Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Lesson of the day: Don't sweat the small stuff.

Breena makes weekly house calls to check in and see how you are doing during your internship. She called me this morning and we discussed my concerns over my productivity. It has been taking me about 45 minutes to do each 1-4 minute dictation. It's driving me crazy! She said, what it comes down to, is that I just need to leave more blanks. Don't sweat the small stuff. If I listen to a word 3-4 times and did some decent research, leave it blank. I took her advice today and I had a very good day! It seems that if I am not listening TOO intently, I hear more. If I let my ears slip a bit, they were more likely to pick up on small sounds that I normally would have over heard.

Think about having a conversation with someone. You do not try to figure out how to spell every word they are saying. You do not hear every word they are saying sometimes. I tried to pretend I was having a conversation with the doctors; listening to what they were saying and understanding the gist of it. It seemed to work!

I think a job like this certainly attracts some people who Freud would call anal retentive (we call ourselves MT students!). The hard part for us is not to sweat the small stuff; it seems like if one thing slips, we won't be able to do our jobs. As moms and wives and daughters sometimes we are expected to notice details that others don't notice. My husband surely does not know when our nephew's birthday is! We are not failing if we miss something. We're human. Let it go! Don't sweat the small stuff and maybe when your guard is down you'll catch something that might have gotten away from you.

As for those of you who are still studying from the book, Cheryl and Kim, your TEACHERS are the ones that always say, "If you knew it all, you'd be called MD instead of MT." Take their advice.