Why are checklists important in the workplace
How to Use Checklists in the Workplace for Maximum SuccessBusiness, Business Processes, Checklists Show
At Process Street, were all about checklists. We use them for absolutely everything. I have a checklist for my daily tasks, a checklist for writing this blog post, and even a checklist for planning our monthly sprint! Basically, no task is too big nor too small for a checklist. But it got us thinking what are the best ways to use checklists to get maximum value from them? My personal view is that theyre most useful for highly regular recurring tasks, like a sales call or dealing with an IT support ticket. My reasoning here is that following the checklist gives you incremental benefits, so the more you follow it the more you benefit. Moreover, the more you follow a business process, the more you understand its faults and failings, allowing you to make improvements. Therefore, using a checklist to follow a business process for a task which you do multiple times a day will give you the highest efficiency savings and output increases. This is compounded if you use a tool like Process Street due to its automation potential; you can automate data entry for data gathered during the task, you can trigger another action in another app, or you can automate the approval process for a completed task. So I think I have a pretty strong case for why the most common actions benefit most from checklists, but that doesnt necessarily tell us how they can work best for you. In this article, youll look at a few different ways of employing checklists and get great insight and input from across the industry, as part of Process Streets original research.
Lets get started. Checklists in the workplace: Notes and ad hoc checklists for organizationThe classic approach to checklists is to employ them as a kind of actionable note-taking solution. ️ Taking notes or recording potential action items is a really good way to make sure you dont forget tasks or items which could be important. But simply taking notes isnt enough. If you write down a series of tasks you want to get done then youll benefit from making it actionable. Take the daily checklist I use to start my day off as a prime example of that. Specifically, its split into the following categories:
In my intro steps, I have one task which asks me what my main objectives for the day are. I have 5 form fields to enter my key goals for the day. Once I enter those in, they automatically populate the third section of my checklist my big tasks for the day. Daily recurring tasks might include processing my different email inboxes, approving comments for the blog, checking up on the team, or reviewing submissions and proposals from across the company. The more something continues to show up in the ad hoc section of big tasks for the day, the higher the chance Ill systemize it and move it to my daily recurring tasks section. So, every day my checklist is both an ad hoc checklist for my organization of one-off tasks, and a list of regular duties which I need to complete a fairly regular business process, if you will! But Im not the only person who uses checklists in this way How do you use checklists in the workplace for personal organization?(Source)Louis Watton, marketing executive at Shiply, takes a similar position to me and tells us:
Michael Stahl, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of HealthMarkets, is much the same as us with how he uses checklists:
Theres a sense of reward too in completing your daily tasks. A sense of reward summed up byNathaniel Hovsepian of The Expert Home Buyers:
Pratibha Vuppuluri, the Chief Blogger at She Started It, also feels satisfaction when checking off and completing tasks on a checklist:
Sometimes you want more than just reward you want to understand your own performance and prime for improvement.Josh Ladick of GSA Focus tells us:
Recognizing your own performance isnt always about hustle-porn style optimization sometimes you just know its an area of weakness and a checklist can help you keep things under control.Calloway Cook, President of Illuminate Labs, tells us:
This idea of using a checklist as a kind of brain dump is a fairly common one. Unsurprising really, as a checklist is at its core a memory-extension device.Grant van der Harst from Anglo Liners shares:
Alices position was shared by several respondents, includingTrenton Erker Director of SEO and Partner at Clarity Online:
Or, echoed even more strongly byPolly Kay, Senior Marketing Manager at English Blinds, who describes how checklists help her overcome distractions:
Another part of avoiding distractions can simply be in how youre approaching the tasks themselves. Perhaps one task is distracting you from another one?Jeff Arnett, Founder of Arnett Designs, comments:
Or, it might not be that your big tasks are eating your smaller tasks, but that youve not refreshed an older checklist for too long, asDirector of Digital Marketing atReliaSite Adam Thompson suggests:
Though, perhaps team to-do lists are a bit closer to the kind of business processes Ill cover in the next section. To bring us back to ad hoc checklists for organization,Jonathan Mendoza,Content Marketing Specialist at Fueled, creates a checklist and then adds sub-checklists:
Now that youve uncovered why and how, exactly, businesses are using lists to help them get organized, its time to explore the workplace checklist a little deeper ⬇️ Checklists in the workplace: Employee tasks and recurring processes for efficiency(Source)Theres no denying it: The world of work is hectic. Fast-paced. Ever-moving. No matter if youre in marketing, sales, software engineering or if your role requires you to be more hands-on, like a doctor or a plumber youve got a lot of tasks and recurring processes to get done each day. Its one of the major reasons why 83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress, causing US businesses to lose over $300 billion a year. But a hack for simultaneously combatting stress and nailing your daily, weekly, and monthly tasks and processes effectively and efficiently is you guessed it the humble checklist! Take this incredibly insightful (and interesting) quote from Craig Anderson at Appliance Analysts, who says that pretty much every great employee hes had the pleasure of working with has utilized checklists in one way or another:
