I was working in the ER the other day and took care of a guy who tried to cut off his finger with a circular saw, you know the kind that has a 7 1/2 inch circular blade and you hold in your hand? Those tools are the most dangerous ones in terms of total numbers of injuries. The blade gets caught in the end of a cut and the tool kicks back or a part of the body is under the material to cut and gets cut into. I can always tell whether a person is right- or left-handed because it’s the other side that gets cut.
And these saw blades are coarse. They don’t cut like a kitchen knife, but they tear and sometimes break the bone underneath. I said this guy tried to cut off his finger, but that’s just a lame ER joke. He wasn’t actually trying to cut off his finger. ER docs think that everyone is out there trying to hurt themselves, and a few succeed. He was out there working at 5AM on a Sunday morning of all times, trying to install flooring for his niece. What a great uncle.
I had to remove some of the torn tissue and ended up stitching his thumb back together. He had been promising his niece for weeks he would get her new kitchen floor put in as a favor and had been putting it off. But things always got in the way, so he made time on a Sunday morning when he knew he wouldn’t get distracted.
And there he was, working on flooring at 0500, completely focused on the task, flying through the work, and his mind wandered. He puts in flooring for a living. Every week, he is cutting and installing luxury vinyl plank. He knows exactly what he is doing. He’s a professional; the guy you want installing your floor. By the way, you should use LVP flooring. It’s great. It’s more up front expense but it holds up much longer than carpet. I replace all my old carpeted floors with it. But now I’m distracted – back to the story.
His mind wandered. If you do any woodworking, you know exactly what happened. And in that moment, the end of the board, which had bent down from its own weight caught the blade and the saw kicked back into his left hand, which was holding the other side of the board.
I consider myself a professional. I’m stitching up people all the time. I can’t get distracted. I have to keep focus. The unfortunate part is that with experience often comes the feeling of invincibility, and then comes complacency., and then a busted finger or a busted deal. I’m not going to be able to solve this for you, but here are a few tips to avoid it:
- Checklists. Build checklists for all your procedures. Have a deal under contract? Call the title company, call the inspector, talk to the banker…
- Policies and procedures. Different from checklists, these are more overarching things you need to build for your business. The policies are telling you what to do, procedures tell you how to do it, and checklists make sure that you actually do it.
- Have a plan. Of course there are times you will have to make a game-time decision, but whenever possible, do things the same way every time. I tell this to med students. It may seem boring, but you write your note in the same way every time and you do the procedure the same way every time. After 1,000 times, you can modify if you deem it necessary.
- Practice. Keep doing it over and over. If you are looking for a deal but not ready to buy yet, evaluate deals over and over. Keep doing it to stay in practice.
- Rest. Make sure you take time to rest and recharge. This is important and often overlooked. I’m a huge offender here but am trying to practice what I preach.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it will get you started. Focus is key and you need to take steps to keep it.
