This Productivity System Will Save Your Life
Simple but effective.
There’s a solution to some of life’s most complex problems, and it’s so simple you might roll your eyes when I tell you.
Engineers use it to build skyscrapers, surgeons to save lives, and pilots to fly an 80-ton hunk of metal through the sky.
And it can supercharge your productivity, too.
Ready?
It’s a checklist.
Stay with me — this isn’t some kindergarten chore chart.
Checklists are deceptively powerful tools, cutting through complexity like a hot knife through butter.
Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong used them to land on the moon.
When asked how they managed something so groundbreaking, Aldrin said they simplified the process into one task at a time: check, check, check.
Suddenly, the impossible wasn’t so impossible.
The checklist’s modern champion is Dr. Atul Gawande, author of The Checklist Manifesto.
He revealed that a simple checklist reduced surgical deaths globally.
And while our daily lives might not involve scalpels or rocket fuel, we can still benefit from this low-tech life hack.
In Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown explains it best: “The mind is good for many things, but it’s a bad office.”
Translation: stop storing mental to-dos in your head; it’s a recipe for chaos.
Offload them to a checklist and free up brainpower for what matters.
The key to an excellent checklist is identifying “pause points” — moments in your process where you can catch errors before they spiral.
For pilots, it’s throttle-up.
For surgeons, it’s before the first incision.
For podcasters, it’s “hit record.”
Simple but effective.
So, start by observing your process. Write everything down, refine it, and test it.
Once rock-solid, you’ll wonder how you managed without it.
Tools like Google Docs or Apple Notes work great, but a physical checklist is satisfying to check off and more challenging to ignore.
Checklists may not solve all your problems, but they’ll help simplify your life, streamline your work, and keep chaos in check.
And if they’re good enough for brain surgeons and astronauts, they’re good enough for us.
Have a wonderful weekend, all.
