By Anne Rumpf: I have been traveling a lot lately – and some how my office still manages to find me, darn! Friends and family think that life on the road is a 24/7 cabaret. Unfortunately, they miss the part where your eyes glaze over when you get to the airport and you have taken your shoes off before you even get near security. Traveling gets old very quickly…the delays, having to pay for bad food and being crammed into a small seat never seem to happen on the Travel Channel. With the busiest travel period of the year upon us, I decided I needed a little help keeping my sanity…

So I did a little research and found one of the best ways to get some inner peace and discover a better balance is to have a period of silence in your life. Have you ever noticed how much of your day is filled with noise? Technology has made it possible to be on call at all hours and brings with it all the ringtones and email notification beeps. And traffic adds its own hum to the fray. Add onto that the 16,000 words we speak on average every day and it’s a wonder we can think at all.

Although research is not yet conclusive, all this noise cannot be good for your health or your peace of mind. If you are like me, you’re probably having trouble thinking of a quiet place. Most religions recommend solitude – Muhammad hid in a cave, Jesus went to the desert and Buddha sat under a tree to achieve enlightenment. But you don’t have to go out of town or even leave your house to structure periods of silence into your day. I’ve gathered a few easy suggestions that might help you tune it all out…

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Written by Anne Rumpf: Ok I admit it – I don’t have a Facebook page or belong to MySpace. So at present people don’t know my favorite songs, colors or TV shows (I do have a profile on LinkedIn though). As many travelers are finding out, social media is a great way to stay in touch with family and friends, meet new people as well as solicit trip-planning advice. Social sites allow you encounter people in the places you will be – whether traveling or staying closer to home or work.

There are more traditional sites such as Egencia (Expedia’s corporate travel arm) that offers its own brand of travel planning assets plus some social networking. The site has links that include SeatGuru, a Web site that describes the best and worst of airline seating, TripAdvisor’s City Guides and a host of hotel reviews from a variety of sources. Another option is Orbitz’ Traveler’s Update that allows you to stay a step ahead with real-time updates from fellow travelers about security wait times, traffic & parking, taxi lines and more. Additionally, their exclusive OrbitzTLC air-traffic info, FAA updates, and weather conditions will keep your travels on track. American Express also has offerings that appeal to the corporate traveler that provide travel tools and local color though not much in the way of true social networking. Click Read More for additional information.

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Written by Anne Rumpf: To date, many of my travel tips have about the exciting world of air travel, but now I have several clients who are within a few hours drive. So I thought it would be a good time to pull together a few tips for the professionals who travel locally for business. By local travel I mean – traveling by car for short business trips (usually 300 miles or less).

As someone who spent more than 8 months driving 2 hours each way for work, I have enjoyed listening to more than my share of morning radio shows for traffic information. I also know what it’s like to have your car registered as your second residence. Below I offer up some of the tips I’ve picked up along the way (and not just how to eat lunch while driving on I-95) Click Read More for additional information.

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Written by Anne Rumpf: One day the hardest decision you have to make is – should I swim in the ocean today or stay by the pool? Then just like that, the fun ends and you’re back at work fielding 100 e-mails while preparing a presentation. How did this happen? You’re suffering from post-vacation blues and you have them bad. You look at the calendar and the next day off is weeks away and you wish that you had the extra couple of rum punches.

That’s the way I bet a lot of you feel after a great vacation. If you’re still suffering we’ve got a few remedies that might help. And family vacationer: sorry, there isn’t a lot I can offer since you’re probably hiding in a closet in the basement enjoying the alone time. School for the kids is probably your big relief…though the mantra of “make the bad people go away” might help. And, if you camped out with your family as your vacation you may want to seek a support group now. Click Read More for additional information.

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Written by Anne Rumpf: So how is your “to do” list coming along? You lost it didn’t you, bad employee…next thing you know they’ll be promoting you and giving you a big office. Obviously you didn’t try one of my tips…no big deal; I’ll give you one more chance.

You can always start small, it’s like eating your vegetables, you start with peas and the next thing you know you’re eating rutabagas. Some advice-givers suggest making radical changes, but I’ve found that small changes are easier to initiate and maintain. This is like tough love with a more gentle approach to self-improvement. Granted there are times in life when big change is called for (when you missed who was kicked out of the Big Brother House because you had to help your kids get ready for school or had to make them dinner), but trying to find a little more time in your day or being more efficient in the office doesn’t fit the bill. Click Read More for additional information about maximizing your office time.

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Written by Anne Rumpf: If you’re like me and are on the road a lot, you may find that you are spending very little time in that big place called the office. While you’re away, you make a list of things to do when you actually make it back to “GO” – though seldom do you get to collect the $200 dollars.

Whether you’re a list person or not, you have things to do…water your now dead plants, appropriate paper and pens and fill out those annoying expense vouchers. When we are finally there, besides being surprised that people recognize you, time speeds up. (This probably can be explained by Einstein’s theory of relativity.) Your list or to do sticky isn’t even touched and before you know it it’s time to pack for your next trip. Click Read More for additional information on tips to maximize your office time.

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Written by Anne Rumpf: Summertime is in full swing, and as usual, magazines and newspapers have provided their lists – best vacation spot, beaches, movies and of course, best books for the beach. The books are usually divided into mindless drivel that you can read while you’re laying in your beach chair or books that will eventually be classics and will be made into movies. (We all know these bear little resemblance to the “classic”.) Usually it’s hard to tell the mindless drivel from the classics, but that’s another story. So in keeping with the time of year, I decided to create my own list of best books that are of course travel related, at least indirectly.

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