Checklist maker

A good checklist does not teach anyone how to do the job. It catches the steps a competent person skips when tired, rushed, or interrupted: the passport, the alt text, the bank reconciliation. That is the main lesson of aviation and surgical checklists, as Atul Gawande described them in The Checklist Manifesto, and it is why the best checklists are short.

There are two styles. A read-do checklist is followed line by line, doing each step as it is read, for processes done rarely or in a fixed order. A do-confirm checklist is run after doing the work from memory, pausing to confirm nothing was missed, for processes done often by people who know them. Choosing the right one matters more than the wording.

When to use it