The Checklist That Knew the Future
During a recent safety audit, I noticed something that made me pause.
Pinned to the wall was a cleaning rota—nothing unusual there. But when I looked closer, I realised it had already been signed off for every single day in October… despite the fact it is the 2nd day of September.
Even Saturdays and Sundays had been given their shiny ticks.
Efficient? Definitely. Accurate? Not so much.
It raised a smile, but also a serious point.
Checklists aren’t just paperwork. They’re supposed to be a record of what’s actually been done, not a forecast of what might happen. When they’re filled out in advance, they lose all meaning. Instead of being a useful accountability tool, they become wallpaper. Worse still, they can create the illusion that work has been completed when it hasn’t—which is where small oversights can turn into real safety risks.
The lesson?
✔️ A tick should only mean the task is done.
✔️ Checklists are brilliant when they’re accurate: clear, repeatable, and auditable.
✔️ But when they’re misused, they’re worse than useless—they give false confidence.
So let’s keep our checklists where they belong: in the present, not in the future.
Because every tick matters—not just for audits, but for real safety.