10 Ways to Be Productive While You Watch TV: The Travel More Series

HOORAY! Travel restrictions are lifting! But since we’re still home, for the time being, we need to get ourselves back together. My favorite ways to unwind after a long day of work are productive things – while watching TV as a mental distraction. These 10 habits will make you feel more put together and accomplished before you travel again and in daily life. Not to mention that with quarantine ending, the last thing we want to be doing is scrambling to get ourselves together before our next big trip!

Ex-er-cise

Getting physically active right now has so many benefits before we travel again and in daily life! From conquering the highest mountains to having the ability to snorkel longer on those gorgeous coral reefs, being in good shape will help make all of those adventures more memorable. This means you gotta put down the bucket of vegan queso from Costco and get moving! (I’ll admit I’m obsessed with this plant-based queso!)

There are so many workouts that revolve around not having any weights, and that you can do from your living room! You don’t need resistance bands, dumbbells, or a treadmill to get in a good workout. If however, you feel like you need something at home to help you be productive, here is a decent set of resistance bands to make the workout harder. It’s also important to keep in mind that the average TV show is an hour with commercials – that’s plenty of time to be productive and get in a quality workout + stretching! (See ‘Shop’ Section for a few resistance bands options!)

Click here for body-weight + other home workouts.

Make a bucket list

Having something to look forward to makes the hard and stressful times just a little it brighter. For us, the things we look forward to most are family time and travel. It’s easy to daydream about sitting on a beach somewhere while you’re stuck at home! The first step in getting you out of the house and on an adventure is figuring out what parts of the world you want to see? For Ev and I, the top of our bucket list are places like Morroco, Thailand, and Australia, and other places are not even on our list. When Ev’s cousin went to Ireland a few years back – they said it was so much like West Virginia. As beautiful as West Virginia is to hike etc.. we want to see the landscapes we’ve never seen!

Click here for a list of great travel books to get your imagination rolling when you don’t feel like watching TV anymore!

If the idea of figuring out where to go seems overwhelming, start with Pinterest. You can start by typing in keywords like ‘USA Bucket List’ or ‘Honeymoon Destinations’, and start saving a few to different boards. The great thing about creating these digital ‘idea boards’ to get you started, is that you can always add and take away. With every continent having something great to explore, there are millions of articles to peruse. { 2020 may not be the year of traveling by that doesn’t mean 2021 can’t be! }

Plan your next vacation

As easy as making a bucket list is.. planning for a vacation isn’t always the easiest. It can be overwhelming to plan trips – especially if you have little ones running around! Take the time to figure out where you’re staying (at least for the first night), and then onto flights, gear, etc.  The best way I know to plan anything is to get a pen and paper and start making some notes. As a person who doesn’t love watching TV idly, this is one of my favorite ways to be productive.

I look up travel guides, hiking we may want to do, the gear we need, etc. All of the pre-planning makes for a much smoother trip in the long run. If you’re not working right now or things are a little tight from being laid off – I can totally understand that, but you can still travel again! The best budget-travel trips require a lot of pre-planning, research, and goal setting. Is there any better time to research while you’re stuck at home and mindlessly watching TV? The answer is no. (Now while you rewatch The Office for the 3rd time you don’t have to feel as guilty! 😉 )

Massage your feet and give yourself a pedicure

Along with easy travel hair care routines, this skill will come in handy while traveling. Foot care is so essential to keeping your travel pain-free after long hikes, walking through cities all day, or just in general being on your feet waiting in line! After walking at least 10 miles in Rome in a day- I realized how much I wish I had brought along CBD oil and a lacrosse ball! See here for a guide on how to massage your feet with a lacrosse ball. Taking care of your feet kind of goes hand in hand with working out as well – you can’t run, jump, or walk if your feet are hurting all the time! A 15-minute foot massage may not feel like you’re being productive, but after working out and eating healthy, etc. – you deserve those moments of self-care!

clean up your inbox

Unsubscribe from all random emails and clean up your inbox. Like an adult.

It’s my personal goal to have less than 100 emails to sort at all times. Between running this blog, my day job, and daily life – there’s a lot of spam email going on. To get to the important stuff- you need to take the time to unsubscribe. I used to get about 20 promotional emails A DAY. It’s overwhelming at the very least! I could never find anything and I started making new email accounts ‘just for important things’ – but those became cluttered too. I’m back down to a few email addresses for various parts of my life, and only a few brand’s promotional emails do I keep allow to roll in. You never know when Amazon is going to have a sale on my favorite travel gear!

Unsubscribing from emails is probably one of the best ‘mindless tasks’ for me as well if I want to semi-pay attention to a show!

Clean out your photos

This is another mindless task that I love to make me feel more put together. Have you ever scrolled through your photos and realized there are about 1000 accidental screenshots? Ya – me too. If you want to feel seriously productive – I highly suggest deleting all 1000 screenshots of random things! The best part about doing this is that when I clean out my photos, it’s a much faster process to back them up to Google Photos.

