5 simple ways to improve your attention to details.

How to be a better Software Engineer by boosting your attention to details - read on.

Hello, welcome back to the Soft-Skilled Engineer.

Attention to details is vital in Software Engineering

Even small and innocent mistake can have huge consequences.

Working tired leads to mistakes.

Working under pressure and as fast as you can leads to mistakes.

When I look back to the code I wrote months ago, I can very easily tell where we were under real time pressure - the quality of that code is level below our usual standard.

Everyone will tell you to take regular breaks, and to set realistic deadlines - lets look together, what else we can do to boost our attention to details?

Minimize distractions

We are not computers, and we are not able to seamlessly multitask from second to second.

When you are doing something, and get interrupted, your focus will take time to get back to 100% - and that leads to missing details, and making mistakes.

I find it really handy to turn off wifi on my phone and close everything I don’t need for the task I am working on.

I also deliberately plan main focus windows for my hard-lifting programming work to early mornings / later afternoons, where there is much less probability someone will need something urgent and distract me.

Digital noise is IMHO one of the biggest issues today, harming not just your work related focus, but also social interactions - just be honest! How often do you glance your phone when you are out with friends and you are supposed to have a quality time and good conversation?

Learn to ask the right questions the right way

Part of paying attention to details is getting those details - that means knowing how to ask efficiently and what to ask.

This one can be tricky, because it is hard to ask something you have no clue you should ask, right?

That’s something I face quite regularly in software engineering when it comes to client requirements - and I think we all practice this during refinement/grooming sessions adding details to the user stories, we are about to implement later.

If you find yourself in a situation, where you missed something because you did not know you should ask and clarify, don’t be hard on yourself. But use it in your favor - after you finish something, take a bit of time to reflect and ask yourself - is there something, I should have asked in the beginning to make my life easier?

Similar scenarios require similar sets of questions, and you will get better over time.

Always take notes

Information you hear but don’t process is often lost.

I recommend you to have a means to take notes that is “on standby “ all the time.

You need to take down notes about relevant details, but you need to also process that information further.

One example:

You are talking with your good friend, and he mentions this cool-looking fantasy series he really wanted but decided not to go for it because it is a bit pricey.

Now if you note down the name of that book series - that is a good first step. But a few months later when you want to buy him a nice present you will probably not remember you took that note, or you will have trouble finding it.

If you take it a bit further and note it down to the calendar - voila, you have a great present idea for your friend’s birthday, and it will be a perfect fit.

So my advice is to take notes - preferably using hand and paper (it is scientifically proven to help the brain to retain that information…but on that some other time) and then process your notes daily.

Get a second opinion

Thoroughly looking through your work sounds very detail-oriented, but the truth is it’s better to ask a second opinion at some point.

Btw, that’s why it’s a good practice to have code reviews - so that any code going to production is seen by 4 eyes.

This applies to anything you do, not just writing code - documentation, various writing, and important email - hacks, you should even ask your partner at home for a second opinion after you clean that garbage from the backyard - I guarantee you that you missed some bit.

Asking for a second opinion does not paint you as a person missing details. Contrary.

Resist the urge to “clock out“

You know how sometimes you are in a meeting, or in a call, and the discussion is about something you know already - you start thinking on the background about something else.

Maybe about the current problem you are solving, maybe about the pleasant evening you are looking forward to - just to find out a minute later that you don’t know what the rest of the group is talking about.

You clocked out - and that is something a person paying attention to details should not allow.

Now you have to ask your boss or your colleagues what they are talking about, and what was said - a little bit embarrassing.

So my advice is to pay attention even if you think the topic is known to you.

Let’s get in touch! Some other places you can find me:

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Any feedback is appreciated as always.

See you all around!