Hello everyone, this is Helen Huang @ Organizing, based in Beijing, China. In order to better learn and practice the YiXiaoNeng Time Management System, after finished publishing 100 Chinese articles, I decided to continue writing and publishing a daily English article in another 100 days based on the "YeWuBin Time Management 100 Episodes" audio program. Today is the 184th day.
Today's topic is: Use the Air Travel App to Manage Flight Itinerary
The tools that we use every day help us develop good habits which facilitate our work and home lives. Today, I'm going to talk about an app that incorporates the methodology we embrace here at Yixiaoneng.
Tools are only helpful thing to do if we use them consistently and effectively so they become productive habits rather than inefficient ones. Once the habit is established, we will benefit from it for the rest of our lives. So, focus carefully on setting the habit correctly.
Which tools do we need to focus our energy on?
First look at the things you do each and every day in both your work and home lives. These are the areas you should focus on first.
The things we do every single day – these cyclical events, take up a lot of our time. For instance, I often give speeches all over China. You can imagine this means I must fly all the time. Flying can be a bit risky because of all the delays and changes as well as the small things like traffic jams and buy tickets.
All of this can create a bit of chaos, but this isn't a problem if you can find a consistent habit to follow. List the things you do often, then categorize them, determine the right process to follow, select the tools you will use to aid your execution of the process and then work to build it into a natural and effortless habit.
In the past 3 years, I have been to many cities in China, and have had more than 300 classes. So far, I have never missed a single class as a result of flight delays or issues. Don't you think I deserve some applause for this?
Let me tell you, I experience flight delays all the time and still I am not late. I use this time to complete my reading and learning tasks. More importantly, even when these delays take place, I can still reach my destination on time. I can negotiate the delay into a first class seat for just 50 extra yuan. I will share this story off-line after the lesson.
Today, our focus is about what app can be used to help with flight schedule management.
One day I searched for an app that would help me manage my flight itinerary. I went through dozens of different apps but finally I found an app called "Air Travel". I've been using it for three or four years.
Let me introduce the basic functions and advanced features of this app.
You can view the flight information and flight dynamics such as the flight name, boarding and departure and arrival times. You can choose seats. It's compatible with Apple wallet and Apple watch. Different airlines often have different regulations. I often take Air China. With Air China in Beijing two-dimensional code boarding is no problem.
Let me talk about some of the advanced features:
There's are a lot of options when viewing the flight information.
First, you can subscribe to the app in order to make communication by travel and shuttle more convenient. You can subscribe others in your family or on your work team. Then they will see your itinerary and any changes in it.This will be very convenient for them.
For example: let's say your flight schedule changes and you need to let others know your itinerary. At this point you can download the Air Travel app, select flight dynamics, and then click inside the subscription portion of the app.
If you choose to subscribe for others, you need to enter their cell phone number, then the system will automatically send a few messages to them, asking their permission to subscribe. Once they describe, then the app will automatically send them the flight schedule with any delays and updates to their phone. This is very convenient, isn't it?
Second, it will show you a picture of what the flight status is.
Third, it will give you the weather at the departing and arriving airport so you know how to dress and pack.
Often bad weather will cause my flights to be delayed or canceled. Knowing this ahead of time helps me prepare and create alternative travel arrangements.
There are three advanced features I want to mention.
One of these features is very convenient. The app will automatically update the boarding and arrival times and sync them to your calendar. Also when you buy a flight ticket, it will automatically put that in your calendar. Thus, if I've shared my calendar with my staff, they will see all of these updates without my need to do a thing. Everything happens automatically without an email, text or phone call.
Of course, this is only useful for anyone that I'm willing to share my calendar with which is not everybody. Not only can colleagues see my flight information, they can book their own flights as well.
The concept I want to share with you today is that you must use tools to manage your work and life. A small tool that allows you to save a lot of time and money. Your brain forgets very easily, so place all your information in calendar and storage systems using the right software tools.
You can go to download the Air Travel app on almost any mobile phone app store. This software is very good and I'm very happy to share it with everyone.
That's all sharing today. Thank you being with me together. Have a wonderful day!