Working on a plane

#112 - (RAW) Working on planes

Mon, Dec 02, 2024 9:51AM • 13:50

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

working on planes, journal writing, no Wi-Fi, flight clarity, Google Docs, Notes app, offline documents, brand strategy, long flights, pen and paper, device charging, task list, LinkedIn posts, business class, travel inspiration

SPEAKERS

Emma Lovell

Emma Lovell 00:00

Hello, lovely one. Welcome to today I am doing a solo one, and I am really excited because I actually got this question from my audience, and it was, why or how do you work on a plane? And I thought that was such a great question, because it's something so normal and natural to me. But to be fair, I do have people looking at me funny sometimes, and I don't have people come up. And over the years, many years have asked me, What are you doing? Because you would, you would working, or you're doing something the whole time. And sometimes I'm writing in a journal. Sometimes I'm like, sorting my notebooks, sometimes I'm making reels or photos and sorting things on my phone, and sometimes I'm writing a book. So I have done all of those things on a plane, and I think when you're on the computer or doing in the thing you don't realize, but I probably do work a bit furiously and ferociously. So I hope that my tippy tapping isn't too distracting for my neighbors on the plane, but I do think my husband has told me a few times that he's a bit aggressive the tapping. So anywho I thought I would just share how and why I work on a plane. So to be honest, working on a plane has been one of my favorite places to work for many years. In a way, I like it less now because we now have Wi Fi, and for so many years, it was so awesome knowing that that was my one time in all of my travels, in all of my life, that I could truly switch off because I literally had no option. There are times when I've done treks and cycles and things like that, we've been out of reception. And I also enjoy that. I love cruises for the same reason, and I, apart from my most recent cruise, I don't usually pay for the Wi Fi because I like the opportunity to switch off. But yeah, planes, it's becoming more and more of a regularity. And also I get the privilege of being a platinum velocity member that I actually get free Wi Fi when the plane allows. But typically, of course, like I caught a flight recently to Port Douglas or to Cairns to go to Port Douglas. And I did have plans to work on that plane, and I did plan for Wi Fi, because it's so often there, and it was one of those times where I didn't get Wi Fi. It was great, though, in the end, because I sat next to the most wonderful woman, and I had just published my book, and it was so lovely because we we spoke, and I actually read my book, which was wild, but I was it's very different reading it in real life, to reading it in in a book format, to reading it in a PDF document when you're still in the editing process. So anyway, but yeah, I have for many, many years worked on planes. I use it a lot of the time as a time to download my ideas, to get clear, to do the work that is probably like the work that you don't want to do when you're online. So a lot of tidying, tidying my desktop, tidying up my folders, tidying up my notebook, so I will sometimes have be tearing up pieces of paper, just consolidating all these random pages of notes, because feels like you've not got anywhere or done anything, and when you consolidate it, you're, oh, I've actually only got 10 things to do. It looked like I had like 50, because I'd written the same thing five times. If you're like me, I need to write it each day. So sometimes it's activities like that, getting out my diary or calendar and seeing what's coming up, but when I have writing projects, and I have for many years been a writer, I've written travel articles, I've written I have done copywriting, the biggest chunks of work I could do were on a plane. And I have written many blog articles. I've drafted emails and one of my favorite tools and apps to use now, because I'm a bit being a bit cheap and I haven't bought the word Microsoft package, so I use Google Docs, and sometimes I remember to make the document available offline and prepare before the flight so I have the things open. But actually some of the best times is just to write from a clean page, and I use the Notes app. The notes app and the time app on my phone are honestly my favorite apps and my most used apps. I use the timer, and I use the clock for the world clock, and I use notes for like, there's money management, there's manifesting, there's to do lists. There's all of my countries are listed there, because I'm always going to be able to open that note, and it won't sync on the phone, on in the air, but it will sync up once I get on the computer. I can also use AirDrop. So what I would do is I. Sometimes, you know, you don't have enough battery power or or on either device. So what I would do is is write, you know, I have the Notes app because I'm an Apple user on my MacBook, and I also have it on my phone, and I just send them between. And I have written entire articles in my notes app. I've written parts of chapters in the Notes app. I wrote an entire chapter in the Notes app for my book, but, yeah, I most prominently remember I was on a flight, I believe I was going to, I want to say Borneo or Brunei, which, you know, it was sort of, it was in Asia, 100% and I was on a flight, and it was quite a late flight. I managed to get three seats to myself, which was awesome. And I was lying down on the seat, and I wasn't sleeping, and I'd been asked to write about traveling solo, a paid article. So I was paid $400 to write this article, and I was just lying there. And then I got an idea. So laying on my back, on these three seats, I held the phone up in the air, and I typed out some ideas. And when I got off the plane and got to my computer, sent the note, got it into a Google Doc, it was basically 1000 words. I edit it and tidied it up down to 800 words, and I wrote that about 40 minutes, like lying on my back with the phone in the air. But the clarity was just there. I just had nothing else to do. I don't think there was, was like a short sort of flight, no TV, or I was didn't want to watch TV. I was trying to sleep, and I just had this, like, I guess, white noise of the plane. And this idea just came so clearly