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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that checklists save time. When you maintain a

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Speaker 1: list of what you need to do on various occasions,

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Speaker 1: you increase your efficiency and you are far less likely

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Speaker 1: to drop the ball. I have five children, and moving

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Speaker 1: a family of seven anywhere involves a lot of logistics.

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Speaker 1: If I just packed randomly for trips, we would inevitably

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Speaker 1: forget something important. So for our journeys, I have written

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Speaker 1: out checklists of what we need to bring swim diapers, bottles,

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Speaker 1: bug spray goggles, headphonesification documents. I am not saying the

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Speaker 1: packing or traveling has always gone perfectly, but we generally

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Speaker 1: managed to get where we're going without needing to check bags.

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Speaker 1: And I define packing for seven people for a week

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Speaker 1: in a couple of carry ons as success. I also

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Speaker 1: use checklists when I am planning my weeks. I have

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Speaker 1: a number of ongoing projects, so as I plan my

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Speaker 1: weeks on Friday afternoons, I go through the checklist to

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Speaker 1: make sure I have listed something for each project. It

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Speaker 1: is hard to forget producing a daily podcast, but what

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Speaker 1: am I doing to promote my upcoming book Tranquility by

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Speaker 1: Tuesday by putting that category on my planning checklist, I

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Speaker 1: will put something on the schedule for the week. A

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Speaker 1: lot of people read Attulgawande's bestseller, The Checklist Manifesto. He

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Speaker 1: wrote about how important it was and fields like medicine,

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Speaker 1: for people not to rely on memory. If you need

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Speaker 1: to do seven things before a medical procedure, make a

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Speaker 1: checklist and check them off. This reduces errors tremendously. In

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Speaker 1: the case of checklists like Apgar scores, you can immediately

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Speaker 1: see which babies need more attention. But checklists are great

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Speaker 1: in far less complex situations. The beauty of a checklist

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Speaker 1: is that you just work your way through what you

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Speaker 1: need to do, without wasting time deciding what's the next thing,

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Speaker 1: or racking your brain about what you are forgetting. You

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Speaker 1: don't need to worry so much about dropping balls because

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Speaker 1: all the balls you need are spelled out. You can

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Speaker 1: decide that you don't need to do something, but that

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Speaker 1: is an active choice rather than one of a mission.

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Speaker 1: So think if there are areas in your life where

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Speaker 1: a checklist might help. One obvious one is meetings. I

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Speaker 1: was recently visiting a company where there was a poster

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Speaker 1: on the wall with a checklist about what each meeting

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Speaker 1: was supposed to include. Among other things, you had to

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Speaker 1: identify who were the decision makers. You had to identify

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Speaker 1: the decision being made. Does that sound like extra labor

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Speaker 1: when you are just marching to your two o'clock, your

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Speaker 1: three o'clock, your four o'clock, Well, that is somewhat the point.

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Speaker 1: If you are planning to devote an hour of your

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Speaker 1: precious time on this planet to something, you want to

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Speaker 1: make sure it is worthy of it. I am not

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Speaker 1: a big fan of meetings that are just about the

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Speaker 1: status of projects. Is everyone still doing their jobs? But

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Speaker 1: if you are going to have such meetings, checklists are

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Speaker 1: great here too. You want to come out of these

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Speaker 1: meetings knowing exactly where things stand, what is left to do,

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Speaker 1: and who is responsible for it. Working through a checklist

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Speaker 1: of project parts will help make sure this is all clear.

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Speaker 1: When you identify a checklist that could be helpful for you,

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Speaker 1: start by jotting down the tasks you think you need

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Speaker 1: to do in the order you think you usually do them. Then,

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Speaker 1: the next time you are in a position to use

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Speaker 1: that checklist, consider it a draft work your way through

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Speaker 1: it and also add items as needed. Shift the order

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Speaker 1: to reflect what you typically do or what makes the

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Speaker 1: most sense. It may take a few uses before you

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Speaker 1: get your checklist the way you want it, but once

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Speaker 1: you're happy with your checklist, keep using it. That means

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Speaker 1: looking at it. Don't assume you have internalized it. Save

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Speaker 1: yourself the mental effort of thinking about what you need

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Speaker 1: to do and the stress of hoping you have done

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Speaker 1: everything you need to. Instead, just work through your checklist

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Speaker 1: knowing you are doing exactly what you need to be

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Speaker 1: doing at that moment. In the meantime, this is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making them those of

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Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

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Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.

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Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four then

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Speaker 1: Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an email at

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com.

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Speaker 2: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much, should I look forward to staying in touch.

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Speaker 2: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. U