The Power of Checklists
✅ Examples of uses for checklists
✅ Four benefits of checklists
✅ Advice for creating a checklist
Opinions on checklists vary, while some of us see checklists as an insult to our intelligence, there are others who rely heavily on them.
The main goal of having a checklist is to help individuals stay goal-oriented and ensure to remind us of the simple things we need to complete, whether it is a small grocery list, a study outline list or more complicated things such as a “hospital emergency” checklist or a “pre-take off” checklist for pilots.
Example of uses for checklists:
NASA - During a shuttle launch, usually a checklist communicated by controllers to ensure that a launch is safe.
Airplanes - Pilots usually go through a checklist to configure the aircraft during engine start, taxi, takeoff and landing.
Surgeons - At the start and end of each surgery, surgeons usually go through a checklist in order to discuss the patient’s details initially and the type of procedure, as well as any concerns by any team member. This is known as the WHO-Checklist.
Four benefits of checklists:
1- Checklists reduce mistakes
Most of us are quite knowledgeable in many things and keep continuously topping up this knowledge. But we hear this phrase quite often “I’m forgetting something”. Having checklists can help reduce ensure that basic things are not missed out and aid us to avoid mistakes that may occur due to forgetfulness.
2- Save mental space
Sure, we might spend a little more time writing down a list, perhaps once a week on a Sunday or even every night before we sleep we write tomorrow’s mini-list. But writing down these to-do lists means we end up spending less of out brain capacity thinking about the less-important things and get more space to focus the more important things.
3- Sort out your priorities
They help you identify what things need to be done first, their importance and urgency. A way to sort out your lists would be to categorise them based on importance and urgency. Ensuring to put the most urgent and most important tasks first and the least important and non-urgent ones last.
4- Consistent achievements
The main purpose of a checklist is not to just ‘tick the boxes’. The main purpose is to assist you to be better at your studies, your bob, save time and helps you be planned and organised in order to have progressive achievements.
Some advice for creating checklists:
Keep it simple - use short, precise tasks that are easy to understand.
Easy to check off - it can be as simple as a small blank box ☐. When a task is complete put a tick in it ☑ . If the task is cancelled, you can put an ‘x’ ☒.
Regularly review it. Edit and simplify tasks as you go along.
