What should you do between meetings on a business trip?

Get on your feet: think through your next pitch while walking, route past the upcoming venue to scout it, grab a real meal, take any screen-free calls on the move, and reset before you head in. The gap between meetings is prime time, and the lobby is where it usually gets wasted.

Does walking actually help you think?

Yes. A 2014 Stanford study found people’s creative output rose by an average of roughly 60% while walking compared with sitting, and the effect held whether they walked indoors or outside — it was the walking itself, not the scenery. For loosening up before a pitch or working through objections, a walk beats a chair.

Where should you work between meetings if not the hotel lobby?

A café, a coworking space with day passes, or a library usually beats a hotel lobby, which tends to be loud, crowded, and full of other reps with the same plan. Scout an option in advance so a dead hour doesn’t force you into a space where you can’t actually focus or take a call.

How do you make the most of downtime on a sales trip?

Treat it as a warm-up, not a break: walk your prep, scout the next room, eat properly, and reset before the meeting that matters. Small, active uses of the gap compound into arriving sharper — far more than an hour of scrolling in a lobby chair ever will.

Is it better to walk or sit before an important meeting?

A short walk is generally better for the kind of loose, divergent thinking that helps you generate angles and openings, per the Stanford research. Save the sitting for focused, detailed work; when you want to arrive energized and mentally limber, take the walk.

Explore · Field Guide

How to Work a City Between Meetings: 6 Moves That Beat Killing Time in the Lobby

By Rachel Julian, Editor-in-Chief · July 17, 2026 · 6 min read

Two meetings, three hours between them, a city you don’t know. That gap is an asset or a void — depending entirely on what you do with it.

Direct answer: The best way to work a city between meetings is to get on your feet: a Stanford study found creative output rose about 60% while people walked, so a walk beats an hour of doomscrolling in the lobby. Use the gap to think through your next pitch on foot, scout the upcoming venue, find real food, take a call walking, and reset before you go in — the dead time between meetings is where a sharp rep quietly gets sharper.

The lobby is where good hours go to die. You've got a gap between meetings in a city you barely know, and the default is to sink into a lobby chair and scroll until it's time. But that gap is some of the most useful time on the trip — if you spend it on your feet instead of on your phone. Here are six ways to work the city between meetings.

The six moves

1. Walk your prep instead of sitting it

A Stanford study found a person's creative output rose by an average of about 60% while walking versus sitting. Move: think through the next pitch on foot — the objections, the opening, the ask. Your best line will arrive at a crosswalk, not in a lobby chair.

2. Scout the next venue on the way

Route your walk past the next meeting spot. Move: arrive at the gap already knowing the room, the noise, the parking, and the coffee situation — so you walk into the meeting oriented instead of lost.

3. Find real food, not the sad lobby pastry

A city you don't know is full of a good, fast lunch you'd never get at home. Move: eat something that isn't a granola bar from the gift shop; the afternoon meeting is better when your blood sugar isn't staging a walkout.

4. Take the call walking

The check-in call, the internal sync, the pipeline review can all happen on the sidewalk. Move: use the walk-and-talk for the calls that don't need a screen; you'll be looser, sharper, and back your steps for the day.

5. Find a real workspace, not the lobby

If you need to actually sit and work, a café or a day-pass desk beats a hotel lobby that's loud, crowded, and full of the same idea. Move: know your options before you need them — the Road Office Index exists for exactly this.

6. Reset before you walk in

Don't arrive at the next meeting carrying the last one. Move: a few minutes to reset — a deliberate reset, not a doomscroll — and you walk in present instead of frazzled from the gap you just wasted.

The standard

The time between meetings isn't downtime; it's the rep's version of a warm-up, and the best ones treat it that way. Walk your thinking, scout your next room, eat like it matters, and reset before you go in. A city you don't know is an asset hiding as an inconvenience — spend the gap on your feet and you arrive to the meeting that counts already sharp.

Source: Stanford University, on Oppezzo & Schwartz, “Give Your Ideas Some Legs” (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2014): a person’s creative output increased by an average of about 60% while walking. The six-point framing is The Sales Traveler’s own.

Turn the gap into ground gained: how to work a city when a meeting ends early, and find a desk on the Road Office Index.

How to Work a City Between Meetings: 6 Moves That Beat Killing Time in the Lobby

The six moves

1. Walk your prep instead of sitting it

2. Scout the next venue on the way

3. Find real food, not the sad lobby pastry

4. Take the call walking

5. Find a real workspace, not the lobby

6. Reset before you walk in

The standard

Related in the canon

Don't just read the discipline.Run it.

Don't just read the discipline.
Run it.