I WAS LISTENING TO ONE of my favorite podcast NPR The Hidden Brain the other day. The newest episode was a re-run of one of its most practical episodes. It's on the use of a checklist. Yes, a boring checklist. Here're my simple morning checklist. I need to accomplish all of these before getting out of the door:
Make my bed; Toilet; Shave (if needed); Shower; Coffee The line between a series of "must-do" (as in a checklist) and rituals isn't clear here. Apparently, I don't "need" to do any of these. I can always make my bed in the evening when I get back from work. I can always shave the next day (how much more mustache would I have after 24 hours?). And coffee? There're so many coffee shops on the way to work. Well.
turns out there're good psychological reasons for all of this to work. Making my bed, psychologically speaking and researched, makes me feel somewhat accomplished. It's shown in many researches that those who make their beds in the morning tend to be more positive when dealing with tasks during the day.
Shave, too, although doesn't makes me feel more "presentable" per se, it makes me spend time to look at myself in the mirror and inspect my being: That being who is a son of my mother, who is a true friend a few, and a diehard believer in the power of now. In other words, it doesn't give me the sense of efficiency, but efficacy. And coffee? It has to come after everything else, as explained in Daniel H Pink's When: Don't drink coffee immediately after you wake up.
The moment we awaken, our bodies begin producing cortisol, a stress hormone that kick-starts our groggy souls. But it turns out that caffeine interferes with the production of cortisol—so starting the day immediately with a cup of coffee barely boosts our wakefulness. Worse, early-morning coffee increases our tolerance for caffeine, which means we must gulp ever more to obtain its benefits.
The better approach is to drink that first cup an hour or ninety minutes after waking up, once our cortisol production has peaked and the caffeine can do its magic.7 If you're looking for an afternoon boost, head to the coffee shop between about 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., when cortisol levels dip again.
Well, my next book on my Audible.com's queue is The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by the surgeon Dr Atul Gawande, who, also in this episode of The Hidden Brain talks to us about how important and critical a "seemingly boring checklist" could help. [gallery ids="4794,4795" type="rectangular"] A checklist is probably more well-known in the aviation industry.
Would you like to be on a plane where your captain, no matter how many hundreds of thousands of miles he/she has flown, doesn't run through a list of items required, things to be done, or points to be considered, used as a reminder before he/she flies the plane? I, for one, would not want to be on that plane.
The stakes are high and as you'll learn from this episode of The Hidden Brain, there're much evidence to show that the more experienced you are, in fact, the more likely that you will miss a standard protocol ''things to be done" which would lead to a fatal accident. In Dr Gawande's case, the missing of a checklist could lead to deaths. Think about something as simple as not cleaning your hand properly, as a surgeon, before a surgery. Fatal infection, perhaps?
Somehow most of us think that we don't need a checklist to remind us what we need to do on things we often, and usually, overlook. So, here're why that I think a checklist is important: Not all checklists are equal. There're bad and a good checklists. "Good" checklists are put together through some very painful experience of things' failing to work, falling apart, and not running as well as anticipated.
A good checklist for someone who is about to fly a plane (i.e., a pilot), for instance, is a result of countless hours of analysis, by thousands of experts, of thousands of black boxes found after the crashes. Luckily, we don't always have to go through these painful experience by ourselves. You can basically google a checklist on just about everything that you need in life, from running a small cafe to operating an truck.
Having a 15-bar espresso machine that breaks down only after making coffee for half a day as a result of the barista's forgetfulness to check the pressure valve before using the machine is obviously not as calamitous as (well, you lose money) crashing a plane. The lesson, however, is the same. They can be avoided.
J ust use a checklist; Things on a good checklist are things that guarantee that whatever operation you are attempting to attend will "work." this is not to be confused that the operation will "accomplish." Nothing can actually guarantee that any operation especially if there is/are unanticipated external factors involved. For something to "work," firstly, is undoubtedly a great step for that which to accomplish; don't you think?; You can always improve your checklist.
Cross out things that you no longer need to check (such as once a certain part of the machinery or operation has been permanently upgraded) and add more items that would be helpful to the list. A good checklist evolves -- like a great creative mind; So, you can't be creative if the things you're trying to do don't even "work." So, when thinking about a product, service, or experience, you may begin with a list of "verbs" that you want it to accomplish.
In my line of work, I have seen many entrepreneurs who come up with an innovative product that doesn't do the most basic task. For instance, a high-tech coffee cup that has both the superpower NFC chip and heat sensor, but too expensive. In which case, maybe "affordability" (and to whom as well) should be on the checklist; and, You can share your checklist with likeminded people. I personally think that it's a great conversation starter (if not the nerdiest pickup line).
Seriously, why engage in a senseless smalltalk when you can actually compare things that can potentially make your and your counterpart's life better? Do you have a checklist? I just want to end this (unusually) short post with a general checklist. All of us should also have a "moral checklist" -- call it a set of principles if you want. It's always useful to stick to a series of principles. You could extract it from a guideline.
For instance, the philosopher Immanuel Kant, which is "I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will tthat my maxim should become a universal law." In this case, it's of "categorical imperative" that people should not end their own lives or lie. Killing themselves would lead to the end of the human species and communicating falsehood would muddle the understanding among beings in this already very complicated species.
So, they would be something that should not become a universal law, hence the opposite, which is not to kill yourself and not to lie are two items of Kant's (actually quite long) moral checklist. If your guideline is, well let's make up something altruistic, to be "useful to the society," then your checklist may include "only hang out with someone who is also socially responsible," "only works for a cooperation that is concerned with the environment," and so on.
For one, having a "moral checklist" will save you a lot of time. The (one of my favorite and you should know by now) author Rolf Dobelli writes in The Art of the Good Life: First: constantly having to make new decisions situation by situation saps your willpower. Decision fatigue is the technical term for this. A brain exhausted by decision-making will plump for the most convenient option, which more often than not is also the worst one. This is why pledges make so much sense.
Once you've pledged something, you don't then have to weigh up the pros and cons each and every time you're faced with a decision. It's already been made for you, saving you mental energy. The second reason inflexibility is so valuable has to do with reputation. By being consistent on certain topics, you signal where you stand and establish the areas where there's no room for negotiation. You communicate self-mastery, making yourself less vulnerable to attack.
So, as I have written about in my principles, I have a few rules for life. These are things that can be extracted as a moral checklist as following. Is he/she selfish? Is he/she kind? Is he/she getting wise and he/she getting old? Is he/she tries to have an opinion on everything including what he/she doesn't know? Is he/she often overthinking? Is he/she loving gossiping? I look at these in determining a friendship with someone. A tick at any of these boxes will not automatically determine that person unfriendable.
Some of which I think is a deal breaker (i.e., selfish and gossipy; I can't have a selfish and gossipy person around me). Some of which are lesser in their degree of criticality. Not only have these lists saved me from wasting a lot of time with the wrong people, but it has also improved the quality of my time with those who are true friends. With them, I can be much more creative. Long hail checklist!
On Jealously (I Forgive and Forget)