Mastering Vacation Planning with Lists

Hello, and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today, I'm gonna do a travel episode. It's been a while. I want to talk about the power of lists, and how it can lead to a stress free stress free vacation, especially if you're the type of person that maybe goes to the same place time and time again. For For example, some people have a a favorite town or city they go to, a favorite cottage that they always stay at, or an Airbnb or a hotel. This is something that you do on a regular basis, but you only do it once or twice a year. You might think that you're gonna remember, think that you're gonna know, and then you don't. It's kinda like Thanksgiving dinner.

You think you know what's going on, but then it kinda it all gets out of hand. So that's kinda why I wanna talk about it. So we all know that planning ahead can reduce stress, which will therefore increase how wonderful your vacation is. And so being organized and being prepared can come in various ways. And for me, for example, it's making this. I have an app that I use that I can create a list as a template and then, you know, tweak it each year because not every year is going be exactly the same. But if I have a base template of things, then I know roughly what I need. So if it's, maybe you need certain equipment or certain types of clothing or speciality shoes or something that, you know, you don't normally think about, or maybe you're staying in a cottage and you need to make sure that you remember to bring foil or oil or, you know, those little things that you think you're going to remember, but you don't.

Duh. If you're going for the first time, make a list of everything that you are bringing and also quantity of what you're bringing. Because maybe the first time around you bring a bunch of stuff and then while you're there think about make notes. Did I use all of that stuff? Was it all useful? Did it all sit on the shelf? Did some of it go to waste? What is it that worked and didn't work? And make notes for yourself in that same list. So I thank past me because I did not know that I did this but I I have a place that I go to on a regular basis and I was looking in the list and there was a note that said for next year and it said you use this amount of this and this amount of that and you should not buy this this time around, because sometimes you get all wrapped up in preparing for vacation, you're like oh I need to buy all the sunscreen or I need to buy all of this or all of that or the other and so making notes to yourself a) you thank your past self and b) you're like oh okay I won't spend this extra money on this stuff which I then won't use again. It helps you save money at the end of the day. And when you're thinking about your list, maybe it shouldn't be one list. Maybe you could break it up into things that I need to buy for vacation every single time and maybe the stores that you need to buy them from, and then things that I need to pack, clothes, things that you need to pack, sort of items like, I don't know, Chromecast and night lights and those kind of doohickey type things.

And then you could also break it down even further to, like, clothes you have to pack, food you have to pack, drink you have to pack, or whatever it might be, and then things to pack morning of. This one I feel is like one of those critical lists that people don't think about enough because you might be getting up early and, like, trying to get out the door as soon as possible to make sure you kept your flight, car, bus, planes, trains, and automobiles. Right? And in that rush, there are some things that you might not be able to pack the night before because you're using them or whatever it might be. So having this little checklist of things to pack the morning of or even things to do, like switching off the water, making sure the plants are watered, whatever it might be, will help you immensely to sort of reduce your stress level, but know that you've done things because there's nothing worse than going away, locking the door, knowing you're going on vacation for a week or 2 weeks or a month. And then halfway to where you're going, you're like, did I forget to do did I forget to do that thing? I'm not sure. Oh, I know it's gonna bother you the entire time. So the other thing that I highly recommend is when you get back from vacation, just do a quick review. What worked? What didn't? What places did you go to? What was a good place? What was a bad place? What was better than you expected, Worse than you expected? How much money did you spend? Did you need cash more than you thought? Or did you need cards? Or did you need a certain app or whatever it might be? And then go back and like tweak your list.

This way there's a loop of continuous improvement on that list and it will get more and more dialed in as time goes by. So that is my little roundup of why lists are really useful to work through and to have for even if it's something that you do on a regular basis that isn't work related, like vacation, that will make your life easier. Thank you for listening. This is Janice at The Career Introvert, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.