Stop Making Careless Mistakes

Careless mistakes are mistakes that we make and later realize that if we had been paying better attention to our responsibilities, the mistake may not have been made. One of the first steps to stop making mistakes is admitting that you made the mistake, so if you are already looking at this page, you have taken a good first step! It’s important to remember that everyone makes mistakes, but there are a few ways to improve if you’re making lots of careless mistakes. They are understanding the mistakes that you make, staying organized, improving your time management, and remaining positive, relaxed, and mindful.

Steps

Understanding Your Mistakes

  1. Realize that making mistakes is normal. So you made a mistake? Don’t panic. We are human and we all make mistakes sometimes.
    • Recent psychology studies show that there are two common ways that the brain responds after you’ve made a mistake – one says, “Pay attention!” and is like a wake-up call where you think “what happened and why?” The second way is more like the brain shuts down, perceives the negative feedback you give yourself as a threat, and then avoids thinking about it altogether.
    • People in the studies who responded in the first way were more likely to learn from their mistakes and change their behavior.
    • People who responded in the second way, who shut down completely or panicked, were more likely to repeat the same types of mistakes over and over again.[1]
  2. Keep a log of the mistakes that you make each week. Are the mistakes made at work or at school? Or are they made at home? While you’re driving or running errands? Did you fail to meet a deadline at work? Did you forget to pay a bill or feed a pet? Lock your keys in your car? Run out of gas? [2]
    • Admitting your mistakes and understanding what types of mistakes you are making is a great start.
    • Keeping track of patterns in the mistakes that you make can help you to figure ways to avoid making them again.
  3. Identify what made that mistake careless. Ask yourself why you might have made a certain type of mistake. Were you in a hurry because you procrastinated? Were you stressed out and thinking about something else?
    • Next to each mistake in your log, jot down how you could have avoided making it in the first place. Example: allowed more time to do this, started this earlier, stayed more focused on what I was doing, etc.
  4. Talk with someone else about your mistakes. Many people make careless mistakes, and some people you know may have ideas on how they have overcome the habits that led to making them.
    • Try talking with a trusted friend about what mistakes you’re making; chances are, if it’s a friend with whom you have things in common, he or she has made the same mistakes.
    • If you’re making mistakes at work, talking with a more experienced co-worker that you get along with about how you might avoid making them could offer you some good insight.[3]

Staying Organized

  1. Use a calendar. And only use one! If you don’t already have one, buy one. If you do have one, be sure to use it. There are many types - the calendars or organizers in your Smartphone or on the computer, or a paper desk version.
    • Often, a careless mistake comes out of forgetting about something we’re supposed to do. Writing down or typing in our upcoming commitments, appointments, and deadlines on a calendar can be extremely helpful.
    • Color coding your calendar can help- red for work, blue for kids, green for hobbies, etc. Look at the upcoming week and make notes of what you need to do in order to prepare for the events coming up.[4]
  2. Clean up your physical environment. You’ll be amazed at how much more clear-headed you’ll feel and more able to concentrate you are when your surroundings are clean and organized.
    • Continuously put things away at home. Don’t leave a room empty-handed when there is clutter.
    • Create a “donation station” for things you no longer need and want to give away.
    • Create organized filing systems at work.[5]
  3. Use checklists and to-do lists. Get a notebook and start dumping everything that you’re thinking about that you need to do into there. Home improvement things, shopping trips, all the mental clutter that you can get out of you mind, onto paper, and cross off later when you've done it.
    • These may not be the types of things that have specific dates and times that should to go onto a calendar, just general things that you need to do at some point in the future. [5]

Improving Your Time Management

  1. Prioritize. Make a list of the most important things in your life, in order. Then, as you’re getting ready to do something, decide how "important" it is. It might be worth it to take a closer at look at how important this action is for you, or if you could use your time more wisely doing something else.
    • If you’ve made a checklist or to-do list, writing those responsibilities down in their order of importance can also help you figure out which things to do first, second, third, etc.[6]
  2. Simplify your schedule. If you’re repeatedly having difficulty managing your responsibilities without making careless mistakes, it may be because you’re trying to do too much. There is a limited amount of time in each day. How many hobbies do you have and how much time do you spend on them?
    • Having some time to relax and enjoy life is very important, but is your schedule constantly filled up with “fun” commitments that you end up feeling like you don’t even have the time for?
    • Go back to your list of priorities and make sure you are making enough time to really focus on what is at the top of the list.[7]
  3. Ask for help. This is otherwise known as delegating responsibilities. Make sure everyone at home does chores and contributes toward running the household. If there’s a project at work too big for you to do completely on your own, ask others to help you with what they can.[5]

Remaining Positive, Relaxed, and Mindful

  1. Stick to a regular sleeping and eating routine. It’s amazing how fast lack of sleep and/or nutrition can make people forgetful and cause them to feel stressed and overwhelmed, which easily leads to careless mistakes.
    • Try to go to bed and wake up around the same times each day, and eat regular, healthy meals around the same times each day.
    • Make some time for exercise – a few times each week for at least 20 minutes. A healthy body is a healthy mind.[8]
  2. Stay in the moment. Mindfulness, or being mindful, is another way of saying that you are completely paying attention, you are completely present, with what you are doing at all times. This will help you to begin a new way of thinking and new approaches to making decisions.
    • Often it's the smaller things in life that trip us up- the things we don't think we need to pay attention to and that we think we already know. Staying mindful will help.
  3. Filter out the unimportant information. When asking yourself how you can pay better attention to the important things in your life, ask yourself if your mind is cluttered with unimportant things – for example, gossip, social media posts, etc.
    • Ask yourself, “What does this really mean to me? How does this affect my life?" If you don’t have a good immediate answer for that, chances are it is unimportant, extra information that may be adding to your level of stress.[8]
  4. Allow yourself some good quality relaxation time. Be mindful with all things that you do, even watching a movie or TV, eating a snack, or calling a friend.
    • For example, with watching a movie, you may ask yourself, "Am I making a sacrifice to watch this movie? Should I be doing something else? What will/will not happen as a result of me watching this movie? Does it matter, or can the other things wait?"
    • Relaxation is definitely important, but sometimes it can be difficult to really relax if there are other things we think we should be doing instead.[9]
  5. Tell yourself you will do better next time. Don’t let a mistake wear you down. There's no need to be a perfectionist. Don’t blame your mistake on others, make excuses, or beat yourself up. Everyone makes mistakes. It’s how you handle them that counts. Simply think about how you can solve the problem and move on.[10]

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-science-willpower/201112/how-mistakes-can-make-you-smarter
  2. ↑ http://lifehacker.com/5863490/how-to-learn-from-your-mistakes
  3. ↑ http://www.joanlloyd.com/Your-Career/Make-no-mistake--Careless-errors-can-spell-big-tro.aspx
  4. ↑ http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/82924
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 http://lifeyourway.net/10-things-to-do-everyday-to-stay-organized/
  6. ↑ http://www.creativitypost.com/create/work_smarter_not_harder_21_time_management_tips_to_hack_productivity
  7. ↑ http://zenhabits.net/27-great-tips-to-keep-your-life-organized/
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 http://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-management.htm
  9. ↑ http://psychcentral.com/lib/5-ways-to-stress-less/
  10. ↑ http://www.joanlloyd.com/Your-Career/Make-no-mistake--Careless-errors-can-spell-big-tro.aspx

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