Next week, a bunch of you are going to be traveling to see friends and family for the holiday season (and probably do it again on New Year’s Eve and Day). Right now is a good time to do a few very simple things to make your travels easier.
1. Make sure your cell phone’s address book is up-to-date
Is Aunt Marge’s phone number in your cell phone’s address book? Not sure? You’d better check. Most cell phones these days come with the ability to sort contacts into groups, so you might as well program in all your friends/relatives info in there. You will be making calls during the holidays, so it’s best to have that info at-the-ready instead of digging around for numbers you wrote down somewhere but can’t remember where.
2. Update your GPS (or smartphone’s GPS)
Whether you’re driving your car, someone else’s or a rental, you’ll probably be taking along your own GPS because, well, you’re familiar with all its menus and such. No matter where you’re going – even if you’ve been to a particular destination a hundred times before – punch in the physical address info into your GPS so it’s ready. If you get diverted to unfamiliar roads during your trip to wherever you’re going, you’ll be glad your GPS will be ready to reroute you without issue.
3. (Re)Familiarize yourself with how to enable your cell phone’s silent feature
Aunt Marge will give you the evil eye of doom if your cell phone rings while she’s saying the meal prayer before everyone eats. (Re)Learn how to turn your ringer off to prevent awkwardness.
4. Check the 5-day forecast online 5 days before you embark on your travels
Weather Underground is the place I go for my online weather, and before travels I always check it at least 5 days in advance. No matter where you are, weather can do wacky things. You can stay ahead of the curve by knowing (at least somewhat) what to expect by checking in advance.
5. Have all your email read, checked and filed
Your inbox should be at absolute zero before you leave. No, I don’t mean delete everything. I mean to go through all your messages, take care of what needs to be taken care of and have it all finished before you head out. Chances are more than a few of you will be using email from your smartphone while out traveling, so you might as well have your inbox as "clean" as possible to make managing your messages easier to deal with. And yes, this also counts for texts as well. If you have a bunch of those in your cell phone’s inbox, clear ‘em out or move them to a save folder before traveling.
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