Create checklists for anything important you do regularly.
Write down your current process step-by-step so anyone could come along and execute that process exactly the way you do.
You'll go faster because you can order the steps on your checklist in the most optimal order. With repetition of the same steps in the same order, you'll speed up even more. You won't waste time trying to figure out what to do next, making sure you've done everything you're supposed to do, or going back later to perform a step you forgot the first time.
Your quality will increase because you can stay consistent, notice patterns, and make adjustments and improvements over time.
Even if you feel like you know how to do something and the checklist won't be that useful to you, it can be useful when talking with other people about how you do your work.
For the sake of irony and recursion, here's a checklist for checklists:
- Are all necessary steps listed?
- Are there any steps that could be removed?
- Are the steps in the most optimal order?
- Is each step written in plain language so anyone else could execute it?
- Should you share this checklist with other people and collaborate on it?
- Is the checklist easy to access when I'm performing the relevant task?