Do You Write A Checklist?

Image from Clipart

The January to March phase is one of the busiest phases in the semester at the University. There are intra-moot rounds, and internship applications for the summer, and classes that you can't bunk, and sports fest, and mid-semester exams, and what not! With too many dates, tasks and deadlines, one thing that comes to help is a checklist. 

Checklist is a quintessential component in most professions. Be it medicine, law, piloting, engineering, art forms, anything at all- checklist saves our face at the end of the day. Have you read The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande? (That's a definite review post for another day, but do read it!) A Checklist basically makes your life easier, and brings down the amount of mistakes possible, if not nullifying them completely.

A surgeon essentially has a checklist for pre-surgery, through the surgery, and post-surgery. A pilot has a checklist for take-off, landing, emergency situations, each and everything!

From my mom trying to run the household, to big companies undergoing corporate mergers, everything runs on a checklist. I recently prepared a checklist of all the compliance a listed company needs to do before merger when it's a related party transaction. Haha, too much jargon? I did it on purpose- simply put, it's a corporate decision that can affect the economy of a company, and subsequently the economy of India if it's a big enough Company!

So, when I draw out a checklist, I have a broad view of what needs to be done by when to avoid unnecessary complications and headache. Some people think you need to write a checklist everyday to effectively use your time. It's not like I haven't tried it, but personally it doesn't work very well for me. So, while I believe absolutely in the power of checklists, I make a broader one with provisional deadlines spanning for an entire week or so. I am more comfortable dealing with such checklists as they fit in more realistically into how I go about getting things done. 

So, do you write your checklist? If yes, that's great, keep going! If not, do try it out. You'll know its power when you see it in your execution. Also, don't go rigidly by what you read about daily checklists, or weekly checklists, or whatever version. It is what works for you best that you need to do. And, you'll know that only by trying them out. After all, if it solves the purpose it is meant to, then even if it is a new method that isn't followed, it's great for you!

Guys, get your notepads out, and jot down all that pending work. Get them done!