[subvocalize]

I use a lot of checklists, mostly via emacs org-mode. Here's an example of my daily sales workflow (B2B SaaS; formatting didn't survive very well, sorry):

* Daily work

DONE Check commission goal for EOY and update

DONE Start airtable timing

DONE Log in to TalkDesk (reboot, make sure active)

DONE Sales startup

* DONE select rotating priority of the day, tag with dailyFocus

* DONE check calendar for any major events unprepared for

* DONE check email and star anything urgent - skim. if you don't need to reply right now, don't

* DONE check new leads in uservoice for anything time-sensitive. if you don't need to reply right now, don't

* DONE rearrange plans on calendar to fit meetings etc in the day

Sales general workflow

* DONE Prepare for major interactions today

* DONE 1bd email, including new leads

* Tasks in SFDC: high, >20, or 0 (unweighted

* 2 definite reply email

* Tasks in SFDC: >3

* Contact all of dec/jan closes, to see if do again

* Weekly goals

* follow up on sammy's intros - probably a longer play

* devlearn followups

* Check out read receipts to see how can move along larger deals

* Create jump discontinuities for future, or set up ability to do same

[alexpetralia]

Interesting how much of this is strategic vs. operational.

Can you elaborate on this?

> Create jump discontinuities for future

[subvocalize]

This is a very operationally-focused list, since it's meant to be a guide for what to do next in "triage" modes. I almost never reach the bottom.

During this operationally-focused mode, I don't let myself innovate too much, though I'll take down notes with ideas. The "jump discontinuities" would be things like making a common sequence of responses into an autoresponder, outsourcing a common research task, or making a case to my team to add or cut a service offering.

In practice, the above strategic work happens during times I allocate and protect in advance, where I focus on improvement instead of running down the operational list. Typically for me these are 2-hour blocks, about 1-3x per week.

[skrebbel]

Wow this is a very good idea. FYI if you indent the whole thing with 4 spaces (each line), then

    *** HN keeps the formatting
     ^-> see?

[majewsky]

The code-snippet syntax needs only 2 spaces, actually.

But I like the original formatting better because lines wrap on narrow viewports (i.e. phones). It's frustratingly common that people post quotes with the code-snippet syntax and the lines are so long that stuff is nearly unreadable on mobile, unless you are masochistic and like reading in a scrolling viewport that only shows 40% of the line width at each time.

[linopolus]

Could you elaborate on how you manage this with org-mode? Do you have to manually reset the lists every evening?

[npsimons]

Not for TODO items, but org-mode specifically has the RESET_CHECK_BOXES property which will reset the checkboxes when a repeating task goes back to it's start state (eg, habits). TODO items can be repeating and there is a way to make it so that a parent heading will switch to DONE when all sub-entries are done (and that parent heading can be repeating as well).

Just to add my two cents to the conversation, it's a personal call between using checkboxes versus sub-heading TODO items, but I typically use checkboxes for physical items (packing lists) or actions with a duration that is sub-minute (eg, areas of vehicle to check for weekly inspection).

[tarboreus]

You can also have it revert at certain times or at a certain frequency: http://orgmode.org/manual/Repeated-tasks.html

[PurpleRamen]

Might be better to use the checklist as a template, and use a function to create a new file/subtree from it including the date. That way you can archive it and look up later what you did or forgot at a specific day.

[npsimons]

This is actually pretty close to what I already do; I've found writing org capture templates cumbersome, so I just have templates in the org files and I cut and paste and then edit as needed.