The power of the simple checklist

 Many years ago when I was doing my TQM facilitator training I was introduced to the simple checklist. It was so simple that I rather arrogantly looked down my nose at the concept.

The Collins definition:

A checklist is a list of all the things that you need to do, information that you want to find out, or things that you need to take somewhere, which you make in order to ensure that you do not forget anything.

When I started to run a lot of training courses I was guided by a productivity coach to use checklists. My training department and I developed a one day training course to introduce everyone to total quality. We were about to run the course for over 300 people spread over a 12 month period. What we did as a team was to brainstorm all the tasks we needed to get done in order to successfully run each one day course. From our brainstorm we were able to create a master checklist. Each task was broken down into logical grouping and sorted into date order. In those days we did everything in paper so we opened a folder for each course and glued the checklist onto the inside cover. This meant that anyone in the training department could pick up a folder and see how well it was progressing. It was a fantastic demonstration of how a simple checklist can help improve the productivity of a whole department.

I still use checklists, particularly when I travel. The screenshot is of a cruise we did on the Duoro in Portugal. I now use Apple Reminders for my checklists and have saved the layout as a template ready for my next trip. The photo below gives you an idea of some of the many steps you have to go through for each holiday. You will note that 'English Breakfast Tea' is not ticked. This is because we couldn't get a decent cup of tea, so we added it to the checklist to make sure we always take tea bags with us when we go on holiday. (Oh dear I am now officially old!)

This video gives you a very good idea on how to use Apple Reminders to improve your productivity. It is particularly useful if you have an iPhone, iPad and Apple watch.