Checklists

We mommies have a tough time getting things done. Its not because we're completely incompetent – on the contrary, many of us have advanced degrees, many of us hold senior positions in companies large and small, and many of us have managed to multitask successfully in the past.

The challenge we face is due to the fact that, prioritize as we may, we are often interrupted tens or hundreds of times the day with a barrage of whines, screams, hugs, tickles, tears, tantrums, questions, and more. Each child demands *immediate* attention with *urgent* pleas. We then get off track, off balance, and quickly forget what we came upstairs to do or why we dialed our friend on the phone.

Having read the book The Checklist Manifesto, I've realized that we mommies are actually NOT crazy, frazzled, or otherwise unreliable. On the contrary, it appears that all humans overestimate our capacity to remember to-dos and necessary steps - and lives are lost as a result! Dr. Gawande invites all of us to maintain checklists and not rely on memory to take care of what we *think* we won't forget to do (but we actually will).

Phew. Relief.

I'm so glad that it's not really "mommy-brain" that's taken over, but rather a dose of reality that: yes, I'm human and yes, I forget. So I'll rely on checklists to keep myself and my family in-line... as long as I don't forget to put together the checklist in the first place, of course!