One of the most important things that I can do for my business is go to conferences. I am an extrovert. I do my best networking in person, and having deeper conversations allows me to understand people's problems deeply.
Right now, I'm actually recording from Kit Studios in Boise, Idaho. I am out here for a week. I'm doing Jay Clouse's, the Lab Offline event, which has been amazing. And then I'm going to Craft and Commerce, one of my favorite conferences to attend. It's just, an absolute blast. I meet so many great people, and I learn a ton as well. And so I thought today I would talk to you about a system that's very near and dear to my heart because I travel so much, and that is my travel system.
Hey, everybody. Joe Casabona here. Welcome to another episode of the Streamlined Solopreneur. Today, I'm gonna tell you the apps and, systems I use to travel. So I've got, if you have, if you're watching this on YouTube, you'll notice that I'm not at home. I am in Kit Studios and I've got my little index card props here.
So, I figured I would go through the apps, the shortcuts, and then a couple of bonus segments on why I always check a bag. And I fly Southwest, and they've recently made some changes. And I think as a parent, I have some opinions about that. So, let's start with the apps.
Honestly, there are two crucial apps I use when I travel. The first is Flighty. This app for me is an absolute must-have. I actually opt to pay for it yearly instead of doing the lifetime because I want to keep supporting this app. I never want it to go away.
So the way it works is, you add your flights in it, and it'll also just automatically add the flights in it for you. and it grabs all of the FAA data. It does flight tracking. And so usually I know what's going on with my flight in Flighty before I get a notification from the airline.
And something else that I really love is it'll forecast. It uses AI for forecasting. So it'll tell you, you know, if the flight's usually early or if it's going to be early the day of the flight, it will look at conditions at the airport. So, for example, when I was going to Justin Moore's conference sponsor games, I was in Houston, and before I landed in Houston, Flighty said, Hey, it looks like flights out of Houston are delayed about 45 minutes. We'll keep you posted. And so I knew that my flight was delayed. Thanks to that.
So you can track all of your flights, you can share your flights with friends and family. It tells you if you have a connection, how long you have, when you have different terminals, it will tell you about how long it takes to get to the connecting terminal, which is amazing.
And it will also track your flight in real time. And it does this really brilliantly. 'Cause if you're on the plane and you're not paying for wifi, you know, how do you get the data? It actually does it through either satellite or some sort of like special cellular data. It's absolutely a must-have app for me.
The other thing it does is it has a Goodlock screen widget, or a good, well, yes, a lock screen widget, but a good widget on your home screen and an amazing Apple Watch complication.
So, when I am traveling, I go into my travel focus mode, which I talked about on a previous episode when I talked about my iPhone focus modes. But I will have all of the Flighty information right on my watch so I can just quickly glance at it. So, that app is absolutely crucial. I will never not pay for it. I fly enough every year that paying for it annually just makes perfect sense to me.
The other crucial app, so I'll show you what I have going on. If you're watching the video, you can see this. But this is, I'm showing my home screen on the iPhone in my travel focus mode. And you can see, you know, if you're watching the video, you can see, I'll walk through these. It's the lift widget, a widget that shows the time at home, the Flighty widget, the Google Maps widget, and the Apple Notes widget.
And I've really, you know, I use a lot of notes apps. I have Obsidian, I have Notion, I have TOT, but I've really gotten into the habit of using Apple Notes for a lot of things. It's just like the fastest way to do entry, and it's got a nice widget.
And I usually put all of my travel information in a note that is the name of the trip, and I keep that on the home screen as well. So when I need to quickly reference reservations or confirmation numbers, Apple Notes is just a great way to do that.
I'll also have, you know, if it's like a big trip or a conference, I'll also have like a separate things I want to do sort of note, and I'll have them both tagged, and sometimes I'll have the folder on there. But for most trips, it is just like one note with the name of the trip and all of the information in there.
And, since Apple Notes rolled out, you know, the ability to collapse headlines, it just makes things a lot easier, too. So, huge, huge fan of Apple Notes for this stuff. It's really simple. It's easy to share, copy, and paste. And when I do family trips or trips with friends, I share those notes with those folks as well, so that we can collaborate there. So, not a lot to say there, but it's just like, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that because it is such a crucial part of my travel system.
