The 3-step method to stop making careless mistakes at work

The 3-step method to stop making careless mistakes at workThe 3-step method to stop making careless mistakes at workMistakes. Weve written about them over and over again here at CC. Weve made them over and over again, too.We think about them, talk about them, obsess about them. Theyre what make us human and help us grow, but they can also be devastatingly embarrassing, shameful, and costly to our companies and our egos.Its impossible to eradicate mistakes from our lives completely. In fact, humans are really only capable of remembering more than five unrelated pieces of information at once, as Joseph T. Hallinan writes in his book,Why We Make Mistakes How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average. Youre only human, in other words, and mistakes are part of life and work.How do I avoid mistakes at work?It is possible, however, to make a few small adjustments to the way you approach your work in order to mitigate those pesky, emba rrassing blunders. Just being willing to believe you might make a mistake puts you ahead of the curve. Aseries of studies on decision-makingfound that people who believed that they could be wrong were more likely to learn from and avoid repeating mistakes. On the other hand, those who thought that they were always right, or experts were bedrngnis only more likely to make mistakes, but were also more likely to make them again.So accept that youwillscrew up at work sometimes. But once youve done that, use these three simple steps to avoid the really, really dumb ones.1. Do a trefflich checkWhen you begin a task at work, you probably have a gut feeling about how important it is. Did your boss assign it to you with casual nonchalance or was she vibrating with stress when she passed it across your desk? Will your work be seen only by you and your department or will hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of eyeballs see it?When you work in a busy environment, it can be easy to forget th at your work doesnt just disappear into the ether when you submit it, send it, or release it. Internal team members, customers, users, readers, students, or patients might see it and interact with it, and if theres a mistake, those people will notice.Even though it might be hard to remember in the moment, take a second when you begin a new task to do a gut check about the weight of what youre doing. Just visualizing the people on the other end viewing or interacting with your work may be enough to remind you that the project is real and important to them- not just a list of annoying to-dos standing between you and happy hour.The good news? Most of us are actually really skilled at this part. Within a tenth of a second or so after looking at a scene, we are usually able to extract its meaning, or gist, Hallinan writes. But the rest? Not so easy. The price we pay for this rapid-fire analysis is that we miss a lot of details.2. Write a checklist, go through it, then take a break to rev isit your workThis parts super easy - you just need a piece of scrap paper. Once youve completed your task, take five minutes to think about everything you need to double-check in order to avoid mistakes. Did you run a spell-check, triple-check measurements, comb your spreadsheet for bugs, re-read that email? Write down everything you need to check before hitting submit, then physically check it off. This relieves you and your brain of the responsibility of remembering more than five pieces of information about the project.Then add another failsafeto your process. Go to the bathroom, come back, and check again before you hit send. Looking at your work with fresh eyes is never a bad thing. Even if youre on a quick deadline, our guess is that a bathroom trip wont make or break anything. But it will give you peace of mind.3. Ask yourself and your organization if youre working efficientlyIf youre reading this article because youre a type-A overachiever whos suddenly making a million mi stakes at a new job, consider thisitmight not be you. In Hallinans book, he talks about how anesthesiologists used to make frequent fatal errors because of inconsistencies in the machinery they were using. Then in the 80s, a group of doctors advocated for standardizing the machines to make their process more efficientand now, anesthesiologists rarely make those lethal mistakes.What does this mean for you? Many organizations hire expertsto make their processes and workflow more efficient, but others rely on the employees themselves tospeak upwhen something isnt working. If you feel comfortable enough to do this in your role, consider talking to your manager about what makes your job tedious, inefficient, and anxiety-provoking- but come prepared with solutions. Dont forget to thank your manager for taking the time to listen, even if she doesnt implement the changes right away.But the problem could also be smaller Is one of the processesyoureusing a little bit broken? Is there an Excel formula or keyboard shortcut that could streamline something time-consuming and monotonous? Consider this as youre doing your daily tasks, and then Google around or ask friends in similar jobs how they deal with the issue. Sometimes, thesolution is something youve never considered but is totally easy and doable.This article first appeared on Career Contessa.