Why is a check-list you just need to work

In today's world, we will provide unprecedented access to information. A lot we can learn, just setting the correct search query or by accessing the online encyclopedia. Nevertheless, with this barrage of information we get and a lot of difficulties.

Now we know more than ever before, but there is a problem in order to turn theory into practice, to give it value and benefit.

In many respects, the information age has made us much less practical and wise. Suppose that we know a lot, but easy to lose concentrationDistracts from the main, let attention to dissipate. Moreover, we can easily lose sight of the basics necessary background information and make mistakes, being filled with a sense of their own competence.

According to the surgeon and researcher in the field of public health, MD Atul Gawande (Atul Gawande), people have to use their knowledge to the maximum.

errorsMade out of firm belief in what "I know better how to do", often the most painful. You have not tried hard and failed, and deliberately went on about the self-confidence and failed. Atul Gawande says: this is similar to how a simple mistake made by an experienced surgeon, resulting in death of the patient.

How do we cope with this ocean of information? How to use knowledge well and leave room for a miracle? According to Dr. Gawande, you can feel their own strength and competence, using a check-list.

Dr. Gawande carefully studied the influence check-lists Surgeons at - or rather, the number of cases of patients infected during surgery. Despite the fact that the experiment involved respected and competent surgeons, they were somehow at risk of making a mistake during surgery.

The check-list proposed by the surgeons, was short and simple. As it stated:

• Wash your hands with soap and water.
• Wipe the patient's skin with antiseptic.
• Place a sterile dressing on the patient's body.
• Put on a hat, mask, sterile gown and gloves.

These steps are medical universities, students learn a heart, they obviously just and necessary. But man is not a machine, he can forget about one of the actions. If you miss even one step, it can lead to infection, which means that an additional treatment, financial costs and - at worst - death of the patient.

Surprisingly, once before the eyes of the doctors appeared this checklist, they began to do less errors. The number of infections decreased by 66%. This saved a lot of money, but more importantly - save more than a thousand lives.

Of course, a check-list as a way to structure your thoughts, organize actions and remember the information is useful not only for doctors but for all of us.

May make a check-list to ensure that nothing is forgotten, you will find offensive. After all, you are quite clever and you can rely on their own memory. But the main purpose of the check-list is a discipline that will help pursue and avoid mistakes.

Why make a check-list

1. Checklist helps make sure that you do not forget the basic and simple information. Dr. Gawande finds that a check-list creates a kind of "cognitive network" that protects us from the shortcomings of their own - the memory boundaries and attention. Checklist ensures that you have not forgotten truism in the moment looms fatigue or laziness.
2. Checklist frees your mind, gives him the opportunity to work on really challenging tasks. Once you no longer worry about the simple and banal things, you get a chance to focus on a difficult choice. Especially well it works in cases where constant unforeseen or unplanned situations and keep yourself in the hands of quite difficult.
3. Checklist helps to be disciplined. This is important when it comes to routine tasks. When we get used to doing something every day, it is easy to lose enthusiasm and attention, we make mistakes and miscalculations. If you get too comfortable in the workplace, you are relaxing and your Attention dissipated, a check-list will remain vigilant every minute.
4. Checklist saves time. You no longer need to think about every step: You have described everything on paper. If a decision must be taken now, the time is the most valuable resource. A checklist will win cherished seconds.

Yes, a check-list is not the most original way to control your workflow. But at the same time, this simple tool is incredibly valuable for anyone who wants to reduce errors and improve the quality of their work.

How to create an effective checklist

There are good checklists and bad check lists. So how do you create such a list, which will help in your work?

1. Focus only on the simple things. The aim of a good checklist is to transfer the information required. No details. Checklist no guide, no tour of your workflow. This is a scheme that helps to remember the most important thing. In a good check list should be from five to ten points.
2. The check-list should be simple and practical. Use clear words that accurately describe the problem. If you need more time to remember what is meant by each item, your check-list bad.
3. Decide when you want to pause. When you use your check-list? When you are moving on to the next step? How do you check that the item is made? Choose a time when you go over the checklist and make sure that everything is done and you can move on to the next task.
4. Define the type of your checklist. For example, if a recipe, you'll read each step and follow the instructions. This type of "read - made". And if in your check-list recorded work assignments today and you simply erase from his completed tasks, this type of "done - confirmed". Such a move would help streamline the work with your check-list and to control himself better.
5. Be prepared to review and update your check-list. Feel free to correct it and make a new task or editing. You will need to experiment to your check-list was really effective.

The last step is especially important. Your check list is not set in stone, it is susceptible to changing circumstances.

No brown M & M's!

Curious habit of eating from David Lee Roth (David Lee Roth), vocalist of Van Halen. Rider rocker looks adequate: there are the technical requirements for equipment. But one of the points regularly plunges employees concert halls, stadiums and music clubs in the Shock: somewhere in the middle of the list is a bowl of M & M's, in which there should be no brown candies.

These riders work as checklists: employees move from point to point, performing musician needs. When David Lee Roth takes the job, he is primarily interested in a bowl of candy. Guess why?

Although a request to remove all the brown M & M's looks crazy, David Lee Roth could explain it. If employees leave the stadium brown candies in a bowl, which means that they belong to the rider carefully enough. When David comes across such pills, he went to check the rest: well if the instrument is connected, whether the equipment is exposed correctly considered whether its requirements for facilities and equipment. And if there is cinnamon candies and site workers treated with respect even to such strange wishes, a musician can be confident that everything else was also performed.

As you can see, checklists can discipline and improve the quality of your work. Do you use such lists?