Travel checklist
Many tasks in life are of the form “often repeated, rough shape is clear, but many different ways to screw up if not paying enough attention”. The standard cognitive tool for such a task is a checklist.
Checklists do not make particular sense if you are working on a task with unknown steps. “Writing a blogpost” is not something where a checklist makes sense; getting the ideas from brain to text is not a procedural task. Luckily there are quite a number of tasks in daily life that are somewhat auto-pilotable and where a checklist will forever help you not miss anything.
This is a very well-known fact; checklists are well-known to work very well! The Checklist Manifesto is a book about how checklists are incredibly useful for safety of processes that can fail catastrophically (especially in air travel and healthcare).
In my work, I have often referred to Nicholas Carlini’s Research Paper Release Checklist As he says: > This is not my idea. Checklists are the primary reason airplanes don’t fall out of the sky, and help prevent an uncountable number of deaths in hospitals every day. They’re especially useful in boring situations, where you start to relax because the hard part is over.
I’d like to add they are often useful in situations where you are working on a deadline, do not have time to think much and just want to not miss anything. For me, preparing for travel is one such situation, and I travel often enough that it makes sense to run through this checklist before every trip. Feel free to copy my HTML if you find it useful!
Any travel
passport phone two credit cards laptop shaver noise-canceling headphones
whoop whoop charger 2 usb-c charging cables
laptop charger shaver charger universal adapter
contact lenses (enough for trip duration and then some)
pair of glasses and case pair of sunglasses and case
big power bank small power bank pill organizer filled up eye mask
band-aids earplugs 2 pens 1 notebook
nicotine lozenges mouth tape nose strips
If it is a >6h flight:
head pillow protein bar melatonin
If it is a trip to the US:
before travel
get travel insurance apply ESTA
travel
ESTA printed out 2nd Universal Adapter wallet with driver’s license
Bathroom supplies
All of this should be travel-sized and fit in a ziploc bag. There is no need to take e.g. a large bottle of shower gel, on longer trips you can just buy shower gel.
toothbrush toothpaste shower gel conditioner
copper peptide serum moisturizer deodorant sunscreen
Meds
paracetamol (generic pain) ibuprofen (inflammation pain, headache)
loratadine (allergies) probiotic
Luggage travel - other
bank phone pair of slippers usb-c dongle ergonomic keyboard and mouse
Luggage travel - clothes
Scale proportionally for shorter trips. This is the maximum; if it’s a month’s trip, take these clothes. If it is a short trip in the warmer months, just make sure you are not going to be cold in the evenings. You are overestimating how much formalwear you will need.
This includes the clothes you’re wearing. For flights: prefer casual trousers, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt.
8 pairs of boxers 8 pairs of socks 8 t-shirts 4 dress shirts
2 pairs of dress pants 1 pair of jeans 1 pair casual trousers 2 belts
1 jacket 1 nice coat 1 sweater 2 sweatshirts
1 pair of nice shoes 1 pair of travel shoes 1 pair of running shoes
2 gym shorts 2 gym t-shirts pair of gym gloves