The blog

For you who pre­fer lis­ten­ing to read­ing, this post is also avail­able as an episode of the ​“Done!” pod­cast:

A list of the predictable

This is exact­ly why I always sing the praise of a stan­dard­ized pack­ing list. If a pack­ing list is some­thing you write before every trip, the stan­dard­ized pack­ing list is a list you save from one trip to anoth­er and adjust between trips.

If you trav­el often, cre­ate sets and kits

I have a pack­ing list for every­thing I need to bring when I go on a work-relat­ed trip, but since I trav­el so much in my work I have gath­ered most of the things I need in dif­fer­ent sets and kits I always bring, which means I sel­dom pack more than toi­letries and clothes in addi­tion to these kits.

If you do not trav­el often, pre­pare a list

How­ev­er, pri­vate­ly I do not trav­el as often which means I usu­al­ly pack every­thing ​”from scratch” as opposed to how I pack for busi­ness trips, and the pack­ing list becomes more impor­tant. I have found this espe­cial­ly help­ful dur­ing my vaca­tion. Last sum­mer, I and my fam­i­ly took a num­ber of short­er trips, and for these, I used the ​”Pack­ing list for pri­vate trips”-mindmap I have saved and which I adjust a lit­tle pri­or to every trip.

We have also tak­en many excur­sions with our lit­tle boat. Dur­ing such an out­ing we spend a full day, from morn­ing to evening, on an island in the arch­i­pel­ago out­side of Bohus­län, and I can­not tell you how use­ful the ​”Pack­ing list for boat­ing excursions”-spreadsheet I made last sum­mer has been. In order for a day out at sea to be an enjoy­able expe­ri­ence, I need to make sure we have packed food accord­ing to everyone’s pref­er­ences, enough water, mul­ti-pur­pose tools for all kinds of even­tu­al­i­ties, sun­screen, and every­thing else we sim­ply can­not for­get — since there is not a shop for buy­ing for­got­ten things in sight once we are out there.

One list for sev­er­al trips

Before putting togeth­er the pack­ing list I often for­got some­thing that was impor­tant to some­one in the fam­i­ly and the excur­sion was, if not ruined, at least a lot short­er than it could have been — for no bet­ter rea­son than lack of struc­ture. I now print the list, keep it in the kitchen, and since I have added five emp­ty check box­es next to every item I can use it for five excur­sions before need­ing to print out anoth­er. This is what it looks like if you are curi­ous — it is in Swedish, but you can at least see how it is made.

Noth­ing is for­got­ten, we have every­thing we need, the ocean is nice and warm — what more can you ask for?

Do this

If you have ever for­got­ten some­thing you def­i­nite­ly need­ed at home or at work when you left on a trip of some kind, cre­ate a pack­ing list.

1. First of all, choose in what tool or for­mat you will keep the list. The note-tak­ing apps in our phones are becom­ing increas­ing­ly easy to use, but for this pur­pose, I per­son­al­ly pre­fer a spread­sheet so that it is easy to group, make my own box­es, and design the list as I please.
2. Next, write out the first ver­sion of the pack­ing list. You can, for instance, do so in the fol­low­ing two ways:
   • Either, emp­ty your mind of any­thing you can think of that you will need and then group the items into appro­pri­ate categories.
   • Or, write head­lines first that rep­re­sent the cat­e­gories of things you believe you will need, such as Clothes, Shoes, Trav­el doc­u­ments, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Read­ing, Lis­ten­ing, Toi­letries, or what­ev­er you deem appro­pri­ate for your par­tic­u­lar trip.
3. Save the pack­ing list using a name that will be easy to find when you search for it if the list is a doc­u­ment or give it a clear head­line at the top of the note if you are using a note-tak­ing app so that it is easy to find.
4. The next time you are going some­where and want to pack every­thing you need, use the stan­dard­ized pack­ing list. If you think of some­thing that is miss­ing, add it to the list so that it grad­u­al­ly becomes com­plete­ly comprehensive.

What you need, when you need it

If you pack every­thing using a stan­dard­ized pack­ing list you will not arrive some­where and real­ize you have for­got­ten some­thing impor­tant as often as you per­haps used to. Both your work and per­son­al life will be smoother and you will do what you want to do with greater ease — since you have what is nec­es­sary to do it.

What’s your way?

What kind of pack­ing list do you use? Per­haps you have a par­tic­u­lar list for a par­tic­u­lar kind of busi­ness trip? Email me and tell me about it — I am curi­ous to hear about what has worked for you. You are, as always, very wel­come to do so!

(A pack­ing list is one thing, but have you cre­at­ed a bug-list for your work­day yet?)