Beautiful Tools: Introspection/Reflection-Checklists

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“Checklists are a beautiful tool.”

“They are. Our memory is so unreliable. Checklists make sure you remember what needs to be done, and tell you exactly what to do at a glance. They’re inherently practical.”

“That’s one reason, and one type of checklist. I like to distinguish between physical/digital-checklists and mental-checklists.

Both help you remember, but the latter also help you retrieve the information more effectively from memory. Grouping the information together allows you to access it as one unit.

Another reason is their amazing flexibility. They can be adapted to a wide variety of practices, from flying a plane and performing an operation to… introspection and reflection.”

“Introspection and reflection?”

“That’s one of my latest ideas.

I look at checklists [and everything else] with a Designer’s eyes. I see them as a design-space, a space of possibilities.

Checklists can be used to structure a practice. In this case, introspection and reflection.

Checklists can have a temporal dimension.

Focused on the present, you get one checklist, like:

Body
State
Energy

Body (Body-Check, Embodiment)
– Am I breathing?
– How’s my posture?

State (State-Check)
– Am I centered?
– How am I feeling?
— Where am I feeling this in my body?
– How’s my Inner Fire? (Motivation)

Energy (Enegy-Check, Movement)
– Am I moving?
– How’s my energy level? (low/medium/high)

Focused on the near past, you get another checklist, like:

Appreciate
Optimize
Implement

Appreciate
– What went well?

Optimize
– What didn’t go well?
– What were the failure-points?

Implement
– What will I do differently next time?

And you can focus the checklist by identifying specific areas of interest, like:

Presence
Movement
Oscillation
Productivity

Presence
– How present was I?

Movement
– How much did I move?
– How well did I move?

Oscillation
– How well did I oscillate?
– Did I take breaks?

Productivity
– How focused was I?
– Did I procrastinate?

You can think of these as templates [<link; medium read] that can be tailored to your specific practice and circumstances.”