Preparation checklists

Using these lists well

• Tick the day you actually do it, not the day you plan to. A list ticked in advance looks finished and stops being read.
• Start the travel lists a week early. Half the items need someone else — a signature, a translation, a confirmation — and those take days, not minutes.
• The "ready for an unplanned trip" list is the one to do now. It is the only one you cannot prepare at the moment it is needed.
• Print it rather than reading it on the phone. At a reception desk with one hand full of documents, paper wins.