Being thorough means showing attention to detail, there is great care and completeness in the work, and there is depth and meaning to it as well.

A thorough job is not superficial, nor is it partially done. Nothing is forgotten nor overlooked.

It is easy, though, to skim over required tasks, getting just the bare minimum done in order to move on to the next task. Most of us are probably partially guilty of not being entirely thorough.

There is context here though: keeping your house clean perhaps doesn’t need to be as thorough as keeping your finances in order.

We participate in a conversation more readily when the topic is relevant to us.

Naturally, when a subject is related to something we’re already interested in, we’re more likely to pay attention than if the topic is completely irrelevant.

While listening to a conversation, a presentation, or a training session, we’ll hear it in our own context and relevance.

And, each listener will have their own unique context.

So, when applying for a new job, a promotion, or just wanting to build confidence in our own knowledge, remember to be relevant. Be relevant by making connections with the audience context.

It’s not something we think of often: words per minute.

Yet we go through our days taking in words constantly, in a multitude of forms.

Words on a page, words heard, or words in our heads.

Data is available estimating words per minute:

• Reading: 200–250

• Speaking: 120-200

• Listening: 275-300

• Thinking: 10-1000x

• Typing: 40–60

Thinking speed isn’t actually documented, I just made that up.

All of the forms need a wide range, perhaps even wider than what is found by that quick search. They can all be done either slowly and with purpose, or lightning quick, depending on circumstances.

There’s plenty of advice online on how to build self-confidence, but there is not much advice available on developing our confidence in others.

Having confidence in a person, company, or process allows us to believe that we can rely on them or it. That confidence allows us to put our scarce cognitive availability onto other problems or, even better, innovation.

The feeling of confidence usually develops over time, from a combination of consistent results, trustworthy outcomes, and reliable behaviour.

Quickly developing confidence in others is challenging when we’re about to hire a person, or, they get assigned to our project.

The expected career progression is to move up. That means eventual leadership in some sense of the word.

Amongst the excellent leaders out there, are those who are ‘thinker leaders’: those with a tendency towards technical solutions rather than team performance.

A thinker leader mostly thinks in facts, systems, and project outputs. Thinker leaders tend to focus on project reliability and innovation, rather than the output of the team or an individual.

Counselling a thinker leader to consider the team beyond the facts is like pushing water uphill: it can be done but it takes an awful lot of energy.

To document technical information well, you do need to sweat the small stuff. It almost goes without saying that details are extra important for technical, design, or even construction information.

As the world automates, detail gets hidden behind ‘black boxes’ of programming, coding, and screens.

But: the details are where the problems are.

The details require a thorough review and validation; however, the summary report or output need not belabour the details.

So it is a tricky dance to know – and sweat - the small stuff, but also to know – and not sweat - what’s left out of the summary.

Following on from yesterday’s post (which I rarely do): off days should still result in doing one fulfilling thing. Doing that one thing, even if it is small or unrelated to work, is a triumph.

The other benefit of doing that one thing applies best if that one thing includes knowledge.

Because if you are acquiring knowledge or skills, even when the lights are off and motivation is low, remember that no one can take that knowledge away from you.

Your job may change, your boss may change, your income may change: but you still have that knowledge.

It’s yours.

Some days the lights are just … off. Some days the words don’t come, the solutions aren’t there, the motivation wanes, the writing to be read, blurs.

The day in, day out of producing, solving, achieving, is unrealistic.

At some of the lowest points, of a day, of a year, of a career, that’s when it is helpful to do one thing that makes you proud.

It can be a little thing – filing a few papers, tweaking a spreadsheet, creating a drawing, folding the laundry. Doing one thing that makes you proud, can be the one thing that maintains self-worth.

It’s been said that mastering a skill requires 10,000 hours. It’s also been observed that the studies which purported that theory have been skewed, or mis-quoted. Regardless of the petty details, it seems that 10,000 hours makes a person really good at repetitive tasks like playing an instrument or perfecting a golf swing.

The alternate approach that appeals to me is recognising it’s the first 20 hours where all the improvements are gained for a skill or task. A dedicated effort for 20 hours on something you want to learn (a language, public speaking, tennis) is more palatable than 10,000.

Too many, not enough; it’s so important, it’s not important; write more, write less.

I can often clearly see both sides of the document game.

We write too much; but then, we have to document everything.

Documents are too long; but then, if we don’t have a record, we haven’t tracked the job properly.

