Take a break before you review

Before reviewing, take a break, and then sit down to review with some distance.

After four hours inside a file you have stopped reading it and started remembering it. Your brain fills in what should be there rather than reporting what is there, which is why re-reading the same slide for the fourth time finds nothing.

Break the rhythm with a three-minute coffee or a walk to the printer. If zou have more time, finish the deliverable in the evening and review it in the morning, and you will catch things that were invisible the night before.

Two ways to manufacture distance when you have no time:

•  Change the medium. Print it, or drop the zoom to 50% and look at the shape of the page rather than the words.

•  Change the perspective. Read it as the client, starting from the tagline, asking what this means in the real world. That question catches logic errors that no amount of proofreading will.

And expect internal resistance. Your brain will insist you already know what is on the page because you wrote it. Override it manually until reviewing stops feeling optional.

A little distance goes a long way with spotting errors.