Small Space Organization

You know, it’s harder than I thought to write about organizing. However, I did promise. So, here goes.


I have an extremely tight area for working on reports. It’s not ideal, but I am working on it. I think the key to working in a small space and keeping it organized is to make sure that you are only keeping the items you need in the space. I currently have my monitor, speakers, headphones, telephone, coffee mug, pencil holder, and three-ring binder on my desktop. Luckily, my desk does have a sliding shelf for the keyboard and mouse that keeps them tucked out of the way when I’m not using them. Considering how much I use my mouse and keyboard, they tend to stay accessible except when I’m away from my desk.

My desk is very close to a large bookcase, so that adds more opportunity for clutter to gather. Umm…I mean storage options. As a bookcase, it’s quite acceptable for holding my reference materials and CDs. But, I also use it to hold the boxes with my office supplies, storage container holding my excess cords and cables, and my printer. Nothing is quite within easy reach, but it’s not on top of my desk surface. A shift of my chair and everything I need is within finger reach.

In order to organize my desk, I first had to take it down to the basics. Then, adding piece by piece only the things I use EVERY DAY. Anything else was tossed in the trash (difficult for a pack rat), dealt with, or saved in a folder to deal with in the future. Books and folders hold all the important papers. Out of sight, but not completely out of mind.

Every organization tipster out there has three basics they use for organizing. Light, clean, and a space for everything.

Taking the first thing, light, you need to decide if the light you have is adequate. Is it bright enough to help but not directly in your eyes? You also need to decide if your desk space is going to get natural light in sufficient quantity to be useful or hurtful. My desk currently faces the western wall of my house. It’s not directly in front of the window, but it’s perfect for afternoon sun to come in and glare at me. Good curtains on that window definitely are a must for the afternoon!

Next is clean. I’m not sure if it’s just me or not, but I love the feel of clean surfaces under my fingers and hands. There’s something very distracting about dust particles under my skin. Sometimes I wonder if I’m related to the princess from “The Princess and the Pea.” Dust, dirt, food crumbs, even the occasional hair all feel like a major obstacle to smoothly running my hands over the keyboard or piece of paper I’m using.

Grandma’s advice of “a place for everything and everything in its place” really comes home when you’re trying to function efficiently. Are your pens and pencils scattered everywhere? Is your mail just a pile on top of your desk? Do your headphones have a home? Are your supplies like paper, extra pens, stapler, binders, erasers, scissors in their homes? If you’re more like me they tend to just kind of wander around without rhyme or reason. Kind of like the Alzheimer lady that keeps getting lost in my neighborhood. I have now multitasked a makeup brush holder for my smaller every day tools. My supply holder is attached to the edge of my desk and keeps all the little stuff from wandering. It is amazing how quickly your hands get used to pulling something from the same place each time. Now, it is about training them to put things back too.

Of course, the true test of your organizational efforts is how efficiently you can get things accomplished. Handle things as little as possible until they are given their final placement. Trash what you have not looked at or touched in a while, use file folders, and a cabinet, label everything so you KNOW what is what and where it is supposed to be.

Finally, once you have found your little Alzheimer patients their homes, keep them there. You will be less stressed, more efficient, and ultimately more productive. Isn’t productivity the name of this game?

Motivation

What is Motivation?

Miller (1962) described motivation as

“the study of all those pushes and prods – biological, social and psychological – that defeat our laziness and move us, either eagerly or reluctantly, to action.”

The Encarta World English Dictionary defines motivation as “giving of reason to act: the act of giving somebody a reason or incentive to do something.”

The American Heritage Dictionary provides “motive: An emotion, desire, need, or similar impulse that causes one to act in a particular way.”

The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus says the synonym for motivation is “Stimulus: Something that rouses the mind or spirits or incites to activity.” Other synonyms are catalyst, goad, impetus, impulse, incentive, incitation, instigation, propellant, provocative, push, spur, stimulant.

How do we remind ourselves of the purpose or stimulus behind getting involved in Medical Transcription training? It’s important that we do remind ourselves sometimes in order to stay motivated. When you jumped into training with both feet, what was your reason? What was your emotion? Desire? Need? What finally pushed you into contacting the school and signing up? Was it a way to provide for your family while still taking care of them? Being present for all the various events and milestones? Was it health issues that limit how you can work?

