Method of Productivity. A Stable Checklist

On the Benefits of Consistency as Productivity Method

The “So List” blog occasionally touches on productivity and development topics. There’s an article about productivity and efficiency, a piece on the development of lists and checklists, and even one about dynamic checklists that adjust to circumstances! And now, we come across the notion that at some point, a checklist should stop evolving and stabilize. Is this true? Not exactly.

The idea is that some well-developed checklists eventually stop changing and acquire unique properties. Over time, they might receive a new impetus for development, but during their plateau phase, their contribution to productivity systems is invaluable. These systems help individuals organize and prioritize their tasks, leading to better time management and increased productivity.

Does this apply to all types of checklists? Probably not. This discussion focuses on the unique properties of inspection checklists. These are also known as “DO-CONFIRM” checklists. They are well-suited for verifying goal achievement.

Stable Checklists for Productivity Systems

The blog recently featured an article on productivity and efficiency, but let’s briefly recall their essence. Productivity is the ability to achieve a goal. If the goal can be reached multiple times, such as producing a product, productivity can be measured in units per time. In some cases, it’s measured as a percentage of planned values, applicable when partial goal achievement counts.

Efficiency refers to how economically you achieved your goal or goals and the most important tasks on the way to goals’ achievement.

Example of a Stable Checklist

Let’s take an example from the post on types of checklists. Suppose we are entrepreneurs, frequently interacting with people. Distractions abound, but we follow this rule: “By the end of the day, all communication channels must be checked, and incoming messages addressed.” We express this rule in the following inspection checklist settled as a part of our to-do list that mixes personal and work tasks:

☐ Email inboxes are empty
☐ No unread messages in messengers
☐ No unread messages in social networks

The checklist is small, with only three individual tasks, yet it requires some daily effort. Productivity here isn’t measured in units per hour, but in ensuring digital tools are organized.

How do we proceed? Initially, we manually read every email, messenger message, and social network notification. We don’t need to prioritize tasks here as all of them are equally important.

It becomes evident that this approach might not sustain our business for long. Each workday introduces a potentially large and unknown amount of the incoming messages, and this is not the one task that we have. We have many urgent tasks per day. Productivity seems far off at this point.

Improving the System for Managing Important Tasks and Incoming Messages

Let’s tackle this differently. The goal remains unchanged, and the checklist is stable. However, we modify the approach to achieving the checklist, thereby meeting our daily goal. Instead of opening each email manually, we automatically sort emails into folders and mark irrelevant ones as read. The workload drops from absurd to barely manageable. Our updates enhance efficiency, which can lead to improved productivity. Our productivity system developed.

Next, we analyze messengers and social media inboxes. Some queries relate to company products, which are best redirected to other knowledgeable staff members. Fortunately, we can apply here the right productivity method as well. Modern tools enable AI bots to understand written text reasonably well. We configure response templates to include a personal touch while leaving most manageable tasks to automation.

We also ensure users can “override” the bot when necessary, preventing miscommunication.

After implementing automatic replies and redirections, we realized similar improvements can be applied to email to increase its maximum productivity, already achieved on the previous step. With this, managing incoming messages becomes a feasible task.

Note that the tasks listed in our inspection checklist haven’t changed. However, we’ve applied several productivity techniques to make their achievement more efficient! Our checklist encapsulates the goal of our daily micro-project to clear inboxes while allowing flexibility in how we achieve it. In this example, we regularly reinvent our local time-management method. It’s not the level of project management efficiency, but still a valuable addition to daily tasks.

Stable Checklists in Global Practice

However, maybe it’s this just a clever invention of the “So List” blog? Perhaps stable checklists don’t even exist? While they might not always be called that, stable checklists do exist.

Some time ago, the blog featured an article about the Apgar score for assessing newborns’ health. Strictly speaking, the Apgar scale isn’t a checklist, as it uses ratings (0, 1, and 2) rather than checkmarks. However, in a broader sense, it closely resembles a checklist.

The higher a newborn scores on the Apgar scale, the healthier they are considered. Low scores sometimes necessitate immediate resuscitation efforts.

Among inspection checklists, the Apgar scale stands out as a long-lasting example of stability. Introduced in 1952, it’s still in use today. It standardizes the complex task of estimating the newborn’s condition and is a great technique applied throughout the world.

Let’s examine data on child health over time. Children are grouped by total scores. The first column uses data from Virginia Apgar’s original study, the second from a 2001 Massachusetts Medical Society study, and the third from 2023–2024 UK maternity statistics.

Despite differences in geography, the trends in the US and UK are similar.

Throughout these years, Apgar’s metrics have remained unchanged. They serve as a stable checklist around which healthcare systems have evolved.

It’s worth noting that our email example illustrated how efficiency improvements influenced productivity. Similarly, the Apgar scale’s stability likely spurred efforts to enhance both efficiency and productivity in healthcare.

A Few More Words About Stable Checklists

Remember the plateau mentioned earlier? Can we move beyond it? Absolutely. We can refine our goal of managing incoming messages by adding a new point:

☐ Inbox cleared within 30 minutes  

This sets a new benchmark, offering further opportunities to optimize our workflow. A good addition to powerful productivity methods.

Already envisioning how to use a stable checklist for your goals’ achievement? Subscribe to the “So List” blog — don’t miss other clever tips about these modest yet powerful tools. Already familiar with them? Unlikely — they hide too many secrets.

References

[1] Virginia Apgar, A Proposal for a New Method of Evaluation of the Newborn Infant
[2] Brian M. Casey, M.D., Donald D. McIntire, Ph.D., and Kenneth J. Leveno, M.D., The Continuing Value of the Apgar Score for the Assessment of Newborn Infants
[3] Births - NHS England Digital from NHS England