I first started thinking about this because of Checklist Manifesto, a book by Atul Gawande. I have not read the book yet, but I’ve heard several interviews of him. The book is about how checklists for complicated procedures help minimize mistakes and save lives. He is a surgeon and he has seen how a simple checklist for a surgical procedure can dramatically reduce the number of complications. I don’t do anything as grave as surgery, but there are a lot of things I want to accomplish each day. I thought checklists might help and started using them.

My first checklist was a weekly one. Initially, I drew up a list of daily tasks. I realized quickly that I didn’t have enough time each day to do all these things. So I cut the list of daily activities to a minimum. However, there were plenty of other things I wanted to do, some only once a week, others several times a week. So I added those to my weekly checklist too. For example, I want to practice guitar every day, so there are seven boxes next to it on the list. Other items may have only one box next to it, like doing payroll for my mother’s home health care workers which I do every Monday. I have four boxes next to exercise. I don’t care which days I work out, as long as I work out three or four times during the week. My final task for each week is to review, edit and print my checklist for the next week.

After using that checklist for a month or so, I decided that I needed a separate checklist for my podcast. This is what I’d call a procedural checklist. It contains a series of steps for a single task or project. Usually the tasks should be completed in a particular order. The checklist for my podcast has been evolving over the past few episodes and it now has 28 steps, from the first email to ask someone if they will do the podcast, to backing up all the audio files when I’m done.

It may seem like I’m creating a lot of work for myself, but I think it’s really the opposite. I’ve found that if I do some preparation before the interview, the interview will go much more smoothly than if I wing it. I’ve also found that if I conduct the interview well, the editing goes much better and takes less time. Finally, by codifying the steps for promoting it, I get that part done quickly and painlessly.

Of the two types of checklists, the weekly “To Do” list and the procedural list, I think the latter is more effective and worthwhile. I don’t think there has been a single week where I have accomplished every task on my weekly checklist. Perhaps I have accomplished more than I would have otherwise. But I think checklists really begin to shine when you use them to walk you through a process you do over and over again. I am really happy with the result. A checklist helps me eliminate mistakes, keeps me focused on only the task I’m currently doing, and raises the quality of my work overall. It also provides me with a method to review my work and improve every time I do a podcast, by translating what I learn into new steps.

I think this might have a profound impact on my teaching in the future. I’ve always had a plan for my classes. Sometimes there is a curriculum to follow. Sometimes I come in with a number of options. Sometimes I figure out what I’m going to do on the way to class or drastically change course in the middle. I’m sure there are things I have learned when teaching something that are now long gone from my memory. In the future, I’m going to write out my plans more carefully, probably with branches and options, but definitely with steps. Each time I come back to a particular lesson plan, it will contain within the procedure many of the nuggets I’ve learned from the previous attempts to teach that lesson plan.

Over the last few days, I’ve taken what I’ve learned from the podcast checklist and tried to apply it to other things. I have a short procedure to go through when I sit down to practice my guitar. I’m working on some lesson plans for practicing improv by myself. I even came up with a procedure to write blog entries. This is the first attempt to follow that procedure and it seems to have been beneficial, keeping me focused and on track and producing a post which I hope is more useful than if I used my previous method: stare at a blank page, type stuff and edit until I have something I’m not embarrassed to publish. I’m convinced that using checklists would be beneficial for other creative uses like rehearsal procedures, show checklists, video projects, etc.

A checklist app for the iPhone and iPod Touch

I downloaded a checklist app for my iPod Touch. It is quite useful. It’s called Quick Checklists. This is a great app for those shorter lists that you might use often, like writing a blog post or working out at the gym. You can create a template for a list and easily make changes to it on the fly, or change the template for future use. It’s perfect for my purposes. I’ll keep my paper checklists for more involved projects, but for day to day stuff, this app is great.

