Always making mistakes

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So, I work as an actuary (basically a statistician for what I do), and I find that I constantly am making mistakes in my work. I don't know what's wrong with me. I know the math, that's not the issue. The issue is that I very often (and I do mean very often) switch numbers around (so 1.250 becomes 1.520; also 6's and 9's particularly give me problems), or I link to the wrong cell in a workbook (take the 2010 number instead of 2011).

I've taken to double, triple, even quadruple checking my work, and there are still errors! I would say in every project I turn in, there seems to be at least one error.

I'm at my wits end, and to the point where I just wonder why they keep me b/c I don't feel like I am doing the job they hired me to do, since this is not an area where one can afford to make mistakes.

I used to ask tons of questions before I turned anything in for the first 2 years I was here (3 1/2 now), to the point where I'm sure my one coworker was sick of hearing from me, but that was the only way I could keep the mistakes to a minimum. But, now I oversee a newer employee, so that has forced me to realize I can't rely on others to make sure my work is correct.

Anyway, venting isn't going to solve my issue, I'm just not sure what to do at this point. I know it's common to make a mistake every now and again, but this is feeling ridiculous.

Anyone have any ideas? Do I just need to work slower & double check at every point in the process?

Have you ever been tested for learning disabilities? There are learning disabilities such as dyscalculia which can affect your ability to manipulate numbers. Considering that you work in a field which requires lots of math, I'm surprised issues like this haven't come up earlier during your education and career. It may be expensive to get assessment and training for coping with such a disability, but if this issue is causing you to make a lot of costly mistakes in your job, it may be important to deal with it soon.

It can help to keep data entry to a minimum--cut and paste whenever possible.

You may not be able to organize things by numbers--maybe you need a more visual system?

For instance, this is the Chinese year of the snake--you might label stuff snake instead of 2013. It would be even better to have pictures of snakes instead of letters, but I don't know whether this is practical.

Both your mention of transposing numbers and confusing 6 with 9 suggest dsylexia to me. If you don't want to go through the time and effort required to find out if you have this, there might be a shortcut which could solve your problem. Simply read up on strategies dyslexics use to cope with issues like this, then try them. If they work for your, problem solved (no matter what your official diagnosis might be). If not, then you'd need to keep looking. If none of those strategies work, then you're probably dealing with another issue.

thanks everyone. I was wondering if it might be dyslexia (or something similar)...also debated if it was an attention issue. It sounds like I should probably go get tested just to make sure. I don't know why, but up until now, I've just always blamed any issues I had regarding number/letter order on my being left-handed. Generally it's not more than 2 numbers/letters I mix up at any given time.

I work in accounting, finance, and IT, and I never had the transposing problems you mentioned. That is, until I turned 50. Since then I have come to appreciate what people with dyslexia have to put up with. It drives me nuts with frustration. I mentioned this to my psychologist and he basically saw it as part of aging: fading eyesight and lessened short-term memory. I do believe that is at least part of what is going on with me.

So for the first time I went and got prescription reading glasses instead of the drug store ready-mades, and that seems to have helped a bit. What seems to have helped more is that I started playing Sudoku. That game seems to have the effect of improving my short-term memory's ability to retain digits.

I still have the problem, and find I do a lot more cut/paste of numbers instead of date entry to help minimize errors. It remains a constant frustration, though I try to accept it and roll with it as a normal part of aging.