✔️ Make a List, Check it Twice ✔️
The Checklist - a Productivity Tool that Works
I was in a speech contest the other evening.
As the contest chair was briefing the contestants, I noticed he used a checklist.
The contest rule book runs to about 20 pages, but there are only a few key points to highlight to the contestants in a briefing.
The chair's checklist listed the main actions to complete.
The checklist also included a space to list contestant names and their speech titles.
And at the end of the checklist, there was a step to wish the contestants 'Good Luck'.
And at the end of the briefing, he wished everyone 'Good Luck', just like the checklist had asked. Nothing was left to chance.
The result?
A professional efficient faultless display of a fundamental role that was not the focus of the contest - the speakers and the speeches were - but without such a professional efficient faultless display, it could well have been the unnecessary focus.
Process Checklist
Team leaders often find tasks are better executed with a checklist. Most process documents are better created as checklists. A checklist is a more usable document as it’s usually a one-pager with just the headlines of the steps required.
If a team member isn’t sure how to complete a step, they’ll ask their normal helpdesk channel.
Many steps in a workflow are common to other workflows, so there can be redundant work in creating an entire process document where much of the content is familiar to the user.
Checklist Elements
Tick boxes are standard for any checklist.
But so are:
free text fields
options list
date field
circle the day
sign off
strikethroughs
Use them all.
Bullet Journal
Now we’re getting classy.
Bullet journaling has always been a fun pastime - this is where journalers do their ‘dear diary’ entries with as much decoration as they see fit. The decoration can be
floral,
grid,
office smart,
or whatever style suits the author
Checklists can be treated the same. Add some flair and flavour to your checklist. It’s sure to be used if it’s a masterpiece of design.
When to Checklist
The best instances where I’ve seen a checklist used at work is in these circumstances:
when a process doc is converted into a checklist
to record safe operating procedure steps, any operating procedure for that matter
to ensure that daily routines are maintained
to record recurring activities are completed as prescribed
project steps
major workflow tasks
Case Study
I heard someone say the other day they prefer to get their morning coffee from McDonald’s because they know that cleaning the coffee machine each day is part of their operating procedures. It’s on their checklist.
They hate coffee that comes out of stale pipes.
….. And Don’t Forget
And a checklist is not complete unless it has that final step to check, just like the speech contest chair.
If it’s good enough for a competition contest chair to remind himself via a checklist to wish contestants ‘Good Luck’, then I’m sure there’s a final step we should use in all our checklists to show we have reached the end of the workflow.
