Turns out, the research backs up what I’ve known intuitively for years. Kelly opened by grounding the discussion in real science: research on mental fatigue shows that checklists preserve cognitive energy, freeing your brain from memory tasks so you can focus on analysis and creative problem-solving. She pointed to some great reads on the topic, including Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto, which demonstrates how checklists save lives across industries; Paula Rizzo’s Listful Thinking, which frames list-making as a productivity superpower; and Alexandra Franzen’s work, which features checklists as stress-reduction tools. Taken together, my checklist habit is basically evidence-based self-care.
But here’s where Kelly’s session went beyond the basics: she draws an important distinction between a basic checklist and a comprehensive one. A basic list gives you generic steps, but a comprehensive checklist includes specific details, process notes, system instructions, and even time-tracking metrics. It’s the difference between “edit document” and a multi-step guide that tells you exactly what to look for, in what order, with your own formatting preferences baked right in.
Kelly walked through a ten-step process for building these comprehensive checklists, and here it is in action:
- [ ] Choose your task — something you repeat often, or do infrequently but need to execute consistently
- [ ] Brain-dump every step — write it all down without editing yourself
- [ ] Structure your notes — organize that rough draft while keeping all your brainstormed details
- [ ] Digitize — transfer to a document with checkboxes for tracking completion
- [ ] Add specifics — include style requirements, formatting examples, and anything else that makes it yours
- [ ] Optimize the order — sequence steps for maximum efficiency and group related activities
- [ ] Add system instructions — include any process details for tools or platforms you’ll be working in
- [ ] Incorporate time tracking — log how long steps take to identify patterns and estimate future projects
- [ ] Test it — run the checklist on a real task and note what works and what doesn’t
- [ ] Refine and repeat — update as your work evolves so it stays relevant and useful
What struck me most was the philosophy behind it all. Checklists, Kelly emphasized, should be personalized, built by you, for you, not generic templates handed down from management. They should evolve as your work changes, and they’re not punitive scorecards but supportive tools that help you perform better with less stress. That framing resonated with me profoundly because my checklists aren’t about self-policing. They’re about giving myself a clear path through complex work, so I’m not reinventing the wheel every single time.
Kelly touched on AI’s role in all of this, with appropriate nuance. AI might eventually help users build comprehensive checklists by capturing tasks as they happen, but she was clear that AI assistants should collaborate with us, not take over. AI-generated checklists tend to be generic and surface-level, and the real value comes from the specificity you add. And if you incorporate AI tools into your workflow, add them to your checklist.
Beyond editing, the applications are genuinely endless. Kelly mentioned a Marketing Monday checklist for consistent promotion, a Financial Friday checklist for invoicing and bill tracking, and even a speaking engagement checklist for managing multiple presentations at once. Any repeated task that requires consistency is a candidate for a checklist.
I left this session feeling validated and energized, and if you’ve ever wondered whether your checklist habit is a bit much, it’s not. It’s actually one of the smartest workflow tools you have. Kelly Schrank made a compelling case that in a world of increasing complexity and AI pressure, comprehensive checklists are how we stay human, consistent, and in control.
Alyria (Aly) Salazar was AIIP’s marketing intern for the 2026 Symposium and offered to write about this session and others she attended. Alyr is a recent summa cum laude graduate in information and library science from the University of Maine at Augusta. She brings her academic excellence and passion for digital content to the role, assisting the AIIP marketing team in creating engaging social media copy and supporting various marketing initiatives.