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How to fix poor attention to detail and focus?

LiveEntrepreneur

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Hey all, so this is something I think I've always naturally struggled with but in the last couple of years it has gotten quite worse. I think part of the problem is that I can accidently rush through work without realizing and my focus is pretty bad (this is probably because the tasks I work on are boring, but I feel I should be able to get through this problem). I've had time's in the past where I'd review this document that I need to send out, 5-8 times before sending it out and then only realized after I sent it that there were still mistakes. Sometimes I feel that maybe I'm in the wrong career and is why I'm struggling a lot.

I've been working on improving it but it's still pretty bad, and not sure if it will improve. I think I'm burnt out as well which isn't helping matters lol.

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem and how they overcame it?
 
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Tubs

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I've had time's in the past where I'd review this document that I need to send out, 5-8 times before sending it out and then only realized after I sent it that there were still mistakes. Sometimes I feel that maybe I'm in the wrong career and is why I'm struggling a lot.
I remember hearing a trick that Ben Franklin used. When he finished writing he would take the pages, and put them away in his desk. Then the next morning he would look them over to do his corrections, so he could view them with fresh eyes.
 

heavy_industry

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Get better sleep and do a lot of exercise. Make sure you're not eating anything that causes brain fog.

Do the focused work in the mornings, or whenever you're feeling most sharp.
 

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Hey all, so this is something I think I've always naturally struggled with but in the last couple of years it has gotten quite worse. I think part of the problem is that I can accidently rush through work without realizing and my focus is pretty bad (this is probably because the tasks I work on are boring, but I feel I should be able to get through this problem). I've had time's in the past where I'd review this document that I need to send out, 5-8 times before sending it out and then only realized after I sent it that there were still mistakes. Sometimes I feel that maybe I'm in the wrong career and is why I'm struggling a lot.

I've been working on improving it but it's still pretty bad, and not sure if it will improve. I think I'm burnt out as well which isn't helping matters lol.

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem and how they overcame it?
This does happens especially doing multi tasking , brain exhaustion , having less excitement for the work one does.
This happens with me too. But I do know what will fix it. Like taking breaks in between so long hours won't harm my work. And I just try to be relax nd leave whatsoever is happening in my mind aside on table , I k it won't run anywhere ill get back to it when I want.
Hope I try to put it down as simple as I could.
 

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Hey all, so this is something I think I've always naturally struggled with but in the last couple of years it has gotten quite worse. I think part of the problem is that I can accidently rush through work without realizing and my focus is pretty bad (this is probably because the tasks I work on are boring, but I feel I should be able to get through this problem). I've had time's in the past where I'd review this document that I need to send out, 5-8 times before sending it out and then only realized after I sent it that there were still mistakes. Sometimes I feel that maybe I'm in the wrong career and is why I'm struggling a lot.

I've been working on improving it but it's still pretty bad, and not sure if it will improve. I think I'm burnt out as well which isn't helping matters lol.

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem and how they overcame it?

Sometimes I feel that maybe I'm in the wrong career and is why I'm struggling a lot

You identified the problem. The problem isn't you. The problem is you don't want to do what you are doing.

Find a way to make a living doing something you genuinely want to get better at and you'll find your attention to detail and focus improving.

And someday on your entrepreneurial journey, you might discover that even with this improvement you're just not a detailed person and you have to hire detail people to cover for a deficiency.

And that's okay too...
 

LiveEntrepreneur

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I remember hearing a trick that Ben Franklin used. When he finished writing he would take the pages, and put them away in his desk. Then the next morning he would look them over to do his corrections, so he could view them with fresh eyes.
That's an interesting idea. I used to do the same thing a while back but I'd wait 20 minutes, sometimes I still had errors haha.
 
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LiveEntrepreneur

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Get better sleep and do a lot of exercise. Make sure you're not eating anything that causes brain fog.

Do the focused work in the mornings, or whenever you're feeling most sharp.
I actually do exercise quite regularly, I've changed some of my lifestyle, which also includes a much better diet. Didn't make an ounce of difference, didn't expect it to. I think I probably need a big change.
 

LiveEntrepreneur

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You identified the problem. The problem isn't you. The problem is you don't want to do what you are doing.

Find a way to make a living doing something you genuinely want to get better at and you'll find your attention to detail and focus improving.

