My new job means working away from home during the week in a mix of hotels, serviced apartments and AirBnBs depending on the week (for the immediate future at least — depending on how things shake out I might find a longer term solution.)

Anyway given how hard I have worked to get my physical health moving in the right direction — plus the fact part of the reason for the change of job was to also make some proactive changes to avoid my mental health taking a(nother) nose dive — I have been seeking out some advice on how to make the most of this living out of a suitcase lifestyle.

Confession time: I have never watched Alan Partridge but am aware there are probably a whole bunch of related GIFs etc related to that show and this post!

As it happens I know a lot of people who are doing this sort of thing for work so immediately got some good tips:

I already stick to my little pots of porridge in my hotel room so that is a ✓ and I don’t drink coffee so no need for an Aeropress. I do need to improve my charger coverage though and taking comfy hotel room clothes is totally a thing I’m doing next week.

https://twitter.com/ermlikeyeah/status/961995311077044225

..boom! Totally. In fact it is already in my case — I did take my Chromecast but the wifi wasn’t great and this would have been really useful 🙂

A book a week was already my target but I think I am going to make use of my Google Pen and Pixelbook and maybe see if I can improve my drawing again.

I’m really bad at accepting midweek invites but I was already determined to try and attend more meet-ups etc this year so will strive to do better.

I’d love a locker in Swansea but it seems unlikely for now. The wash bag suggestion is 100% happening.

Funnily enough I did take my own cutlery — just plastic stuff but that isn’t very sustainable so I might get something like this Emily suggests.

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I also realise I need an extension chord / power strip for hotel rooms with stupidly position power sockets! None of these seem particularly travel friendly though.

I also need ear plugs as one nights sleep was ruined by other guests.

My extra wrinkle I guess is that I don’t drive and prefer to either walk or get public transport as much as possible — I will get cabs but it is a last resort for me — so I want to travel pretty lightly.

So far my travel kit looks like:

• Pixelbook + power supply (I also have 2 work laptops that I can thankfully leave on site!)
• Kindle Paperwhite (wondering if I need this with the Pixelbook + phone)
• Sony noise cancelling headphones
• Anker power pack
• Extension cable (if I can find a decent one)
• Misc USB cables
• HDMI cable
• 5 sets of pants, socks, t-shirts (obviously I’ll arrive wearing a little more!)
• Tracksuit bottoms
• Washbag (now including earplugs!)

I already have my newsletter(s) as side projects and am intending to get back to regular blogging:

Maybe I’ll try and combine my drawing project into that somehow (puts thinking cap on)..

Any other advice? The more the merrier.

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A couple of good late entries!

This is spot on for me — I actually have a list of films and release dates I want to see this year so will be trying out the Vue and Odeon to see which I like best!

This is a good tip from Nicole for me — at the moment the hotel I’m in is only a 5 minute walk to my desk! This is great but also means I didn’t walk as much as usual last week. There is a better hotel 25 minutes walk from the office so I might give that a look if the AirBnBs don’t work out.

I really hadn’t considered this given I tend to stay at pretty budget chains. However I’m going to do a bit of research into this!