Managing travel with a 9-5
People ask me how am I able to manage traveling so much with a full-time job and i give a simple answer, it takes planning. First, I don’t even work a regular 9-to-5, I am a first responder where I work ten hour shifts and get three days off. I am able to manage travel by utilizing days off and sometimes extending them by adding annual leave. So, if you know you have a certain amount of annual leave or PTO then the easiest method is to combine them with days off either on the front end or the back end like a day in the beginning such as a Friday and then the day at the end like a Monday (if your days off are Saturday and Sunday) which gives you four days.
🔑Travel Tip: Do international trips or trips that take over 5 hours by plane using your PTO/annual leave and then do quick getaway trips with your days off.
Another method that I use for managing travel with a full time job is requesting random dates. When I request random dates I have the choice whether I use them or not use them but at least having them on the books allows my job to know ahead of time. So basically if I have dates requested then I would try my hardest to go ahead and go somewhere and if I don’t have anywhere to go then I just cancel and I go to work.
I also make room for unexpected trips. let’s be real you can get a good vacation with three days maybe not a country with a 14 hour flight time but flights where it’s less than 5 hours, you can get a good three day trip out of it and then come back. If you work the evening shift fly back in the morning and then go to work if you can do that without being tired.
There a many variations of vacations such as quick getaway, staycation, and domestic or international trip. A nice vacation can be you just going a few states away and staying for a weekend. There is nothing wrong with quick getaway vacations. Vacations don’t necessarily have to be an international trip. Vacation is anywhere that’s away. You can do a staycation at home or in a nearby hotel. Any vacation is cool as long as you are not at work and you’re able to rest your mind and relax.
Overall you have to make it work for you and your schedule if that’s really what you wanna do. To answer the question how do I travel so frequently with a full time 9-5, I plan and make it work because travel is what I want to do.
