ultimate travel (& more) hacks

You can never have enough travel hacks! Check out our latest travel hacks list for your next holiday.

Who better to ask for all the best hacks than Chris Hutchins who hosts the award winning podcast, All the Hacks! Chris joined Glen on the show recently to share his top tips for hacking your way through life. We’ve also thrown in a few of our own hacks because we all need more. You need this now!

TRAVEL HACKS

1. Top travel hack: always book hotels directly on the hotel website, not a third party travel booking site. Right after you book email their front desk and say you’re excited to come, mention if you’re there to celebrate an event etc. A few days before you arrive, email again and quite often the hotel staff will organise something complimentary for you - a bottle of champagne, a room upgrade, a breakfast voucher, free parking etc.

2. Sign up to hotel group membership programs to collect points you can redeem for room upgrades, discounts and deals.

3. Don’t book a late checkout when you book the hotel - ask them personally a few days ahead of your arrival and they’ll often give you a later checkout time for free.

4. Take a powerboard to airports so you can charge multiple devices while you wait for flights.

5. Take a roll of electrical tape in your suitcase on holidays - handy for when something breaks or rips. Annoying blinds that hit the window? Tape it. Small gap where the blinds don’t cover the window? Tape it. 

6. Keep the eye masks from flights in case you end up sleeping in a BnB or hotel that’s really bright when you need to sleep off the jetlag.

7. Use earplugs on flights to ensure you get a good rest (get the good ones, not the cheap ones from the supermarket).

8. Pack core essentials in your carry-on luggage - a second pair of glasses and/or contact lenses, 2 x phone chargers, a toothbrush, a cloth if you want to wash your face. Things that will make you comfortable and clean throughout the flight.

9. If you’re an Apple user, use Apple Airtag to locate your belongings if they get lost in airports.

10. If you’ve forgotten to bring an essential item with you to a hotel, ask the front desk if they have anything in supply - things like toothbrushes, razors, shaving cream etc.

11. If you’re travelling to a non-major city that requires a flight transfer to get there, look to book a more local flight from a major city near that city first. Then book a separate flight from your location to that major city. You will need to organise some time to pick up baggage between the flights, but by dodging the flight transfer organised by airlines some people have saved thousands of dollars in flights.

12. Sign up to flight points programs - be prepared to be flexible with your flight details and you can get amazing deals. Get familiar with flight networks and how you can use and transfer points around.

13. Just. Be. Nice. You can get some sweet opportunities simply by being kind to people who assist you on your travels.

14. Take a picture of the AirBnB you want to stay in, upload the pic to Google and allow Google to search for that image across the internet. You can often find the other booking sites where that house is available to book and sometimes you can find it cheaper.

15. Use Google Flights to check out flight availability - it has a heap of flexible features to look up flights. But book directly with the airlines.

16. If you’re a business owner, sign up for business flight programs. You can add members of your team to your accounts so all points and benefits get pooled for future use. Often your individual team members also get the points on their personal flight program accounts as well.

PRODUCTIVITY & CAREER

1. Block time for specific problems or tasks in deep work sessions. Don’t try to multitask. Set up a calendar invite where you put distractions like your phone and other tasks to the side and dig in to get it done.

2. Review your calendar from the previous week and assess how you’re using your time. Tally up how much time is work and personal time. Assess how many meetings you attended. Ensure you’re spending your time the way you actually want to.

3. Tasks you don’t like doing - outsource it. Hate cooking or don’t have time? Place an ad online for someone local who can prepare the meals for you.

4. Maximise how you use your computers and devices - try to avoid having to flick between your computer and your phone, and use apps to better manage your tabs and software. Create separate profiles so you have one for work, one for play.

5. Get to know how it feels when you’re getting distracted. What does it feel like to you? What is distracting you? Learn to remove those distractions - physical, social and digital.

6. If you’re looking for a job, focus on standing out instead of sending your resume to a million places at once. Look for a few key businesses you’d love to work for and demonstrate how you’d like to bring value. If they sell a product, create a YouTube video where you review their product and why it’s so good. Or write a blog about it. Think creatively about how you can show them you’re kind of already doing the job - all they need to do is hire you.

7. Don’t just focus on getting a pay rise - think about broader flexibility you’d like in your job and life - things like health programs, working from home days, ability to travel and work - whatever suits your lifestyle!

SOCIAL & RELATIONAL

1. Don’t throw dinner parties - throw cocktail parties. The timeframe is shorter, there’s less food and drinks required, very little cooking required, and you’re still getting necessary social interaction.

2. If you’re having a relationship issue, phrase your concern like this to reduce the potential for a fight: “The story I’m writing in my head is at the moment you’re really stressed from work and feeling XYZ. Is that right? Can we talk about it?”. Seek first to understand, before labelling the other person.

3. If you’re struggling to have date nights because of babysitting or expense, start by doing date nights at home! Play a board game, eat some delicious food, learn a new skill together via YouTube, challenge each other to trivia - whatever is your thing as a couple! By doing this at home you save on babysitting and the cost of going out.

HEALTH HACK

1. When someone puts an unhealthy snack in front of you, instead of going to town, just give yourself 5 minutes to eat however much you want. More often than not, you reach that 5 minutes mark and you’ve had plenty, and placed a limit on how much you’re eating.

2. Get a good amount of sleep! Try to get to bed before 10pm. Sleep is a crucial aspect to our lives - it supports everything else you do so make it a priority. Invest in a good mattress. Set up your sleep space to help you get the best sleep possible.

3. If you’re trying to prioritise exercise focus on getting in 10 minutes of activity a day. Maintain that for a while, and increase it slowly over time. Using habits like this can help integrate the exercise you want to be doing in your life, without it feeling like a massive burden on your time and effort.

MONEY

1. When shopping online use shopping cashback portals (like ShopBack) and either search online for discount coupons for that brand, or ask their online customer service team for any discounts or coupons they can offer at the moment. Stack the deals people!

2. If you have good self control, utilise points accrued through credit cards. Get to know where you can use them to maximum points. If you suck with credit cards this one is a no-no!

3. Make one extra payment on your mortgage every year by making payments fortnightly.

4. Sign up for any supermarket rewards programs possible! Points can often be exchanged for things like gift cards, and they offer deals and activities aside from grocery shopping to get more points accruing.