I have an extensive checklist for trips. I’ve also got a daily one, which is partially for helping me get the day started off right by checking off a bunch of easy tasks, and partially just to make sure I don’t miss something critical. Ever forget about a meeting you needed to prepare for until you got the meeting reminder? I have a daily checklist item to give my calendar a quick glance to make sure there’s nothing I need to prepare for. It only catches something maybe a few times a year, but that’s worth it for the 10 seconds it takes me every day.
Pretty much anything I have to do more than once, that involves more than a few steps, I make a checklist for. I take pictures sometimes, semi-professionally. I have a checklist for what to do before I take pictures (pack the bag, charge the batteries, clear the memory cards), and after (brighten teeth in pictures, remove lint/spots from clothes, pick photos to put in my portfolio). At work I have checklists for design tasks, some of which are things to do, some of which are things to consider (does this need a review from security? does this need additional monitoring?).
There are people that can keep all this stuff in their head. I’m not one of them and I know it. Having checklists reduces my anxiety levels by an order of magnitude.
Pretty much anything I have to do more than once, that involves more than a few steps, I make a checklist for. I take pictures sometimes, semi-professionally. I have a checklist for what to do before I take pictures (pack the bag, charge the batteries, clear the memory cards), and after (brighten teeth in pictures, remove lint/spots from clothes, pick photos to put in my portfolio). At work I have checklists for design tasks, some of which are things to do, some of which are things to consider (does this need a review from security? does this need additional monitoring?).
There are people that can keep all this stuff in their head. I’m not one of them and I know it. Having checklists reduces my anxiety levels by an order of magnitude.