EXCERPT: The First 72 Hours Checklist works on any phone, prints cheaply in black and white, and shares easily with family handling the details together.
When someone dies, you won’t be at your desk. You’ll be in a hospital waiting room, at a kitchen table at midnight, or in the car. That’s why the First 72 Hours Checklist is built to work on the phone you already have — and to share easily with the family members helping you carry the load.
What opens it: free software
- Adobe Acrobat Reader (free) — opens the flat printable PDF and the fillable PDF on any device. The one app you need.
- Apple Files / Preview (free, built-in) — on iPhone, iPad, or Mac, open the fillable PDF and tap-type into the worksheets, the write-it-now facts box, and the who-to-call lists. No printing required — you can use it in the hospital tonight.
- Any Android PDF reader — your phone’s built-in viewer handles the fillable form just the same.
- Google Sheets (free) — opens the .xlsx action tracker in your browser or the Sheets app. Enter the date of death once and every due date fills in automatically; the contacts directory and documents checklist live in the same file. Microsoft Excel works too.
Nothing to buy, nothing to learn. Open it and start typing.
What devices it works on
- iPhone — the primary way most people use it: fillable on the phone from the first hour, contacts directory always in your pocket when the calls start.
- Android — same. Built-in PDF viewer plus Google Sheets covers everything.
- Desktop (Windows or Mac) — good for the documents checklist and the action tracker when you’re home and someone else is making the calls.
- Printer (any home printer) — the black-and-white version (US Letter and A4) is made for this: print all 10 pages for almost nothing, clip them together, and hand copies to family members. Paper doesn’t run out of battery, and a printed checklist on the kitchen table gets used by everyone.
What pairs with it
Because this is a grief-time tool, sharing and simplicity matter more than features:
- A shared folder or group chat — send the fillable PDF or screenshots of the worksheets to siblings and family so everyone works from the same who-to-call list. The one-folder rule in the documents section works best when the whole family knows where the folder is.
- Your phone’s notes and camera — photograph documents as you find them, keep the passwords-and-notes page close, and don’t reset the deceased’s phone (the checklist explains why).
- [Affiliate slot: fireproof document organizer for the family] — for the one-folder rule the documents checklist asks for: one place where the will, the deeds, the policies, and the certificates live together, protected.
Doing it manually vs. using the kit
You could get through these 72 hours without a checklist — people do, every day. But without one, you rely on memory while grieving, you forget the quiet details (mail, keys, subscriptions, the phone), and you say yes to permanent decisions while you’re at your least able to judge them. The kit replaces all of that with sequencing: the urgent first, the permanent parked, the documents hunted with a 19-item list instead of a panicked rummage.
Compared to well-meaning advice from friends or internet lists: those are scattered and often contradictory, and none of them sequence the hours for you. This checklist is one ordered path — first few hours, first 24, 24–48, 48–72 — with the “what NOT to decide yet” guardrails built in. You don’t have to think right now. Just do the next box.
One gentle note: this checklist is a planning tool, not legal or financial advice.
Get the kit
PEACE: ORDER IN THE WORST HOURS. Get the First 72 Hours Checklist (When Someone Dies) for $14.95, or find DealShore on Etsy.
Get free sample pages + new kit alerts — email contact@dealshore.com