No, that’s not an error you see before you – on this occasion, it is fully intentional because this little ‘typo’ is flagging up something interesting.
Like many business people, when it comes to typing, I consider myself to be fairly competent, even to the point - when I know what I want to say – that I could almost describe myself as speedy. Unsurprisingly though, the faster I type, the less accurate my typing becomes, requiring regular spell checks and a final, thorough proof-read before finally submitting my musings to the judgement of my intended audience.
Nothing unusual in this, of course - we all make mistakes and, mostly, we take action to mitigate these mistakes, particularly when it is business critical. But - here comes the interesting bit.
Whilst most of my typos are entirely random, scattered throughout the text in no discernible pattern, there is one particular error that comes up time, after time, after time. In fact, it would be true to say that it happens many more times than it doesn’t. My fingers, it seems, have acquired the very unhelpful habit of typing the word ‘yo u’ like this! Pretty much every single time!!
In other words, when it comes to the word ‘you’, my unconsciously competent self – the auto-pilot we all rely on to keep us working at optimum capacity - has seemingly gone rogue and is repeatedly letting me down!! And, in letting me down, it is costing me time.
The good thing is - now that I am aware - I am taking steps to correct this, switching off the auto-pilot and bringing my typing back into the realms of conscious activity, in which state I can gradually retrain my brain to recognise ‘you’ as ‘you’ and not as ‘yo u’! It won’t happen over-night but, with time and purposeful practice, I am confident it won’t be long until I can, once again, trust myself to type at speed without watching every key I strike.
But, whilst I have a strategy in place to replace one unconscious habit with something more resourceful, my mind is already pondering the question - where else might my auto-pilot be leading me astray? What other unconscious habits have developed over the years that are slowing me down, or holding me back?
And, with that thought, I’m curious – what is your automatic pilot up to when yo uare (real typo here – more practice needed) not paying full attention?
