PRACTICING STRESS-FREE PRODUCTIVITY | PART TWOChecklists: Creative Reminders
The last topic in personal system organization that deserves some
attention is the care and feeding of checklists, those recipes of
potential ingredients for projects, events, and areas of value, inter-
est, and responsibility.
The most creative checklists are often generated at the back
end of a good consulting process with a team or company. Good
ones also show up as areas of focus for training staff or hiring into
job slots.
When I'm clearing in-baskets with clients and reviewing
other things they're concerned about, we often run across little
"Memos to Self" like:
- Exercise more regularly.
- Make sure we have evaluation forms for each training.
- Spend more quality time with my kids.
- Do more proactive planning for the division.
- Maintain good morale with my team.
- Ensure we are in alignment with corporate strategy.
- Keep the client billing process up to date.
What should you do with these "fuzzier" kinds of internal
commitments and areas of attention?First, Clarify Inherent Projects and Actions
For much of this kind of "stuff," there is still a project and/or an
action that needs to be defined. "Exercise more regularly" really
translates for many people into "Set up regular exercise program"
(project) and "Call Sally for suggestions about personal trainers"
(real action step). In such cases, inherent projects and actions still
need to be clarified and organized into a personal system.
But there are some things that don't quite fit into that
category.