Before You Travel, Design for Continuity

Travel planning usually starts with logistics.

Routes. Accommodation. Dates. Luggage.

When work is coming with you, that order needs to change.

For me, continuity comes first. Everything else fits around it.

Work comes before travel

Before I think about where I’m going, I think about how the workday will feel when I get there.

Will I be able to start the day calmly?
Will meetings happen as expected?
Will I have options if something doesn’t go to plan?

If those questions don’t have clear answers, travel planning pauses. Not because travel is risky, but because uncertainty compounds quickly once you’re away from home.

Designing for continuity means deciding, in advance, what “normal” looks like and protecting it.

Normality is something you plan for

A normal workday isn’t accidental. It’s the result of small, deliberate choices made ahead of time.

I plan around familiar rhythms. When the day starts. How calls and meetings fit. When focused work happens. When breaks naturally fall.

Those rhythms don’t disappear when you change location. They move with you.

That mindset makes preparation calmer. You’re not trying to recreate an office. You’re preserving a routine.

Remove pressure before it appears

Most stress while travelling with work doesn’t come from problems. It comes from urgency.

What happens if something goes wrong?
What’s the fallback?
How quickly do I need to decide?

Continuity planning removes that pressure early.

If you already know what your next option is, you don’t need to rush. You don’t need to improvise. You just move on.

That applies whether you’re at home, on the road, or in another country.

Tools should disappear into the background

Good tools don’t demand attention. They fade into the day.

Collaboration platforms like RingCentral are most effective when you stop thinking about where they’re being used. Calls still happen. Messages still arrive. Meetings still run. The mechanics stay out of the way.

That’s the benchmark I use when preparing. If something requires constant monitoring or anxiety, it’s not designed for continuity. It’s designed for intervention.

The goal is boring reliability.

Prepare for change, not perfection

No plan removes all friction. That’s not the point.

The aim is to make change manageable.

Connections will vary. Environments will differ. Some days will feel smoother than others. Designing for continuity doesn’t mean expecting everything to be identical. It means expecting variation and accounting for it.

When variation is expected, it stops being disruptive.

This mindset travels well

The approach I use before a longer trip is the same one I use day to day.

Working from home still needs continuity. Power cuts happen. Internet connections fail. Plans change. The difference is that preparation turns those moments into minor adjustments rather than major disruptions.

Travel just makes that more visible.

By designing for continuity first, travel becomes an extension of how work already operates, not a special case that needs managing.

What comes next

With the mindset in place, the next step is experience.

Before this trip, I’ll look back at journeys that shaped how I plan today. Some were deliberately challenging, and they taught me more than smooth ones ever could.

One of those involved driving to the south of Spain in a very early electric car, with limited range and limited charging options.

That’s where things get practical.