I train "Configuration Assurance". This means that every time you change a configuration of flight, or are about to do the next thing in the plane, you mentally remind yourself to assure the configuration is correct for that next thing you're going to do (that the plane may not know about yet!). If that configuration assurance includes your use of a checklist, that's up to you. But don't forget to go through the mental exercise.
What could go wrong during that next phase of flight? Anticipate the things which are going to be safety or flight threatening, and check them.
For RG pilots, the simple application of "Gear Down" as a check may be flawed. I prefer to state out loud for every normal landing either: "The wheels are down for landing on land", or "The wheels are up for landing on water". Now I realize that many pilots fly aircraft which are not designed to land on water twice, but the mental and probably verbal exercise is good because: You want to be thinking about the landing gear position, and why it is there. You might be forced into an abnormal landing, and want the wheels up to belly it in, or because you've had a partial failure. In that case, you do not want your brain reverting to the muscle memory of "wheels down", as you will not get the outcome you desire. If you do that in an amphibian on the water, you're about to destroy a plane, and risk drowning.
Don't let your use of checklists become rote, do the item stated in the checklist because you understand that it needs to be done, and why - configuration assurance. Use the checklist to check that you have already assured configuration, not as a "to do" list of how to fly the plane.