I Never Leave for a Trip Without Writing This Down in My Notes App

When you travel for work, you have a lot to get organized. There’s the flight itinerary, meetings, and of course your luggage, but you also have to remember what tasks will be waiting for you when you get home. This could be appointments, plans, deadlines, but also basic life administration like sending out packages, doing laundry, and getting groceries. I recently traveled to Dallas for work, and I had a lot on my mind. Two days after I got home I had to go to a friend’s wedding, and somewhere between those two events I also had work deadlines, groceries, laundry, emails, and several appointments and meetings. 

It’s hard to keep all my ducks in a row when there are just so many ducks currently in my pond. But there is one thing I’ve learned over the years that helps me stay on track. The only way I’ve managed to keep organized with so much work travel is to leave myself a note in my iPhone before I go that ultimately works as a sort of post-trip checklist.

The work part of my trip is easy. I’d remember the flight time, hotel confirmation, dinner reservation, interview schedule, and everything I needed to pack, but then I’d get home and realize I had no groceries, an appointment I’d forgotten about, a deadline the next morning, or laundry that needed to happen immediately. I tried keeping ordinary to-do lists, but they became one more thing I had to remember to find, put in a safe place, and look at. That’s when I started writing everything down on my phone. Before I leave on my trip, while all those random tasks are still fresh in my brain, I create a note outline, and add to it as needed.

Creating a note is super-easy if you’ve not done it before. Just open the Notes app from your home screen, tap on the compose button, and write your message. You can even create formatting and bold things if that’s helpful and it can be synced to your Apple computer or shared with iPhone contacts as well (which is really helpful when I use the app to build and share an itinerary, which I also often do!). 

I get a lot of anxiety about pending to-dos. This is true in all areas of my work and life, but especially with travel. My note method works as a trip post-mortem and helps to remove what I call re-entry stress. I focus on my plans with clarity, rather than with stress and confusion. If I suddenly remember on a trip that I need to order groceries when I get home, I don’t need to keep reminding myself about it for the next three days. I put it in the note and go back to having fun. The biggest surprise when I first started doing this wasn’t simply that I forgot fewer things — it was that I stopped spending so much of my trip trying not to forget them. Additionally, I’ve learned not to fill the note with obvious tasks or things that can wait. “Unpack suitcase” doesn’t need to be there. The list is for things that are easy to forget, important, or time-sensitive.

The system doesn’t magically make the week after a trip less busy. It just means I don’t have to come home and reconstruct my entire life from memory. I already have all the instructions I need. I might have a note for wedding prep, things I need to do about work as soon as I get home, stuff that is going bad in the fridge, doctor’s appointments, bills I need to pay, etc. Sometimes I’ll even leave a special reminder to myself, like, “Don’t make any plans Monday night; you have enough going on this week!”