The other crucial part of my travel system is a shortcut I built called New Trip. I'll walk you through the tasks it does.
So, the first thing it does is it asks for the name of the trip. So in this case, it would be Crafting Commerce asks for the start date, asks for the end date, and then it calculates the number of days based on the number of days, it will add that trip to my calendar, and then it will run it shortcut called Packing List Extravaganza.
And the Packing List Extravaganza Shortcut is a big, complicated shortcut. I got this from David Sparks actually over at macsparky.com. And I modified it for my own uses, but it'll ask me like the type of trip and what I want to pack. And then it'll take the number of days the trip is, and then calculate like how many shirts, how many shorts, how many, you know, undergarments and stuff like that. And it'll generate a full packing list in reminders for me. So I don't have to think about what I have to pack. I have a shortcut that generates all of that for me.
And then the last thing it'll do is create a new project in Todoist for the trip. And it'll use a template. I like, that'll have like pre-trip tasks during trip tasks and post-trip tasks so that I always have an idea of what I'm, what I'm doing when I'm traveling, and the things I need to prepare for.
And,, you know, maybe you're wondering like, where are you using reminders. And Todoist, reminders. again, like when I'm doing a family trip, it's really easy to share that packing list with my wife. And Todoist is like where all of my work projects are. So that's really the main reason that I have both, right? Todoist is for my work projects for the most part. And then reminders is for more personal stuff.
And so that's Flighty notes, my travel shortcut. And I know I talked about my focus mode more, or in a previous episode. But the focus mode for me is really important. It has, you know, I silenced like all of my at home notifications, so like my security cameras and like my Roomba and stuff like that. So I'm only really getting the notifications I need. It's got all of the travel widgets front and center. And like I said, it's got the time at home, 'cause when I'm changing time zones, I wanna make sure that I'm not FaceTiming my kids too late. And so I really like that.
I also have, I'm here for a conference, and I also have a conference focus mode. I stopped doing this for a while, and then I saw the value in it again for this conference. And so what I did was I used to have, in this focus mode, the QR code, my own QR code, like for my website, and like a nice meeting you page on my lock screen. But I usually had other widgets on my lock screen.
And so now it is, I'm using a widget, Smith widget to just show a single photo of the QR code. And then, again, that travel note, I actually have a Travel Smart folder, and so it'll just pull what's in there. And then I have any crucial communications apps. So for this one, Craft and Commerce has its own app and then WhatsApp, because that's what Jay is using for the community event, messages, and then Obsidian.
And then on the other screen, I have the weather, 'cause I always wanna know the weather, the time at home. And then a couple of other helpful apps right there on the home screen. So right now it's the Photos app, probably because I like showing pictures of my kids when people ask.
Whisper memos, which I use to record my Voice Notes podcast. And then the phone and teachy tabs, which is the most common, it's an app that is basically like seven bookmarks, and it, the thing I like about that app is it maintains state. So that's the conference focus mode. I will only have that app when I'm at the conference, otherwise it'll, I'll be in travel mode when I'm traveling because it does, that has more, you know, it has the Lift widget and the Google Maps widget and stuff like that.
So that's my whole system. Flighty, Apple Notes, a travel shortcut, which is likely in my automations database, which you can get over at [streamlined.fm/automations]. And then my travel and conference focus modes.
So, the last couple of things I wanna talk about here, just like general travel thoughts. I always check a bag and the real, like the real life where the rubber meets the road reason is because I bring my cigar stuff with me. And so I always have a lighter and a cutter, and my pocket knife, which you can't carry on a plane.
And then I also usually bring my shaving kit, which is I use a straight razor or a safety razor, right? With a razor blade in it. And you can't bring that on a plane either.
And so those are the practical reasons, but I want to move through the airport as easily as possible. And so I have my Waterfield backpack, I think it's called the Mezo. They don't make it anymore, which is very sad. And in that I have, you know, my, you know, like low carb snacks and my charging stuff and a notebook and my iPad and, you know, anything that I will need on the plane that I could carry on the plane.
