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Issue with silly mistakes

In my jobs and uni i've always had issues making silly mistakes and errors in my work, including major essays and theses. Such as forgetting to change words in footnotes or labels, things that need tweaking here and there. I have adhd but still try my best. I don't think i've ever sent something off without being told to fix something, it can happen a few times in a row for a single document. This is really embarrassing and i feel people think it's incompetent, unreliable, and very annoying. I really worry i won't be able to hold down a job in future for this repeating habit. Ideally i would slow down doing things but there are tight deadliness and pressurised jobs. How can i have a job with this? Does it get better with age & experience?
It's understadable considering you have ADHD. Maybe try overlooking all of your work to check for silly mistakes and things. If that doesn't help try to have your peers look it over for you. I'm sure someone would be willing to help.
Reply 2
Original post by username5347244
It's understadable considering you have ADHD. Maybe try overlooking all of your work to check for silly mistakes and things. If that doesn't help try to have your peers look it over for you. I'm sure someone would be willing to help.

Thanks I meant how do people manage to keep jobs if they have adhd and most jobs are very stressful so it’s not the right environment to deal with adhd. People can’t always check your work
Original post by Anonymous
In my jobs and uni i've always had issues making silly mistakes and errors in my work, including major essays and theses. Such as forgetting to change words in footnotes or labels, things that need tweaking here and there. I have adhd but still try my best. I don't think i've ever sent something off without being told to fix something, it can happen a few times in a row for a single document. This is really embarrassing and i feel people think it's incompetent, unreliable, and very annoying. I really worry i won't be able to hold down a job in future for this repeating habit. Ideally i would slow down doing things but there are tight deadliness and pressurised jobs. How can i have a job with this? Does it get better with age & experience?

Just get a job you don't have to write much
Reply 4
You just need to change your work style and start proof reading your stuff more instead of just saying done and sending it off. If you keep doing that, especially in a job, you will start running into problems..
Reply 5
Original post by Napp
You just need to change your work style and start proof reading your stuff more instead of just saying done and sending it off. If you keep doing that, especially in a job, you will start running into problems..

But I already do that. I check it as many times as I can yet can’t identify everything that needs to be fixed. I just stop seeing things clearly maybe it’s anxiety too. Like my brain goes foggy does that make sense.

Plus sometimes I might be in the middle of proofreading then someone comes to put pressure on me to send it to them now
Original post by Anonymous
Thanks I meant how do people manage to keep jobs if they have adhd and most jobs are very stressful so it’s not the right environment to deal with adhd. People can’t always check your work

Most jobs aren't very stressful - - some are, but most are mundane and routine. Chose a low key career. Meanwhile in your uni work, try resetting deadlines a week earlier than the actual deadline. Have something completed for the earlier deadline and use the spare time to refine it. And try printing stuff out so you can scan read and annotate on paper, or record yourself reading it out, then listen to it on a walk. The change of medium can trick the brain into spotting errors.
Reply 7
Original post by Dee-Emma
Most jobs aren't very stressful - - some are, but most are mundane and routine. Chose a low key career. Meanwhile in your uni work, try resetting deadlines a week earlier than the actual deadline. Have something completed for the earlier deadline and use the spare time to refine it. And try printing stuff out so you can scan read and annotate on paper, or record yourself reading it out, then listen to it on a walk. The change of medium can trick the brain into spotting errors.

Thank you, this is helpful. I may have chosen the wrong industry for a low profile career. Are admin jobs considered low profile? or what would you consider
Every time you forget something why don't you add it to a list, so that you will have a big list of things you need to do before sending work off?
Original post by Anonymous
Thank you, this is helpful. I may have chosen the wrong industry for a low profile career. Are admin jobs considered low profile? or what would you consider

Depends what you're administrating? People's health and welfare - life and death stuff. Or the sales feedback from some low key consumer product, which in larger terms is pretty irrelevant. I guess it'll be a balance between finding something that you don't find stressful, but is sufficiently relevant to avoid boredom. Stress and excitement are the same symptoms relabled.
What's your field of study?
Original post by Dee-Emma
Depends what you're administrating? People's health and welfare - life and death stuff. Or the sales feedback from some low key consumer product, which in larger terms is pretty irrelevant. I guess it'll be a balance between finding something that you don't find stressful, but is sufficiently relevant to avoid boredom. Stress and excitement are the same symptoms relabled.
What's your field of study?

