We bet you didn’t know that it’s Checklist Day tomorrow! What does it mean? Not a lot really, but it’s a good opportunity to share the benefits of working with effective checklists, and we’re all about increasing efficiency and productivity.
Using project management techniques and task lists effectively can improve your life and create more time for play. Basically, a checklist sets out how to do a task as a series of steps. It’s important to understand that checklists get their name because as we work through the steps, we check them off or tick them off as we go through so that we mark each step is complete.
To be worthwhile, that series of steps must be complete and there must be nothing missed out. Plus, the level of detail of the steps and the size of these must be suited to the people who are going to carry out the steps to their experience and capabilities.
When it comes to creating a checklist, you can of course scribble it down in a pad or on the back of your hand, or to try and keep a copy, you could create a Note on your computer or phone, but the most efficient and useful programmes to help create a checklist would be Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Evernote.
Creating A Checklist In Evernote
Creating a checklist in Evernote is quite easy; we’ve shared the steps below:
- Open the Evernote web browser.
- Navigate to the left-hand side of the screen and create a new note.
- Hover over the bulleted list icon and select the to-do list icon from the drop down
- Note that a check box automatically appears within your note.
- Title your note for example “business ideas” and hit Enter or return on a Mac andbegin to input your tasks. You can check off each item once it’s been completed, via the checkboxes.
- When you’re finished, select “done” to save changes.
Creating A Checklist in Microsoft Word
Using Microsoft Word checklist for routine tasks makes complete sense, and it can be done in a few simple steps:
- Open Microsoft Word and draft a list using bullet points
- Select the entire list, make sure you’re on the Home tab and click the bullets dropdown arrow
- If you see the checkmark or box you would like, select it
- If you don’t see the symbol you want, click ‘Define New Bullet’
- Click font and select Windings, then click symbol
- Scroll through to find the symbol you would like, i.e. a box, or 3D box that can be ticked
- Click Ok, and Ok again – this symbol is now added to your bullet library so should be handy if you want to use it again
Creating a Checklist in Microsoft Excel
- Open Microsoft Excel and draft your headings
- Go to the first column and click Insert, followed by Symbol.
- Scroll through and select your checkbox
- Highlight the cell and click copy, then paste this in as many rows as you need (or simply click on the bottom right corner of the cell and drag it down to copy to multiple rows)
- Draft your list in the second column
- Hide borders and gridlines if you don’t want a printed copy to appear as a table/spreadsheet, and would prefer it looks like a list
Managing Your Checklist
The more complex or critical situation is, the more value a checklist has in guiding you through the correct process. It will ensure that you do everything right, and miss nothing out. Make sure you have accounted for every step and that these are clear and easily understood by all concerned parties.
As you clear things from your checklist, you’ll often find you need to add to it too, think about working with one of our PA’s and we can attend meetings with you, enabling us to update your minutes, reports and checklists, and therefore keeping you on track, even during the busiest of times.
