For many people, balancing business travel with the demands of real life is a constant juggling act. That said, organizing and prioritizing can make even the most hectic schedules manageable. Some savvy business travelers explain how to get the most out of your time on the road without sacrificing your personal life.

Despite the beating suffered by the travel industry over the last few years-due namely to the economic slowdown and the after-effects of 9/11-business travel remains a reality for a large percentage of the American workforce. In 2002, more than 34 million Americans took a business trip that was at least 50 miles away from home, according to the Travel Industry Association of America. And this year, U.S. residents are forecast to take more than 122 million business trips-the first year-onyear increase since 1999. Despite the burgeoning popularity of technologies that are bringing far-away offices closer together-videoconferencing, for example-the value of face-to-face meetings has yet to be replaced. There’s no doubt business travel is here to stay.

Balancing Act

For frequent business travelers, balancing the demands of life on the road with family, friends and social life can be a daunting prospect. This is particularly true for the new breed of business traveler: young, ambitious executives juggling demanding careers with all kinds of family and personal obligations. But effective time management-before, during and after your trips-as well as clearly defined efforts to keep your personal life a priority while you’re away, can make the whole process more productive, gratifying and sometimes even fun. We asked some young but well-seasoned road warriors for their advice on “making it work” and received a
slew of savvy tips for getting the most out of both your business and personal life when you’re far from home. The underlying key to successful business travel? The verdict is unanimous: organization. By continually planning ahead and taking steps to maximize your time, you’ll get the most out of your trip-and have more time and energy for everything else in your life.

Meryl Pearlstein, a New Yorker who works in travel public relations, takes six or seven major trips per year, plus a bunch of smaller one- or two-day trips. Having a suitcase always at the ready, along with a full toiletry case and trip essentials, like wardrobe staples and walking shoes, allows her to move from trip to trip with minimal aggravation. Pearlstein is no travel novice: When we spoke to her, she had just finished four back-to-back trips-to Florida, Chile, Argentina and France.

“Stay as organized as you can. It’s not rocket science, but it really helps,” said Pearlstein.

Plan Ahead and Pack Light

While having a bag ready to go is a surefire time-saver, when it’s time to leave it’s worthwhile to take steps to cut down on waiting in snail-paced security lines. Glory Hammes, 29, executive director for IQ Air, an indoor air-quality solutions company based outside Los Angeles, travels domestically once or twice a week and takes an additional trip overseas once a month. To keep her hectic schedule somewhat in check, Glory makes a point to fly out of “off-peak” airports, such as John Wayne International in Orange County instead of often chaotic Los Angeles International.

“I can arrive less than an hour before a flight and still make it,” said Hammes. She also takes direct flights always, no matter how much more expensive. “It saves four or five hours on each trip,” she said.

Hammes also chooses red-eye flights when flying to the East Coast because they’re the most time-efficient-she can hop on the plane, go to sleep, and arrive at her destination first thing in the morning. Hammes and her husband, Frank, 37, president of IQ Air, travel so frequently between Los Angeles and the company’s headquarters in Switzerland that they keep an apartment in Switzerland, as well as wardrobes in both places, which also cuts down on trip preparation time.

“I need twice as much of everything as most people do,” said. Frank. “Luckily, it’s helped that the climates are so different. The winter clothes stay in Switzerland while the summer clothes stay in Los Angeles.”

Traveling light is a virtue not to be underestimated by the busy traveler. Advances in office technology are making travel more hassle-free than ever before. Rather than carrying a laptop, Glory Hammes uses the Internet service over her hotel TV to access her office desktop via the Web. Ed Borgato, 34, a hedge fund manager who lives in Las Vegas, travels two or three times a month, both domestically and internationally, making company visits. He also suggests leaving laptops at home, if possible.

“If email is the primary function for which you use your computer, having a Blackberry or another device is a lot more desirable than carrying around a laptop,” he said. “Among other reasons, it takes a lot less time to get through security without one.”

Borgato, who also keeps a wardrobe in New York since he spends a lot of time there, avoids checking luggage as often as possible. He also maintains a duplicate office in New York stocked with everything he needs (Rolodex, files, etc.).

“That way, I can slip in and out of each office with ease,” he said.

Stay Connected

While preparing for your trip wisely can help you maintain your sanity and avoid headaches later, it’s that much harder to do when you have children at home. Being precise in your planning helps, as does having a strong support system.

“I prepare for everything and I leave lists galore for my husband,” said Pearlstein, who has a son and daughter, ages 13 and 9 respectively.

