Checklist Manifesto

I recently finished Atul Gawande’s book The Checklist Manifesto. It was a fascinating look into the adoption and success of checklists in a variety of industries from construction to aviation — and of some places where checklists aren’t used as widely as perhaps they should be (for instance, Gawande’s chosen profession of medicine).

I also think that checklists can be incredibly useful in our daily lives. I use a few checklists on a very regular basis. In particular, I roughly follow David Allen’s Getting Things Done task management system. In my mind, the core of that system is the weekly and daily reviews. I have a written out checklist for each — and then can be quite long. However, they force me to run through all the critical items I want to review to make sure I’m taking care of the most important tasks for the day/week.

In addition, each of these checklists includes other checklists — things like my deal pipeline, and spreadsheets that track outstanding client deliverables, etc. Each of these is a good reminder and a way to ensure that I’m not forgetting any critical items I want to make sure to take care of. I also have quarterly/annual checklists for things like financial management and household maintenance tasks.

I’m still thinking of other areas of my life where a checklist can help ensure I don’t forget things. I know my memory isn’t the best — but that just makes it easy to commit to a good system of reminders to make sure I’m not relying on my memory.

Originally published at jeffkeltner.com on July 31, 2018.