to me, and I think that's what, obviously, there's other people around, but there is a lot of white noise. I try to be quiet if I can, because I know people are sleeping, but yeah, have a dim light, and I just, you know, and to make less noise, I can type very, very fast on my phone, so I don't have to type on my computer. But that's, that's kind of, I guess, some of the ways I work, why I do it? Because of the clarity, because of the quiet, because of the lack of Wi Fi. I literally think, I think it, no, I don't just think I know it's true. And I remember when I got my first flight during COVID, when we hadn't been allowed to travel, and I cried. I cried, think about it, because being at that elevation, being at that altitude, like being literally, your mind expands, like you just you just feel so expansive, and you can just get so much clarity. And in that two hour flight up to Cairns from Gold Coast, I just felt clarity like I hadn't felt for months. I felt so I don't know, at ease and creative and inspired, and it was so exciting, and that's why I love working on planes. I love the focus. It's a limited amount of time. So, I mean, the flight could be anywhere from an hour and a half that you actually only have 40 minutes in the air, if it's going down to Sydney from a Gold Coast, or it could be anywhere up to 14 hours. And then, you know, you get the chance to have a sleep you get kid watch a movie, and you still have time to work. And I love a longer flight for that reason. And I've just been able to get so much done when I don't have the distractions of the internet coming in, and generally, it's probably totally out of the work time zone as well. So nobody's awake, nobody's doing anything, all I can do is focus on the work. How I do it. Like I said, old school, I have pen and paper. I always have a journal with me. I always have a notepad. Always have somewhere I can write. If I was really, really stuck, I would totally use, you know, the sick bag and ask for a pen if I really needed to get something down. I didn't have paper, but I always, always travel with a journal or a notebook or something I can write on. Then I always have make sure that my devices are charged, because you never know if you're going to have charging ports. And then I take turns with using them so that I make the power last longer. And I work from either generally, I work from my laptop, first, once we're in the air, and then I move to my mobile if the laptop runs out of battery. Of course, I could travel with a power bank as well, but I don't always do that. And I then I try to set a bit of a task list before I get on, if I can. But generally, I do feel quite inspired. And so it goes off on a tangent. On my last flight, I wrote seven LinkedIn posts. I had no internet, so no chatgpt, none of that. And I didn't want to do that, but I just got sparked by my brand strategy guide and this new direction that I. My brand is taken, and I got back to some really core and key messages, and they just kept flowing. So I just kept writing. And it was really fun to kind of explore that and see where it went. So again, that was in the Notes app, and then later on, I transferred it to where I keep my messaging. And yeah, and in the book, the way that I do the book, and the way that I recommend it is to open or prepare what you want to work on before. So any of your documents that are online, like if they're Google, if, obviously, if you have word, a lot of your documents are going to work. Your spreadsheets and documents will work in the air anyway. But because I work online a lot, I make sure those are marked as offline before I get on the plane. So do that in the lounge or while we're waiting, and then I have those things prepared to work on but as I said, sometimes it's really just keeping it simple. So yeah, I'd be really interested to hear if you like to work on planes, if you're inspired by how I work on planes, if maybe you think it's the worst thing ever imaginable, and you just want to watch movies and switch off. And I think that's cool. Maybe, like my my friend Steve Huey, from I fly flat, says, maybe when I'm flying in business class, I will be more drinking and sleeping, just enjoying the spoils of business class or first class, or wherever I get to go in the future. I don't know, though, I think I will always feel inspired to create. And, yeah, I kind of have this goal to, you know, work on a book, but only write it in the air. So book a couple of long haul flights and do the bulk of the writing in the air. And I did hear about a man, and I'd love to, I need to find out where the story was, but that, yeah, he finished or wrote his book in the air. So because he wasn't getting it done. So I booked a flight and just wrote, wrote, wrote because there's no distractions. And I know that for sure, I wrote at least two chapters, or, you know, they had some notes down, but I've finished at least two chapters, but potentially even four chapters, on my flights to and from India in June 2024 so yeah, when you're reading the book, you can know the art of pleasure. Some of it was my pleasure. Life is writing in the air. And, you know, I had my I've got videos, I've got photos of it. My son, his head is lying on my lap, and I've got the laptop kind of on the table, and I am typing away. My husband's sleeping next to me, and I'm just getting it done. And they both slept and I wrote, and everybody was happy. So you make it work for you. And yeah, one of my most recent actually was writing an article for Mamma Mia about my toddler and traveling with him, and I literally wrote it with him lying on my lap as we traveled from Chicago to LA. So you can be very productive, and it can actually be very profitable working in the air. So I hope that has, I don't know, entertained you, inspired you, encouraged you, whatever it's done, but that was for you. Kate Merriweather, I hope you enjoyed that episode, and if you have any other requests for how does she do that, or why does she do that, or anything about my pleasure life, about how I run my business, how I do travel with or without, my family, and how I practice self care, then I would love to hear from you, and I'll share that episode here. So tune in next time, and don't forget to rate review subscribe. It helps the listeners to find us, and I'm so grateful that you're here listening. Have a great day. Bye.