A long-term business trip often looks sleek and impressive from the outside, but living it day to day is a little more complicated. Keeping your focus while unpacking and repacking your life into a suitcase takes a stronger kind of endurance.
When your days are packed with meetings, screens, and a steady stream of decisions, switching off doesn’t just happen – you have to make space for it.
In a city like Toronto, which moves quickly and never fully powers down, it’s easy to stay mentally “on” long after the laptop is shut. That’s usually when tiredness creeps in, and small things start to feel oddly heavy.
Below are five tips for switching off during a long-term business trip to The Six:
1. Create a Clear End to Your Workday
Creating a clear end to your workday is less about rigid schedules and more about drawing a line your brain can recognise.
When work bleeds into everything, you never fully relax – you’re just “on standby” all evening. Work doesn’t need a fixed clock-out time to have a proper end; it just needs a clear signal.
Without that signal, emails linger mentally long after you stop replying.
2. Separate Zones
Creating separate zones doesn’t mean turning your space into a Pinterest-perfect office.
It’s simply about giving your brain a few clear hints about what’s happening where. When you answer emails from bed or work from the couch, your mind stays half on duty all the time – even when you’re trying to relax.
A dedicated chair, a corner of the table, or one side of the room can quietly become “work territory.” And when you step away from it, that’s precisely the point – once you move away, work loses its grip on the rest of the evening.
3. Comfortable Accommodation
Comfortable accommodation helps more than most people realise, especially when a business trip turns into weeks or months.
Where you stay isn’t just a place to crash. It’s where you exhale after being “on” all day. Location matters just as much – choosing Toronto short term apartments with access to the TTC transit removes a ton of daily friction.
Simple commutes mean fewer rushed mornings, fewer mental calculations, and more energy left when work is done.
4. Daily Exercise
Exercise doesn’t need to be announced, scheduled, or taken too seriously to matter.
It just needs to slip into your day somewhere. On long work trips, especially, exercise becomes less about progress and more about balance.
It’s a quiet way of reminding yourself that the day isn’t only meetings and screens – and that you’re allowed to feel good in your own body. Movement gives your body that change of pace.
5. Quiet Evenings
Quiet evenings don’t mean boring ones – they mean giving your nervous system a chance to decompress and catch up.
On long business trips, constant stimulation adds up fast. When every evening is packed, rest never really lands.
Quiet evenings create space to unwind properly, sleep more deeply, and feel grounded again. They make the next day easier before it even starts.
In Conclusion
Creating space to switch off, rest properly, and establish simple routines helps prevent burnout.
With small, intentional habits and a comfortable base, it’s possible to stay focused at work while still feeling human and genuinely settled along the way.
