In this six‑minute video blog, productivity coach Randy Dean (the Email Sanity Expert) explains how simple prep, packing, and post checklists can dramatically improve efficiency and prevent mistakes for any recurring activity. He defines each list type, illustrates with examples such as boating, kids’ soccer, and business processes, and walks through a six‑step workflow: (1) brainstorm everything, (2) organize into a checklist, (3) get an extra set of eyes, (4) research additional requirements, (5) make the list instantly accessible on a mobile note‑taking app (Google Keep, OneNote, iPhone Notes, etc.), and (6) revise the list over time. Dean emphasizes keeping the list in your pocket, collaborating with family or teammates, and treating the list as a living document that evolves with experience. The video ends with a call to action to visit his website for more productivity resources and to request PDF tip sheets.
Chapters
Hi everybody, I just wanted to do a really quick video blog today about one of my favorite productivity and organization tools, the good old packing list, prep list, post list. Now, uh, these are things that if you use them regularly are going to not only save you a lot of time, but more importantly, they're going to keep you from making mistakes and having errors of omission. And so what I wanted to do was just sort of walk you through my recommended process very quickly about how to put these things together and make better use of them. Now you'll notice I mentioned 3 different types. Prep, that's for all the things you need to do to set up for any kind of a recurring activity, event, or project. Your post lists are what you do when the event, activity, or recurring project is over And of course, packing lists are everything you need for the recurring event or activity. And notice the key requirement here, recurring. I recommend you make lists for anything that's likely to happen again, especially multiple times. Going to the kids' soccer game. I made an example in my e-newsletter, setting up, using, and finishing the use of your boat. The things you do at the startup for your garden, your annual marketing plan set up for your business, or budgeting process. All of these could benefit from prep and post lists, and many of them with packing lists. And of course, I'm gonna recommend you put all these things right here on one of these. Put it into Google Keep, or OneNote, or the Notes app on your iPhone. I don't care where you put these things, but you want to have them in your pocket because that makes it easy when you're doing stuff. You don't have to access a computer and you're not walking around with a pad of paper everywhere you go. So let's talk about a recommended process for doing this. It's actually pretty simple. First thing I recommend you do is just brainstorm, especially if it's something that you've done before or you have some knowledge about. Do a quick brainstorm of everything you need to do. As a matter of fact, I'm actually building one for my boat because I keep going through this mental checklist and I did a big old mind map brainstorm right here. I'm actually gonna probably do a video about mind mapping pretty soon of all the things I need to do to prep and get ready for whenever we take out our boat because it's a multi-step process. And you know, when I'm trying to think of it over and over again, I stress myself out because I'm afraid I'm gonna forget something really critical. Which could make the boat sink. So, um, I don't want that to happen, and I really don't want to get stuck in the middle of a lake. So I'm going to now take this. Next step is I'm going to organize and reorder that brainstorm. I'm going to put it into some form of a checklist-style list. Then what I'll probably do is get that extra set of eyes. You know, my wife and my daughters both usually help me with the boat. After I put the whole list together, I'm going to have them take a look at it to see if I'm forgetting anything obvious. You know, that might especially be helpful for anything that can be a multi-person activity. And maybe, speaking of that, should you consider incorporating these other sets of eyes even earlier as part of your brainstorming process? Maybe you'll get a more comprehensive brainstorm by getting different ideas and people. The other one that you can do after this is then do some research. You know, you go online, do YouTube, you know, maybe find out other resources that are available to see if there's even other things that maybe you should be doing as part of this process. And, you know, I actually put a question mark, should you maybe do this first, especially if it's something you've never really done before, but you know it's going to start becoming a bigger thing. Maybe you do the research and read a few articles and watch a few videos before you even do your brainstorm. Number 5: Make it accessible. Get it on one of these if you have one. Get it on here so you can have it in your pocket. I mean, you know, when I'm doing my boat prep, I want to have this in my pocket. Packing lists for any kind of a trip— you can walk around with this and make sure you got everything packed in your bag so you don't forget something critical. And then number 6, revise it over time. What's gonna happen is very rarely will the first list you create be the perfect list. You're gonna have a few things missing or a few tweaks you're gonna wanna make to it, maybe in terms of order or items that you just didn't think about in the first place. By having it accessible though on one of these, you could actually make those revisions over time immediately and have access to those so that over time you have continuous improvement. Um, so hopefully this helps you set up and make some good lists. Now you got to think about all the different things you could do a prep list, packing list, or post list for. Uh, have some fun making some lists. Um, you know, whatever it is that you're having fun with but you're doing all the time and has multiple steps, these can be helpful. Hope you had fun. If you'd like to learn more about me and my other programs, including my full-length online streaming and webinar programs, go on out and visit my website randaldean.com. Uh, I am of course Randy Dean, the Email Sanity Expert. I want to say thank you again for your time. If you like the video, please consider giving it a like. Please consider subscribing to the channel. If you have some comments on this video, including some other ideas related to what we just talked about, please put that in here. And if you'd like to get a whole series of productivity PDF tip sheets on time management, email management, Outlook and 365 usage, Gmail and Google Suite, Google Workspace usage, smartphone and tablet usage, reducing your distractions, send me an email randy@randaldean.com. Put YouTube PDF in the subject line and I'll send you a whole bunch of stuff to keep you busy and add to your productivity. Thanks a lot.
