What Are the Advantages of a Free Checklist Maker?
Many people use checklists to help remind them of important things they need to do. But a to-do list isn’t their only purpose. They can act as instruction manuals, so employees don’t forget vital steps in an important task. This not only makes employee onboarding simpler and faster, but it also reduces the number of resources expended on each employee, saving the company time and money. In addition, the use of checklists provides daily structure and allows employers to plan days, months, years, and more in advance while outlining company goals and otherwise maintaining organizational methods that are critical to realizing corporate success. In this way, checklists increase productivity and efficiency.
At home or work, checklists only offer advantages. With the use of online checklists, you can eliminate paper-based problems and move to a more efficient digital system. Create an online checklist to save time by reducing time-consuming handwritten tasks and streamlining assessments, inspections, and audits.
What Are the Advantages and Benefits: Create Checklist Online
Checklists can provide your company with some much-needed structure and organization, as well as a high degree of security. Making mistakes is not only annoying, but in many professions, it can also lead to damages or even danger. However, a digital organizational system can help eliminate human error. Step-by-step checklists guide you through daily tasks and provide a point of orientation. The following are 4 additional advantages of creating online checklists:
1. Time Savings
Creating a digital checklist doesn’t take nearly as much time as a handwritten one. And in the long run, the time and costs savings are going to be indisputable. Because online checklists are reusable, they save paper and eliminate the need for printers and their corresponding operational costs.
2. Enhanced Performance
Online checklists also frees up mental space to do other, more important things. Gone are the days of feeling like you’ve forgotten something important. A digital app like Lumiform guides you through the audit, inspection, or task. You no longer have to remember every nuance of the job off the top of your head. Need a quick refresher? Just pull up the search function in-app.
3. Improved Organization
Your daily work schedule becomes more structured with the help of an online checklist. You can work through your checklist step by step without forgetting any important steps or tasks.
4. Assignment
Online checklists facilitate the assignment and delegation of tasks. The recipient knows exactly what to do and when to do it.
What Are the Different Types of Checklists I Can Use in My Business?
To-do list, planner, calendar, schedule, inventory, directory, agenda, ballot, bill – these are all names that represent the organizational activity that break down the overwhelming and oftentimes chaotic hubbub of everyday life into smaller, more manageable chunks, all of which are synonyms for the beloved checklist.
There are effectively three main types of checklists: Daily, route memory, and informative. Which one you decide to use will largely depend on your goals and how you want to structure an action plan.
What Is a Daily Checklist and Its Uses?
A lot of us are already familiar with the purpose of a daily checklist, but most of us don’t notice how widely used they are in our everyday lives. Nor do we realize the full extent of their applicability in our personal as well as our business endeavors. Speaking of which, the daily checklist has often been mislabeled as a solely personal tool of organization and planning, under-credited, and serving no other purpose than to remind its creator of the trivial pursuits of the upcoming hours and days. But this goes far beyond your basic grocery store/planner to-do list. Many businesses already employ daily checklists as a marker of productivity, without which they would undoubtedly unravel into bankruptcy and unemployment.
Examples of Ready-Made Daily Checklists and Their Uses:
- Daily Retail Store Reporting – Retail stores obviously have to keep track of inventory and the dollar amount in the cash registers on a daily basis. If they didn’t have a documentation system, that means they’d have to eyeball the shelves to see how much inventory they’d need to order to restock the shelves. It’s an imprecise process at best, not to mention the loss in revenue from an out of whack supply and demand ratio.
- Daily Employee Attendance Sheet – Believe it or not, attendance sheets also constitute as a daily checklist. Businesses have to keep track of who’s on sick leave, who’s on vacation, who has any unexcused absences, and if employees are taking their mandatory, state-regulated breaks.
- Daily Temperature Log – Especially in restaurants, food temperature has to be logged on a daily, if not hourly, basis. Many foodborne illnesses result from undercooked or improperly stored produce, meat, and seafood. Other than avoiding food poisoning and the resulting legal citations, checklists force employees to conduct regular temperature checks and hold them accountable when they fail to do so.
What Is a Route Memory Checklist and Its Uses?
A route memory checklist means that you are performing a task primarily from memory, but a checklist is still used on a “just in case” basis. A lot of businesses will use these types of to-do lists for heavily involved, detail-oriented tasks where small, in-between steps are often overlooked.
You might be wondering how necessary a checklist like this is. Won’t employees eventually “think they know it” enough to perform the tasks without a memory aid? That’s a possibility, however, in the automotive and aviation industries, these checklists are not optional.
Examples of Ready-Made Route Memory Checklists and Their Uses:
- Cessna 172 Pre-Flight Checklist – Pre-flight checklists are a great example of route memory checklists. Most pilots can start an engine in their sleep, which might make the constant use of a memory aid seem kind of pointless or even silly. However, in high-risk industries, even the smallest of mistakes can prove fatal. When looking at human error being the leading cause of plane crashes, taking time to check off boxes on a pre-flight check can save thousands of lives.
- Apartment Handover Protocol – A ready-made apartment checklist can document any damages that need repair before handing off the keys to the next tenant. Not only does it contain a step-by-step procedure, but it also gives you the space to take notes and record measurements so that you know how much to charge for electricity, gas, and water.