And someday on your entrepreneurial journey, you might discover that even with this improvement you're just not a detailed person and you have to hire detail people to cover for a deficiency.

And that's okay too...
I think that is the root problem. In a few months I'm looking at potentially getting a new career and get out of the whole entrepreneurship game all together. If I can't find another career I want to do, I might stay in the space until I find something within the space that I like.

That's also a dilemma that I've had for a long time, do I keep improving what I'm not good at or do I go with my strengths?
 

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I am also not detail-oriented, so whenever I make a new mistake I catalog it and create a protocol for double-checking my work's quality in the future.

For example - I once sent out an email campaign without adding links to it... so I wrote it down in my "mistake-catalog", and now I know I am prone to making a mistake like that, so I know what to look out for. I also know I overlook margins and fonts when creating landing pages, so I double-check that as well.

This is not foolproof as new mistakes always happen, but at least you learn from the old ones.
 
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BizyDad

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That's also a dilemma that I've had for a long time, do I keep improving what I'm not good at or do I go with my strengths?
There are good arguments on both sides.

Do you want to improve your weakness or do you want to revel in your strengths?

Only you can answer that. But, at least for a time, I say give revelling in your strengths a try and see how you like it. Come back to the improving weaknesses side at some point in the future when you have more energy and desire for it.
 

LiveEntrepreneur

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There are good arguments on both sides.

Do you want to improve your weakness or do you want to revel in your strengths?

Only you can answer that. But, at least for a time, I say give revelling in your strengths a try and see how you like it. Come back to the improving weaknesses side at some point in the future when you have more energy and desire for it.
I think this is what I'll end up doing. Cheers.
 

Johnny boy

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Hey all, so this is something I think I've always naturally struggled with but in the last couple of years it has gotten quite worse. I think part of the problem is that I can accidently rush through work without realizing and my focus is pretty bad (this is probably because the tasks I work on are boring, but I feel I should be able to get through this problem). I've had time's in the past where I'd review this document that I need to send out, 5-8 times before sending it out and then only realized after I sent it that there were still mistakes. Sometimes I feel that maybe I'm in the wrong career and is why I'm struggling a lot.

I've been working on improving it but it's still pretty bad, and not sure if it will improve. I think I'm burnt out as well which isn't helping matters lol.

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem and how they overcame it?
Print it out first
 
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msufan

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I am also not detail-oriented, so whenever I make a new mistake I catalog it and create a protocol for double-checking my work's quality in the future.

For example - I once sent out an email campaign without adding links to it... so I wrote it down in my "mistake-catalog", and now I know I am prone to making a mistake like that, so I know what to look out for. I also know I overlook margins and fonts when creating landing pages, so I double-check that as well.

This is not foolproof as new mistakes always happen, but at least you learn from the old ones.
Kybalion's post is a better version of what I was going to say: I use checklists to help myself overcome known weak spots.
 

Antifragile

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My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned: couldn't concentrate.
 
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Kevin88660

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Hey all, so this is something I think I've always naturally struggled with but in the last couple of years it has gotten quite worse. I think part of the problem is that I can accidently rush through work without realizing and my focus is pretty bad (this is probably because the tasks I work on are boring, but I feel I should be able to get through this problem). I've had time's in the past where I'd review this document that I need to send out, 5-8 times before sending it out and then only realized after I sent it that there were still mistakes. Sometimes I feel that maybe I'm in the wrong career and is why I'm struggling a lot.

I've been working on improving it but it's still pretty bad, and not sure if it will improve. I think I'm burnt out as well which isn't helping matters lol.

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem and how they overcame it?
It happens all the time when we are rushing for speed.

But I think for documents that you cannot afford to have mistake you just need to make sure it has no mistake, whatever time it takes.

I guess that you could try stopping your check at 3rd or 4th time for most work because from my experience further check wont create marginal impact that worths the time.
 

