Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that checklists save time. When you maintain
Speaker 1: a list of what you need to do on various occasions,
Speaker 1: you increase your efficiency and you are far less likely
Speaker 1: to drop the ball. I have five children, and moving
Speaker 1: a family of seven anywhere involves a lot of logistics.
Speaker 1: If I just packed randomly for trips, we would inevitably
Speaker 1: forget something important. So for our journeys, I have written
Speaker 1: out checklists of what we need to bring swim diapers, bottles,
Speaker 1: bug spray goggles, headphones, identification documents. I am not saying
Speaker 1: the packing or traveling has always gone perfectly, but we
Speaker 1: generally managed to get where we're going without needing to
Speaker 1: check bags. And I define packing for seven people for
Speaker 1: a week in a couple of carry ons as success.
Speaker 1: I also use checklists when I am planning my weeks.
Speaker 1: I have a number of ongoing projects, so as I
Speaker 1: planned my weeks on Friday afternoons, I go through the
Speaker 1: checklist to make sure I have listed something for each project.
Speaker 1: It is hard to forget producing a daily podcast, but
Speaker 1: what am I doing to promote my upcoming book, Tranquility
Speaker 1: by Tuesday by putting that category on my planning checklist,
Speaker 1: I will put something on the schedule for the week.
Speaker 1: A lot of people read a toolga Wan Day's bestseller,
Speaker 1: The Checklist Manifesto. He wrote about how important it was
Speaker 1: and fields like medicine, for people not to rely on memory.
Speaker 1: If you need to do seven things before a medical procedure,
Speaker 1: make a checklist and check them off. This reduces errors tremendously.
Speaker 1: In the case of checklists, like a car scores, you
Speaker 1: can immediately see which babies need more attention. But checklists
Speaker 1: are great and far less complex situations. The beauty of
Speaker 1: a checklist is that you just work your way through
Speaker 1: what you need to do, without wasting time deciding what's
Speaker 1: the next thing, or racking your brain about what you
Speaker 1: are forgetting. You don't need to worry so much about
Speaker 1: dropping balls because all the balls you need are spelled out.
Speaker 1: You can decide that you don't need to do something,
Speaker 1: but that is an active choice rather than one of
Speaker 1: a mission. So think if there are areas in your
Speaker 1: life where a checklist might help. One obvious one is meetings.
Speaker 1: I was recently visiting a company where there was a
Speaker 1: poster on the wall with a checklist about what each
Speaker 1: meeting was supposed to include. Among other things, you had
Speaker 1: to identify who were the decision makers. You had to
Speaker 1: identify the decision being made. Does that sound like extra
Speaker 1: labor when you are just marching to your two o'clock,
Speaker 1: you're three o'clock, you're four o'clock. Well, that is somewhat
Speaker 1: the point. If you are planning to devote an hour
Speaker 1: of your precious time on this planet to something, you
Speaker 1: want to make sure it is worthy of it. I
Speaker 1: am not a big fan of meetings that are just
Speaker 1: about the status of projects. Is everyone still doing their jobs?
Speaker 1: But if you are going to have such meetings, checklists
Speaker 1: are great here too. You want to come out of
Speaker 1: these meetings knowing exactly where things stand, what is left
Speaker 1: to do, and who is responsible for it. Working through
Speaker 1: a checklist of project parts will help make sure this
Speaker 1: is all clear. When you identify a checklist that could
Speaker 1: be helpful for you, start by jotting down the tasks
Speaker 1: you think you need to do in the order you
Speaker 1: think you usually do them. Then, the next time you
Speaker 1: are in a position to use that checklist, consider it
Speaker 1: a draft, work your way through it, and also add
Speaker 1: items as needed. Shift the order to reflect what you
Speaker 1: typically do or what makes the most sense. It may
Speaker 1: take a few uses before you get your checklist the
Speaker 1: way you want it, but once you're happy with your checklist,
Speaker 1: keep using it. That means looking at it. Don't assume
Speaker 1: you have internalized it. Save yourself the mental effort of
Speaker 1: thinking about what you need to do and the stress
Speaker 1: of hoping you have done everything you need to. Instead,
Speaker 1: just work through your checklist knowing you are doing exactly
Speaker 1: what you need to be doing at that moment. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making them us of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
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Speaker 1: number four, then breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
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