Answer those questions, find a picture of what they mean to you, a poster, something and place it close to where you are working at your computer. Leave it there, but don't forget to look at it. It's important.

I had a NEED. I had catalogued my own abilities and knew that working from home via computer was a reasonable alternative to working outside the home. I NEED to work. Not just for money, though that’s nice. I NEED to work for my own emotional and psychological health. Without a reason to get out of bed, some days it’s almost impossible. I NEED to show my kids that working and providing for your family is important, that getting a little creative is sometimes necessary. I NEED to show my kids that when life throws rocks at your head, you don’t have to give up. I NEED to show my mom that she is important enough to change my lifestyle.

When I’m feeling less-than-motivated, I remind myself of my purpose, my reason(s) for doing this training. Some days it’s easier than others, and there are always excuses for not working on reports, usually a combination of environmental factors that I MUST figure out how to work around. But, I’ve got it stuck in my head that I can be really good at this. That pride in my skills and my intelligence really is quite a motivator. We’ll see whether I’m full of hot air when the final scores are in, but I like feeling empowered.

I do feel empowered. Living so many years feeling like I had no control over what happens to me, around me, or effecting me; this course gives me the opportunity to really take the bull by the horns. I’m in competition with myself. I may be doing this ultimately to provide for my family, but I’ve learned something along the way. I do have the ability to control something. My own mind. It’s a little shaky at times, but I always come back around to the belief that I made a good decision for me. I’m the one who will truly benefit from continuing on… and beating this course into submission. It took a long time to come to the conclusion that it’s okay for me to fight for this. The fight may be with myself, but it’s on!



Making Progress

After 2 days and multiple "suggestions" that maybe "that" shouldn't go there because "this" will happen, the house looks gorgeous and Christmas-like. I commented to mom that it wasn't "how I would have done it", but I like it. It's bright and festive and feels like Christmas. All I can say is LOVELY!

One of the places that I sent an application for General Transcription wanted some testing done. The first part was grammar stuff and spelling. You know, the kinds of things that trip everybody up. There were misspellings and sound-alikes and awkward phrasings. After that was reviewed I was given a link to download a dictation file and transcribe it. I sent that back last night/early this morning. I'm not really getting my hopes up, but I feel like I did well with it. It would be nice to see where it will go. Of course, this being Christmas week, I might not hear back from anyone for a while. That's all right.

I have also been going through a lot of the sites for transcription jobs like Elance and MTJobs. I'm not sure if I'm ready to try bidding on a transcription job, but they are definitely out there. There's also a lot of competition for them. There are numerous sites for job seekers giving advice, tips, to-do's, and not-to-do's. A search under "transcription jobs", "transcription at home", "general transcription" on google or bing gives a lot of options. Sometimes opening one of them brings small blogs or articles to you getting more in-depth on the subject your researching.

WARNING: Make sure your virus and spyware is operating efficiently. These searches tend to bring a lot of "undesirables" with them. Not viruses necessarily, but a lot of spyware. My Norton 360 is catching them nicely, but it's getting a workout.

During the last few days of household upheaval, it's been kind of difficult to get time to work on reports steadily, but I have done a few. I've even gotten decent scores on them first time through. I love it when that happens. I had one that was over 9 minutes. I thought, "Oh, no!" But, it really turned into no big deal. The dictation was clear and no major difficulties cropped up in it.

I don't look at the progress bar on the audio anymore. It's easy to let it distract me into thinking, "When is this going to end?" and popping my eyes off the report to check on it. I decided that I don't need to know. Concentrating on the audio and getting the report done correctly is more important than how long it takes. This is especially important on dictations where the audio is, shall we say, less than stellar.

I'm going to come back later and write up some information on organizing, health issues, and motivation.
Watch this space!

More Than One Way

I really thought that I would be finished with school by now. I plowed my way through the objective portion in a month. Of course I thought that the practicum would fly by as well. Part of slowing down was just trying to figure out the dictations. Poor audio quality and learning medical terminology is not in any way conducive to making things go quickly.

