How to be productive on a 16 hour flight without a laptop, iPad

By now, you have heard about the new travel restrictions requiring passengers traveling from certain MENA countries to the US and UK to check in all large electronic devices rather than carry them into the cabin. 

As someone who travels at least 4-6 times per year between the US and Middle East for business, I understand the inconvenience of not having your laptop/iPad/Kindle with you (and the data security concerns associated with it), however, I challenge the notion that just because we don’t have our devices with us on the flight, we cannot be productive.

Re-thinking productivity on a long-haul flight

When you're stuck on a long-haul flight, it might seem productive to spend as many hours as possible toiling away at your laptop, uninterrupted by phone calls, meetings, or personal commitments. However, working on a laptop in planes, may produce poor quality work as your physical and mental conditions aren't at their best due to the altitude and travel-related stress.

[Related article: Eight reasons business travelers shouldn't work on planes]

So, how else can we be productive on a long-haul flight?

In my training programs, I define productivity as the ability to manage your energy, focus, and time towards achieving a beneficial and meaningful goal.

So, the key to having a productive flight is asking yourself before boarding "What meaningful goals can I achieve with the basic tools I have (pen, paper/journal, and cellphone) during this flight?". Usually these meaningful goals will revolve around 3 things:

1.) THINK

In an ever-connected busy world, we don't take time out to simply think. Yet for knowledge workers and anyone who's paid to use their brains and expertise, carefully thinking through problems or scenarios is perhaps the most precious exercise one can do for their career and company.

We all wish to have more "Eureka!" moments in our professional careers, but those normally don't come when you are working at your laptop, answering emails at 35,000 feet. Long stretches of uninterrupted time help us dip into the "quality focus" zone as explained by Cal Newport in his book Deep Work. No better time to get such uninterrupted thinking time than on a long flight!

2.) PLAN

Long-haul flights give us plenty of time to plan. Planning is taking the thinking to an execution level. Basically, you're trying to answer the question "When am I going to do what by when?"

This is powerful, as one mentor told me: "If you spend 10 minutes every morning planning your day, you're ahead than most people in life. If you spend 30-45 minutes planning your day, you can achieve anything!" Imagine spending a chunk of 16-hour flights simply planning (whether it's planning your day, your next project, your next career move) how impactful would that be for your productivity?

3.) RELAX 

This is my favorite and what I honestly do every time I'm on a long-haul flight.

I treat them as my personal retreat. An opportunity to disconnect, relax, and recharge from a stressful few days preparing for the trip. As one creative person told me: "Sometimes blocking time out to just be and not force yourself to think, plan, and work, can stimulate some creative ideas that you never thought of before."

Some business travelers might scoff at this idea, thinking it's not productive, but as high performance coaches would tell you, how much you take time out to rest is as important as how much time you put in for training and hard work.

So, if you've had a few busy days, or your trip will be particularly stressful, use the flight time to recover and rejuvenate.

The key to being productive on a flight is not whether you have your devices with you or not; it all comes down to how you approach your flight and the pre-planning you do to ensure you achieve something meaningful and important on your 16-hour journey.

This could be thinking through a problem and coming up with practical solutions for it, planning the execution of a project launch, or simply following the instructions of the cabin crew when they say, “Sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight!”.

Mohammed Faris is an internationally sought speaker, coach, and author who spearheaded the niche of productivity and Islam. He’s the founder of ProductiveMuslim.com and author of the new book “The Productive Muslim: Where Faith Meets Productivity”.