I just throw some stuff in a bag and worry less. Never fails. If I forget something it probably was not that important and I can just buy it at the airport / when I land.
Man, if I was travelling to a different country and needed a passport AND forgot my passport, then I would agree with you. I guess my life is not so hectic that I don't forget the absolute necessities (you can't fly without that or you can die without that).
My life is not that hectic and I often travel to other countries, yet I have forgotten my passport once and only once. Part of me thinks that once it happens it's very unlikely to happen again.
I still don't use a checklist for traveling, but I do use a to-do list religiously for...actual things to do. After this thread, I may just add a few more lists.
Having 100 items on the checklist doesn't mean you need to act on all of them. You can go through your normal packing, then take a few minutes to scan through the checklist for anything you may have forgotten. Most items may be irrelevant to that trip. Just skip them.
This is my approach too. My time in the military got me into the habit of checklists for everything and I carried it over into my personal life for many years after I got out. I never forgot anything, but I was perpetually lugging around a ton of stuff the I never used.
It's been many years since I stopped worrying about it, and I've yet to have even a single instance come up where I forgot something important enough to be a real hassle.
Checklists are great for surgeons and pilots. The cost of missing something in those professions can literally be life or death. If I forget to pack something when I go on vacation, the most it could possibly cost me is money.
> If I forget to pack something when I go on vacation, the most it could possibly cost me is money
I was in an airline check-in queue behind some people who discovered they had left their passports at home. Cue near-coronary and marital strife. A relative had to break into their house and make a mad dash to the airport.
Yes, if I forgot my passport it might be a lot of money that it cost me. Maybe one day I'll forget my passport, but I rather doubt it. The exact same reasons that surgeons resist following an explicit checklist (which are terrible reasons if you're a surgeon) are perfectly fine for me because the stakes are much lower if I mess up, and in the mean time there are concrete benefits to winging it. It's a lot easier for those benefits to add up to be greater than then downside of a mistake when the mistake costs $2000 rather than someone's life.
I just throw some stuff in a bag and worry less. Never fails. If I forget something it probably was not that important and I can just buy it at the airport / when I land.