While on the topic of CEOs and founders, Phil Strazzulla, the founder of SelectSoftware Reviews explains how checklists help him not only to keep on top of things but to also excel as a busy entrepreneur:
CEO of crowdy.ai, Carsten Shaefer, describes just how useful checklists can be provided theyre not provided by others, but created by the person following it:
Ben Walker, the CEO of Transcription Outsourcing, explains the business-saving benefits of checklists. In fact, he goes as far to say that, without checklists, Transcription Outsourcing might not have made it this far:
Delving deeper into why and how checklists are used for business efficiency, Matt Diggity describes how the team at Diggity Marketing use checklists to keep on top of new campaigns and working with new clients:
Next up is Typeforms Kirsty Finlayson, who clarifies how the high-flying Typeform team use checklists to help with the publishing of stellar posts for their business blog:
Speaking of high-flyers, AlbaJet Charter a private jet-booking company use checklists as a way to save money, make sure everythings in working order, and that employees are doing their best work in high-pressure situations:
Bullogic Wealth Management, meanwhile, helps others to save money, make financially-sound investments, and pay off any existing debts. They use checklists specifically, Process Street checklists to help them with every aspect of their business:
Checklists, as Sean Potter at MyMoneyWizard.com says, also helps people to save money themselves:
Another business using Process Street and another (this time rather literal) high-flyer is 420interactive. Mathew Peranick, a partner at the accelerator program agency, says:
Another agency this time a digital agency called Edge of the Web have had similar successes with checklists in a business context:
As youve seen thus far, checklists have huge benefits for businesses across the globe. Thats why, for those whose job it is to help others, like Michael Brown at Sunshine Nutraceuticals, checklists are nothing short of lifesavers:
Although they dont clean operating rooms, Frisco Maids do help with the cleaning of every other kind of room, from bedrooms to bathrooms. Alberto Navarrete, the General Manager of Frisco Maids, explains how checklists help the business to not mess (pun intended) anything up:
Last but by no means least theres James Pollard, the founder of The Advisor Coach. James explains how hes seen others use checklists for properly onboarding and training new employees:
There you have it. From this section alone, youve learned how thriving businesses are utilizing checklists for integral, recurring processes, be it safety checks in an airplane cockpit or for a hospital patients blood sugar levels. What can be inferred from this section too is that, by nature, checklists provide peace of mind for employees. With their tasks listed in a clear, precise way, staff members wont be stressed about not knowing what to do or what to tackle next. Plus, it will help them to compartmentalize their workload, thus turning what they thought was a mountain-high workload into a molehill instead. Heres to lowering employee stress and reaping the rewards of employee engagement, and higher rates of employee retention and productivity all thanks to checklists. Checklists in the workplace: Idea generation and getting good work done(Source)As mentioned in the first section of this post Checklists in the workplace: Notes and ad hoc checklists for organization there are multiple approaches any one person or business could take with checklists in the workplace. From ad hoc to-do lists to an actionable checklist for recurring tasks, anything is possible! One approach is using checklists as a tool for idea generation. Meanwhile, others use them in a more straightforward manner. Lets understand how both ways are beneficial for teams. Checklists in the workplace: Idea generationPatrick Algrims team use checklists as a great starting point for project-related discussion, and to help them act accordingly:
Dewayne Hamilton, who runs Web Cosmo Forums, starts his day off with a checklist to think about how hes going to tackle the day ahead:
Similarly, Jeffs team at CritterFam use checklists to lay the foundations for doing great work, time and time again:
Speaking of doing great work, lets examine how businesses, employees, and freelancers alike are using checklists for the post-ideation stage to help them excel (no matter if their workplace is in an office or at the scene of a wedding!) Checklists in the workplace: Getting good work doneThe first quote comes from Becky Kerr, a wedding photographer:
Checklists are also incredibly useful for those working with moving images, not just still images, as MajestyCoffee.coms owner Nunzio explains:
Ampjars content team found their previous process too complicated, as it got in the way of them knocking their content out of the park. Naturally, they turned to checklists:
On the subject of marketing tasks, Megan Meade at Software Path explains how checklists help her team with both projects and sub-tasks:
To make checklists the best they can be for your projects, Briana Michelle, the co-founder of KratomSpace, has a few pointers for you:
Wrapping up this section is Nina LaRosa, the Marketing Director of Moxie Media, who provides even more insightful, actionable tips for using checklists like a pro (based off her own experience):