There are too many documents in the first place; but then, it’s very hard to stop preparing an extensively long document if that’s what you’ve always done.

Even when you know there’s too much, it’s very hard to decide what not to include. That’s a conundrum.

In the corporate environment, I’m familiar with, documents are created, reviewed, and approved. Then they are either used or stored or both.

Each of those steps has important underlying responsibilities and requirements.

But this somewhat straightforward process (it’s only 4 or 5 steps) has become very complex and contorted, partially because technology allows us to create documents so easily.

But if there’s ever a dispute, we all know what helps solve it. The documentation.

Even with all of the digital advancement going on, there is still a role for people to create, review, approve, and then use and store documents.

One of the current mysteries of life is solving information storage. There is an ever-present need to figure out where to store the multitude of electronic data we have, as well as how to categorise it.

With emails, documents, slack, IMs, meeting minutes, project files, magazines, articles, books, newsletters… I could go on, as you can imagine.

It arrives in one form, we consume and consider it, and then, the relevant outputs need to be categorised and stored.

Categorising the information for storage is one thing. More importantly, though, is the ability to retrieve it efficiently when it’s needed.

There’s a quote out there that goes something like “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter”.

For many of us, it’s easy to write a long, wordy, free writing, run-on (and on) explanation about something, which surely has an enormous amount of useful information in it. It probably has some wonderful turns of phrase. And some really insightful content, too.

But as many writers know, the hard part is only now beginning.

Taking that long, drawn-out, run-on paragraph and styling it so that the reader wants to read the next sentence: that’s what takes time.

Meetings and workshops often (and should almost always) end up with action lists of some sort.

It’s been said that “a meeting without minutes didn’t happen”, but also, “a meeting without an action list could probably have been done by email”.

It’s easy to write action items so that they don’t solve the problem. “Write a procedure” won’t solve a quality control issue. The procedure also needs to also be implemented, and then verified.

When writing action items, include a description of what it looks like when it’s done, and also try to describe what happens if it isn’t completed.

Some people just turn out to be logical and practical.

Like being respected, I think we want to be thought of as logical, but, awkwardly, some just aren’t.

Arriving at a logical conclusion is the goal of many discussions. So not being logical, when it’s needed, can be a real detriment to the conversation.

Logic requires the application of not just sequential, but also consequential thinking. Logical thinking includes clear reasoning and sensible conclusions.

But these descriptive words are subjective and very hard to measure. Some don’t know when they’re not being logical, and, it’s often hard to point it out.

Here are some expected cultural norms, summarised a while ago by Kenneth Hayne, Australian Financial Services Royal Commissioner. Sometimes it’s useful to reflect on them now and then:

• Don’t mislead or deceive, especially those who are uninformed or vulnerable.

• Act fairly, so that all involved can share the benefit or the risk.

• Provide services that are fit for purpose, provided both parties are clear what the expected purpose is.

• Deliver services with care and skill.

• When acting for someone else, remember it’s for them.

• Obey the law, it’s there to protect all of us, based on previous experience and expectations.

Reading skills are thinking skills. Good readers of non-fiction read with questions in mind, to get the most out of it. Reading well includes the ability to interpret information, build knowledge, and recognise key concepts.

Writing skills are thinking skills. Good writers can put together sentences that make the complex simple. Writing well includes the ability to write so that the reader wants to read the next line.

Editing skills are thinking skills. Good editors know the grammar rules, but also know the audience and purpose of the text. Editing well includes being detail oriented, having good judgement, and, patience.

Too long, didn’t read.

It’s a clever acronym, used in social media discussion groups, to recognise when the reference is long or detailed.

There’s an underlying tone of impatience, too. That may be because communication is being shortened to texts, tweets and channels.

Maybe this is all ok. What I find useful about the TL;DR statement, is that in the few cases I’ve come across it, the writer has also provided a summary of the content. That means they’ve had to read it. And, better yet, someone else has written it. Those two may be the ones worth communicating with.

It’s possible to have done a task so many times, that it is impossible to imagine any step being forgotten. Routines and habits take care of many daily tasks. No need for a checklist to get fully dressed in the morning.

We may think our jobs are too complicated to be reduced into a checklist. On the contrary though: the very complexity of them points to the benefits of a checklist approach. The aviation industry introduced checklists, medicine has perfected them, and the construction sector benefits from checklists every day. Checklists help ease the burden of having to remember everything.