My checklist for blogging

For those of you interested in my blog checklist, here it is (some of these only apply to WordPress blogs):

• Choose a topic
• Research via the web, books, talking to others on the subject, etc.
• Brainstorm thesis or basic point of the post
• Write outline
• Write post
• Take a break
• Edit for clarity
• Read aloud
• Edit for readability
• Title it
• Add links
• Find image or media to accompany it
• Insert the “more” code
• Choose excerpt
• Add tags and category designations
• Publish
• Plug it on Twitter, Facebook, etc

Also, I’ve been working on the pilot episode of a podcast. I think it’s ready to go, but I want to wait to see how it looks through the iTunes store before I start plugging it. Come back tomorrow if you want to hear it. It should be ready by then.

For instance, I have long wanted to be a runner. I have many times started exercise programs and incorporated running or walking into the program. Last winter, when I was working out at the gym I realized that I especially like walking or running for long distances. Once I was on the treadmill, I preferred going for 45 minutes rather than just doing 20 and being done with it. But what I really wanted was to run and walk longer distances outside. I tried a few times to run outdoors in winter and I couldn’t stand it. The cold was simply too much.

Later in the summer, I decided once again to give it a try. This time I was walking and running outside and I was enjoying it, but what really got me hooked I think was when I started using Nike+ with my iPod. To use it, you need a small chip which you put in your shoe (or put inside a little pouch that attaches to your shoelaces). The chip acts like a pedometer, transmitting a signal, presumably whenever you take a step. You have several choices for a receiver to keep track of your progress. iPod Touches and iPhones have an app built into it that you can use to track your runs. You can also buy an attachment for other iPods or you can buy a separate bracelet to track your runs.

The Nike+ system will keep track of your distance, time, and even calories spent. Every time you sync your iPod, your data will be uploaded to the Nike website where you can graphically see your progress, set goals, and participate in challenges with other runners. It does need some calibration, but it’s accurate enough to at least tell you when you are making progress. For me, it’s just the kind of nudge I need to keep going. So far, I’ve run or walked over 200 miles with Nike+ and my goal is to do another 700 – 1000 miles this year with it. In part because of the Nike+ system, this fall I ran my first 5K and 10K races.

Anyway, there are a number of things that I’m working on that I’d like to keep at it, things that if I did every day, I would see significant progress in the next year. I’d like to practice playing guitar each day (a new hobby I took up in the fall). I’d like to keep up better with my online business, making sure to do a few key tasks each day. I’d also like to keep this blog up (I’ll refrain from stating a goal, since I think it will be doomed as soon as I choose to make such a blogging goal public.). There are a few other things I’m sure I’ll want to include.

This brings me to a story I heard today on the radio. It was about some research that indicated that if surgeons followed some simple changes to their procedures, like instituting surgical checklists (similar to the checklists that pilots use when preparing to fly), they would likely have better outcomes and fewer mistakes. It got me thinking that I may want to develop a simple daily and weekly checklist for myself. That’s what I intend to do. I’m going to keep it simple at first, with a minimum of things to do and then slowly add things to it. Perhaps I’ll publish it after I’ve revised it a few times.

Last summer I made a series of videos about such mundane aspects of my life as going to a movie or riding my bike. And it’s not like I’m able to spin it into some amazing anecdote. I’m sure if a random person comes across those videos, they will most likely watch it, shrug and say, “What was that?”

Sometimes I think I just never outgrew that stage in life when you come home from school and say, “Mommy, mommy, look at this picture I made at school!” as I hand over this pathetic still life made from shapes of colored paper, crayons and glue.

What’s most difficult about this now is that many of the details of my life revolve around illness and family. The details are mostly private and should be. Many of the things I do feel like sharing, should really be saved for personal conversations, not public postings on the web. But still I do want to share a few things. I can’t help myself.

The other night I was sitting in a bar having a drink with a couple of people I had met through meetup.com. The subject turned to my situation with my mother. I was talking about my future plans, how I’d like to return to making theatre and teaching, but would have to wait. One of the women asked me, “So, you are going to do that after your mother dies?”

It was honestly a relief that she spoke of it like that. Her grandmother had died of Alzheimer’s so perhaps she just knew it was alright to talk about it bluntly. It’s much harder to talk when you are trying to be subtle.

