Simplifying Travel with the Two-Is-One Rule

Hello, and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I wanna talk about, sort of a methodology, I guess, or a theory that or or let's call it a travel rule, if you are a frequent traveler, that one is none and 2 is 1. This is something I've heard people talk about mainly in a sort of military sort of application or survival, but it totally makes sense if you are a frequent traveler and or you bounce between 2 places on a regular basis. And that can happen a lot whether you're for business or you have 2 houses or you have a vacation home or you stay at a friend's regularly or I mean, there's many different reasons why this might be. And so the context around this is that having one thing is great, but it doesn't really count, and having 2 things is better. And let me give you an example. Phone chargers. How many of you only have one phone charger and that is plugged into maybe next to your bank or the place you spend the most time? I very I doubt many of you just have one.

You probably have one in the office or one in the car or just a one at home and if you don't you probably should because here's the thing you probably really love your phone. You probably spend a lot of time on it. If you could not charge it because your charger broke in the middle of the night, what would you do? And you didn't have, like, a means of getting a charger very quickly. What would you do? So especially if you find a charger that you like. Maybe it's a cord that you like or the color that you like or the length that you like, buy more than one of them. It's like, girls, you know when you find a dress with pockets or a skirt with pockets, you go buy that thing in every color you can find and probably 2 of them, just so you can keep wearing it as often as you like. Same thing goes for gadgets and things like that if you are a frequent traveler. The other thing you could do is have a double batch of toiletries.

So you can have, your toiletries that you use at home, and then you probably have travel sized toiletries that you travel with. You just get a set and then just keep them topped up and have them ready. So all you do is pick up that travel bag of your toiletries that's already there. I would also probably recommend having the same toothbrush in there, toothpaste in there that you use. So it's just grab and go. And then when you come back, just refill it. You don't have to think, oh, did I bring that conditioner? Or, oh, did I bring that shampoo? The idea is to decrease your mental load when you are traveling. So just having that travel stash of toiletries ready to go is helpful.

Same with cords and cables. Have a spare, laptop charger, a spare phone charger, a spare I don't know if you Apple Watch people like, oh, a watch charger, whatever it might be, a small pack with all of these chargers ready to go. So you don't have to scramble and and and, like, unplug things from places and that sort of a thing. You just have it all there in a could be in a ziplock bag. It could be in a in a school travel bag. It could be in a a backpack pack that you use for traveling regularly. But just having it so that you know every time you pick that bag up, I have all the cables and doohickeys that I need to be able to do whatever it is that you need, especially if you're a public speaker, making sure that you remember your clicker and that sort of a thing. But if it's already in your, like, tech bag, then you're good to go.

And it just is really useful. I mean, having backups of things is just useful. So, from you having a backup of your computer is useful. So then you have your computer and you have the backup probably in the cloud or in a hard drive. 1 is none, 2 is 1. So these are the things that I I think are really useful and especially if you're a frequent traveler. It's like I said it's the toiletries, it's the tech bag, it could even go as far as having a set uniform or things that you always wear when you travel a lot that you have packed all the time. That's for 2 days, or 3 days, or for a week, or how often you normally travel for most frequently, and that you just have those ready to go.

There are so many different ways that you could kind of use that and it helps, you know, avoid emergencies. It gives you peace of mind knowing where everything is and knowing that you have everything that you need. So when you're packing or when you're thinking of building out your tech stack or building out, your travel stack, knowing that 1 is none and 2 is 1 is and for essential items and to duplicate these things will serve you well in the long run. And then, of course, when one breaks, you just make sure you replace it. But you'll have the spare and make sure that you kind of rotate and check everything at least once every 3 months to make sure everything is working. I would love to know any travel tips or experiences that you have. Feel free to email me at janice at the careerintrovert .com. Help and this is Janice.

Happy to be on the brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.