Check It … Out

I just finished reading The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande. I loved it.

I have to admit, though, that when my friend Michael called a couple of weeks ago to say that this was a “must read” for me, I was only moderately interested.

I’m already a huge planner, and I regularly make use of lists and notebooks to keep track of my projects.

I thought that the book might offer me a few ideas about tweaking my current systems, but I was sure that there would be no big, new insights for me.

Boy, was I wrong! So much so, in fact, that I now see my life as having two parts: Before The Checklist Manifesto (BCM) and After The Checklist Manifesto (ACM).

The things that were on my lists BCM fell into a couple of categories. They were either things that I needed to do before a certain event (such as taking a vacation), or lists that I used to keep big, complex projects on track.

What I hadn’t been tracking were the small, mundane, routine things that I do over and over again. When I took a look at these “simple tasks,” I realized that simple doesn’t always mean obvious. And while I usually get it all done, these things were using up way too much of my brainpower every single day.

For example, here are some of the small things that I do at the end of each month:

• download all my bank transactions to Xero (my accounting software)
• make sure all outstanding client invoices are entered
• make sure all my business expense receipts are
  accounted for in Xero
• file my receipts
• create an expense report, if necessary, for out-of-pocket expenses
• reconcile my credit card and bank accounts

You get the drift. BCM, I was recreating my lists of what needed doing each and every month. Some months, I might add something new. Other months, I might overlook something. And every month there was the nagging feeling that I was forgetting to do something.

ACM, I stop and make sure that I’m not reinventing processes over and over again.

I know why you don’t use checklists.

Lots of people resist checklists because they think that using them in business will stifle the fun and creativity. Others are afraid that if everything is put into a checklist they risk organizing themselves out of a job.

In my experience, neither of these concerns is warranted. Checklists free our minds from having to remember the routine, the boring and the low-skilled details of each day. They give us back time and energy to be more creative, solve more problems and get more done.

The Checklist Manifesto is filled with great ideas and real life examples, many of which can be applied to your business (and life!) right now. Pick up a copy, give it a read and free up your brain for bigger and better things!

Get your team together and start by defining what you’re trying to accomplish, tracing back how and where things fall apart.

Keep going until you’ve boiled it down to as few steps as possible, using this exercise as a way to simplify the flow of work and communicate with your team (if you have one) about how work flows through the office. I’m sure you’ll find some redundancy and missing pieces.

Creating good checklists takes time. It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it. Give it a try.