Despite the apocryphal origin of the “definition of insanity” quote I recently found myself going quite loony.

I was using one of the machines in the lab on Friday and wasn’t getting the reading I needed on the meter. So I turned the dial gently like I’m supposed to do. Still no reading. More turning, no reading, repeat. About the time I realized how far I had turned it things were self-destructing. With quick reflexes I minimized the damage.

The moral of the story is that had I realized I was stuck in a destructive pattern and stopped to assess the situation Friday afternoon I wouldn’t have spent this afternoon head down in a vacuum chamber scraping metal off the walls.

Where can you use a quick check to make sure you aren’t stuck “doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result?”