The Joy of Checklists

 

This week I’m considering a powerful tool for behavior change: the humble checklist. The oldest historical example of this writing genre may be the Sumerian King List from 1800 B.C., but people were likely using lists even earlier for mundane tasks connected to record-keeping and trade. Benjamin Franklin tracked his progress in developing moral virtues using an elaborate list system. The popular FranklinCovey planner system therefore takes its name from America's first ambassador. Checklists in their current widespread form also benefitted from the advent of mail-order catalogs in the mid-1800s, which encouraged consumers to list the items they wanted (Franklin also had a hand in developing the first printed catalogs!). Lists helps us to keep track of things that we might otherwise forget, to put things in a meaningful order, and give us permission to drop things from our memory when we don’t need to remember them any longer. 

A checklist has two essential features: You need to be able to put items on them, and you need to be able to take items off. (Sorting and filtering are more sophisticated options that may help, but aren’t strictly essential). Adding something to a list helps us to manage the subconscious worry that comes from having many important goals but a finite amount of time and attention -- a situation that lends itself to anxiety, poor health, and fewer things actually getting accomplished. The more strongly people's goals come into direct conflict with one another, the worse these problems become. Unfinished tasks nag at our unconscious minds, sapping our energy and focus -- a consistent finding that's known in psychology as the Zegarnik effect. It has been suggested that this human tendency to continue thinking about unfinished tasks is the root of the "earworm" phenomenon in which you turn off an annoying song on the radio but it continues to play on for the rest of the day inside your head. It can also be tapped for positive benefit, such as by encouraging students to take a break from studying in order to keep their minds rolling over the contents of flash cards or review sheets in the background. Crucially, putting an item on a checklist eliminates the Zegarnik effect, even if the task isn't yet completed. When something is on a list and you know it will show up again at the time you need to think about it, that frees you from having to think about it now. It seems that taking any action, even just the action of writing something down, allows the Intuitive mind to "consider it done," and therefore frees us from the work of unconscious rumination. The resulting Zen-like state has been characterized as having "a mind like water," perfectly clear and unruffled by events.

The ability to remove items from a list is perhaps even more important. Many productivity experts suggest that checking off a list item provides a quick burst of dopamine to the brain's reward centers. In one study of a mindfulness app, a checklist tool was used as the control group; although it didn't reach the same levels of improvement as the mindfulness tool, the simple act of using a checklist nevertheless reduced symptoms of depression, improved subjective well-being, and increased a sense of flourishing. If you have ever added an item that's already completed to a checklist, just to have the experience of checking it off again, you know the pleasant feeling that I'm talking about. Removing everything from a checklist can produce a sense of "zero euphoria" that's akin to having an empty e-mail inbox or a perfectly clean desk. Many people say that this helps them to be more creative, more productive, and less distracted, as in this example from comedian Drew Carey. Finally, checking items off a list helps us to avoid skipping essential steps in a process: Dr. Atul Gawande's book The Checklist Manifesto reviews the benefits of checklists for experts like surgeons or pilots who want to avoid the negative consequences that can come when they inadvertently skip an important step.

One can take different approaches to list-making, sometimes characterized as “fuzzy” versus “fussy.” A fuzzy list outlines broad strategic directions like “start writing a new blog post,” while a fussy list enumerates particular steps in detail like “a) find book with the chapter on lists, b) make an outline, c) write the post, and d) edit.” You are probably aware of the popular wisdom that more detailed task lists are better, as recommended for example in the self-help book Getting Things Done. They certainly do allow list-users to check off more items faster, providing the associated quick reward. But are they actually better in achieving one's long-term goals? In some cases, the less detailed plan actually works better, for instance in one study where students with poor study habits did best when they set broad monthly goals rather than specific daily ones. One explanation may be found in the distinction between "strategy" and "tactics," where a list focused on long-term goals facilitates the larger strategic view, and allows people to adjust their tactics as circumstances change.

Finally, people who love their lists also frequently enjoy sorting items into multiple lists, color-coding their tasks by level of importance, re-organizing a list based on how soon each item needs to be done, scheduling tasks onto a calendar, or other fun enhancements to the basic to-do list. These strategies may help list-users to manage their multiple competing priorities and allocate their limited time more effectively. But at a more basic level, they can simply convey a sense of control over one's scattered tasks and demands. People who feel more control over their work experience higher satisfaction and are less likely to become burned out. This additional psychological benefit can make the use of checklists even more enjoyable and effective.

Note: My personal recommendation for checklist software is Todoist, a smartphone app that allows for multiple list categories, due dates, sorting, and cross-platform syncing, including a connection to my Amazon Alexa device so that I can just say "add this to my to-do list" in order to make a note. It includes gamified features like badges and streak tracking as well. But I also recommend the Anylist app, which my wife and I use specifically for meal plans and grocery shopping -- it has all the basic list-making features, but it also stores recipes and daily meal selections, and allows for the quick addition of items from an ingredient list to a shopping list for the store. The Anylist example illustrates one more potential benefit of lists -- one can set them up to be public or shared between multiple people. That type of tracking prevents duplication of effort and helps multiple people avoid forgetting steps; besides the usual checklist benefits, it has been beneficial to my marriage!