LinkTipIdea highlights an interesting article from USA Today about using your cell phone while traveling abroad.

Because we rely so heavily on cell phones these days, most people take it for granted that they can be reached on their cell phones in most locations. However, as the article states, this can all change when traveling abroad. If you are going away on business to another country, make sure you know if your phone is going to work or not. This article lays out a few different options for how to go about this, be sure to check it out if there is even the possibility that you might be traveling in the future.

Allergy season is in full swing and millions of people across the globe are suffering because of it. If you’re doing any traveling this summer and suffer from allergies, then you’ll want to check out this article from MSNBC on the worst U.S. cities for allergies. As an allergy sufferer myself, I can tell you that I won’t be visiting Hartford, Conn. anytime soon.

As stated in the article, this doesn’t mean you have to stay cooped up inside all the time. You just have to be aware of what the weather and pollen counts are like before you venture outside for the day. Personally, I use Claritin, which is blessedly available over the counter now. As long as I’m doped up on that, I’m good to go. It’s also work-safe, meaning that you aren’t going to pass out at your laptop for the sake of a stuffy nose.

Remember if you are traveling for work or pleasure and you suffer from allergies, make sure to pack some medication with you before you go. You never know what kind of medications will be available where you are going.

Ok, I lied. It’s Tuesday, it obviously cannot be that exciting. However, I do have two new articles for you, see below:

• See today’s Tip of the Day if you plan on requesting time off for vacation this summer.
• The Microsoft Excel bug bit me again, and this time we explore the basics of using the AutoFilter.

Ah summer, one of my favorite times of the year. The weather is usually nice (unless you live in one of those extreme places, but I digress) and everybody’s thoughts turn to vacation. However, before you take a vacation, you need to let your work know. Not only do you have to let them know, you have to let them know WELL in advance.

Does this sound simple? I think you would be surprised at how many people suddenly come into work one day and say “Oh yeah, I’m going on vacation next week, is that ok?”. Obviously, this is not enough heads up time for your job. What is enough time? If I can, I like to give at least a month notice. It may seem like a lot, but I’m of the opinion that you can never give too much notice, only too little.

One last note, make sure you send your notification in writing as opposed to just word of mouth, just in case you are questioned about it later. Also, a few weeks before your time off is to occur, make sure to drop your boss a reminder note about which days you will be gone.

If you have ever bought an e-ticket for a flight, then you have probably at least heard of Cheap Tickets. Basically, they aggregate available flights from a number of different airlines based on the search criteria you specify, and you can sort the results by price, etc. It’s a really useful service as you don’t have to go to each individual airlines website to search for flights, and they usually can get you a deal on a flight (although you might have a five hour layover). Also, you can usually pick the seat you want on your flight right when you make your reservation. Sounds perfect, right?

Well, just as a warning, when you pick your seat through Cheap Tickets, it’s not always guaranteed. Pick up your jaw, I was just as surprised when I found out. What happened was I called the airline I booked on regarding a different question, and just happened to ask about my flight details. Lo and behold, my seat was NOT what I had picked online. I changed it to what I wanted then called Cheap Tickets. Surprisingly, the customer service rep told me that the only way to actually guarantee your seat selection was to book it through the airline. I was shocked! Apparently, they pass on your seat SUGGESTION to the airline.

The lesson here is that if you book your tickets through a site like this (there are tons online), double check with the airline you booked on to make sure you get the seat you want. Otherwise, you could end up in the dreaded middle seat between the 400 pound guy and his twin, the 401 pound guy.

I took a look at the Email category and realized I’ve been a little slack in updating it =p. To freshen it up a bit, I’ve written a new article on one problem we all face: Should you answer your email on vacation?

Raise your hand if you use your Out Of Office assistant when you go on vacation (I hope your hand is raised). Now, keep it raised if you also check your email while you’re on vacation (probably a good majority of you still have your hand raised). Here’s the big question: Keep your hand raised if you respond to email while on vacation. Hand still raised? Half raised? This is a dilemma that many people face when on vacation: Should you respond to your email? There’s no simple answer for this, but there are many things to consider when making this decision.

To start, sometimes you don’t have a choice. If it’s something urgent, and you don’t see anybody else taking the lead on it, you may have to send out an email. Hopefully, you’ve left a contact person who is competent enough to take care of this for you. However, if a decision needs to be made and you’re the only one to do it, even the most competent person in the world won’t be able to make it for you. On the flip side, if you don’t have access to your email, then obviously you won’t be responding to anything.

Most of the time, you won’t run into either of the above situations. You should have a choice whether to answer it or not. In my opinion, if you take the time to leave a good person as your contact person, you shouldn’t have to answer it. This is my preferred path when on vacation for the following main reason: Everybody knows you’re out of the office (hopefully you’ve communicated this to all your clients as well), so they should not be expecting back an answer from you. By answering, you open yourself up to the possibility of having to work for the rest of your vacation as people know you are checking your email. Obviously, this defeats the purpose of your vacation.

The most important piece of advice I can give here is to leave someone competent in your place. This will solve the problem 95% of the time. For that last 5%, you are probably going to have to do something about the situation. However, one way to mitigate the impact of your vacation is to funnel your answers through your contact people. Call them up and explain what needs to be done. If they can handle it, then all you might have to do is monitor the situation instead of having to get directly involved. Another way to lessen the impact could be to suck it up and solve the problem immediately. Call whoever needs to be called, spend all the time to solve the problem in one shot instead of stringing it along. This way, maybe only one day is devoted to work instead of everyday.

Overall, try to enjoy your vacations as much as possible. If you have to put any work in, try to do it in such a way that the amount of time you need to spend working is minimized. Also, the better qualified your contact person is, the less likely it is that you will have to step in and solve a problem.

How do you enjoy your time off? Do you go to the beach? Lounge around all day? Sleep in (if you don’t, you should start)? There are many ways to spend your time off, but are you actually enjoying it? This may seem like a no-brainer, however take a step back and really think about it. How many times have you been on vacation, having a great time, except for one thing: You just can’t get rid of that nagging voice in the back of your head worrying about something at work. While you may be enjoying your vacation 99% of the time, it’s that little 1% that stops you from both physically AND mentally taking the entire time off.

To this end, there are three things that you can do to fully maximize your time off.

• Leave effective points of contact - This is very important and will go a long way to keeping your mind at ease while at the beach. Before you leave, you need to make sure that if any questions come up about what you’re in charge of, there is somebody available to answer those questions. Even more importantly, you need to make sure they are familiar enough with what you’re doing to intelligently answer these questions. In other words, don’t leave the new guy as the main point of contact for the CEO of your client company.

• Clearly define tasks to be accomplished - Even with the best people covering for you while you’re gone, they’re not going to know what needs to be done if you don’t tell them. First, you need to lay out what needs to be accomplished for you while you’re gone. Once you have this in place, divide the tasks among the people covering for you. Then, brief each person individually. Make sure they fully understand what they need to do and how they need to do it before you go. This might take a bit of time, but it will save you tons of heartburn in the long run.

• Let your clients know you’re gone - This goes for people internal to your company as well. You have the right people, they know what they need to do, but not everybody knows you’re gone. That’s when you get a call on your cell phone at 6:00 AM. “Oh, you’re not in the office? I didn’t know, I’ll just make this quick….” (read: 2 hour question). Make sure your main clients know the exact time period you’ll be off and who’s covering for you. A great way to do this is to leave an auto-message with an Out of Office Assistant. Beyond that, try to let people know in person or with individual email messages, so they have a reminder that you won’t be there.

There might be other things you can do specific to your job, however the above three tips will go a long way in helping you make the most of your time off.