I do something a little unusual each offseason. I look through old drafts from the most recent season (and even previous seasons) just to see how everything turned out, and how right/wrong I was at the time. That part doesn't help much with future drafts. Whatever happened happened, and you can't correct past mistakes.

But I do learn something about my draft habits that does help me each upcoming season. One of my worst traits is trying to correct past mistakes during the actual draft. You might do destructive things without even realizing it, and it can ruin your season before it even starts.

At some point it happens to everyone: You make a selection and regret it almost immediately. Maybe you didn't realize someone better was available, maybe you ran out of time and panicked, or maybe you went with the "logical" choice instead of with your gut, and you feel like it was the wrong call.

In any case, it feels like a bad mistake, and you can't help but dwell on it for a moment. The problem is, I tend to dwell on it a lot longer than that. And then I compound the mistake by trying to correct it over and over in future picks. If I took the wrong running back, my next couple of picks are often running backs, hoping to atone for the bad selection I made earlier. As I look through my old drafts, it's obvious, even though I never recognize it at the time.

If my draft ends up ruined, it's never from the initial mistake. It's the follow-up attempts to make it right that sinks the ship. I'm never going to find the make-up player in those future picks. The talent pool gets weaker and weaker. I never feel like I've made up for it, which makes me keep trying. And all the while, I've abandoned my draft strategy, and let great value at other positions pass me by. That quarterback that somehow fell to me? I skipped past him. The wide receiver that could have helped me win a title? Someone else got him. I was so focused on what I had done earlier in the draft that I lost focus the rest of the way. By the time I tried to fill those other positions with later picks, you can imagine what was left. I made a bad situation worse, and it was all my fault.

The funny part is (and you might have already guessed it), but my first "mistake" often wasn't a mistake at all. The player did just fine, and the guy I lamented not taking instead was a dud. I messed up my draft trying to fix a problem I didn’t even have.

So that’s been my issue. And my goal going forward is to ignore the feeling that I’ve made an error, don’t keep trying to fix it, and stick to my strategy. You might have this issue, or a different one. If you recognize any of these habits, try to correct them for any remaining drafts.

* Toward the end of your draft, you tend to select players from your favorite team. Unfortunately, this reflects a lack of preparation. Maybe you’re tired, maybe you didn’t plan this deep into the draft, or maybe you’ve been fighting the urge to pick guys from your favorite team. So why not take a few when it doesn’t matter?

Because it does matter. If he’s the best player available, go ahead. But if you default to guys whose names you happen to know because everyone else is a question mark, you’re falling behind other managers who did their homework.

* You get too caught up in the labels “starter” and “backup.” Yes, Marcus Mariota and Mitch Trubisky are starters. But depth charts get pretty fluid after a few losses. Teams that struggle will start looking to their shiny new rookies before long. Now, maybe a starter pans out and maybe he doesn’t. The Steelers don’t tolerate losing records, after all. But don’t get too excited about getting a “starting” receiver, running back or quarterback when the training camp battle went down to the wire. It only means they’re the starter for now, and you have a long fantasy season to manage.

* You forget the rules of the league for which you’re drafting. It might sound silly to you, but I promise that it happens. If you’re in eight leagues, it’s easy to forget that this is the non-PPR league where you start two quarterbacks. Or this is the one that only gives four points for a passing touchdown and forces you to draft two kickers and defenses. Or this is the league where you can’t make any drops or adds until after week 1. Every league has its nuances, and if you don’t remember all of them until you’re a few rounds into the draft, you might regret some of your decisions. Then you have to fight that urge to correct them for the rest of your draft. You see where this is going.

* You’re always drafting at the end of a run. If you ignore the rest of this column, remember this: You will not win a league by reacting to everyone else all the time. Sometimes you have to start a new run, or at least forge your own path. If everyone is drafting one position, it means all the others are being ignored. Yes, you need to be able to react to what’s happening in real time when necessary. But if you’re always getting stuck with the leftovers, you won’t have a five-star experience during the season. Start runs; don’t end them. Good luck on draft day.

What mistakes do you tend to make on draft day? How do you stick to a strategy when things start to go wrong? Share your thoughts below.