The saying goes, “we are only human.” You usually hear that when someone makes a mistake. This human error is often attributed to common human behavior where certain factors like mental distraction, physical exhaustion, or lack of skill or knowledge lead to a mistake. We never hear that technology makes a mistake, though.
Although some opinions are that humans are naturally unreliable, the real reason may be much more complex. Whatever the reason, these mistakes can lead to various consequences — from those dismissed as a lesson learned to an error that costs time and money or that causes harm both in life and in work.
When it comes to business, these human errors can create bigger problems. Often, the answer is to turn to training to minimize future mistakes. Yet, this may not fix every human error in the future.
Thanks to technology, there is a better way to eliminate typical human mistakes like these five listed below:
1. Lost Files or Deleted Work
Although it can often be human error, sometimes it’s also technical computer issues that can cause us to lose files or delete work. And, no, auto-recover doesn’t always work to help when you hit the wrong button.
This type of human error can be annoying, but it can also lead to much bigger issues. Depending on the extent of the data loss from accidentally deleting or misplacing a file, trying to find or recreate that data takes time. This type of mistake slows productivity and leads to extra labor costs.
Even worse is when the missing or deleted data involved proprietary information. This could potentially create trust and credibility issues with clients that can take additional time to rebuild.
Enter technology like the file recovery and version history tools provided by Dropbox. These tools save the day — and files — because the platform keeps all your lost files or work for 30 days (or longer if you use Dropbox for Professional and Business users). You can restore the deleted files yourself through your cloud storage account. Plus, accidental file changes and deletions are a common occurrence. Dropbox again comes to the rescue by providing an easy way to see your version history of different files. Then, you can undo changes and restore old versions of any file stored there.
2. Forgotten Appointments or Deadlines
The human brain has extraordinary storage capacity. But the problem is we still forget things because of the hectic pace of work and life. The busier we get and the more things we take on, the greater the risk that we will miss a deadline or forget an appointment. These memory mistakes can cost us revenue and impact our reputation as small business owners.
Although human beings created the calendar, the paper version hasn’t always served us well because it’s not always with us when we need to list an appointment or add a deadline to our schedule.
That’s when technology has once again stepped in to provide digital calendars that sync across devices. This means what you add to your calendar on your mobile phone appears on your laptop calendar so it’s always updated. The digital calendar platforms and apps provide alerts that can be set up in advance to remind you of an upcoming event.
The newest digital calendars have added artificial intelligence to make an even smarter time management tool that minimizes those human errors. In many ways, the digital calendars of today are now doing the thinking, scheduling, updating, and inviting for you.
3. Grammar and Typos
So much of our work and life revolves around content. Even though texts make allowances for sentence shortcuts and emojis to communicate, the rest of our content has to be perfect. As we know, humans aren’t perfect. In those rushed moments or with dulled brains, people make grammar mistakes and spot typos right after hitting the send button.
While some content tools provide a way to go back in and correct these mistakes, much of the content we share lives on as is even after we try and delete it. These are the details that can adversely impact a personal or company brand, tarnishing a reputation built on quality.
Thank you, technology, for helping catch those overlooked spelling and grammar mistakes, highlighting and suggesting those changes. From Chrome extensions to built-in grammar checkers to grammar apps, today’s technology is helping rid the world of passive voice, misplaced modifiers, wrong word choice, and comma mistakes. In the process, we are improving our content skills and delivering quality messaging to our audiences.
4. Financial Errors
Most financial records were previously recorded manually. However, this led to human error and exponentially increased the margin of error. The results included problems with strategic planning, profitability forecasting, and cash flow issues. No company wants to discover these types of mistakes, especially if it may involve a regulatory breach or even lead to a fine or penalty. Financial mistakes can also damage trust between your company and customers, partners, employees, and vendors.
Technology offers a multitude of ways to automate financial processes and remove the human element altogether. This includes accounting software packages, apps that sync financial accounts, tax tools, bill pay, online invoicing and payment systems, and financial security solutions that reduce the likelihood of human errors interfering with an accurate financial picture of your business.
5. Lost Passwords
Our lives seem to revolve around passwords. We need them for just about every account we access online and through mobile devices. And, we can’t risk using the same password for every account for an extended time. That means regularly changing them. The only problem is we forget what they are, re-enter them until locked out, or use some system to retrieve the passwords. In the process, we’ve wasted time.
Technology has an answer for this human error, too. There are numerous password storage systems that provide a way to securely store, organize, update, and manage all your passwords. The password storage platform gives you a way to access the information from any device and can allow others to do the same.
Additionally, technology is advancing the password dilemma into a much easier way to manage them while maintaining higher levels of security: biometrics. Facial recognition software is fast-becoming the password of choice for apps, giving you another way to not screw up password log-in.
Thanks, Technology
As humans, we are incredibly skilled and talented. However, there is always room for improvement when it comes to continually producing our best work. With technology taking some of the work off our plates and perfecting those tasks for us, we can focus on honing all those other things we are good at that machines are still trying to figure out how to emulate.
This is a sponsored post for Dropbox. All opinions are my own. Dropbox is not affiliated with nor endorses any other products or services mentioned.
