Contents of the Task bucket
‘Bad stuff’
How to ‘weigh up’ the bad stuff
Errors
Omission errors (particularly the steps close to the end of a task)
Do you ever forget to finish things off? Leave jobs half way through?
Lack of cues from previous steps
Do you ever forget where you are in a task and have to start again?
Primary goal achieved before all
steps complete
Do you ever put notes away and then realise they were incomplete?
Doing something that is not needed
(commission errors)
Do you ever make mistakes when programming devices because you have gone through a step you did not need? For example, press a button twice instead of once? Automatically hit ‘save’ at the wrong time?
Sequence errors
Do you ever do things in the wrong order?
Fixation errors
Do you ever do a task so regularly that you do not notice when something goes wrong or not as expected? If you are not expecting something do you think you are open to noticing it?
Task complexity
Calculations
Do you feel confident to carry out calculations when needed?
Do you check for mistakes?
Novel task
Unfamiliar events
Do you take more time when you are doing new tasks?
Do you have time to prepare?
Rare events
What processes are in place for rare, but possible events, for example power failures?
New ways of working
When new ways of working are introduced, are you aware of any new risks that might have been introduced?
Process
Task overlap
Do you get distracted from your primary task easily?
Can you plan your work to avoid this?
Multi-tasking
Do you stop when you realise you are juggling too many things at once?