1 | 10 | Create a Daily Review checklist

Hey there! I'm Marian Knopp, the Online Business Systemizer at marianknopp.com.

The Productivity Tip of the Day™ is: Create a Daily Review checklist

Some people will call this checklist their morning review or their inbox zero checklist. It is basically a checklist of all the things you want to do on a daily basis. So some people do do this first thing in the morning, but some people find that it's actually easier for them to do in the afternoon after they've done maybe some deep work in the morning. Regardless of when you're doing it, you're doing it on a daily basis and it's where you can actually stay on top of everything that you're trying to do.

Let me give you some examples of what you would want to include on a daily review checklist. So the first thing that I like to do is, since we've set up our calendar, is review the calendar for the next two days, so I'll look at what is planned out for today but also look at what's going on tomorrow to see if there's anything that I need to adjust or plan for, if new appointments have come in, or meetings, or anything like that. I can add tasks to my to-do list based on what the calendar is looking like, especially if you have one of those calendars where people are able to schedule stuff onto your calendar. It's really good to have eyes on it on a daily basis.

The second thing that I will do is I will start the process of getting to inbox zero in every place online that I have to. So for some of you you might have an email, I have several email inboxes that I have to check, and it might just be your inbox that you're clearing out, but there's also ways that you can filter different messages to go in certain folders, so maybe there are certain folders in your email that you need to check on a daily basis. So whatever that may be, whatever you need to have eyes on.

I am a huge fan of going to inbox zero, of handling everything, touching it only once, so when something hits my inbox I'm archiving it or I'm moving it somewhere else, so I'm handling that task right away. So your daily review could be really quick if you're just making decisions about things, but if you take the time to actually take care of tasks that may be one or two minutes long, your daily review could be a bit longer. You can even schedule your daily review as a calendar appointment. I do that, because it is one of those routine checklists that I do each day.

After you've done your email, there are plenty of other inboxes that you may or may not realize you have that you'll want to check on a daily basis. This will actually help you create some boundaries, especially when it comes to social media which tends to be a distraction for some people. So look at all the social media that you are using for your personal life, for your business, maybe you have a separate daily review checklist for all your business stuff or you have your personal and professional combined, whatever it may be, you may or may not have those luxuries. So look at the social media that you need to have eyes on.

Since I'm an online business, I do have to check Facebook, and Instagram, and LinkedIn, and make sure that I'm on top of any notifications, especially any private messaging that's happening, making sure that I get back to people within an appropriate amount of time. That's what I will actually list out: I need to check all my Facebook notifications and then I'll have a link to my Facebook notifications, which will just be Facebook.com. But then I'll also need to check Facebook messages, so I actually breakup -- since Facebook is such a complex system of things that I have to check on a daily basis -- I'll actually breakout each piece that I need to check. I also need to check my Facebook page, if I am moderating any Facebook groups I need to list out each group that I need to check, and then have links to them. So one of the ways that I do to keep focused on the daily review aspect of this is I will have links directly to these pages and the rule is that I go to that page, I handle what's on that page, and I don't get distracted by any popups or notifications that Facebook will have. Sometimes they'll throw messages into your screen because you're online, but there are ways that you can change those settings and have those conversations muted so that you can focus on the task at hand.

The daily review can certainly go a little longer if you really dive deep into your social media, but try to create a disciplined practice when you're doing this because the point is to be, at the end of this daily review, knowing that you've gotten eyes on everything.

So for other things that you may need to look at, so Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, all sorts of social media, you may need to be looking at certain business trackers that you have. So if you are doing any Facebook ad campaigns or you're doing any funnel checking, you can be checking all of your analytics for that, you might have pages for that. If you've got certain automation software or email marketing software that you need to check on a daily basis, maybe you have a CRM tool where you need to be checking certain pipelines of sales funnels you have, you can be checking all of those things.

If you're starting out creating this daily review checklist, just brain dump all the things that you have to have eyes on and take note of it because if you can group them and batch them all at one time, you can get it done more efficiently. And then if there are longer tasks that come after you've checked something, you can just add that into your to-do list system, which we'll talk a little more about later this week -- how we're going to manage our tasks.

Those are just some examples. There are so many things that you can include in your daily review. I happen to also include my meal planning board because I like to plan my meals for each day of the week and making sure that I've got the ingredients I need and I prep food, etc. That helps me stay on top of that whole area of my life. You may need to check out your workout schedule or if you have other private chat apps. For example, some people are using Slack, or Convo, or WhatsApp, you might need to check that inbox on a daily basis and this will also help you to limit how often you have to check it. Some of these things I only check once a day, some of them I'll check maybe two or three times a day, but the idea is to limit how many times you have to go check these platforms, and so by batching it together you can guarantee to people, hey, I'm going to see this within 36 hours. And it also helps you just stay on top of all your tasks so you don't get overwhelmed by a long list of things you have to look at every single day. No, it's just one checklist that you have to complete and so that makes it helpful.

I'm sure there's an endless amount of other examples I could give you but that's all I have at the top of my head. I'd love to know what is on your daily review.

Comment wherever you're listening or watching this and let me know because it's always fascinating and it's an ever-changing checklist for me.

I have to change it seasonally based on new tools that I end up using or new priorities in my life that I want to focus on. If you're into kind of the mindset realm of things, you can even add doing your mantras or your meditations during your daily review.

There are endless possibilities for how you organize it and what order you do certain things. For example, I like to do a lot of my non-computer things first and then I do all my computer things together, all my social media in one so it's just in and out and we're done with it.

That's all I have for you today.

Tomorrow we're going to talk about creating checklists for other routine tasks, beyond the things we do everyday. ​

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I'll see you guys tomorrow!