‘Back up my photos to Google Photos? What?’ This is the best thing we’ve ever done to help ourselves organize our travel photos and share them with family and friends. You’ll never lose them and all you need is a free email account with Gmail. The Google Photos app will even delete all the old photos off of your phone giving you more storage for your favorite travel apps! For a guide on how to use Google Photos the most effectively, click here.

The best part of Google photos is that other people are allowed to view the photos and download them themselves. Family and friends can easily get all the photos from a trip or an event and there’s no need for everyone to ask for pictures. Just click the share button on an album and Gramma, Auntie, and your Momma all have access! (Even if you have to help them download the app first!)

Organize Your Travel / Photography Gear

The GoPro and its accessories are a great example of why you need to organize your gear. While it’s an amazing way to capture your trips- one thing we realized is that we needed to protect the screen with an extra cover. While you can buy these on Amazon super easy? If you don’t periodically check your gear, you may not notice a scratch on the protective cover that can impact your photos! Click for a list of our favorite GoPro gear and accessories to find lens covers.

While this seems like a monumental task to drag everything out.. do it while you’re watching TV and I guarantee you’ll still be productive. The shows I put on to do this are usually The Office and Gilmore Girls because minimal attention is needed. From figuring out if your backpack needs replacing, to organizing your GoPro gear, it should only take you a few hours! Not only will you pat yourself on the back before you travel again- but you’ll also be able to more effectively pack. Many of our trips are made much easier when we’ve made sure we don’t pack too much and what we did pack was in good condition.

Meal planning and prepping

Meal prepping is probably one of the most underrated ways to save money. In our culture where the camera eats first and everyone is sharing where they went for dinner.. don’t lose the art of cooking at home. There is a whole list of reasons why this impacts you as you start to travel again:

• Saving money for travel by not eating out (you’ll spend on average 5 times more at a restaurant!)
• Eating healthier is easier at home – which helps your fitness and helps you not have to buy new clothes as often from weight gain! (I have been the victim of this!)
• When you travel you’ll appreciate food more if you can cook a little yourself!

If you’re looking for recipes, click here for my Pinterest Board full of easy prep meals!

** Tip for meal prepping: make sure to buy quality leak-proof containers. I just read an article about the way chemicals ‘leak’ when in the microwave or dishwasher! So I’m also linking the containers I’m thinking about investing in for meal prepping. These get great reviews and are BPA free! (BPA Free brands are the only ones that are microwave and dishwasher-safe, which most of us need when taking meal prep to work!)

Learn a New Language

While learning a new language for Americans is often low on the list of pre-travel planning, it shouldn’t be. It’s an easy way to be productive before your next trip, and respecting cultures and learning a little about them doesn’t take much. Have you ever done research before you head somewhere new and tried to learn the basics of their language? Expecting other cultures to assimilate into English is one of the fastest ways to destroy what makes these destinations so unique. While I don’t pretend to be fluent in any other language except English – I can at least make out some of the words for every place we’ve traveled to.

If you haven’t heard of the term ethnocentricism, it’s worth time taking a little time to research. Ethnocentrism, in broad terms, is not understanding cultures around you and viewing your culture as superior. It’s not usually associated with disdain for other cultures in travelers in my opinion? Typically it’s just a lack of education on the region to which you are a guest. Let me repeat that concept: we are guests. By learning a new language, you respect their traditions and help to keep different cultures unique. After all, that is why you’ve traveled in the first place? If you wanted the same experience in another country as you have at home: wouldn’t youhave just stayed home?

Again, this is an easy thing to do while you’re watching TV. Download an app and practice for just an hour total each week.. you’ll pick up more than you realize.

Minimize Your Wardrobe

One of my cardinal rules of traveling is carry-on luggage only. It makes sense for the budget traveler and for anyone looking to avoid the hassle of missing bags! {Not to mention this option is more eco-friendly!} Having a minimalist wardrobe makes it so much easier. Everything I need for a two-week trip can be mixed and matched to fit in my carryon 40-liter backpack.

My favorite way to be productive and unwind: Fold laundry and clean out my closet at the same time. Minimizing my wardrobe, while I fold laundry, allows me to really inspect and mentally catalog what I need. I’m a big fan of simple well-structured T-shirts. They instantly make any outfit seem classic. Keeping them in good condition and ready to be worn requires that I make sure they are washed, hung to dry, and folded quickly to avoid wrinkles, and as I fold, I make notes as to which of my basics may need replacing. My go-to’s for finding basics are Target, Amazon, and the Loft for maximum comfort and style!

(Also linking my favorite non-toxic wool dryer balls because they save you drying time ($$) and are super effective!)

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Until next time friends,

Thanks for sharing!