Make checklists that work in the real world, not on paper

Complex work fails in boring ways: a box not ticked, a tool left uncharged, a consent never verified. The harder the job, the easier it is to miss the obvious because attention is swallowed by the exceptional. Good checklists reverse this by putting the small, critical steps in your path at the exact time you need them. They’re not textbooks. They’re short, visible prompts at “pause points” that catch the 1–2 things most likely to sink you. The first test of a checklist isn’t elegance, it’s whether a tired person can use it in under a minute without rolling their eyes.

There are two useful flavors. DO‑CONFIRM fits skilled teams who already know the flow: you do the work, then stop to confirm the few killers. READ‑DO fits less frequent or delicate tasks, like mixing meds or prepping a chainsaw, where reading each step prevents drift. The wording matters. Use plain language, not jargon. If the item can’t be verified out loud or by sight, it probably doesn’t belong. One manager said, “If I can’t point to it, we cut it.” That’s a good rule of thumb.

Design starts with choosing the moment. Before you begin, at a risky transition, and before you finish are the big three. Place the checklist there and give someone explicit authority to call the pause. Counterintuitively, it’s better if this person isn’t the most senior. When the deploy lead, not the CTO, calls the check, everyone understands this isn’t a power move, it’s a safety move. I might be wrong, but I’ve rarely seen a checklist succeed when the call‑out is optional.

Then iterate ruthlessly. Time the run‑through. Cut anything that doesn’t prevent real harm. If it takes more than 90 seconds, people will shortcut under pressure. Pilot the list on low‑stakes days and collect misses. Treat every edit like shedding weight from a backpack. Keep the essentials, toss the rest.

Underneath, you’re leveraging working memory limits (we juggle about 5–9 items), implementation intentions (if‑then cues tied to real moments), and forcing functions (you can’t cut without the right blades in place). When done right, a checklist frees expert attention for the hard parts, and makes the boring parts boringly safe.

Pick one high‑risk task and circle only the few steps that, when missed, truly hurt results. Place one to three pause points at natural breaks and decide if your context needs DO‑CONFIRM or READ‑DO, then write the items in plain, pointable language. Prototype it on a quiet day and time the run; cut any step that isn’t a proven failure point until the whole thing fits in 30 to 90 seconds. Finally, print it big or pin it in the tool you use, and nominate a non‑senior teammate to call the pause every time. Try it on your very next run and capture what to trim after.