If you can’t sleep on a long plane ride, you have a problem – it can get boring.

If you can sleep very well on a long plane ride, you have another problem – like missing your meals.

I belong to the second category. So, when I don’t want to miss a meal or tea, I tell one of the crew members to wake me up or simply post a note on my seat to wake me up when they serve meals/tea.

When I was traveling to India via Emirates, I noticed a very simple solution to the problem. Along with the headsets, they provide “Wake Me Up” labels that you can peel and paste on your seat to notify them to wake you up.

I used these labels on both my journeys and they worked like a charm.

These little things are what I call micro-innovation – simple ways of solving a problem.

Note: The system is not foolproof. I saw two kids playing with these labels (sticking them randomly on seats all over the plane) – but something is better than nothing.