Lessons learned from business travel

Here are some of the lessons I've learned that make business travel easier:

1. Pick your air travel to coincide with your hotel check-out/check-in time or you end up sitting in a cafe with your bags falling on the floor around you. You buy a coffee for each half hour of free internet access. You end up over-caffeinated going through security and everyone looks at you as if they think you're on drugs.
2. Pick a hotel both for its location and its internet service.
3. Shoes take a lot of room in a suitcase. Try to bring as few as possible. Running shoes are useless unless you actually go running every day. As in really go running.
4. Classic outfits work best, with a few things to spice it up.
5. Continuing on the clothing theme: you only need 2 of everything. More is overkill unless nothing matches. And if nothing matches, you have to go shopping.
6. Use one credit card for business expenses, the other for your per diem expenses. Keeps things nice and straight forward.
7. Be nice to the hotel staff. If they like you, they help you.
8. Pick up packets of salt, pepper and sugar when you see them. You never know when they'll come in handy.