I shop from a list. I pack from a list. I even read the book “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right”

Everyday checklists save lives in operating rooms and on airplanes. They also help you to remember that your daughter needed a piece of poster board while you are still in the store shopping. They free your brain up for other important things like making art and day dreaming!

You would think I would have a checklist for my plein air supplies. You would think…but I didn’t before this afternoon. So when I arrived at the hospital today to do a painting, I was so surprised to find everything in my bag except my newly organized and reloaded bag of paint.

Now I have this:

The ideal checklist is less than 9 items long.

I will hang this beauty from the top handle of my plein air pack, and hopefully avoid doing what I had to do today. What is that you might wonder? I will tell you how I handled my problem tomorrow with another art habit.