It also helps to have a spouse whose schedule is more predictable. Pearlstein’s husband almost never travels for work. While Pearlstein took her kids along with her on trips when they were younger, it’s much harder now that they’re in school. “If they miss one day, they miss a lot,” she said.

If she does take her children out of school for a couple days, Pearlstein consults their teachers about fitting the trip into the curriculum. “We’ll try to turn it into something educational, like a report on where they’ve been,” she said. “That way I don’t feel quite as guilty.”

For Glory and Frank Hammes, who work together but almost never travel together, it’s important to keep the business conversations separate from the personal ones.

“We speak on the phone every day. That’s really a key,” said Frank. “It makes it easier that we’re working together. That way you really do stay connected-but we make an active effort every
day to speak on a personal level. That’s an important issue.”

Despite the value of cellphones to seasoned travelers, the challenge of staying in touch across time zones makes email an invaluable tool for those constantly on the go.

“Email really keeps you from falling too far behind in all aspects of your life, from work to personal,” said Pearlstein. “As much as you’d like to talk to your family, when you’re in a time zone that’s eight or nine hours off, it’s tough to find time to make that call.

“But your kids can email you their work or homework assignment,” she said. “It’s good and bad because you become neurotic about reading it. But if you don’t read it. it really piles up. Plus it’s a huge help with big time differences.”

For the busiest of travelers, email can become virtually the only means of staying connected. Such is the case for Borgato, who often finds himself on the road for weeks at a time. Not
surprisingly, Borgato is never far from his Blackberry.

“Staying in touch with me means being an avid emailer,” said Borgato. “If you’re going to be in my life and you want to stay in touch with me, you’ve got to be a person used to communicating
via email.” “I’m good at email because I can use my Blackberry anywhere-in a cab, on a plane, wherever.”

While cellphones and email are the best ways to reach out during long trips, it doesn’t replace time together with loved ones. Maintaining relationships amid busy schedules means making steadfast commitments to spend time together no matter how crowded the calendar looks. Glory and Frank Hammes try not to be apart for more than seven to 10 days at a time. According to Glory, spending so much time away from each other is far from a detriment to their marriage.

“It makes our relationship better because we cherish our time together,” she said.

Making holidays a tradition is also a good way to cement family bonds.

“I make a point of spending Thanksgiving with Glory’s family in the United States, and she makes a point of spending Christmas in Europe,” said Frank.

However, it’s not easy to keep social relationships alive when you spend much of your time living out of a suitcase.

“I guess it’s instructive that I’m single,” said Borgato. “I think that says a lot about the issue. The people I tend to get along with best, whether it’s romantic or just friendship, tend to be very busy people themselves.”

Combining business with leisure is an easy way to make the best of a frenetic travel schedule. If their schedule permits, Glory and Frank Hammes will jet off to southern France for a few days, where Frank’s parents live, for a quick break.

Although combining work and play isn’t always an option, many companies make an effort to accommodate their employees’ taxing schedules. Brad Tompkins, 29, a clinical research associate at Philadelphia-based Icon, which monitors clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies, spends about half the month traveling, as does his fiancée, Connie Van Vrancken, also an Icon employee.
Although the company encourages staying the weekend at a site (since Saturday stayovers usually mean much cheaper airfares), employees are allowed to come back before the weekend if they
choose, despite additional costs to the company.

It also never hurts to do a little homework to try to make frequent business travel work to your advantage outside the office. While Icon works primarily with preferred airline carriers, employees can any airline of their choice provided the cost differential between tickets is less than $200. By flying the same airline six times over a given period last year, Tompkins earned two free tickets to the Caribbean, which he and Van Vrancken will use for their honeymoon this summer.

Domestic Front

It’s inevitable that in the delicate balance of business and personal time, sometimes something has to give. Often it’s keeping up the household. Glory Hammes remembers clearly the days before she hired a cleaning lady.

“The house was always a mess then,” she said. Now she has a trusted caretaker who has keys to the house “and even does the laundry.”

Borgato lives in his house in Las Vegas with his brother, who takes care of things when he’s on the road. Borgato also pays household bills online so he can do it from anywhere, and keeps
multiple bank accounts with checkbooks in different cities. Still, for some, coming home to a pile of chores can be disheartening.

“Keeping the house intact is a big problem,” said Tompkins. “When you get home at 7 at night from a trip and are exhausted, the last thing you feel like doing is cleaning or cooking. A lot of that stuff ends up spilling into the weekend, which is unfortunate.”

