Hi All,
I have recently found that I have been making a few errors in my PhD work. For example I did not read the instructions for submission of abstracts to a scientific meeting, which I had to resubmit.
This is just one of a few incidents that is starting to worry me.
I have never been a perfectionist, but I feel I am less diligent than I used to be. A possible excuse is that I am now having to manage more task than I used to prior to commencing my PhD.
Is that just a lazy person's excuse or has anyone else had similar problems?
Either way I would appreciate any suggestions people may have on how I can improve my performance? Thanks.

keep an up to date diary for starters.

Then have a list of tasks you have to complete and under each task write notes/sublist of things you need to do for it.

e.g.

Attend research meeting
- email sarah to confirm attendance
- re-read last research meeting minutes
- prepare update about own research

I find my other half does stuff like you are saying - kind of rushing in and not checking methodically what you are actually doing. He gets round it by me saying "have you checked this, check it, CHECK IT!!!" maybe you need to just be more reflexive about your work, and constantly double check whether you have been through the whole process of what you are doing, and not just skipping to the end.

I think it depends just how many errors you are making and how trivial/non-trivial they are. I agree with the poster below, saying that checking and double-checking is one good way of tracing errors before anyone else does. However, I believe, that we are all making errors, and not all are found, even by supervisors/reviewers etc. As a suggestion - aim to be focussed at all times when you do important work, and when that is not possible, choose to do tasks that require less focus and attention, or break up the work in smaller sections and take regular breaks to stay sharp.
Hope that helps... all the best.