Aditya Gunjal

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The problem with attention span is faced by almost everone, but it has various causes(and each has different solutions) As you said burnt out, poor diet, wrong profession.
First of all if you are using social media especially- instagram (reels), YouTube (shorts), Facebook (whatever they call it,30sec video) you have to quit them and i mean totally. because research has shown these type of 1min video have reduced attention span significantly with decrease in focus.
Then comes the profession problem, you can solve it on your own, same goes with diet.
And i would like to tell you that(by my experience) you should not do resistance training unless you want to build muscles and maintain them. This is because after resistance training body releases certain hormon that make you sleepy(because we need rest for building muscles and all). You should do cardio or yoga or something that hepls with health and refreshes you.
And if you are feeling burnt out you should take a week out or atleast some days and spend some time alone or with family so that you can get out of that burnt zone(i am not professional physiatrist so please contact to someone professional who will help you with such condition).
Finally if you want to know more about focus and stuff you should refer book named " Deep work" , i havent read it but got suggested from a good reliable source.
 

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Hey Johnny, its not just documents it's other stuff to like if I'm running ads and the settings are wrong or I missed something like the ad copy was wrong.
I don't know how to help. I just know that if it's important to me, I pay attention to it. So maybe it's not that important to you?

For example, if I said to you. I'll pay you $10,000 if there are no mistakes on this ad. But you pay me $10,000 if there is a mistake. Do you think you would make any mistakes on it?

Also, when you are reviewing stuff, are you really reviewing it? Or is your brain just skimming over stuff because it thinks it knows what it says already. You shouldn't have to review something 5 times. You just need to review it one time, but really concentrate and review it slowly that ONE time.
 
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LiveEntrepreneur

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I don't know how to help. I just know that if it's important to me, I pay attention to it. So maybe it's not that important to you?

For example, if I said to you. I'll pay you $10,000 if there are no mistakes on this ad. But you pay me $10,000 if there is a mistake. Do you think you would make any mistakes on it?

Also, when you are reviewing stuff, are you really reviewing it? Or is your brain just skimming over stuff because it thinks it knows what it says already. You shouldn't have to review something 5 times. You just need to review it one time, but really concentrate and review it slowly that ONE time.
You bet your a$$, I'd review that document until perfection haha. But I'd be checking 20 times then. To be honest with you, I think you might be right. A lot of times when I have reviewed documents without even realizing it, I would subconsciously say to myself "should be fine" or I'm assuming that everything is fine. I think I'm skimming on some occasions. This bought me a smile, maybe this is the solution lol. I'm going to try this as well and not going in with any assumptions and take it slower.
 

LiveEntrepreneur

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I don't know how to help. I just know that if it's important to me, I pay attention to it. So maybe it's not that important to you?

For example, if I said to you. I'll pay you $10,000 if there are no mistakes on this ad. But you pay me $10,000 if there is a mistake. Do you think you would make any mistakes on it?

Also, when you are reviewing stuff, are you really reviewing it? Or is your brain just skimming over stuff because it thinks it knows what it says already. You shouldn't have to review something 5 times. You just need to review it one time, but really concentrate and review it slowly that ONE time.
I forgot to mention also, I think part of the skimming and the need to review it a lot is also due to the fact that I'm feeling tired and that's because I'm very bored of the work. This just applies for work though, things outside of work when I don't feel tired and review something I can still miss it, so in that case I think it just be me skimming stuff. It's so complicated. I can even do random things like, go into the wrong room by accident because my energy feels low (got to do with boredom), but if I'm not working and on the weekend enjoying myself then the effect is still there to some degree. I wonder if that's because the toll that work is potentially having on me.
 

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My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned: couldn't concentrate.
Next time find a job with a better salary orange.

And if you're still in the juicing business, try to squeeze more focus out of yourself. You will get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
 
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Hey all, so this is something I think I've always naturally struggled with but in the last couple of years it has gotten quite worse. I think part of the problem is that I can accidently rush through work without realizing and my focus is pretty bad (this is probably because the tasks I work on are boring, but I feel I should be able to get through this problem). I've had time's in the past where I'd review this document that I need to send out, 5-8 times before sending it out and then only realized after I sent it that there were still mistakes. Sometimes I feel that maybe I'm in the wrong career and is why I'm struggling a lot.

I've been working on improving it but it's still pretty bad, and not sure if it will improve. I think I'm burnt out as well which isn't helping matters lol.

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem and how they overcame it?
Doing work you don't want to do is the root of the issue. Can you outsource it?

I struggle with focus when I'm doing stuff I find boring too. I find a timer helpful and when I want to switch to a distraction, I tell myself you can do whatever it is when you reach your break (if you still want to do it).

