To be honest, I've been struggling a bit this week. I'm working solo so I often find myself wearing many hats and constantly switching between them.
Right now, I have to worry about:
- UX design (own business + client work)
- coding (own business + client work)
- testing (own business + client work)
- auditing (client work)
- copywriting (own business)
- writing (own business)
- marketing (own business)
- social media (own business)
And I need to add more to the list:
- sales
- market research
- customer outreach
This is a lot to take in and do by myself. I have standard operating procedures (SOPs) for a lot of the things I feel I can safely automate. These are basically checklists that get me through the tedious stuff where there is a consistent plan I follow every time.
Without a plan to follow, I feel like I'm going upstream without a paddle. I get easily confused and distracted and will miss steps, sometimes important steps. When this happens, I am reminded of the value of checklists.
A clear, step-by-step roadmap where I detail each step in a process is priceless. With a checklist, I don't have to remember every detail and I can focus on one small thing at a time, trusting that I'll get through everything if I just follow the breadcrumbs. I never have to re-invent the wheel every time I sit down to work.
A checklist will yield consistent results, improve the quality of my work, save me time, increase productivity and reduce stress. In short, I put in less (of my time and energy) and get more (and better) output. It's a form of leverage.
A good checklist is precise, efficient, easy to use and practical. It has all the critical steps I can easily follow, in a simple language that I can easily understand. A great checklist is one that I can easily update when I notice that I start to do something different. An amazing checklist is one that I can pass on to someone else and they'll get the same value from it without much hand-holding.
For accessibility, I have a set of checklists to help you check your work for major issues without feeling intimidated by confusing terms. They're 100% free and you can grab them from my free accessibility resources page.
They're not perfect. They're comprehensive. Maybe they try to do too much. They worked for me so far. If they'll help you in any way, I'd appreciate a shout out.