Chalk X

Summary:

• Checklists save lives in surgeries and aviation
• Checklists are useful in personal life for tasks like packing and maintaining work-life balance
• The article provides examples into creating checklists for daily, weekly, and monthly tasks.

The Importance of Checklists

This topic may be boring. Unfortunately, even important things can be boring, and checklists are important but seem boring. Why do surgeons have checklists? They are smart, right? Why do they need to have a checklist? According to studies, checklists in surgeries and by medical staff can reduce deaths by up to 40%, and in 6313 uses of a checklist, 41% found that an oversight was detected by using the checklist.

Crews on airlines use checklists all the time. As you see flight attendants walking through the plane, they are doing multiple pre-flight safety, security, and readiness checks, as are the pilot, people at the gate, and the air traffic controllers. 

A checklist benefits complex processes and procedures. The Checklist Manifesto is an excellent book on this subject. If you are interested in the evolution, the types, and the process of creating one, I recommend it as it makes the checklist adoption, use, and creation entertaining. Here is the checklist for creating a good checklist from the book

Personal Checklist

Checklists can be essential in complex and critical work, but are they useful in everyday life? The book is focused on work, team, and process checklists. However, I have found them useful in my family life. My wife is also a huge fan of checklists, so everything from packing for a trip to decorating for the next holiday is on a checklist. 

These checklists highlight the benefits of using them in our personal lives. When we travel, we usually all need the same things, so having a reusable checklist takes the stress out of packing. It also ensures less “management” of our kids as they can follow the lists and ensure they have everything they need without someone hovering over them. Of course, this was a trust but verify checklist when they were younger. 

Checklist example

Because checklists are so embedded in my life, I didn’t initially realize that I was building them into my workflow. When I mentioned it to some of my friends, they were surprised to hear how I used checklists. I thought I would share some valuable checklists I use regularly. Unless otherwise stated, I put these items on my calendar so that a reminder can notify me and the time is reserved for the task. I have more daily routines that aren’t listed, like working out or brushing my teeth. 

1. Daily 
   1. Status: In my web browser, I have a folder of bookmarks (19) for my work that I open to get the telemetry of everything going on in my work world. I’ve created several reports; others are work management or monitoring tools. I right-click and open all those pages in a group and move through the tabs to understand what environment I’m entering today. The tabs are a form of checklist. The information I pull from them is put into my finalized daily checklist of activities. 
   2. Standup: I will review my status and what our team is doing and coordinate. We will potentially reprioritize the work as needed. During the standup, we will also reinforce any refactors detected in the weekly meeting. 
   3. Execute Checklist: I have a checklist that looks like this each day. I build it at the end of the day and at the beginning of the next day. 

In meetings, I will put notes on the side of things I need to follow up on in the Notes column. I date everything so I can go back and review previous tasks, etc. The types of tasks are labeled as they indicate what I need to do or where I need to do them. For example, DSU means in our daily stand I need to discuss something with the team. Star items are important, and I will do those first. I use stars because I can add to the list throughout the day, and the order is chronological, not in order of importance. 

4. End-of-Day Check: This is short. It covers what was done, what is left, and what is coming up tomorrow. I also run my status check to ensure everything has stayed the same. Then, I will build the start of tomorrow’s checklist of tasks to be completed. 

2. Weekly 
   1. Recognitions: This is a time to send personal thank you notes and recognitions to team members and colleagues. Ideally, I would do this daily, but it takes some time, and I have an hour reserved, so that I can be specific. 
   2. Look Ahead: Before the start of each week, I look for what is up and coming, both personal and professional. This is where work-life balance is prioritized, in addition to monthly. I will usually adjust calendar meetings at this point. 
   3. Review/Refactor: This is usually a couple of meetings, but meetings and the agenda are focused on what we did and how we can improve. We have one with customers (did we build the right thing) and one within the team (did we build the thing in the right way). 
3. Monthly
   1. Look Ahead: What is coming next month? Is there any prep that needs to happen? Is any travel planned? Is there any overlap with family commitments?
   2. Friend Check: Life is busy, and as I’ve aged, my friends have moved all over the place. I try to check in monthly with them just to say hello or that I’m thinking of them. At my core, I am an engineer, so this is in a spreadsheet. Each person is listed, last contact made, and any new information learned. Social media is okay but I’d rather connect directly with friends. This is one I’d like to be more consistent with, but I only recently got it on the calendar.
4. Annually
   1. Goals and Actions: Everyone has these sorts of annual goals, and while I find goal setting usually unhelpful, I am a firm believer in phrase “Journey Before Destination” (Bradon Sanderson). Goal setting is fine, but daily activities and checklists to ensure that they happen are where I have found success personally.
   2. Value Audit: I write down my values and reflect on them. Do I have the stated values, and am I demonstrating them with behavior? What behaviors am I demonstrating that aren’t aligned with my values? I probably should do this more often than annually, but at the moment, that is my cadence. This helps with the monthly and weekly prioritization as well. If I value one activity over another, then I should prioritize my life that way. 

Possible improvements 

1. I used to have hours blocked off during the day just labelled, “Work” This is where I would shut off all the instant messaging, notifications, email, etc. and do heads down work. Unfortunately I have several people that would get frustrated that they couldn’t get ahold of me in these one to two hour blocks. I think I will reinstate this behavior and just deal with the consequences. 
2. I have generally adopted processes from agile practices, Stephen Covey’s books, friends’ behaviors, and various people reflecting on their processes online. I figured I would share my methods back into the ether just in case they help someone else pick up a line item in their checklist. Please let me know if you have some checklists or routines that you find helpful. I’m always trying to make mine better.