The Hindu Business Line : Pay attention to details

The Kansas Bulletin had once published this correction: “Our paper carried the notice last week that Mr Ferris is a defective in the Police Force. This was a typographical error. Mr. Ferris is a Detective in the Police Farce.”

Attention to details matter in all aspects of life. It is the one trait without which I cannot imagine any professional surviving successfully. Software professionals by the very nature of their job should be detail-oriented, but users of their products all over the world will bear testimony to the contrary. If fashion designers omit minor details like checking the safety pins, we could have many more wardrobe malfunctions. If doctors were less attentive, we would have more casualties.

A person who is said to possess the trait — Attention to Detail — can be described as being thorough in accomplishing a task with concern for all the areas involved, no matter how small. There is a general agreement that this trait is essential in all aspects of life. Why is it then that so many mistakes creep in with sometimes disastrous results?

Some common reasons for this lack of diligence:

Familiarity: It breeds callous disregard. Each task deserves your utmost attention, no matter how many times you have done it successfully in the past. The 15th memo has to be reread just like the first one. Commas, prepositions and other boring elements of grammar have to be in the right places. Do read the book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynn Truss. She paid attention to the small details and now she is giving Wren and Martin a run for its money.

Anathema to organising: Clutter creates a situation where it is not possible to pay attention to even the overall picture, let alone the details. Disorganisation causes one to overlook, miss or completely forget many details. Many of my acquaintances have been plunged into darkness because they did not pay the Electricity Bill on time. They had the money, but no idea that the bill was overdue. Poor systems can have very unpleasant side-effects. Accuracy is the product of uniformity. Uniformity of doing tasks helps you pay attention to details. Please do not confuse uniformity with familiarity…The extra effort spent in filing things in appropriate places and having a place for everything saves you time, which brings me to the next common refrain for not paying attention to details.

Lack of time: People take on many jobs and try to achieve many tasks within the available time. Under such time pressures, I have picked up my remote instead of my cell phone and gone all the way to my basement car park without my keys.

Some good friends have picked up other people’s bags in a hurry to leave the airport. The list of this comedy of errors is endless. Create a daily schedule in which you are spending your time on the priorities of your life.

No miracle cure: The tendency to gloss over important details is not an easy condition to cure, but there are some crucial things which can be worked upon.

Check and recheck for mistakes. Proof reading skills are an asset. All highly paid lawyers have them, as do good Chartered accountants. Keep Checklists. That way you will not forget your tickets or your secure IDs while out on a trip.

Improve your ability to think of the minute details. Simple tasks can help you realise how much attention is required for most tasks. Try writing instructions on how to cross a road. This will also show you how important it is to standardise and make things routine.

A few simple exercises which bring forth the minutiae involved in daily tasks will highlight the need to be aware of the depth of tasks.

Exercise 1: A simple exercise to focus your mind sharply on day-to-day tasks is to use your less dominant hand to perform mundane things such as brushing your teeth, combing you hair, etc. If you are right handed, try using your left hand. The task will become less easy and will force you to pay more attention.

Exercise 2: When you are home late at night and it is pitch dark inside, leave the lights off. Try picturing where your furniture is and attempt to navigate around the house. It’s a lot harder to do than you realise, especially if you have a person in your home that likes to rearrange your furniture often. This will make you organise the house with far more attention.

Listen and observe carefully: Children who pay attention to instructions from teachers not only score more marks, but also carry this trait into their adult working life. It is a crucial aspect of diligence.

Ultimately, the key to quality in every aspect of our lives is doing little things correctly every time, so that each action produces a quality result.

When every detail is attended to, and each step in the process is given complete and careful attention, the end result inevitably will be of the highest quality.

Like most people who are detail-oriented. I almost always run all my writings through a spell chequer!

I must confess that a lot of mist takes still creep in. I wont to pay attention to details and that is always a good beginning to a good end!

(The writer, an alumnus of XLRI, is a Bangalore-based HR consultant.)