bought your ticket for travel within your 40/hrs per week, during your scheduled office hours, and expects you to be productive on the plane, they better have paid for some premium F/J space. Or else, again… You’re a chump.
Totally depends. If I have something urgent, I’ll work on it during a flight. I don’t live to work. And I would never want to work between Christmas and New Years. I think every company should close during that time and give employees time off.
Interesting. Chacun a son goute is my answer.
As a small pubco CEO whose company had events around the World, offices in the US, Canada, UK, S Africa, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand I was flying up to 600K miles a year. I relished my ‘plane time as it was a time when people just couldn’t get at me (I rarely paid for internet to check e-mail) and that time was a refuge, frankly. Also why I am incontrovertably opposed to cell phone use on aircraft. I would do work I enjoyed — preparing speeches and educational presentations, I also wrote a book (Assets Cubed) on flights to Hong Kong and back. But just plain old W-O-R-K? Not if I could help it.
Retirement and COVID made that all a moot point for me these days.
I travel weekly for a consulting firm and they put us in business/ first class for flights over 90minuets, so we are expected to work unless it’s a late evening flight or red eye. Honestly it’s not a bad deal, and in first it’s less of a hassle.
Wi-Fi on planes enabled me to be as productive (sometimes more so, since no calls) as I was in the office. That then enabled me to combine work and leisure on work trips to some global capitals, and I quite enjoyed my job.
Its so sad people working on planes, especially off hours or on weekends
I can understand if you have your own business, but to do some dumb corporate job on your own time…
I work on my way to business trips. Movies and knitting on the way home.
Southwest has 32 inches of pitch, right? But you have status on American, so you can have MCE for free, which means more than 32. The other airlines have 31 generally, and no less than 30. So you’re saying you need an INCH more to work? Really, now. This is really pushing it. I can hardly recall any AA flight when I could not select an exit row anyway. And I did not get gifted the CK status you have not stopped bragging about for months. Why you continue to promote loser SWA is beyond most of us, except that it serves AUS and you cant escape them, maybe.
I love the focus time of working on planes. Satellite WiFi is a game changer for that. I started looking forward to 3-4 hour domestic flights because the flight time was just right to dig into a good project and get shit done. Sad to see so many commenters’ negative remarks about work… They must have never owned their own business or liked their jobs. For some people it just doesn’t click.
Traveling internationally for leisure is a different game for me… At that point i usually want to enjoy my lay flat seat, tv, and food and drinks. Work will take a back seat.
The only time my inbox hit zero is when I quit my job. It took some time but it has been fantastic to wake up every day and not worry about what is waiting in my inbox from my bi-polar (former) boss.
Unless it’s absolutely necessary, I never work on planes. Unlike Gary I typically watch shows that really want to see but I don’t have time to watch at home. I download a bunch of episodes and movies to my ipad on multiple platforms (netflix, amazon prime, HBO) because you can never tell which one will fritz out when you can’t connect to the internet. And if I’m really lucky the IFE will have a movie that I missed at the box office (i.e. most of them). Currently working my way through Billions…
I work. But nobody else should. So I can get promoted faster!
@Don’t Wanna Get Away That Bad – Delta, United, American are generally 30 inches of pitch in standard coach. And inches matter when you’re trying to open a laptop.
When you fly often enough, IFE and other distractions get old and tiresome. I always found my productivity at lounges and midair to be higher than at my desk. Therefore, I find myself working on most flights.
The key is setting boundaries. I find my free time on the ground is much more valuable, so I try and get as much done when trapped in the tube so I can enjoy more of real life.
Couple items of thought-
You should absolutely take the time to disconnect while flying to do just that!
Unless you didn’t have time to do some work before your trip, don’t do it.
And you absolutely should never be the office worker who does non-stop work when traveling. You are compensated for 8h/day. Sorry, at 8h01m, BYEEE. Don’t be the douche who continues. you set a bad precedence and just get exploited.
You should do what you feel like doing. If you feel like working, then work. If you don’t, then don’t. Easy peasy.
@Julian I agree, a lot of these people are coming from the point of view of “being on the clock” for someone else. But, like you said, i owned my own business and I liked working. I didn’t do it because someone was forcing me to. And, now I’m retired in my late 40s.
Unfortunately, even watching a movie on the screen let alone trying to type or be productive makes me extremly motion sick on flights and as a car passenger as well Even reading a book does as well. So I just try to sleep on planes.
Drafting an email is not work. It’s basic competency in interpersonal communication. We all do it in our personal lives too. I’m a software engineer, and writing code is the actual work function/output of my job. Everyone has their equivalent, even HR, and it’s not “drafting an email.” If you say you wrote 30 emails, and that was a big chunk of your work day, my first thought is that this person has somehow managed to convince someone else they should be paid to do busy-work. If you’re pleased with yourself for that then I’ve got unfortunate news, your job is an easy target for automation.
That rant having been said, I have a hard time coding on planes, even when I’m in first class. It’s just not the right environment for me to be productive. Fast, reliable internet connectivity is also increasingly an inextricable dependency for the development workflows at FAANG-like tech companies. Fully rebuilding a software project might involve pulling down a gig or more of static resources (like images, if I’m building something user-facing, like the frontend web service), internal/external software libraries, and other tools (local test environment fixtures/scaffolding and such).