The best way to provide yourself and your family with a safe future is to be as smart as possible at work.

Take four seconds before starting a new familiar task.

Think of it as pressing a mental "­Res­et" button. The simple act of refocusing has been shown to reduce the probab­ility of an injury incident by more than 90%. Even if you've done the task you're about to perform a thousands of times before. In your mind, you know that you could do it with your eyes closed. It is usually not the task itself but some small thing you did not anticipate (observe) that causes the incident.

1) You did not notice the debris on the floor where you are standing.
2) You did not notice the machine switch is too close to your leg.
3) You did not realize how heavy your finished product might be, and how far you have to carry it.

It is easy to imagine the different tasks we do every day and how this applies. For example, getting on a forklift and scanning your surrou­ndings. This is the “Reset” I am referring to.

Four seconds is all it takes. Get in this habit of taking four seconds and you will signif­icantly reduce your chance of injury while greatly increasing your chances of an injury free day, week, month, and career. If you get into the habit of taking chances or simply moving from job to job, you will eventually be injured.

This four second reset was first instituted on CN Rail, as part of a strategy to reduce the number of very serious incidents. They were having including many amputation injuries. What they found was that their workers knew the rule or procedure to do the job without getting injured, but were simply not focusing before starting. Even well rested employees were getting caught up in the routine of the day and found themselves daydre­aming or thinking about other things.