But often, for the busiest travelers, a necessary evil.

“Me” Time

Finally, while it may sound silly, taking time for yourself when you’re on the road can go a long way toward staying productive, relaxed, and someone your family and friends will want to be around when you return home. The last day of a business trip is often a good opportunity to make time for sightseeing, sports, shopping or other leisure pursuits.

Glory Hammes tries to fit in an hour of sightseeing a day when she’s in a city she’s never visited before. Borgato likes to check out Chowhound.com, a food enthusiasts Web site, for tips on off-the-beaten-path restaurants to visit in unfamiliar places. John Christy, 32, an editor at Bloomberg News in Tokyo, likes to play golf whenever possible on his travels, especially before a long trip home.

“If I’m going to sit on a plane for seven hours, the last thing I want to do is spend the morning sitting in meetings,’’ Christy said. “If you have a late flight you can play 18 holes and have a relaxing lunch or go for a swim if the club has a pool,’’ he said. ‘‘If you don’t have that much time you can just play nine or at least go to the driving range.’‘

Another idea is to check with health clubs in your destination city to ask if they have a daily rate for visitors. If your hotel has a well-furnished gym, you’re good to go, but in a lot of places (particularly in Europe), many very nice hotels have sub-par workout facilities, if any. Some private health clubs offer daily rates of $20-$30 to use the gym. If all you want is a treadmill, it may not be worth the effort or expense, but for a nice pool or squash court-or just some time to get away and clear your head-it may be money well spent.

Organize and Prioritize

We can’t say it enough: Managing frequent business travel with a full personal life requires a genuine commitment to staying organized. The better your trip, the happier you’ll
be once you get home to friends and loved ones. Barry Izsak, president and founder of Arranging It All, a full-service professional organizing consulting firm based in Austin, Texas (www.ArrangingItAll.com), and president of the National Association of Professional Organizers, shares his tips for staying on top of things both on and off the road.

1) Book your trips on the Internet. You’ll save time and money.

2) Plan an effective travel route to maximize time. Fly direct if you can, or map out a driving route beforehand. so you’re not backtracking.

3) Keep a prepacked toiletry kit at the ready, and replenish it upon your return, so you’re not making a new one up every trip.

4) Always have a packing list for clothing and business essentials that might be easily overlooked (cellphone charger, stamped envelopes, etc.).

5) Organize the work you’re going to take before you leave, and set up a file before you go. Include your trip file with itinerary, airline and hotel contact numbers and an envelope for expenses.

6) Bring lots of reading material for the flight. Save up newsletters and magazines you don’t normally have time to get to, then leave them in the seat pocket for others to enjoy.

7) Empty email inbox before you leave. It will make life easier upon your return.

8) Never put important presentations or valuables in your checked bags.

9) Airports and airplanes provide lots of good work time, so plan accordingly. For peace and quiet, airline clubs are definitely worth the money if you spend a lot of time traveling.

10) Set up a good mail sorting system for those you leave behind (both at home and at the office) so it’s manageable when you return.

11) Use the same compartments in your suitcase for the same things each trip so you always know where everything is.

12) Bring a small travel wallet with your license, a couple credit cards, etc., and leave your real wallet at home. Never keep all your credit cards in the same place, in case they’re lost or stolen.

13) Try to book a hotel near your first appointment. You’ll have one less thing to deal with when you arrive.

14) Use hotel time wisely to catch up on work. A quiet hotel room likely means much fewer interruptions than when you’re at home.

15) Order breakfast the night before and have it sent to your room, so you can use that time to prepare for the day rather than sitting around waiting for your meal.

16) Use driving time to practice presentations aloud and organize your thoughts.

17) Develop a “hotel routine”-put your clothes, important papers and toiletries in the same place every time you travel.

18) Make a point of leaving voicemail messages for loved ones at home to let them know you’re thinking of them.

19) Make long calls home at night, when cellphone minutes are often free.

20) Write memory joggers on the back of business cards (tall blonde at dinner party, Southern guy at the morning meeting), so you remember who all the people are that you met on your trip when you get home.

21) Retrieve telephone messages only when you can write them down or put them in your PDA.

22) If you find yourself with nothing to do in the airport, buy some greeting cards and fill them out for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

23) Stick to a re-entry routine when you get back. Return calls right away, catch up on email, open mail, and try not to schedule appointments your first day back in the office.

24) Record your expenses right away. You’re much less likely to forget little things.