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The humble checklist — the most powerful tool in your productivity arsenal
I’ve written about checklists before. You can read that post here. I wanted to revisit it and repeat some of what I said but come at it from a slightly different angle. This is because the humble checklist is possibly the most powerful tool in your productivity arsenal. We are so tempted to fall into the productivity trap of thinking that being organised, getting things done, being effective is a complex business that requires complicated tools and tech in order to achieve it. We are tempted to think that the latest apps will solve our problems and having some kind of complicated organisational system for our work with complicated automations and relational links between our habits, routines, tasks, projects and goals is THE key to getting things done. This is a trap and this is wrong.
Ultimately, all you need to be productive is to know what you need to do and to do it. 90% of it is the doing and 10% is knowing what to do, time wise at least.
Checklists are boring. Checklists are powerful.
Too often, far too much of our time goes on the knowing what to do part of getting organised. With the humble checklist, you spend this time once, prepare your checklist, and then use it, over and over on repeat. Running through a checklist, means that you never miss a step in a…
