How it All Started

My love for lists started when I moved to the United States from Taiwan in the first grade. To learn English, my parents gave me a diary and I would enjoy visualizing each room in the house and list out everything that I could think of in each room. The kitchen was my favorite - all the utensils, spices, appliances. Of course, I couldn't spell anything so I would ask my sister to translate.

Eventually, the lists became detailed schedules. In college, I would write out my schedule in black ink (yes, it had to be black) in a Franklin planner and then as the day went on, I would write down in red ink what actually happened that day. If I got 90% done what I planned to do, then it was considered a good day where much was accomplished. Even after I graduated from the Franklin planner, I would create my own hour by hour/minute by minute schedule to the extent my family would tease me about my OCD.

I crave checklists as well and the best are those that are the aggregation of "must haves" from friends and family with subjects ranging from packing lists to wedding planning to baby planning.

To those who share in my compulsion to have a list or checklist for everything this blog is for you. My goal is to over time to develop a library of open source checklists that I can share with you. Feel free to modify them and I hope you will find them useful!