Every summer as a kid, I’d pack some things and head off to Boy Scout summer camp. I’d pack a couple of weeks beforehand, not because I was that on top of things, but because the older scouts required a “pack check” from the entire unit at least a week before we left.
You’d be surprised how much we’d fit into a pack, only to find out we’d forgotten something important. Like pants. The pack check was hugely useful.
Still, I always felt like packing took a long time. A typical summer camp trip would have me packing for a at least a week. Knife. Water Bottle. Rain Gear. Compass. Each of these were little things, but they all added up quickly.
My first year as a Scout, my backpack weight over 50 pounds. I had a change of clothes for every day of the week. Extra food for if I decided the camp fare wasn’t good enough. Letter-writing materials so I could attempt to write home. Come to think of it, I still can’t imaging how I managed to pack so much and have that much weight ready for the trip.
Fast forward a few years, and I’ve got several more backpacking trips under my belt. My bag now weighs just under 10 pounds (without water), and this is including carrying my own tent and cooking rig. Then again, I’ve learned what to prioritize – and figured out the kinds of things I can leave at home.
You don’t really need two sweatshirts and two pairs of bluejeans for a weekend trip.
Now I travel more frequently for conferences than backpacking trips, but I’m still lucky to have the packing experience. It takes me 15 minutes to pack everything I need for a week-long trip now. And I use a bag 1/3rd the size 11-year-old me used. It’s amazing how much I can get into a bag – and still have room left over – and swear I’m missing something.
Everything we do in life requires practice – be it packing for a trip or fleshing out the boilerplate code for a new project. Getting started, both kinds of tasks can drag on for hours. As we become more and more experienced, though, each task becomes easier and is completed even more quickly.
How long did it take you to flesh out the foundation of a WordPress plugin the first time you did it? How long does it take you today?