If you’re a planner, you likely have a million lists going at any one time. You’ve got some sort of to do list – daily/weekly/monthly/annually etc. You may have a separate cleaning or household list. You likely have also resorted to writing down a list of your family’s favorite meals to have a cheat sheet for answering the one question no adult wants to answer – “what’s for dinner?” I’m not here to talk about any of those lists.
I’m here to talk about closeout lists. If you’re thinking, “Kate, what the heck is a closeout list?”, buckle up. I’m about to change your world.
To put it very simply...
A closeout list is a list of tasks that you need to complete to move from one phase of your day/week/month/quarter/year to the next.
To expand on this, a closeout checklist is something that once you’ve checked of the items, you don’t need to look at it again. You’ve closed out the day, week, month, quarter, year and all associated action items and tasks have been prioritized, delegated, scheduled accordingly. So, when you close something out – you archive it. It’s done.
Establishing a “closeout” procedure creates space between one timeframe of your life and the next. This procedure will also help move you from a state of reactivity to proactivity in your day to day life. Think this is a load of crap? Raise your hand if you have ever:
- jumped in your care after a long day of work, rolled the windows down, and blared music as loud as you could stand it
- told your kids/significant other you need a few minutes to decompress
- disassociated to a podcast, YouTube video, or trash tv
- went to a happy hour after work
I’ll stop there. My point is, sometimes you just need to create space during transitional periods of your life. Think of all the roles you play from day to day – every time you move from one role to the next, it’s a good idea to have some way to press pause and recalibrate your brain for what comes next. The best example I can think of is between work and home when you switch hats from employee to parent. You need to be able to turn off your work brain to be fully present with your family.
So, what’s on this list?
Now that you understand the purpose behind a closeout list, let’s talk about how to make them. I’ll continue with the work example for now. Answer this: what are the things that you need to complete at the end of each work week to be fresh and prepared for the following week? These are recurring tasks that make your life easier when you come back from a weekend or vacation if you stay committed to completing them each week. Here’s an example of my weekly closeout list for work:
Kate’s Weekly Closeout (for Work):
-
Clean out inbox – are all actionable items delegated, have time scheduled to complete them, or a follow up suspense set?
-
Clean out task list – are all items that were not completed this week evaluated for relevance, prioritized, and have time allocated to complete them?
-
Time Recording – was timecard updated to include timecodes for all projects I worked on this week? Is there any PTO/Vacation I need to submit?
-
Remote Work – have I planned and communicated my telework days for the following week?
-
Training Record – are there any training items that rolled out this week that I need to complete?
-
Data evaluation – are there any due dates approaching for data that I need to prioritize review and authorization?
-
Out of Office – Do I need to set up an OOO response or arrange for meeting coverage due to upcoming vacation days?
Implementing this weekly closeout checklist at the end of my work week has given me peace of mind that when I come in on my next working day, I know right where to start. It may seem like a long list, but the entire process only takes me about an hour of my day. The clarity that comes from accomplishing these action items allows me to turn off my work brain when I close my work laptop – and leave work at work.
One last note about my closeout lists for work. I also have close out lists for each day, month, and quarter. Daily lists are for making sure any items that came to my inbox are evaluated and prioritized so that they don’t get missed. I’ll go into more detail about my inbox workflow in another blog post. My monthly list is reflective and related to evaluating if I’m on track to meet my annual goals, i.e. updating progress on projects and re-evaluating priorities. My quarterly lists align with my monthly list but include a deep dive into trends throughout the quarter, looks at my professional development progress, and give me data to review with my manager for performance conversations. It’s important to note that depending on what you do, you might not need as many lists. Use this blog post for inspiration to do what makes sense and is applicable for you.
Closeout Lists in Your Personal Life
In my personal life, I use closeout lists in a similar fashion to my procedure for work. I close out my week before migrating any tasks forward. I do the same thing for my months and quarters. In addition to this, I also use reset checklists. You may be familiar with the terms “weekly reset” or “calendar audit”. These are a type of closeout list. Once you perform the tasks, you don’t really need the information and it can be discarded.
In the case of a calendar audit, the information you learn through the process of the audit is what’s important and the actual information can be archived. The calendar audit is one of my favorite ways to see how I spent my time throughout the year and delve into if I need to dedicate more time to things that bring me joy. My annual calendar audit process (ritual) is a long one and deserves it’s own future blog post, so I won’t cover it here.
Weekly Reset Checklist
The weekly reset checklist that I use each week has saved my sanity more times than I can count. I work through this list each weekend and have two versions – one for when school is in session for my kids and one for when they are on school break. Before I itemize these lists for you, let me say that if I don’t check these boxes by the time I go to bed Sunday nights, I am a complete disaster – an unorganized mess – and my productivity and mental health suffers. Yes. It’s that serious to me. For those of you that thrive in agile environments, I applaud you. However, my ADHD brain needs structured lists. If I don’t write it down, I will forget it.
Kate’s Weekly Reset Checklist (for Home):
-
Budget Check In
-
Make meal plan for the upcoming week
-
Clean out the fridge/freezer
-
Grocery store or schedule grocery delivery (and put it away)
-
Meal prep – if you can find the willpower
-
Gas up car
-
Laundry (and put it away)
-
Planning time (weekly layouts + monthly layouts if 3rd Sunday of the month)
-
Plan workouts
-
Weekly Planner Review with spouse + kids
-
Confirm spouse telework days (and resolve conflicts)
-
Trash to curb
-
Empty kitchen recycling
-
10 min Tidy Up
During the school year I add these items:
-
Confirm pick up schedule for kids
-
Any school events/projects this week?
-
Check grades for kids
-
Read school newsletters and add dates to calendar
-
Lunch prep party
Some of you may be rolling your eyes at the itemized list above, but having it written down helps my brain. My weekly reset checklist is usually done on Sunday, but sometimes I split it and do half of the work on Saturday depending on what we have planned for the weekend. Once it’s all done, I get a similar feeling to when my house is freshly mopped/vacuumed and I have a yummy smelling candle going… you know before my kids make it look like they rolled doubles in a game of Jumanji…
Please let me know in the comments if you’re currently using closeout checklists or if you plan on implementing them moving forward. I hope that this was helpful! I want to hear if it’s successful for you and what other tasks you might need to focus on (beyond my examples).
Happy planning!
