Use Those Amazing Checklists

 Use Those Amazing Checklists:

It’s wonderful when one simple tool can help you streamline your work and organize your group.

Checklists promote safety, accuracy, and speed

In professions where lives are at stake, protocols increasingly call for checklists because they break complex projects into manageable parts and combat the human tendency to take shortcuts. Checklists are low-tech tools that can also help the rest of us to become more effective. Here are examples of ways that you might use checklists to make your work go more smoothly:

→→ Shape reports. Use checklists to specify the content, style, and organization of routinely prepared documents.

→→ Assure accuracy. Whether you are writing or editing, checklists can promote thorough fact-checking with questions like, “Have you checked the spelling of all names?” and “Are the quotes accurate and properly attributed?”

→→ Organize events. If you plan meetings, conferences, or parties, smooth the process with a comprehensive planning list. Note every possible element, from invitations and RSVPs to the nametags and the menu. After each event, review your standard checklist to make sure that it addressed every development.

→→ Get packing. Though some checklists include tasks and procedures, others simply describe items that you might need. Ease your travel anxieties with a standard list of everything that you might want to take along on a trip.

→→ Consider candidates. Whether you are hiring an assistant or choosing a service provider, make a list of the skills and expertise that matter most to you. It may be easier to make a decision if you use the same checklist to evaluate each option.

→→ Assure best practices. Checklists can help you avoid mistakes in challenging situations like conducting a difficult staffer’sperformance review or running the annual meeting. And emergency checklists can help you rise to the occasion if the worst occurs, whether the building is on fire or the CEO makes a public relations gaff.