Id like to extend a special shoutout to Jessi Beyer, Brosix, Crediful, GeoJango, Troop Messenger, and Workers Compensation Shop for letting us know the fascinating, in-depth details about how they use checklists in the workplace and why. Hopefully all of these first-hand accounts have given you some food for thought regarding checklist creating, editing, and sharing! How not to use checklists in the workplace(Source)So far youve read insights from cutting-edge businesses, learning how they employ and deploy checklists in the workplace. However, whats just as important as knowing what to do is knowing what not to do. Luckily, some of our research pool has gone through the process of finding out what works and what doesnt, so you dont have to! Heed these cautionary tips so you can go about checklists like a true professional. As youre about to find out, not going about checklists properly can have a huge impact on your teams productivity, engagement, retention, and even bring back the nuisance I covered earlier stress. Without further ado, lets take a look. First is Olivia Newman, who works at Giraffe Social Media. Olivia advocates for keeping organized and ticking off tasks as you go:
Next up is Caio Bersot at EnergyRates.ca, who says that a fine balance needs to be struck so checklists dont inhibit flexibility, creativity, or spontaneity:
In the above quote, Caio mentioned people getting too attached to their checklists. Funnily enough, this was an issue for the Cannabis License Experts team, as it led to overload and micromanagement:
Meanwhile, Scalify found that the software they tried didnt meet their needs. Basically, the programs were too broad for them, so they settled for a tried-and-tested piece of software they knew worked to their standards:
Finally, Marcus Clarke, the founder of Searchant.co, advises checklist-users to collaborate:
Now, after reading the five above quotes, there are 5 main takeaways here:
And as a state-of-the-art checklist app ourselves, we agree with those takeaways and tips. Why? Well
If youre thinking I dont need to follow these tips or in fact any checklist-related tips! Whats the worst that could happen?, do I have a few stories for you Gaffes and mixups; the hilarious happenings of checklists gone wrong!(Source)Ahh, checklists. Theyre wonderful things but only when theyre employed and deployed properly. As a second installment to the above How not to use checklists in the workplace section, let me present some rip-roaringly, toe-curlingly, and even absurdly funny stories to you of checklist mishandling and misuse. First up is Chris Averys story. Chris is the Managing Director at Chrave and, after reading the below anecdote, its lucky that he still is the Managing Director and isnt working elsewhere!
Double-checking checklists before sharing them is a solid recommendation thanks, Chris! Double-checking your business name on Google is a good shout too. Otherwise, you may have to use checklists to help you completely rebrand in 72 hours, which is exactly what happened to the company now known as Vape Elevate:
The darkly comic stories dont end there, either. WhatToBecome.coms co-founder Darko Jacimovic, unfortunately, found out that the best kind of checklist is a digital checklist:
To finish on a light-hearted note, heres a direct quote from Richard Lee of Lee Brothers Construction:
As funny as these stories are, its not exactly ideal for businesses to run into snags like these. Like youve now seen, mishandling and misusing checklists can be a drain on money, effort, time, and your business reputation not to mention your personal reputation! So, to not be the butt of the joke and create, use, and share checklists properly, theres only one real, cloud-based solution. Process Street. Start using Process Street checklists in your workplace today!Process Street is superpowered checklists. After you document workflows, business processes, and important tasks as templates, you can then launch an infinite number of checklists from those templates. This means you can smash your daily, weekly, monthly duties and your recurring tasks simply by following the steps in the checklists! To learn more about what makes Process Street so worthwhile, check out the introductory video below. If youre wondering what, exactly, makes our BPM software superpowered, its because there are a ton of incredible workflow features that turn standard checklists into out-of-this-world checklists. These features are:
With stop tasks, you and your colleagues will never accidentally skip over important tasks and form fields. Conditional logic enables checklists to dynamically change. For checklists such as a daily task list where your duties may change day-to-day, conditional logic is supremely useful. If you dont want certain colleagues to see the information in a checklist, thats easily remedied with our task permissions feature. Need to assign certain tasks in a collaborative checklist to others? Thats simple with task assignments. Similar to task assignments, role assignments is the dynamic way of assigning colleagues to tasks that they must complete. Send information or automated messages to other apps (i.e. from Process Street to Slack) by making use of webhooks. So you dont have to tab-hop, you can include other apps and content like Google Sheets, Google Docs, or Airtable right inside your checklists with the embed widget! Lets say you need a member of staff to approve a task youve completed. Approvals simplify the whole approvals process, meaning they can go straight in and approve or reject whats been submitted to them. For more on some of these business-saving, labor-saving, and time-saving features, watch the webinar below. No matter how you go about using your checklists whether for a daily to-do list or if you utilize checklists for all your business processes our business software has you and your team covered. Before I finish up, Id like to add a final note: Dont forget to sign up for an account and browse through our extensive template library. In our template library, youll surely find a ready-made, ready-to-be-used checklist template thatll help your workflows. Exponentially. Does your team use checklists in the workplace? If so, how and why? Id love to hear your answers, so let me know via the comment section! ⬇️ Tell the world! |