I Use This Simple ‘Error Checklist’ to Avoid My Worst Mistakes. My Performance and Confidence Have Skyrocketed
What CEO has time for reflection? Several. And still, I am frequently urging those at the prime to take a breather — to meditate, imagine, take a look at. In the terms of researchers at MIT: “The method of reflection helps us to establish our understanding additional deeply and to make our intuitive information shareable with others.”
This contains a close seem at our mistakes. As I realized a short while ago, extra concretely defining those people faults can help us avoid them in the long run — by including them to a reflection checklist. Or, as I at times connect with it, the “Error Checklist.”
This sound depressing at first blush, but it can be in fact redemptive. Here’s how it is effective:
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- At the stop of each individual month, established aside 30 minutes to make notice of the factors you handled badly or entirely fouled up during the thirty day period. Be distinct and concise — checklist what you did, why you did it, and why each one was wrong.
- On a different sheet, convert each of these into a checklist. You don’t have to copy around all of the details — just the “what went incorrect” you will need to try to remember.
- Maintain this listing helpful. Place it on your desk, in your wallet, on your wall. Retain it on your computer desktop.
- In advance of you head into the future month, review your checklist. Continue to keep your faults top rated of thoughts so you know what to stay clear of in the times ahead.
- When the future month hits, critique your record. Amend/include to it. Choose off all those mistakes you have learned to steer clear of.





Will your record at any time be whittled away to very little? Not likely. But the measure of progress is not getting perfect — it is executing far more, much better. As you innovate, you’ll find new trapdoors and tripwires. You are going to curate new lists of glitches to keep away from. See this as a measure of growth, not of extra you’re accomplishing completely wrong. The only indicator of stagnation — or even worse, slipping backwards — is a checklist of problems that just stays the same. Why? It suggests you happen to be not learning and you are not attempting something new.
