Why We Hate Packing

Do you dread packing? Most of us do and I think it comes down to that single question that we have to ask ourselves over and over again…

What do I need to bring?

Something happens to us when we hear that, we freeze and end up starring at the suitcase for an hour and then give up and hope that someone else will pack for us. (Even though our flight leaves in a few hours.)

Enter the Packing List

I used to think that packing lists were just for big trips and vacations, not for regular business trips, especially if you do them all the time.

But think about pilots and how they perform a pre-flight checklist before every single flight and it’s written down! Why? Because there are so many things to check and inspect it would be easy to forget something. So a checklist is an easy and fast way to go through a procedure and make sure you don’t forget anything.

Benefits of a Packing List

In my blog post, Power of the Packing List, we reviewed just how beneficial this tool can be for us frequent fliers.

• Prevents you from forgetting something
• Speeds up the packing process
• Make the list once and forget it

Steal My Packing List

In order to help you get started on making your own packing list template, I wanted to give you access to the packing list I use as a freebie for this episode.

Categories for Your Packing List

Instead of going through every item on my packing list, I thought it would be better to simply go through the main categories I use in my packing list. This will give you some ideas as you’re creating your own list.

• Toiletries
• Liquids
• Medications & Vitamins
• Tech & Office
• Casual Clothes
• Business Clothes
• Sleep
• Fitness
• Pool or Beach Trips
• International Trips
• Special Events

Create Your Packing List

So I highly encourage you to create your own packing list template. It doesn’t take very long and it will make packing so much easier from now on.

1 Download My Packing List Template

2 Use an app like Asana or Wunderlist to create your packing list

3 Brainstorm Everything You Need for Upcoming Trips

4 Keep this list in your phone and use it EVERY TIME