69. Right checklist, part 1.

To do everything according to the plan (see previous post), you need to clearly articulate the tasks, otherwise the brain starts slipping and jumping to another: at best to another checklist item, at worst - check your mail/instagram/scrast. Here we go.

1. Is the task formulated as an answer to the question: "What should I do?
Bad: "Documents", "Accounting", "Architecture", "Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Help, it's urgent!"
Okay: "Send Documents to Accounting," "Describe System Architecture on Wikipedia."
Tip: The brain always calculates the answer to the question "what do you need to do?" and you will save a lot of thought if you "cache" that answer in the task list once you calculate it.

2. Do you understand what the result of this task looks like?
Bad: "Examine the cause of server crash", "Analyze Wasi's code".
Okay: "Check the free space in /var/log", "Make a list of comments to Vasya code".
Tip: An unintelligible result of a task is a frequent cause of sneaking, imagine what you want to get at the end before moving on.

Two other equally important things - in the next post.