How many times do you mess up at work?

NEVAAAAHHHHH!

I use these days where mistakes rain down on you like leaves on a fall day as a sign I need more personal down time and/or more exercise. When I do one or the other or both…mistakes happen less frequently and when they do happen I am less apt to get all wound up over them.

Mistakes in themselves – as we have discussed in earlier threads on this topic – are not usually catastrophic. So you shouldn’t be beating yourself up over routine errors of omission or commission where no one is hurt or no significant damage occurs. Live and learn, as the saying goes.

However, the thing to look at when you make mistakes of the type you have described is “the process”. For example, you have a checklist – part of a good process – to mark when things are completed and a next step can be completed. Good for you in that regard. The thing for you to look at now – but not to answer here, necessarily – is “What made me check off a step that had not been completed?” Were you distracted, planning ahead and expecting that the thing would be done in “just a little while, so why not take credit for it now” or what? When you’re doing jobs that include specific, serial process steps – and that’s nearly all jobs, at some point – then you need to take care, like a ballplayer, to “not take your eye off the ball”. I’ve been watching a baseball game this evening where exactly that happened, in fact. The third baseman got ready to field a routine, fairly slow-hit ball to make the play at first base which would end the inning. Instead, he seemed to lose focus on picking up the ball and get himself ready for the throw to first. So the ball took a tiny wobble in its bounce, he wasn’t ready for it, fumbled the pickup, and allowed the runner to reach first base. That allowed the runner on third to score. You can’t make “the next play” before you’ve made the one in front of you. That kind of maintenance of process discipline comes from within.

The only people who make no mistakes at work are those who don’t do anything much to begin with. Really, don’t beat yourself up or put yourself down. Just look at your processes and your adherence to them, and change the process if it’s inherently bad or risky.

We all have those days — but @Cruiser hit the nail on the head. When nothing seems to go right and I can’t get focused, it’s a sure sign I need some rest and relaxation.

There are no perfect employees so don’t stress over mistakes. What I try to do is figure out how I can prevent them from happening in the future. I may decide I need to write things down or put things on a calendar or something like that. Lists help for me.

Also, for you, you did write a few days ago you have a new intern who is useless and so far, not the most motivated and intelligent, it seems. That is not helpful to you right now.

Maybe but I feel like I can’t make an excuse and put the blame on him. Good thing I just scheduled a vacation if it does have anything to do with relaxation….

Once, during a time of terrible stress, I made 3 mistakes in one year. Since I usually made NO mistakes, I was quite upset by it, and really had to buckle down.