Transcription
The common sentiment is that detail orientation is somehow ingrained in everyone's personality or character, and that there's nothing to change about that. But what if I told you I disagree? Detail orientation, just like any other soft skill, can be learned and improved over time. It just requires the right tools and methods, and that's what I will share in this video. Seven essential tips that will help you become a super detail-around person in no time.
Being more detail-oriented will increase your credibility and professionalism at work or school tremendously. And trust me, I've been through the same struggles. At the beginning of my career, so I got my first job as a management consultant over four years ago, and of course, I was not detail-oriented at the beginning at all. For example, that's the feedback I got from my managers: "Leia, you should strive for excellence and put more attention to details. You should always be diligent and take an extra moment to go through a document to not forget even the smallest details."
Thanks for the feedback. But you might also be asking, how to actually become more detail-oriented or what to improve? Tip number one is essential, but make sure to stay until the very end for the ultimate bonus tip that you should not miss out. So, first of all, become aware of the details you should pay attention to. Without knowing what to target, it becomes really difficult to hit the mark. In case you already know which details you should be paying more attention to, for example, in your next essay or presentation, just note them down and create a list or a sticky note that you should always have at hand.
In case you're not entirely sure yet which details your teacher or manager would like you to pay attention to, just ask. Go there and tell them, "In order to manage expectations, I would like to know more about the things they value and look for in a presentation or other piece of work." Again, once you're aware of these details, note them down or even mark them in an exemplary document and make sure to always have it at hand, just like your sticky note. Some standards that you should always pay attention to are the things like the correct title, date, grammar and spelling, constant font types and sizes, perfect alignment of objects, tables or pictures, constant margins, footnotes, page numbers, and so on.
Tip number two: Develop a routine check before any document submission. So whenever you're done with a presentation, an email, or an essay, make sure to follow a standard approach to check the document from the very beginning until the very end. So take your cheat sheet created in step one and review all the details that you know are important for the submission at hand. By following the exact same routine checklist every time reviewing a document, the process will become second nature and a very natural part of your work routine. And trust me, after a few rounds of review, you will already have your signature path that your eyes are kind of following throughout the document. At least that's what I stick until today.
Tip number three: Ask others for feedback. So whenever possible, ask friends, colleagues, or other peers for feedback on your work, and be sure to explicitly ask for critical and challenging feedback. Maybe you have a friend that is already quite detail-oriented, so she would be the perfect auditor for your work. However, if possible, do not only ask super experienced people from your industry for feedback, but also people from other fields of expertise, since they often have a totally different view and look at things from a different angle. And this might give you a larger variety of feedback and, of course, learnings. Let me know in the comments what your experiences with feedback from others are and how you choose the people you ask for feedback.
Next up, and besides receiving feedback, also try to give more feedback to others. Not only because giving is receiving, but also since most of the time, giving feedback is way easier than receiving it. And that's because reviewing and especially criticizing others is so much easier than critically reviewing your own work. But still, by critically reviewing documents from friends or colleagues, your eyes are being trained to become much more detail-oriented and spot even minor things. So always remember, previewing other documents and giving feedback does not only help your friends and colleagues, but at the same time, you are also becoming much more confident in spotting details. And don't worry about being too critical. The more you spot, the better. And it's eventually up to the author to integrate your feedback or not.
Tip number five: Expand your new detail-oriented mindset to other areas of your life. Be it science, work, university, or school. So what I mean by that is quite simple. Just try to be more attentive and more detail-oriented in everyday situations. For example, when reading news or the menu card in a restaurant, try to apply some of your routine checks and just challenge what you see. You might ask yourself, are there any redundant blank spaces? Is the font size consistent? Are the text boxes and pictures neatly aligned? Or are there any spelling mistakes in the article you're reading? And of course, I'm not saying you should become super stuffy and know-it-all, but what I am saying is that you can train your eye in detail orientation even in everyday situations and not only at work or school.
Another super important tip is to let your work rest for some time. So when you're done with your work and have reviewed it once, just put it away for a certain period of time. For everyday things such as emails or quite simple presentations, taking a short coffee break in between review rounds is oftentimes already sufficient. I usually write an email or document, put it away for a coffee break or a short period of time, and get to review it one final time before sending it out. However, for more important documents such as essays, final papers, or important pitch presentations, I recommend putting them aside at least for a day. Because having spent a lot of time with an important piece of work, you often cannot see the wood for the trees anymore. And by letting documents then rest for a certain period of time, you get some level of distance back and are able to focus on details again much better than before.
Tip number seven: Change your perspective to become more detail-oriented. Changing one's perspective can be quite helpful since you are challenged to spot details from a different point of view. So to change your perspective and again train your eye, just change location, format, or time of the day. Changing your location means reviewing or creating a piece of work not only at your desk, but maybe also at the dining table or any other spot where you can work from. By changing the form, I mean printing out your document on a piece of paper or converting it into a PDF. And trust me, it makes a huge difference if you look at your work in a different document format. So whenever I'm done with an important presentation or pitch deck, I usually save it as a PDF and review it once more. And you might be astonished, but simply the shift from PowerPoint or Word to a PDF makes a huge difference. And if you want to go one more step and have a printer at hand, you can also print out the deck for one final review round. Just be mindful of the use and printing of paper. And last, you can change the time of the day and just by simply working or reviewing your piece of work in the morning instead of the evening or at night, as you might be usually doing it.
Last but not least, let's come to the bonus tip and actual key to success, which is to be consistent and repeat your routine over and over again. If you want to become detail-oriented in the long term, you have to make your review cycles and your eye for detail become your nature. And that's why this last tip is probably the most important one. You simply need to develop a routine and a natural attention to details that will help you to detect even the smaller things over time. In short, as so often, practice makes perfect. And that's why I encourage you to watch the video once more and do these individual steps one by one in parallel for a real piece of work right now. But before you're doing that, let me know in the comments if any other tips to become more detail-oriented. And of course, don't forget to subscribe if you like that video and don't want to miss out any further ones with practical, real-life, and career advice. Thanks for watching and see you next time.