It may be frustrating to me that I'm not finished yet, but I'm learning that I have options I may not have had before starting the course.

Huh? What options could there be? You're only 2/3 through the transcriptions and have the editor modules to do as well. What are you talking about? You're stuck!

Oh, not so! Not so at all. I'm very comfortable sitting at my desk with my headphones attached to my head. My fingers quite confidently tap the keys that I want them to. My hands only ache during weather changes I've noticed. That is something I can deal with as needed. So what am I talking about?

Transcription. Who said that we're only supposed to do one kind of transcription in order to earn our living? I need to be working now. Two or three months from now, my money situation isn't going to get any better unless I do something about it.

I've put together a very rudimentary resume and started putting out feelers to companies that have general transcription services. I KNOW I can type these. It's just a matter of identifying more than one voice at a time and dealing with audio issues. Yes, that's a very simplistic viewpoint. The hardest thing about medical transcription is the getting values, lab data, procedures, and terminology correct. At least, those are the most difficult things for me. Please don't remind me about the East Indian ESLs.

With general transcription there will be specialized terminology based on the dictation type, but this is okay. I've got one humdinger of a vocabulary! I love new words. Once I get one in my head and have looked it up, it's usually going to stick for a while, especially when I use it more than once or twice during one report and don't see it again for a while.

Look, the way I see it, I'll be doing myself a favor. I can't stand not working and providing for my family, and I'm no longer able to work outside the home. I've got two options. I can work solely on my reports for the course and limit my ability to provide by only applying for Medical Transcription. Or, I can start getting off my duff and TCB! With General Transcription jobs, I can start getting my feet wet with transcribing, still work on the course, and provide some much-needed income.

Of course, this really depends on whether or not anyone is hiring for general typing jobs and whether or not they're interested in hiring a qualified and potentially amazing new transcriptionist. I've seen too many general typing jobs advertised to not start throwing applications at them!

I'm not giving up on MT! I'm just adding another layer of skills and experience. I'm good with multitasking!

Christmas Decorating

Well, my daughter gets to decorate for Christmas!

She's excited that she'll be able to get a couple of her friends to basically tear apart the house and make it all festive and twinkly.

Giving up creative control to 3 teenagers is probably the scariest thing I've ever done.

I'm worried Mom with have a panic attack, or 3. She doesn't do well with messes or noises. We may end up having to remove her from the house completely. Of course, she wouldn't be against doing Christmas shopping while the house is transformed.

I'm so not ready for the invasion! Trust. Trust. Trust. Trust. Shhh. Calm down. You'll survive. Really. I promise.

Plan: Turn up the Christmas tunes or leave the house.

Prognosis: Decorations up and a beautiful house.

How's that for wishful thinking? Hahahaha!!!

Don't mind me! I'm just having a nervous breakdown!

My Room

The subject of clutter came up on the forum this morning. As I'm a pack rat by nature and inclination, this set my little bitty brain a'twirlin'.

To give you some idea of my environment I should start off with the house. It's a single-wide 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom mobile home in a "mobile home park." Why they call this a park I still haven't got a clue. I do have a little space that has grass, and I attempt small gardening tasks when I'm up to it. (Which is rare enough to be an event.)

There are 4 people living in this almost-40-year-old house. Each of whom need their own bedrooms. My mom gets one, my 17-year-old daughter gets one, and the smallest bedroom is for my 14-year-old son. Are your math skills as horrid as mine? I'm only counting 3 rooms taken by 3 people who MUST have their own spaces. (We tend to get quarrelsome when we can't escape to our own spaces.) That leaves me.

Yep, I sleep on a daybed tucked into the tipout in the living room. Right next to the TV, 4 floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, 2 recliners, a couch, 3 dressers, an end table, approximately 30 plants, 2 lamps, 3 small bookshelves, 1 slightly-larger-than-a-chair computer desk, two 7-foot cabinets, and a slightly-larger-than-a-postage stamp kitchen. (Of course there's the usual kitcheny type items. What? You were wondering if I was a redneck? Only a little bit. Yes, I've got a 4 wheel drive and a pickup.)

