It’s hard enough to stay organized during regular business travel, but summer travel? Forget about it!

The kids are screaming, the hotel is overbooked, and the relaxing vacation you’ve been looking forward to is threatening to turn into a palm tree-infested nightmare.

Summertime can be slow for small businesses, but it’s an incredibly busy time for the tourism industry. This creates the added challenge of staying organized in the midst of packed airports, crowded theme parks and overflowing resorts.

Here’s how to stay organized during summer travel and make the most out of your precious time off.

Strategize

Whether you are traveling solo, with friends or with your family, chances are you have a big part of your vacation already planned out. You know exactly what you want to see, how to get there, and how much it’s going to cost.

Before heading to the airport, take a few minutes to apply your planning skills to staying organized on the road. Develop a strategy that everyone in your party agrees to stick to while you’re traveling.

  • Make someone the designated receipt scanner. When anyone gets a paper receipt, they will automatically pass it off to the designated scanner. This way everyone’s wallets, pockets and the rental car remains uncluttered.

  • Work out logistics. Agree upon start times, end times and easy-to-find group meeting points. This will ensure you get to see everything you’ve looked forward to seeing.

  • Choose one person as your point person.If anyone gets lost, separated or delayed, contact the point person immediately instead of waffling around texting anyone you can get ahold of.

Implement

No matter how foolproof your summer travel organization plan may be, even the best plans fall apart at the first sign of chaos.

Even if the flight is delayed, the theme park is closed, or they’ve put you in a different hotel than the one you booked, keep your strategy in mind and continue to stick to the plan.

Doing mini-check ins throughout the day will help you stay organized without getting frustrated or overwhelmed.

Keep in mind that you might also get distracted not because of chaos, but because the place you’re visiting is so awesome! Breathtaking scenery, beaches, palm trees and a lazy vacation-vibe can all combine to sabotage your organization strategy.

In other words, even while you’re in a blissed-out meditative state on a beach somewhere in Thailand, you should still take 30 seconds to scan your receipts.

Evaluate

At the end of your travel day when you’re back in your hotel room, take stock of how the day went.

  • Would it help everyone stay organized if you met 15 minutes earlier in the morning?

  • Did Bob give you his receipt from dinner?

  • Has the hotel bill been scanned and beamed to your Shoeboxed account?

A 10-minute nightly recap will prevent paper clutter from accumulating, but it will also clear your head and allow you to focus on the task at hand – enjoying your summer travel!

See also: The Ultimate Receipt Organization & Management Resource

About Shoeboxed!

Shoeboxed is a receipt scanning service that supports multiple methods for receipt capture: send, scan, upload, forward, and more!

You can stuff your receipts into one of our Magic Envelopes (prepaid postage within the US). Use our receipt tracker + receipt scanner app (iPhone, iPad and Android) to snap a picture while on the go. Auto-import receipts from Gmail. Or forward a receipt to your designated Shoeboxed email address.

Turn your receipts into data and deductibles with our expense reports that include IRS-accepted receipt images.

Join over 1 million businesses scanning & organizing receipts, creating expense reports and more—with Shoeboxed.

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