But I don't wanna be lugging, a second carry-on bag. I don't want to use the overhead compartments. I want everything to be able to fit under the seat because I want to move quickly and smoothly through the airport. And I know, like some people are thinking like, that's silly. You're paying $30 to check a bag for what amounts to a slightly less inconvenient trip through the airport, but it is more than that, right? I can deplane more quickly, especially when I have like a connecting flight, right? I never want to feel rushed or like I'm struggling to carry things, and I never do with my backpack.
But also, I usually fly Southwest when I can. And Southwest, up until recently, allowed you to check two bags for free. And I have the Southwest credit card, so I think I can still check one bag for free, which is usually what I end up checking anyway.
But we did just take a trip to Disney World, where we flew Southwest because family boarding is usually friendlier, and it is cheaper, but then you can also, everybody with a ticket could carry on two bags, and they let you check like a stroller and a pack and play and a car seat for free as well.
So I don't know if they've gotten rid of that, now. But I'll tell you, the fact that everybody could carry on two things on our way back from Disney World was amazing because we didn't have to like buy more luggage to check. And it made things a lot more convenient. And then the kids were happy too. Like they could keep their stuff with them.
And so, like from a parent perspective, you know, Southwest did kind of feel like the most family-friendly
airline. It was generous with the bags you can check, which, when you're traveling with small kids, is great.
they have, they still do the family boarding. And if you do, you know, I got, when I checked in, I got two spots in boarding group A, and they just let my kids board with me didn't like make us wait for family boarding, which was nice.
And, if it is not a full flight, I've noticed the, you know, the stewardesses will basically say, well, this is when we had a lap child. But, they told us to put our kid in the seat between us and not move her until the stewardess told us to. So, you know, kind of making sure that we, if possible, we had the space we needed.
And so I fear that Southwest is getting a little less family-friendly, that still remains to be seen, and, I need to like, dig in more to their policies. But you know, if it really is just, if they really are just gonna be like every other airline, I'll be less inclined to fly them because I'd rather just book five seats near each other. And if I'm gonna have to pay for checked bags anyway, then so be it.
So that's what I'm thinking of with Southwest. But that's it for this episode. It was a short one. I just kinda wanted to go through, you know, the systems I use for traveling. I don't have like a note template or anything like that, but it's, oh, actually I do have a note template. it's always like a hotel reservation, a flight reservation, or like transportation If I'm driving somewhere. Any confirmation numbers I need, stuff to see or people to see, stuff to see and do.
And then the itinerary, if I'm going to a conference or like the talks, I definitely want to go to. I will say like, Craft and Commerce is using Mighty Networks for their app, and like, I don't think that the schedule listing is very friendly.
I like the idea of an app because I should say I like the idea of what they're doing because it does let you DM like in connect with people, But there's also not just like a straight listing of the people attending. It's like in weird groups, and I don't think you, like, I couldn't find a way to search.
And it's also just like really gamified. Like, I don't need to see my streak for how many times I've opened the app. I don't need badges. I just want an easy way to view the schedule and an easy way to connect with people.
So like, I like, you know, I like the effort, and I, you know, Mighty Networks is also a sponsor of Craft and Commerce, and so I suspect that that was part of it. But, I would love to see a much more stripped-down version of the app because like, I just, I hate notifications, especially like with the lab, like we're in WhatsApp and like that chat is always popping off and like it's important stuff, and like having so many notifications can feel overwhelming.
So, anyway, that is my travel system. It's really simple, but it is super helpful because the travel shortcut reduces the cognitive load for like figuring out what to pack. The focus mode shows me the most important information as I need it. Flighty is an amazing app, and Notes is just an easy way to input stuff.
So that's it for this episode of the Streamlined Solopreneur. Let me know what is your favorite travel hack or travel app. You can go to streamlinedfeedback.com. That's streamlined with a “d” feedback.com.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time. I hope you find some space in your week.