CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Give Your Projects a Final Polish With a Standard Checklist

WebWorkerDaily: "Soon after I clicked the “Publish” button on my blog dashboard, I realized I had made a mistake.
I’d read my post through three times before hitting that button, but somehow missed adding a crucial word — the word “don’t”. Inadvertently, I had told my readers that they “have to sacrifice too much to lessen their cost of living,” . Furthermore, two of the hyperlinks I had added were broken.
I am a sloppy self‑editor, mostly because I am forgetful. I realized it was time to create a standard checklist to remind myself of all the steps I have to take before clicking “Publish”."

3 comments:

AllisonWeston said...

Checklists are not just handy for final papers. I have found checklists for drafting projects to be very helpful. Pulling out a pre-made list at 3 a.m. when you are exhausted helps avoid any sleep deprived mistakes like forgetting leader lines or arrows. My own checklist goes something like dimensioning...check...arrows...check...
notes...check etc. Even better than a checklist in these cases is a fresh set of eyes. Of course, at 3 a.m. unless you are up in Studio 33, a fresh set of eyes is hard to come by. In that case, a checklist is a real friend.

Kelli Sinclair said...

I am the person that has a checklist for everything. Not only do I have a checklist for each project, but I also have a checklist for the things I have to do each day. The reason checklists are so useful is that once you have written something down you don't have to remember it ever again. All you have to do is look at your list and it immediately reminds you. Creating a checklist also will make you think past the normal things that you have to do for every project. In a way they are an exercise for coming up with something new and different that you don't normally do.

Elize said...

I, like Kelli, am a checklist person. Most of them aren't on paper but I have personal checklists going at all times. Organized by location, time of day, class, individual projects, you name it. But my favorite part of this article was the ending. Know why you have this checklist. It couldn't be more true. Sometimes its a reminder to use it and sometimes its a reminder to just relax because now that this checklist is made you can relax and do a better job in total.