I struggle with this too— another way to think about it is that a checklist frees your mind to think of more creative/important things. By delegating the mundan

I struggle with this too— another way to think about it is that a checklist frees your mind to think of more creative/important things. By delegating the mundane to the checklist, your brain no longer needs to constantly track the basics and instead is free to focus on higher order thinking. I find it takes a disproportionate amount of mental energy just to track even 5-10 items. Committing those items to a written list makes it easier for me to take that limited resource and be creative instead of constantly wondering if I completed step 3.