How to Stop Making Careless Mistakes at Work (15 Effective Tips!)

Mistakes happen at work, even to the best of us.

But if you keep making careless mistakes you’re going to find yourself under performance review, harming your career progression, and possibly getting yourself fired.

Instead of getting frustrated at yourself for making mistakes, there are things you can do to improve your performance and reduce the number of mistakes you’re making.

Here are 15 tips on how to stop making careless mistakes at work to help you up your performance:

How to Stop Making Careless Mistakes at Work – 15 Tips!

1. Take a Step Back and Look at Why You’re Making Mistakes

Before you can stop making careless mistakes, it’s important to understand why you’re making them.

Don’t just tell yourself that you don’t know why you’re making mistakes or you’re unlucky, there will be a reason.

Take a step back from your work and take an objective look for triggers, reasoning, causes, and be as honest as you can be with yourself.

Related – Here is how to tell your boss you’ve made a huge mistake!

2. See if You Can Find a Pattern

If you’re making a lot of careless mistakes there will almost certainly be a pattern behind the reasons.

See if you can spot any patterns in the mistakes you’re making you’ll be able to be more systematic about eliminating them.

3. Declutter and Clean up Your Working Environment

This might sound odd, but having a clutter-free working environment has a big impact on how clearly you can think and how organized you’ll be.

This is something that had a real impact on my own workflow, so it’s something I always recommend.

4. Start Giving Yourself More Time per Task

This is an obvious one, but it’s something a lot of people find difficult to do, especially if you’re short on time.

But as you’ve already realized, making mistakes is a bigger time dump than doing it right the first time.

So if you give yourself more time per task, you’ll be able to focus better and eventually (hopefully) make fewer mistakes.

5. Put a Process in Place to Double Check Your Work

This is a great way to make sure that you don’t miss any potential mistakes.

Put a process in place for double-checking your work and make sure that you follow this procedure.

This doesn’t have to be permanent, once you’re up to speed and more confident about not making as many mistakes you might want to drop this step.

6. Talk to Your Coworkers About It

There is no shame in making mistakes, especially if you’re committed to improving and making fewer mistakes.

Be open with your coworkers and tell them how things are going and how you’re feeling.

Sometimes just talking it out is enough to work through your issues and figure out how to stop making careless mistakes, and they might have some awesome advice.

7. Learn how To Be More Mindful

The day I started practicing mindfulness was the day I became a more organized and productive worker.

Mindfulness is great for reducing stress, improving focus, and understanding how your mind works (which helps a lot when it comes to making fewer mistakes).

8. Take More Breaks

Some people operate by taking more, shorter breaks, and some people operate better by just getting their heads down for hours.

Find out what works for you.

But taking breaks can help your mind to reset, allowing you to come back with a fresh perspective and avoid making silly mistakes.

Related – Here is what to do if you’ve made a fireable mistake.

9. See if There Is Software that Can Help

There are some fantastic software apps and tools out there that can help you to track your work, get better organized, and help you with specific tasks.

I’m always one of the last to adopt new technology as I don’t like going through the learning phase.

But every time I have, I have always been surprised at how much it helped my workflow and improved my performance.

10. Ask Others How They Handle Certain Tasks

If you’re struggling with certain tasks, why not ask some of your coworkers who do the same tasks for advice?

It’s a win-win because any coworker who has your best interests at heart will be happy to help and you’ll benefit from their advice.

11. Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself

Making mistakes is a normal part of life, it means you’re human!

Beating yourself up won’t do any good and can even make the situation worse.

It’s important to remember that mistakes don’t define you and they’re just a part of the learning process, so try not to hold on to any negative emotions.

12. Don’t Try to Multitask

We all like to think we can multitask and get more done in less time, I know I do.

But the reality is that multitasking often leads to taking longer to do a group of tasks than it would have taken you to do each of them individually.

13. Prioritize Your Workload

How organized are you, really?

One really simple way to avoid making mistakes is to prioritize your workload and make sure that you finish the most important things first.

This will help you to stay focused and organized, so you don’t miss any details.

14. Use a To-Do List and Set Reminders

Creating a to-do list can also help you prioritize your work and make sure that no tasks slip through the cracks.

Setting reminders for yourself can also help to make sure that you don’t forget about any tasks, even if they’re not due for a while.

These are two things that I rely on daily and it helps keep me organized and on top of things.

Related – Here is what it means if you’ve received your final warning.

15. Look Into Professional Development

I’m always hungry to learn more and broaden or improve my skill set.

It doesn’t have to be a full-time course, even if you just attend some workshops or seminars that relate to your work it’ll help you get your head in the game.

Professional development will also help your long-term career options and make you more employable or top of the queue for a promotion, which is a nice bonus!

---

Image credits – depositphotos.com/stock-photo-stressed-young-businessman