A useful way to make a travel checklist

[uof]

Just thought I'd share something that's working quite well for me as I wrangle a 2yr old girl and get organised for an overseas trip at the same time.

I've made a few grouped lists of things to take on carry on bag, or in suitcase etc.

e.g.

> Carry on
• magazine
• camera
• headphones
• eticket printouts

> Suitcase
• shoes
• travel guide

And then if I know I have it ready to go, I assign it to an on-hold context, say "list item" and it sits there greyed out. I know I can just find it and throw it in the bag.

But if I haven't got the magazine to read on the plane yet I assign it to a relevant context - "@errands day". Then it both stands out as active in project view, and is in the right spot in contexts.

Once I've bought the magazine, instead of checking it off, I just assign is the on-hold "list item" context.

Also I'm checking it on the iPhone a lot so I've moved the whole project out of nested folder and put it loose at the top of the library so it's quick to check.

This might all be obvious - but it's helping me know at a glance how much I've got to do in 2 days (and counting)

[chriswitt]

Thanks for the example - I hadn't even thought to do it that way. I made my list by what I was bringing, not where it went:

>Tech
- iphone cradle
- iphone speakers
- movie wedge

>Clothes
- shirts
- pants
- shorts
- etc...

>Person
- watch
- cash
- prescriptions
- etc...

I kind of like yours better, but I don't always take a suitcase, so I'm not sure how I'd work it...

[uof]

Yeah, I think mine started as one big list - but I wanted to know that once I got a minute I could just run around and cram things into bags without thinking! So I broke it up into bags...

[HappyDude]

I have a "travel checklist" i've made using Apple's Numbers.

It's treated me well and ever since I've created it now wait till the last second, hours before a flight to pack since I know what I need to gather up.

Its pretty basic but for something like that there's no need to complicate things.

I do like the "On your person" example. There have been times when i'll pack my iPod but I f*cked up and put it on the carry-on rather than in my pocket, not being able to listen to music on a flight.

[dancingbrook]

I kind of like yours better, but I don't always take a suitcase, so I'm not sure how I'd work it...

Make two versions?

Which prompts this newbie to ask, how do folks "store" these projects that get repeated occasionally?

[curt.clifton]

I have a folder in OF set to "dropped" (but think "inactive" instead). Inside that folder I have lots of template projects for things like travel, course preparation, and sending gifts. For simple projects where the template is unvarying, I just use the duplicate command to make a copy of the template project, then drag it to the right location in my outline. For more complex projects where I want to fill in some details (like which course I'm prepping or when the course starts), I use my Populate Template Placeholders script. (It's available from my software page (http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~clifton/software.html).)

Another trick is to set up a custom perspective focused on your Template folder. You'll need to set the perspective to show dropped projects. I set it up to open in a separate window so it's easy to drag duplicated projects from the Template window to my main project outline.

[omnibob]

Curt,

That is a novel use of OF. I have a spreadsheet with a column for 'staged' and one for 'packed'. I might try moving this to OF.

The main outline for my traveling template is:

Actions prior to destination departure, and trip planning info
Information about trip
Make travel reservations
Packing for destination departure
For international travel
Documents preparation
1 week before destination departure
2 days before destination departure
Day before destination departure
Day of destination departure

Destination(s) actions and info
Day before returning home
Day of returning home

Bob

You mentioned getting a magazine for the flight/trip. It's funny, one of my biggest traveling pleasures is finding and then diving into a magazine during the flight with no concerns about anything else.

[dancingbrook]

All this makes me think Omni should start a "warehouse" like Google's "3D Warehouse" for SketchUp, where users can share files they've created. This could apply to OmniFocus projects, but also a slew of other Omni apps documents.

Yes, I'll send to "feedback".

[Marketing_Weasel]

Ooh, this is very useful for me right now -- I just put up a post about tweaking OF for travel-related stuff: http://blog.omnigroup.com/2009/07/22/using-omnifocus-for-travel-related-information/

[jamesafoster]

lovely. I've been wanting just this for some time now. Thanks!

[caleb]

Hierarchy – by items to bring (clothing, electronics, cash), and
Context for where to put them (suitcase, carry-on/pockets).

The combination of what you all were saying really helped get this going/finished for me – thanks very much for taking the time to post it up!