Not paying attention to detail is killing your progress.

If you’re like me, you never really paid attention to details. Maybe you focused fully during a few deep work sessions, but while doing anything else, your mind was always on what’s next.

You rushed through things and, because of that, made no real progress. And you may not have even realized it—until now.

Math Class

This might sound cringy, but today in my math class, I was sitting in my chair, doing my work. I solved a few problems, and then the teacher said something that immediately caught my attention: “These problems will be graded as a top mark.”

Since it’s the beginning of the half year , I want to secure good grades early so I can later focus on business and writing.

So, hyped up, I went to the board to solve the problem. I knew exactly how to do it, and my heart was racing because nobody else seemed to know the answer. Proudly, I wrote it on the board and sat back down

I looked at the board looked at my notes ones more looked at the board where teacher was rewriting mathematical formula to realize I had made a mistake.

I looked at the correct solution, and it hit me:

I had forgotten two small details simply because I wasn’t paying close enough attention.

Everything else was correct. I knew exactly where I had gone wrong, but it was too late. All I had to do was read the problem twice.

The teacher noticed it was just a careless mistake, so they gave me another chance.

Finally! An even easier problem, with a diagram right next to it. I nailed it , at least I thought that , I had it wrong too.

This time, I could have avoided it just by looking at the diagram one more time.

Normally, I’d brush it off, thinking, “Oh, it’s just not my day.” But this kept happening again and again—all because I wasn’t paying attention to details. And details are the most important thing.

Why Details Matter

That’s why you should always pay attention. This was just a school, but what if you or I make the same mistake in a tweet, a product, or an important business decision?

So rather :

Check it twice, cut once.

Pay close attention to details.

Don’t rush.

Because slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

And it’s not just me—every successful person I know pays extreme attention to detail. Steve Jobs, for example, obsessed over the tiniest things, because he knew that details could make or break a business, a product, or a brand.

Ask Yourself:

Where am I rushing ahead, not paying attention to details, and not giving my best?

Thanks for reading. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, my DMs are open!