Have you ever traveled somewhere for business or pleasure only to find that you forgot something vitally important to the trip? Maybe you had to purchase a replacement at a premium price or get someone to FedEx something to you?
I have. Several years ago I was at the Nashville airport waiting to board a plane. It was on a Sunday evening. I was scheduled to do five seminars in five different cities in the next five days beginning Monday morning in New York.
I absolutely had to be there. Canceling was not an option.
About 10 minutes before we were to begin boarding I noticed that I had forgotten to pack the little VGA adapter for my brand new Macintosh laptop I had just purchased.
The little adapter was absolutely vital to the trip. It allowed me to connect my laptop to my projector. Without it, it was impossible to connect to a projector and I wouldn’t be able to deliver my training.
I knew that trying to purchase a new adapter in New York would be nearly impossible since it was unique to the Mac and it would be late Sunday night by the time I arrived.
I had to get that little adapter before I left and I had to get it as quickly as possible so I could hopefully catch a later flight out of Nashville.
I didn’t have anyone at home to bring it to me and my car was parked at the “Park and Fly” place, which would have taken too much time anyway.
I ended up taking a cab back home to get the adapter and I luckily got rebooked on the last flight out of Nashville.
What did it cost me?
1. Cab ride: $50.
2. The emotional stress of worrying about missing the gig.
3. Beating myself up for failing to pack the adapter.
4. The time it took for the cab driver to drive me home and back to the airport, rebooking the flight, and arriving later than planned.
Failing to plan effectively cost me time and money. From that point on I vowed to never allow that to happen again.
When traveling, always use a check list for packing. I have a few travel check list templates I made in Microsoft Word.
So depending on whether I’m traveling for business or pleasure and how long I’ll be away, I can quickly edit and print out the appropriate list and reasonably guarantee I won’t forget anything.