I’ve recently had questions from people like, “When are you coming to LA?” or “When will you be back in New York to teach?” The answer is something that just doesn’t feel polite to say.

“When my mother dies.”

But of course, I search for other ways to say that. “When I’m not needed here anymore.” Or, “In a year or two.” Unfortunately that leads to other questions and draws the person in deeper, so that as some point I need to say what I wish I said up front, “I’m here till my mother dies.” And at that point it seems more like a rebuke than simple information.

There is such a terrible mix of feelings around taking care of someone who is dying of dementia. You love them. You want them to be comfortable and happy as much as possible. You want them to be better. You want them to be able to talk to you again. You want them to stop going through your pockets. You want them to stop pulling your hair. You wish you could roll back the clock a couple of years. You cherish simple moments when you get to hug them and you know that your presence is making their life better. And you wish you could jump forward a couple of years when this will all be over and you can start up your life again.

So if you ask me something about my future and I say, “After my mother dies.” I’m not trying to shock you or upset you. I’m certainly not trolling for sympathy. I’m trying to get that part of the conversation over, to let you know as succinctly as possible what my situation is here and why I’m not teaching in New York, playing poker in Arizona or hanging out in LA. I still want to talk about it, if you let me. I just don’t want to be coy about it.

However, I also want to talk about low carb diets, behavioral economics, evolution based learning systems, poker, and of course, improv. Oh and I may also tell you about the grill I bought last night to cook brats, or the strange rattle in my car, or how I got myself hooked on black coffee and now have to quit cold turkey.

I realized that I was unhappy in my administration job at the theatre where I worked, so I quit (although I kept teaching). I started winning at poker and began to think about pursuing it professionally. I found another new source of income when a hobby became a business. I left New York to spend some time with my father in Arizona, and finally I moved back to my hometown to take care of my mother. My old life has been completely interrupted.

This is not all bad. I’m very glad that I’ve been able to spend time with my family and being a caregiver for a parent does have many rewards. It’s hard not to feel a little lost at times though. Eventually, I will leave again, pick up my life and start over. And I’ll have many options in front of me.

Do I return to the theatre? If so, do I go back to Chicago, return to New York or join many of my friends in Los Angeles? Maybe I should go back to Arizona where the weather is amazing and theatre culture is still young, or perhaps I should reconnect with some of my oldest and best friends in Seattle. Do I teach for someone else like I have before or do I teach my own classes or even start my own theatre?

Part of me longs to travel, both here and abroad. Perhaps I should return to poker, hone my tournament skills and spend a year or two traveling from one tournament to another.

My business may still be doing well when it’s time to leave here, perhaps I should throw all my energy into that. I don’t think most people get several chances to build up a successful business. Second Life may peak and fall apart within the next 5 years. I should strike while the iron is hot, make as much money as I can before people move on to something else.

Still, perhaps this is the time to return to grad school. I could get an MFA in acting or directing. Perhaps teaching at a university would be great fun and a good way to spend the next twenty years or so.

But if I return to school, maybe this is the perfect opportunity to nurture a different interest. Maybe computer science is still something I could pursue and enjoy. Of course, I’m also very interested in mathematics, biology, economics, diet and nutrition, and a half a dozen other topics, so saying I’ll return to grad school only expands my options.

In part the purpose of this blog is for me to hone my sense of what things are most important to me. I know that I’m getting ready for the second big chunk of my adult life and I want it to be meaningful and satisfying. I don’t want to simply see where the wind takes me (or do I? Perhaps, that is exactly how I should spend life, hopping from opportunity to opportunity, never quite knowing where I will be five years from now).

Of course, I don’t need to decide this today or tomorrow. I think this blog will help me figure out just where my path lies when it comes time to move on to the next part of my life. You could call it a mid-life crisis, but I don’t think it is. It’s more of a mid-life pause. Life has forced me to narrow my focus, give up most of parts of what was my life temporarily. I’m determined to use it as an opportunity.