Key Takeaway: By creating and using daily checklists of tasks that you regularly do, you’ll be able to free up your time and energy to focus on more important “To Do’s.”

What I’m about to tell you to use isn’t very revolutionary. It’s not sexy. It’s not mind-blowing.  But it’s VERY effective if you can stay disciplined with it. This non-revolutionary, non-sexy, and non-mind-blowing tool that I’m talking about is...

… the daily checklist.

Daily checklists will remind you of the tasks that you need to do on the days you’re working — and because these checklists are already in place, you won’t have to spend any time or energy thinking about the routine tasks that you need to do every day.  

In turn, this time- and energy-saving mechanism will provide you with the opportunity to spend the time on your most important tasks.

The four-step process to using your daily checklists effectively are:

1. Identify the platform (or document) that you want to create your daily checklists on. Pick the platform that is most convenient to you.  It could be a Google Doc, pen and paper, an Excel spreadsheet, etc. You should set up a checklist for every day of the week that you want to use a checklist.
2. Identify your tasks that you do every day. There are certain tasks that you do every day (or almost every single day); identify all of them, and record these tasks on your daily checklists.
3. Identify your day-specific tasks. By “day-specific” tasks, I’m talking about tasks that you only do on, let’s say, Thursdays. Perhaps you have a big client call every Thursday at 2 PM. Jot down this item on your Thursday checklist.
4. Stay disciplined and check your daily checklists every day. Once you’ve filled out your daily checklists, it’s important for you to maintain the discipline to review them every day.  By doing so, you won’t have to spend much time or energy in thinking of the routine tasks that you need to do every day.

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