The Amazing Checklist
One tool I use on an hourly basis is that of checklists. Checklists are used by many professionals, but I think the commercial airline pilot is the most apt. Airline pilots are extremely smart, reliable people who undergo a ton of training before they are permitted to fly. They do the same things over and over again when it comes to starting up the plane, taking off, cruising, and landing. Yet for all their training they still make frequent use of checklists; even if they have a crash landing the first they do is pull out their “crash checklist.”
Pilots need checklists because their jobs are very complicated and survival of hundreds of people depends on them doing their very challenging, very complicated jobs very well.
If you are entreprenure then you probably have a very complicated job as well. Checklists help make sure all your systems keep running smoothly.
I create checklists called “DailyPM”, “Daily AM”, “Weekly”, “Monthly” and others. I do them for every single project I start, as well as things I need to do around the house from day to day and month to month.
I then set up a Google Calendar called “checklists” and create recurring events with the name of the checklist. I set a reminder by email or pop-up, then at whatever frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc) I get the reminder and execute the checklist.
When I think of something I need to do, I simply add it to the checklist and it gets done the next time I get a reminder about the checklist.
It takes discipline to keep on top of your checklists, and they only work and help if you do them when you get the reminder.
This is just one small part of my overall “Project Management System”, learn more about “flow” here.
