I just finished reading The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, who is one of my favorite authors.

He is a surgeon in Boston who has written two other novels on various topics in medicine. The Checklist Manifesto discusses whether checklists should be used by hospitals. But the overall research into the book discusses how knowledge has become both a blessing and a burden. We have so much knowledge and our lives have become so busy that sometimes the mundane, everyday things that we always do are missed. For doctors it could be the antibiotic right before the incision or for others a payment to a credit card.

I have always loved making checklists, probably because I enjoy the sense of accomplishment I have by actually crossing off the task. In reality, I think checklists help me free up my mind to focus on other big picture items. Because I have captured all of my tasks and notes in a checklist, I am free keep thinking of other things I need to do. I have two main checklists that I compose every day, one for work and one for my personal life. I keep them in a journal so I can reference the previous day and so I make sure everything has been completed. I think an online version or book version works well depending on preference. I hope you find that checklists come in just as handy as I do!