I find focusing requires practice. The more I task-switch, the worse my ability to concentrate is. When I'm more disciplined with my focus, it keeps getting strong day after day.
 

LiveEntrepreneur

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Doing work you don't want to do is the root of the issue. Can you outsource it?

I struggle with focus when I'm doing stuff I find boring too. I find a timer helpful and when I want to switch to a distraction, I tell myself you can do whatever it is when you reach your break (if you still want to do it).

I find focusing requires practice. The more I task-switch, the worse my ability to concentrate is. When I'm more disciplined with my focus, it keeps getting strong day after day.
I would be then outsourcing my whole job, haha. I'm taking @biophase advice now and @BizyDad advice in a few months time, and see how I go. I'll provide an update if I figure things out, hopefully make a post to help other people who are struggling to find their purpose as well.
 

Move the chains

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I would be then outsourcing my whole job, haha. I'm taking @biophase advice now and @BizyDad advice in a few months time, and see how I go. I'll provide an update if I figure things out, hopefully make a post to help other people who are struggling to find their purpose as well.
Sound like you need to change job or launch something you can monetize asap and get to work so you're not wasting your time doing work you hate (unless it's your own business and there's payoff down the line in return for short-term suffering).
 
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Next time find a job with a better salary orange.

And if you're still in the juicing business, try to squeeze more focus out of yourself. You will get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
You are such a good friend that, if we were on a sinking ship together and there was only one life jacket, I'd miss you so much and talk about you fondly to everybody who asked.
 

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You are such a good friend that, if we were on a sinking ship together and there was only one life jacket, I'd miss you so much and talk about you fondly to everybody who asked.
I appreciate the kindness, but you can keep the jacket.

I'll be in the life boat.
 

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I don't know if this is a joke or not, but as someone with diagnosed ADHD and a son with ADHD - medication has literally been the "missing link" in my efforts to overcome the issues the OP faces.

ADHD is an executive function disorder that most people laugh at, ignore, or misunderstand, but for those who genuinely suffer from it - it's F*cking brutal. The best metaphor I've heard is blaming a paraplegic for not being able to walk because they don't 'want it enough', aren't 'motivated enough' or are just 'lazy'.

That's not how physical disabilities work and it's not how mental disabilities work. The brain isn't ethereal - it's a physical thing. It can be "broken" just as much as your liver, heart or lungs can be. You just can't "see" the issues of the brain so everyone just assumes mental problems can all be solved with intangible things like positive thinking, reading, or being motivated enough.

It's depressing and anxiety-inducing as all hell to go through the kind of existential crisis that comes from a complete mismatch between what you want, what you know you're physically capable of, what you understand, and being unable to mentally get your shit together in order to actually do it. Especially when everyone else around you is doing it just fine. "Look at Bob, he was a lazy sack of shit who got his life together and is successful now - why can't I do that?". Well probably because Bob doesn't have a mental problem - he has a working brain and only needed a kick in the a$$ and a wake up call to consider actually using it properly for a change.

To be clear - I'm not a "pill-pusher" by any stretch - I'm a BIG fan of exhausting other means before introducing medication to your life. Most people's issues in life can be "cured" with regular exercise, proper diet, and good sleep. And some do just need to stop being lazy and get their shit together. It makes no sense to jump to medication when you still eat fast food 9 times a week and sleep 4 hours a night. That's the definition of "I've tried nothing and nothing's working!"
 
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100% - If you need it, take it.

I'm a BIG fan of exhausting other means before introducing medication to your life. Most people's issues in life can be "cured" with regular exercise, proper diet, and good sleep.
Even if you've "exhausted" other means such as sleep, diet and exercise, you should keep using those three as much as you can, in conjunction with the medication (not as an alternative).
 

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Even if you've "exhausted" other means such as sleep, diet and exercise, you should keep using those three as much as you can, in conjunction with the medication (not as an alternative).

Totally agree.

IMHO and experience - taking medication when those three are out of whack is not going to be nearly as effective. You'll just end up playing video games and dooms scrolling the news all day - except with intense focus.

Your brain benefits massively from diet, exercise and sleep. That is the fuel of your brain (healthy or not). If a car's engine is broken, fixing it won't help if your tires are flat and you're putting the wrong fuel in the tank. The engine will probably work better than it did, sure, but you aren't going to be going very far.
 

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