Good morning, bookworms. Last week’s poll showed most of us skip chapters when they’re boring. So maybe the real lesson is: authors, keep it interesting.

This week, we explore the hidden superpower of using a checklist consistently.

— Maneet

Weekly Discussion

Last week, I sat down to write this very post and realized I had skipped a step in my process.

For months I had a little checklist I followed religiously: draft the lesson, edit, load into my scheduling tool, add links, and so on. Somewhere along the way, I stopped looking at that checklist. I figured I already knew the steps, so why bother? But without fail, the weeks I don’t use it, I end up missing something small but important.

It’s humbling, because The Checklist Manifesto makes the case that checklists are one of the most effective tools ever invented.

If someone offered you a way to improve your reliability and effectiveness by 25%, 50%, or more, you’d jump at it. And yet when we find out that tool is “just a checklist,” most of us shrug it off. It doesn’t feel exciting. It feels boring. It feels like something we shouldn’t need.

But the truth is, even experts fail without them.

Pilots, for example, are trained from day one to use checklists, no matter how routine the flight. They may have done it thousands of times before, but skipping the list just once could have disastrous consequences.

And that’s what sticks with me:

Checklists aren’t there to replace our judgment, they’re there to free up our brain.

In daily life, the stakes may not be as high as in an airplane cockpit, but the principle still holds. A grocery list keeps you from walking out of the store without the one item you actually needed. A packing list keeps you from showing up to the airport without your passport. And for me, a simple checklist keeps this book club on track.

The book forced me to ask: if I know a checklist makes me more effective, why am I so resistant to using one?

The honest answer is discipline. It feels tedious. It feels unnecessary. Sometimes it even feels like I’ve “outgrown” the list. But every time I skip it, I prove to myself that I haven’t.

Is there an area of your life that could benefit from a checklist? Can you make one right now?

I’d love to hear from you. Reply and let me know.

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