With apologies to the other 7 habits people .

I work with a person who is often NOT careful in his work. Beyond that he does well. When he asks “How can I be more careful?”, We usually answer. “That is up to you to figure out” After some thought, I’m not sure this is the right approach.

Those of us who think of ourselves as careful and methodical sometimes assume this habit is innate. We forget what it was that made us careful. Perhaps it was a teacher who kept returning our work until it was without error. Perhaps was it getting tired of spending years of flailing around. Perhaps it was a textbook on mathematics.

Because we forget what made us careful, we assume people who are not careful can never learn this habit.

Here is a list of questions, a sort of checklist to help a person become more careful.

1. Am I responsible for getting it right?
2. Did I take the needed time?
3. Did I read the docs well enough?
4. Did I make a backup?
5. How can I test this hypothesis?
6. Am I following the reason for the rules?
7. Did I read what is on the screen?

updated: removed non AsCII chars & added a missing verb