Avoiding the Checklist Mindset

The checklist mindset is when you make a checklist of all your open tasks and then race through the checklist with the intention of just finishing the checklist with no actual concern for how well you are doing the tasks or how important is one task over another.

The checklist mindset at face value is really good at getting tasks “done”. But thats not the only important thing is there? Some tasks are long running tasks which need planning or more careful consideration. Some tasks are risky and could lead to more tasks if not done well. Some tasks have higher stakes, where failure is not an option or where people’s emotions are involved and someone could get hurt. Not all tasks are as simple as “Buy milk from the grocery store”. Some are more nuanced and the checklist mindset does not account for that at all.

So what is the checklist mindset good at? The checklist mindset is really good at defining all the tasks and getting you started on the tasks. It reduces the activation energy / inertia and puts you into motion which is usually half the work done but not always.

So how can we improve on / fix the checklist mindset. The focus needs to shift from “finishing all the tasks” to “doing all the tasks well”. Some augmentations can be added. First is once the checklist is ready do a second pass on the checklist and bump the important tasks to the top of the list. Do the important high stakes tasks first. Like the famous saying “Swallow the frog”.

The second augmentation that can be added is while starting on a task, before proceeding with the first action that comes to your mind, ask yourself what are the risks involved? Is there a better way of doing this task? Am I rushing the task or can it wait? How much does quality matter in this task? If the answer to this question is yes then abstain on the task, bump it to the bottom of the list and get back to it at a later time when you have more mental bandwidth for it.

An example I can think of where the checklist mindset completely ruined the task was when a friend of mine has asked me to intervene in their relationship so my job was to call his/her partner and try and clarify something. I wasnt able to find time do this and suddenly I found myself with a few minutes waiting for another friend to arrive at the restaurant. Checklist mindset kicked in. Was their risk involved? Yes. Was their a possibility of someone getting hurt? Yes. Is quality important in this task? Extremely. Inspite of this I decided to sneak in this task before my friend arrived. The call went horribly. The network connection was poor so we couldnt hear each other properly. I was only half attentive because I was also waiting for that other friend at the restaurant. There was a lot of ambient noise which made it harder to talk. I had not really gathered my thoughts properly because I was context switching. Literally nothing went well on the call and I just came off as insensitive and immature. And was the task done? Absolutely not, it actually led to more tasks. So yeah with the second augmentation from before, I should have absolutely abstained on the task and waited for much a better time and place to do it.

So in summary the way to escape the checklist mindset is by recognising not all tasks have equal importance, some tasks need quality more than other tasks do and then rearranging the order of the tasks so that tasks get done but they also get done WELL!