Christopher travels a decent amount for work, and it's almost always last minute. He travels the most during the Fall and Winter, about 50 - 75% of the time, leaving me with a lot of alone time, which as an extreme extrovert I hate.

Typically Christopher will be gone for the work week, leaving either Sunday night or EARLY Monday morning, and getting home Friday night. Thankfully our airport has a LUSH store, so I get treats when he travels.

Lucy is an excellent companion when Christopher is away, but I need to see people.

These are my top three tips for staying sane while you are home alone.

1. SCHEDULE TIME WITH PEOPLE

I have therapy once a week, and pretty much always stop at Target or to get myself an ice cream treat on the way home, because feelings are hard and I deserve a treat.

I try to schedule dinner with my parents or a friend one or two nights during the week so I don't just go home to a bowl of cereal for dinner and a glass of wine in bed.

2. PLAN YOUR TIME AT HOME

I leave myself one or two nights to go home after work and just do one or two easy chores, hang out with Lucy, and take care of myself. Set a loose schedule of what you need to get done, how you are going to relax, what you might want to read or watch, that kind of thing.

3. SET FUN GOALS

I try to make a list of goals for week when Christopher is gone. I have the whole house to myself, I can watch or listen to anything I want, be as loud as I want, and I can even sleep sideways in our bed if I want.

For example, Christopher is gone this week so this is my current goals list:

• Read F is for Fugitive (I had to renew this book from the library and I hadn't even started it yet)
• Listen to Challenger Deep (audio book from the library)
• Listen to a podcast (other than Up First - I listen to that every morning so it doesn't count)
• Meditate for 5 minutes 
• Do a guided meditation 
• Try a YouTube yoga session
• Get myself fresh flowers
• Declutter my dresser 
• Try the new Foxtail Coffee location

These are not to do's, they aren't things I need to get done to be a successful human or to keep my house in one piece, these are just things that will make me happy and help me to focus on myself in a healthy way. I am trying not to come home and watch Netflix for hours until I fall asleep, which is what I want to do when I get home from work, but I know that a few days of that in a row make me feel crappy and don't do anything to improve my mental health.

Christopher and I are not big phone talkers, but we try to talk on the phone once a day for at least a few minutes even if it's just to say hi, I love you, bye. We do text each other and send each other pictures of ourselves and what we're doing, but we need to work on talking and actually connecting a little more meaningfully when he travels.

Do you have a partner that travels often? How do you stay connected? What do you do with all of your damn alone time? Leave your tips in the comments.