For me it's less about boredom and more the feeling of doing something quite meaningless would make me have an existential crisis

I studied architecture and very recently handed in my final work. I've looked back at that submission a few times now and each time i find a new ridiculous careless mistake. Definitely not expecting a First anymore. Can't believe the mistakes i've submitted it with despite doing 2-3 spellchecks and multiple proofreads yet missed loads.
Original post by Anonymous
For me it's less about boredom and more the feeling of doing something quite meaningless would make me have an existential crisis

I studied architecture and very recently handed in my final work. I've looked back at that submission a few times now and each time i find a new ridiculous careless mistake. Definitely not expecting a First anymore. Can't believe the mistakes i've submitted it with despite doing 2-3 spellchecks and multiple proofreads yet missed loads.

It’s always a much easier to proof-read someone else’s work than your own because you know what you mean it to say and your eye glides over the errors without registering them - especially if you are reading on a screen rather than on paper.

I think the problem is exaggerated by the speed of communication. When you had to wait for a typist you had time to think about what you wanted to say and the best way to say it. With email, or even worse, social media, the pressure is to respond instantaneously. I remember hearing a judge interviewed who was told when newly appointed the delay between a case being concluded and verdict being announced was to allow it to ‘mature’: write the judgement on the day, put it in the bottom drawer, and then come back to it in a month or two! I don’t know if even judges have that leisure today!

I guess the point of both of these examples is about creating that critical distance, so you’re looking at what you’ve written (almost) as if it was written by someone else. And failing that, accept that you need someone else to give it a once over… if it is important. That’s not a weakness but a strength to recognise when it is necessary and to ask for help.

Also, if it helps you to know you’re not alone, I don’t know how many times I read my PhD thesis, and how many times my dad proof-read it, I still find new mistakes every time I open it.
Just a heads up it gets worse the older you get

I make these mistakes too and boy do I hear about it
Original post by SebastianMesser
It’s always a much easier to proof-read someone else’s work than your own because you know what you mean it to say and your eye glides over the errors without registering them - especially if you are reading on a screen rather than on paper.

I think the problem is exaggerated by the speed of communication. When you had to wait for a typist you had time to think about what you wanted to say and the best way to say it. With email, or even worse, social media, the pressure is to respond instantaneously. I remember hearing a judge interviewed who was told when newly appointed the delay between a case being concluded and verdict being announced was to allow it to ‘mature’: write the judgement on the day, put it in the bottom drawer, and then come back to it in a month or two! I don’t know if even judges have that leisure today!

I guess the point of both of these examples is about creating that critical distance, so you’re looking at what you’ve written (almost) as if it was written by someone else. And failing that, accept that you need someone else to give it a once over… if it is important. That’s not a weakness but a strength to recognise when it is necessary and to ask for help.

Also, if it helps you to know you’re not alone, I don’t know how many times I read my PhD thesis, and how many times my dad proof-read it, I still find new mistakes every time I open it.

This is so true i never considered my adhd or way of doing things such a problem until i stepped into this ridiculous pace of time, especially since you got your bosses on whatsapp messaging you 24/7 and expecting a miracle in 24 hours if you can move fast enough and pretend like this is the most important thing in life. it's almost a test to see how quick you can crush a person's soul.

Leaving things for a short while makes the world of difference, you can easily correct things clearly and remember things that way. Job related stuff has been like a sieve, fast-paced, overwhelming and ultimately quite meaningless so i remember very little from previous work.

Have you handed in your phd thesis already or are you correcting a work in progress?
Original post by Anonymous
Have you handed in your phd thesis already or are you correcting a work in progress?

Yes, corrections all done last year, TY.

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