Checklists - what are yours?

[bardamu]

Hi all,

I'm trying to come up with as many useful checklists as I can to stash in my folder, just in case...
So far I have only a few basic ones, plus a few more esoteric ones, perhaps:

- Daily/Weekly/Quarterly/Yearly Reviews (from GTD and Making It All Work, mostly): actually present as repeating projects in my electronic system (OmniFocus).

- Altitude map, Project Planning Trigger List, Natural Planning Model, Incompletion Trigger List (personal/professional): all from DA's books.

- Travel checklist (expanded from the one DA published I think on GTD Times).

- Conference/Event Planning Checklist.

- "10th Step" checklist: adapted from the Alcoholic Anonymous' Big Book: this is actually a great checklist for anyone to do more or less regularly, e.g. to clarify one's feelings, process a bad/good day, etc.

- "Letting go" checklist: currently developing, trying to have a list of what I need to determine/to do when turning down/abandoning a project.

What checklists do you have in your system? And if you'd care to share what their items are, that would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

[bishblaize]

wow, where to start.


office leaving checklist
morning checklist
payday checklist
weekly review checklist
gym checklist
Feeling tired checklist
Feeling stressed checklist
travel to manchester checklist (when going back to my hometown)
Saturday morning checklist
Sunday afternoon checklist (cleaning and prep for the week)


I also keep something i call trigger lists (which is just a term I made up) - these are essentially lists to focus my thinking in certain areas. theyre especially good when Im doing the weekly review


areas of job focus
outline of my skills
members of staff
trustee board (aka board of directors)
parts of the charity
parts of the building (curiously useful)
mid & long term goals
org chart


looking at these tends to trigger ideas that havent been precipitated before. For example looking at a member of staffs name may make me realise that person's been a bit quiet or stressed recently and I should do something about it. The org charts is really useful. Looking at it and thinking in turn about each part of the charity sometimes helps focus youre thinking. Even if there's nothing wrong per se, you may realise that you're not as happy with the financial systems as you are the HR systems. Or you may realise that you'v put a lot of focus in on operations and not enough on long term planning, or whatever.

i love checklists (& triggerlists) - to me theyre as useful as my calendar or my next action lists. I didnt really get them until the last 6 months or so, but now I cant live without them.

[joetab24]

I kind of do this...


you mention a "morning checklist"


would you be willing to list some items on this?

[jmsmall]

Morning checklist
shave?sunscreen
phone pager
ipod voice recorder
keys dog and cat
vitamins bird and squirrel fed
nose spray eyedrops allergy season
prayer snack tea
exercise clothes lunch

It's on my Palm hooked to 7AM so it's easy to bring up. Surprising how often I find something that I spaced!

jmsmall

[tsalley]

You have squirrel! How cool, I've always wanted one.

[bishblaize]

you mention a "morning checklist"

not very exciting, goes like this


Feed cats
Shower/groom
breakfast til partner leaves
put in washing today kitchen
meditate
read/play with cats/chill
check calendar
check email
check iron/bag/phone/mp3/headphones/keys/laptop/server's on/affirmation book


This isn't one I use to check against like a crib-sheet (apart from the last entry), this is the specific order of my mornings. I believe strongly in choosing your habits, otherwise you just drift into them and they may or may not be useful to you. I figured this was a good order to the morning and I just stuck to it like glue for a few weeks and it kinda stuck.

[marcia]

Mine are:
Weekly Review
Weekly Financial Review
Charities
Birthdays
Gift Ideas
Health
Car
Lawn
Christmas
Travel
Goals 1-2 Years
Vision for 3-5 Years
Career, purpose, life

[bishblaize]

whats kind of stuff's in the health one, if you dont mind me asking?

[marcia]

whats kind of stuff's in the health one, if you dont mind me asking?

That's a list of how often to get checkups, eye exams, etc. The Mayo Clinic site has health screening guidelines,

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/health-screening/WO00112

[glaboro]

Hi all,


- Daily/Weekly/Quarterly/Yearly Reviews (from GTD and Making It All Work, mostly): actually present as repeating projects in my electronic system (OmniFocus).


Cheers!

How have you set up these lists in OmniFocus? I have the same set of lists, but cannot get them to work in a way that I am happy with. I'd love to get some ideas.

[jmsmall]

You have squirrel! How cool, I've always wanted one.

Squirrels are really fun to watch, especially if you have a feeder with a swing open top. They do all kinds of gymnastics to get the peanuts out.

[Nick Spain]

Taken form my wonderful Life Coach's book the one minute coach, I only have one checklist at night before I go to bed which is did I achieve all my tasks for today and what did I learn today that I didnt know before today.

[ScottL]

I have a spreadsheet with a list of specific exercises down the left column:
--Nordic track
--core exercises,
--list of prehab*/physical therapy/yoga asanas
--weightlifting exercises

and days of the week across the top. I print it out once a week and check off which ones I do. Easy to way to keep track of which ones I've been doing and which ones I'm neglecting.

*prehab is what you do now to avoid needing rehab later.

[bardamu]

How have you set up these lists in OmniFocus? I have the same set of lists, but cannot get them to work in a way that I am happy with. I'd love to get some ideas.

First of all a much belated thanks to all for your contributions to this thread!

glaboro- Currently, I've got folders for Daily and Weekly reviews due to a (filed) bug relating to focus on repeating perspectives. I also have a duplicated set-up with some modifications for Daily/Weekly reviews "away from desk" (I realised I often slacked off form doing those when I felt I wasn't in the right context. Turns out there's not that many items that actually required me to be at my desk). That said:
I've got two perspectives set up for "Do Daily Review" and "Do Weekly Review". (see attached screenshot for set up) They're both accessible from my Toolbar (other screenshot)
My daily review comprises the following items:


☕ Welcome to your daily review! Please open the Process Workflow chart attached. ☕
⚀ Get Email Inboxes to Zero: Use MailTags, Mail Folders, Send any reference email to Evernote, Send all actionables to OF
⚁ Check @Action, @Action Support, @Waiting For Mailboxes!
⚂ Get Mac Files Inboxes to Zero
⚃ Check OF Daily Tickler: Go to Tickler Perspective
⚄ Get OmniFocus Inbox to Zero
⚅ Check Calendar for Daily Appointments
⚐ Check Next Action Lists for Priority, Time and Context
♜ Check Bento?? Project Support Folders for Material Related to Daily Appointments and Next Actions
♻ Sync OF
☟ Dump Daily Tickler into Inbox
✍ Get Physical Inbox to Zero, use Processing Workflow
☎ Check voicemail get to 0
♔ ✰Well done! Another Daily Review Done!!!✰ ♔

I use different add-ons (linked in notes) for various tasks: the "Get Inbox to empty" script from the DavidCo forum's own Todd V.'s "Ready-Set-Do!", etc.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions!

[TooMuch]

wow, where to start.


office leaving checklist
morning checklist
payday checklist
weekly review checklist
gym checklist
Feeling tired checklist
Feeling stressed checklist
travel to manchester checklist (when going back to my hometown)
Saturday morning checklist
Sunday afternoon checklist (cleaning and prep for the week)




Payday checklist grabs my attention! I NEED that!!!

I'm curious about your "feeling tired" and "feeling stressed" checklists. What are those about, if you don't mind me asking?