Whew! Where do we walk? Single file usually, thank you very much. There's actually an area in front of the chairs and couch big enough to put one of those blow-up beds. I wouldn't recommend it though. There's a lot of traffic through that space!

Every surface is covered in books, plants, and the general items of living that people have to have.  You'd think with all this "stuff" in such a small space that my house would look or be dirty. I surprise myself when I actually look around. The dishes are usually done and put away. The cupboards are clean. The books are generally shelved with care and order. The movies are in their cases and shelved neatly. The tables and desk surfaces are free of too many "extras." The floor is clean. The bed is made religiously. (Mom wants to make it look like a couch or something. I think a bed is a bed and I'm not ashamed!)

Of course, there's no peeking in the hall closet or in my dresser drawers. The usual accoutrements of life have to go somewhere you know. (Shhh ! It's a secret, but I use my son's closet for my dress clothes.)

The funniest part of not having a bedroom is that I have more space available than anyone else in the house!

Other than being parked in the middle of EVERYTHING, my ROOM is perfect!

Did anyone besides me notice that "Christmas Tree and Decorations" aren't on the list of "stuff" in my room? My daughter is currently trying to convince me to dive into storage and find them. My thought is... can't we bypass that this year? There's a lot on my plate and putting up and taking down umpteen boxes of Christmas may be fun for some people, it's a huge chore for me. Besides, I'd have to move my plants from in front of the windows. They'd be unhappy. There's not a lot of light in the winter as it is and I'm out of shelf space. Hmmmm... maybe I can carefully and solidly place my distal lower extremity on the floor.... maybe.

The Disjointed Day

I've been plugging through several 6+ minutes reports in a row. I think they're trying to gear up to throw longer ones at me. I think there's going to be a short one next, but nope, it's just another psych out. (Usually my own. lol)

These reports don't feel difficult. The audio is good, the doctors usually aren't bouncing around changing their minds (don't you hate that?), and the research for any trouble spots is fairly generic and simple. So why are they bogging me down today? Simple answer is that I just don't know. How do I get through these so that I can feel like I'm making progress? Stop procrastinating maybe?

It's like each of these reports drains me in some fundamental way. It could just be my feeling physically unwell for the last few days. I really need to work on overcoming letting my physical health be a distraction. Right now I'm pouring coffee in by the pot. (I really wish someone would invent that IV coffee infusion people refer to.) I've also got my left leg propped on a stool with cushions and a blanket. (Old injuries hate weather changes.) My fingers and hands have been aching so much that I've needed to rub analgesic cream into my joints on a regular basis. I've also been sneezing so hard that my poor eyeballs feel bruised. Zyrtec clears up the sneezes for a period of time and then, ACHOOOOAH, the dogs jump out of their skins and start barking because I've just blown the roof off the house! So annoying.

I spent a lot of last night reviewing MT blogs, forums, sites, etc. It's really amazing and disheartening how many scams are out there in reference to Work-At-Home and Medical Transcription. Do a search if you don't believe me. Finding the jewels though... that's wonderful. There's a lot of really great information out there. It's finding it that's tough.

I'm also still very disappointed in my typing speed. It comes and it goes. More goes though. I've been typing since 7th grade and I still have trouble getting past 70 wpm. That's so frustrating. I'm working with Shorthand and inputting as many common, everyday words as I can to increase it's effectiveness, but speed with it is still iffy. It's typing a lot more of my reports than it used to, but it's still mostly looking for the abbreviation rather than KNOWING what it is and getting faster at using it. I've got a lot of reports ahead of me and I'm really hoping that I can increase my Shorthand speed during that practice.

Mom is in Nutcracker mode. We've seen 3 different versions of the Nutcracker ballet over the last couple of days. The music is wonderful background noise, even when I'm not paying attention to the dancing. Mostly I don't watch the dancing because it's always been an unfulfilled dream of mine to be able to dance. I never cared if it was ballet or belly dancing, just watching people who were graceful and beautiful is joyful and heartbreaking at the same time.

I know this post is completely disjointed and probably boring as hell, but that's how I feel right now. Sorry.

Hugs to all my friends and thank you for bearing with me through this.