Travelling for work is becoming a necessity for more and more people. Here are some tips to keep you productive when you�re away from your home base.

1)�� Don�t waste pre-take off time

Between getting seated on the plane, getting in the air and waiting for the seatbelt sign to turn off so you can get your laptop fired up, you can waste anywhere between 20mins and an hour (longer if there�s a mechanical fault or bad weather). Make sure you take something to do during this time. My tip is � where possible � don�t do any computer work on the plane at all. Take a pad and pen and use it as planning/thinking time. Or take some reading to catch up on � like that magazine that you�ve subscribed to but never find the time to read.

2)�� Throw away the remote

The biggest time waster in hotel rooms is the television. Don�t even turn it on. Hide the remote. And definitely, under no circumstances, should you turn it on when it�s time to go to bed.

3) Set a curfew

Sometimes you have to work less to be more productive, and it�s too easy when you�re on the road to work endlessly. This is especially true when you are in meetings all day and have things to catch up on at night. Set yourself a curfew and don�t work past it. This goes for when you are on the plane as well. If you take off after a certain time, leave work in the overhead locker.

4) Let people know

Set your auto-responder to let people know that you are travelling and probably won�t be as quick to respond to their emails. This sets an expectation so that you don�t have to madly rush around in between flights and taxis and meetings trying to return everyone�s messages. Leave them until you actually have time to think about them and respond.

5) Don�t over commit

Only take the work you know you can get done (and something small for delays). Not only will this save baggage space, but you won�t feel pressured to stay up until all hours trying to do things that could wait.

Everyone wants their team members to cooperate. In fact, the ability to build effective teams is one of the top criteria by which we select new leaders.

Humans are designed to cooperate and work in teams � if we weren�t we wouldn�t have survived against bigger, scarier species. But in the organisational landscape many corporate rewards force people to choose between their own benefit and that of the team, with people (understandably) choosing the former. But given the choice, teamwork is actually far more rewarding.

Many studies have found that endorphin response is far greater when working in teams than it is for the same accomplishment when working solo. And others from rowing teams have found that pain tolerance is higher when working with others toward a common goal.

So how do we capitalise on this innate urge to cooperate? Here�s what Evolutionary Biology can tell us:

Cooperation is Contagious:

If you split off a group to work on a project and they cooperate effectively, it is most likely that this will �infect� the broader group when they return. This has been seen in primate tribes who are geographically separated for a period of time and then reunited.

Multiple Interactions

If the pattern of cooperation needs to be repeated, people begin to understand that their behaviours might affect them down the track. Having many points at which people need to work together is paramount in making teamwork happen.

Mutual Accountability

Known as �altruistic punishment� in Evolutionary Biology, this is the second most powerful driver of teamwork. If Alan does something wrong to Brett, and then Cheryl, as an outside observer, does something to reprimand Alan.

Honour Code

This is the most potent mechanism for cooperation, also known as �secondary punishment�. In the example above Alan would be reprimanded and, if Brett and Cheryl had not held Alan accountable, they would be reprimanded as well. Not only do you have mutual accountability, but also accountability for not upholding mutual accountability.

These are some of the things that science tells us are guaranteed to ensure cooperation, by capitalising on our innate, primal behaviours. They might seem brash to some leaders, but think about each one and I am sure you will find a subtle way to introduce it into your teams.

See the entire entry at http://hr.toolbox.com/blogs/performance/

Most of us have our task list spread out all over the place. Our �To-Do�s� are written on paper, some are in a spiral book, some on our computer and others on our smartphones. We even use the email in our inbox as an ad-hoc to-do-list. Try using just one delivery dock for all your tasks. Turn emails into tasks and put them on this list, transfer your meeting actions and summarise those scrap pieces of paper. Having all your tasks in one single place frees up working memory and allows you to do your best thinking. It will stop you from worrying if you missed anything and reduce �task stress� dramatically.

One of the enemies of our best thinking is working memory. We use significant resources trying to remember pieces of information and these resources could otherwise be directed at problem solving, decision making and analysing. If I ask you to remember ten items on a grocery list and at the same time do a problem solving task it is almost impossible.

We don�t think that we do this day to day. We don�t believe that we run around trying to remember stuff, but if you are like most people, you are constantly running around with your to-do-list in your head � worrying about who you have to call and what tasks you have to do back in the office. When you get everything in one place, the need to remember multiple sources of information is reduced.

My suggestion is electronic task lists like in Microsoft Outlook. You can drag emails to the list to create tasks, you should transfer action items from meetings into this list asap, and write anything down that you need to remember as it pops up. Get it out of your head and onto a list as soon as you can.