They may have been packing disasters, but they sound like outstanding trips! (Maybe stick blank pages to your desk wall labelled Cold Trip, Hot Trip, Posh Trip, etc and just add to them when an idea occurs over the weeks, for a ready-made list when the next adventure calls?)
Oh I love the spreadsheet idea! I use Google Keep, 'cause they have satisfying checkboxes and when you've checked them off you can go back and uncheck them for another similar trip. I'm in the middle of doing two festivals, so this has been so good for that! Also asking friends is definitely the best way; my friend almost didn't bring wellies to Green Man until I said they were essential and she would have been very soggy without them.
Checklists. Pilots have checklists for about everything you can imagine. When you are prepping for a flight, you are excited. You're going somewhere. Your brain is geared for fun. And there are distractions as you do your preflight inspection of the plane...always. So you have a checklist to follow. Worst preflight error--couldn't remember if I put the oil cap back on. Had to stop the engine in the taxiway, get out, lift the bonnet and check. (It would have been a disaster had it not been there.) Pilots have emergency checklists to follow too, because in a crisis who's going to remember everything?
Worst packing disaster--backpacked into Rocky Mountain National Park on a beautiful spring day for a 5 day hiking excursion. Pitched camp several miles in and awoke the next morning to 3 feet of fresh snow. (Ahhh. Springtime in the Rockies.) I had forgotten to bring gloves. The weather was so nice the day I left, why would I think of gloves? I cancelled the rest of the trip and managed to get back out with all my fingers, but I learned to use a camping checklist.
Executive functioning is the reason AI computers can diagnose diseases better than doctors; they don't have anything else on their little electronic mind. No prejudgments. No expectations. No little birds chirping or cold beers waiting.
They may have been packing disasters, but they sound like outstanding trips! (Maybe stick blank pages to your desk wall labelled Cold Trip, Hot Trip, Posh Trip, etc and just add to them when an idea occurs over the weeks, for a ready-made list when the next adventure calls?)
Oh I love the spreadsheet idea! I use Google Keep, 'cause they have satisfying checkboxes and when you've checked them off you can go back and uncheck them for another similar trip. I'm in the middle of doing two festivals, so this has been so good for that! Also asking friends is definitely the best way; my friend almost didn't bring wellies to Green Man until I said they were essential and she would have been very soggy without them.
Checklists. Pilots have checklists for about everything you can imagine. When you are prepping for a flight, you are excited. You're going somewhere. Your brain is geared for fun. And there are distractions as you do your preflight inspection of the plane...always. So you have a checklist to follow. Worst preflight error--couldn't remember if I put the oil cap back on. Had to stop the engine in the taxiway, get out, lift the bonnet and check. (It would have been a disaster had it not been there.) Pilots have emergency checklists to follow too, because in a crisis who's going to remember everything?
Worst packing disaster--backpacked into Rocky Mountain National Park on a beautiful spring day for a 5 day hiking excursion. Pitched camp several miles in and awoke the next morning to 3 feet of fresh snow. (Ahhh. Springtime in the Rockies.) I had forgotten to bring gloves. The weather was so nice the day I left, why would I think of gloves? I cancelled the rest of the trip and managed to get back out with all my fingers, but I learned to use a camping checklist.
Executive functioning is the reason AI computers can diagnose diseases better than doctors; they don't have anything else on their little electronic mind. No prejudgments. No expectations. No little birds chirping or cold beers waiting.