Playing on the Keyboard – Don’t just press Send
Well, on my return home on Monday from a rare work adventure, SEM advised me that I had made a few errors in Sunday’s Blog.
“What me”, she couldn’t be serious, I don’t make errors, but she was right. I had ‘cocked up’ and indeed the Blog did not read right.
I had broken Cardinal Rule 4, check and check again before sending anything in writing and or hitting the Send button in haste.
So, what had gone wrong, how had I made this school boy error, how had I made the mistake so many of us do, day in, day out.
I had been torn between Rules 3 and 4, when publishing Sunday’s Blog…..
…..“Your dinners ready”.
Now I have learnt from good/bad experience, that one of the ways to enjoy a happy marriage is to be on time at the dinner table (or more often the breakfast bar as there is now only two of us), if the little lady has taken the trouble to provide the sustenance of life, which she does very well and has for all our married days, then it is only fair and reasonable that I make the effort to get there when she dishes up and compliment her, quite rightly on the wonderful fare produced.
There is no way I want to end up cooking for myself, there are things women are better at than us men and in this instance, this is one of them
SEM when all said and done is a good cook, not like my dear departed mother, she was awful at cooking and not like how most people recall their mother’s wonderful culinary ability….but that is for another day…..
So rather than break Rule 3, I mistakenly broke Rule 4 by hitting the publish button in my haste to get to my dinner. I had intended to go back and check again, but as is the way with those of us advancing in years, “the little grey cells” are not what they used to be, and I simply forgot and didn’t remember to check.
Now I put this down to old age, which I hope it is because if its something more sinister, then you had better get the suicide pills ready, I have no intention of burdening my family by being a doddery old man with dementia, but yet another topic for another day no doubt…
So back to Rule 4, I have for numerous years advocated and advised to others, especially CW, that upon receiving an email or similar message, text, or tweet, that they strongly disagree with, to not go dancing on the keyboard and sending a curt reply in haste, but to consider fully and type the reply and leave it in Drafts overnight.
If you are still of the view that having taking stock of the situation and you remain of the same frame of mind you can send it, hopefully in the knowledge that the reply is indeed what you want to convey.
A significant issue with our apparent need to respond immediately is that often our reply is not exactly as it should be, and one thing I have learnt by bad experience is that even when you write something it can often be misconstrued and be read in two ways. Its not easy trying to back track in our modern world of social media and electronic devices.
So my advice today is remember Rule 4 it should always be considered unless you want to rue the consequences and I have also subsequently realised that I can now schedule a posting, thereby giving me the opportunity to review later any post before I issue.
Future errors averted….well hopefully……
