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Dallas, Texas, United States

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Magnet Checklist

I recently finished listening to the audio version of the book The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. This book documents how simple checklists are saving lives. I was so impressed with this book that I added it to my Top Ten Books List.

I was inspired to create a checklist for my daily maintenance tasks. I created it using round refrigerator magnets on strips of painters tape.


Each task is written on its own strip of tape with the strips ordered by priority or sequence. I used foot long strips of painters tape of the type that is easy to peel off and reposition. The strips are mounted on the side of a refrigerator or metal bookcase so that magnets can be placed over the tape under the TODO or DONE columns.

For the magnets, I used one and a quarter inch diameter round magnets since they are large enough to discourage toddlers from swallowing them. The kind that I bought were beveled to make them easy to pull away from the metal surface. Sometimes I will position a magnet partway between the TODO and DONE columns to indicate that I have made partial progress.

On some daily checklist tasks that seem overwhelming or tedious, I try to work on them a little bit each day. Even at just a tolerable minimum of five minutes a day, you can start to see some progress over time.

1 comment:

Heather said...

Cool! I'd been thinking about getting a kids' chore chart for myself. What ended up working for me is an app called Home Routines. You can get it on itunes, not sure about for Droid, etc. I felt kind of silly paying $3 for a to-do list, but it really works for me and motivates me. You can customize it with several different types of lists and deadlines, and it will sort of consolidate everything that is due today. Then it resets overnight or whenever you want it to. Thanks for the book recommendation, I'll check it out.