- Hotel Security Checklist – Routine checks such as those performed by a security guard become innate after a certain amount of time in the profession. However, these forms don’t just serve as a memory aid. With a checklist maker app, you can simultaneously attach incident reports and notify supervisors of security concerns.
What Is an Informative Checklist and Its Uses?
Informative checklists are especially applicable to businesses because they can also act as how-to guides for new tasks or as onboarding documents, among other uses. Companies also don’t need to spend as many resources on training because, unlike courses and seminars, digital checklists can be used again and again.
Examples of Ready-Made Informative Checklists and Their Uses:
- Work Instruction Template – Whenever a company needs to create new tasks or jobs, they can use this template to help guide them through the inception process. A checklist like this one’s main purpose is to help with formatting, so you can create as many instruction guides as you need without compromising on quality.
- Project Scope of Work Template – Informative checklists don’t just fall under the how-to-guides category. They can also help you plan and organize projects while informing others of your timelines, objectives, and goals so that you can complete any project, either large scale or small, on time and under budget.
- Ergonomic Risk Assessment Checklist Template – Risk assessments are also another good example of informative checklists. They not only provide you with all necessary information regarding regulations, but they are also used to document compliance with the law.
An online checklist maker is a cutting-edge tool that can help you plan your day as well as your business ventures on the go. Seeing that scheduling, planning, and documenting are a necessary evil in the business world, having the ability to assign, track, and analyze daily tasks and assignments are pivotal to success. A checklist app where you can use pre-made templates or create your own tailored-made ones can assist in virtually every avenue of your business enterprise. Whether that be attendance sheets, temperature logs, cleaning schedules, or all of the above, you can keep them organized all in one place.
How to Create a Checklist Online: 7 Steps
Not everyone is a pro at creating checklists right off the bat. That’s because, in order to create a checklist, you have to think of every eventuality by breaking down tasks into individual steps and dividing the day into small, time-allotted sections.
Imagine reading a how-to guide on oil changes where the writer assumes their audience is already familiar with which type of oil to use for their vehicle. The results could be thousands of dollars worth of damages. In this case, no detail is too small.
Below are 7 basic steps to creating a checklist. The rule of thumb is to be specific as possible.
- Pick the Type of Checklist
- Think of a Specific Task
- Be as Thorough as Possible
- Use Simple Language
- Structure Your Checklist Logically
- Verify the Results
- Optimize Your Checklist
Think of what type of checklist you want to write: daily, route memory, or informational. Sometimes the answer is self-explanatory, but sometimes it requires a little additional thought. By asking yourself these three questions: What topic am I writing about? Who is my audience? And how do I want to present the information? You can almost always narrow your choice down to one of these three categories of checklists.
Now that you’ve picked your topic, make a list of the tasks required to complete the job. Usually, each step has a set of its own steps, so it will be important to list those down here, too. You can start by jotting down the major ones that jump out at you right away and then filling the rest out from there.
Step two and three go hand and hand. If you’ve thought of every step, you should be well on your way to writing a complete and comprehensive guide so that even an amateur could complete the job like a trained professional. Think of every eventuality. No detail is too small. If a problem could occur while performing the task, write it down. Your readers will thank you later.
Be careful with this bullet point. Although a good rule of thumb is to write at an eighth-grade reading level, it’s also very important to know your audience. For example, if you’re writing a pharmaceutical checklist, you don’t have to stick to this rule because all pharmacists have to have a minimum of eight years of higher education.
Put like categories together. For example, if you’re writing a security checklist, stay away from blanket statements such as, “Check to make sure all entry and exit doors are locked.” One reason for this is that not all buildings have entry and exit points that are all on the same floor. In these cases, it makes more sense to write the checklist organized by floor instead of by task. Using free, premade templates provides a great foundation, but be sure to go through and edit them to match your own set of needs. As with the case for security checklists, each building is different, as are their security needs.
Just because you’ve finished writing the checklist doesn’t mean you’re done. How do you know if what you wrote is actually helpful if you don’t measure the results? This could look like conducting a survey to gauge its effectiveness. Or, you might choose to write two or more checklists with the same content but in different formats and styles to see which one users respond to the most.
There’s always room for improvements, and that will always hold true for every writing endeavor. Use the results of your analysis to make meaningful, and result-driven changes. Maybe that looks like improving the language so that it is more understandable to readers. Or perhaps your survey revealed the opposite. Maybe the checklist users are already industry professionals and don’t need as much handholding. Whatever changes you make, ensure that you have data that backs up your decisions.
How a Digital Application Supports You in Creating Your Checklist Online?
With Lumiform’s mobile app, you can easily use any kind of checklist via tablet or smartphone – online or offline. With the desktop software, you can create checklists and evaluate the data collected in the field. This significantly reduces the risk of quality loss, accidents at work, documentation errors, and damage to your reputation.
Digitize checklists and internal processes with Lumiform:
- The flexible form construction kit helps you convert any individual paper list into digital checklists within minutes.
- generate real-time data via internal processes. This makes quality and safety measurable and processes can be continuously optimized using data.
- keeping track of everything that’s going on on the ground.
- Reports are created automatically– this saves the team from having to do all the follow-up work.
- Improve the efficiency of internal processes: Through better communication with the team, third parties, and management, problems are solved up to 4x faster than ever before with quicker incident reporting.
