Amy's Humble MusingsLife in rough draft — by Amy Scott.On priorities and paying attentionwith 29 comments“Stop reading the directions,” I say.“I’m not reading the directions,” he says.“But it looks like you’re reading the directions and that makes me nervous.”“It’s called a checklist.”Greg and I have this conversation every time we get into a plane together. I’m all ready to go, but we have to sit at the end of the runway while he fiddles with a laminated piece of paper. It feels to me like a brain surgeon who is leafing through a copy of Human Anatomy on the bed tray right before the anesthesiologist walks in with the gas mask. It’s not right.But it’s not like that at all. He tells me, “All pilots have a checklist. It’s standard.” And when he says it for the fiftieth time, he doesn’t even tack on “you moron” at the end of it.One time Greg skipped something on the checklist. He was flying with a pilot who had over 10,000 hours. This guy was so important that his picture was on the cover of a magazine for pilots. So Greg didn’t make sure this guy latched the passenger door because he figured that guy knew, “Shut the door,” was on the checklist, similar to how Bill Gates might know to reboot before doing anything else.At 700 feet in between towers and power lines and tall Orlando bank buildings, the door blew open.I don’t know a ton about flying, but I know that sudden changes in air pressure that slow an airplane to stall speed isn’t ideal at such a low altitude.Greg called in a landing that wasn’t on the flight plan. He held the flapping passenger door with his right hand (which was too much for the co-pilot to hold down alone), flew the plane with his left hand, and put the plane on the ground. I think this is why Greg is always first-picked during group games. I think it was easy for Greg because I was not complaining from the backseat that we were all going to die in the lousiest way. (The reason I did not complain is not because I had developed self-control and poise at this point in my life but because I wasn’t there.)So he tells me, “That’s why you have a checklist.”Everyone has a checklist. Whether it’s a laminated index card or an app with a jazzy ringtone reminder, we have checklists. It’s there in our routines, like the way we march in a zombie-like state to the coffee maker every morning. There are checklists we go over before leaving the house. Unless you are an eight-year-old boy with blond hair and freckles, you never leave the house without brushing your teeth or putting on your shoes.Some of the things on my checklist are: get to bed early, don’t get worked up over stupid stuff, and stop biting the insides of my mouth so my dental hygienist will be proud of me on the next visit.Everyone sets goals whether or not they write them down. You can know what someone’s goals are by the way they spend their time. Do not as