Did you make a careless mistake at your workplace today?
It is common for us to overlook tiny but crucial elements at our work especially when we are on a tight deadline. Everyone experiences careless, silly, and foolish mistakes, be it sending the email to the wrong person, the grammatical error that you can avoid, and reports with typographical errors that impact the project indirectly.
While those mistakes are unintentional, there are ways for us to reduce them by learning from our experience. There are studies that support people who believed they are likely to make a mistake in their work will have a higher chance of avoiding the mistake.
Therefore, what are the tips to avoid making careless mistakes at work?
1. Give 100% Attention and Focus When You Are Working On It
When you begin a project, make sure you have your uninterrupted, full focus on it without shifting your mind to other “side project”. Give in your full attention and avoid multitasking as it will kill your productivity and also, it will increase the chances of you overlooking tiny details in your work. Thus, one of the tips to achieve 100% attention is:
【Eliminate Distractions】
Turn off your social media sites, turn off phone notifications, and put away your phone. Besides, it is suggested to reduce chatting with your colleague when you are in the midst of focusing on your task.
2. Take Breaks
Yes, we should give our full attention as mentioned above, but not for 5 hours straight. When we overworked, it will reduce the brain capacity to think effectively, and we will make silly mistakes.
Therefore, it is better for u to withdraw from work from time to time and let our hair down. Just a short 5 to 15 minutes will do. This is a time where we can have a small chat with our colleagues and keep us positive.
3. Ask Questions
Questions that arise from uncertainties are important to ask to avoid mistakes. Do not hesitate to ask when you have queries. There is no such thing as stupid questions but the ego that refrains us from asking. One of the tips is to:
【Do Your Homework】
Find out more before you ask instead of asking without researching properly. This is because it is better to do your work correctly in the first place rather than having multiple amendments after that.
4. Avoid Last Minute Work
We are more prone to making mistakes when we are working against a tight deadline. We will complete everything in a rush and press the “Send” button without much checking. The consequences that follow probably are another round of reprimands from our superior for the avoidable mistake which affects the quality of our work.
Thus, be realistic, plan, and allocate your time. You may take your time to do the work provided you give attention to the details.
5. Make A Checklist
Write down your to-do-list every day before you start working. It is better to trust your to-do-list than your memory. Once you have completed a task, tick on your list before you move on to the next task. If possible, include the details of each task.
Besides, prepare a checklist that states the points that we need to double-check for our work. Add on to the list anytime when you find something new. By doing this, it will relieve your stress from remembering to check more than 10 points of your work when it is done and you will not miss out on anything crucial.
6. Review, Review & Review
This step is extremely important that everyone take note of it. Check your work twice to spot the mistakes, check it thrice for perfection.
Re-read the email and make sure you have answered every query; Double-check the guideline and make sure your project follows everything; Review the requirements and objective to make sure your work is answering the questions.
This is easy yet, many of us failed to do so.
Mistakes are meant to teach you, not to break you.
We are only humans, therefore, don’t be too harsh on yourselves when you make a mistake. Analyze it, take it as a terrific learning opportunity for improvement, and never repeat the same mistake again.
Cover Photo: wfhwhiz || coffeelaptopwood
