There is no turning back now…you are well into the first month of the residency year and probably already feeling some stress. How you deal with this mounting stress will determine your ability to run a practice and to conquer the challenges that life will throw at you.

Take a moment right now and think of a few persons whom you think are some of your most accomplished mentors. Chances are that these persons accomplish more in a single day than many others do in an entire week! YET, they don’t come across as frantic, frazzled, or necessarily over-stressed. This level of accomplishment comes down to attitude, perception, and organization. Many of you have probably read the book by Stephen Covey entitled “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” in which this type of personal accomplishment can be structured and discussed. For some this comes naturally, but for most of us it comes from hard earned experience. Technology can be a helpful crutch for the data management part, but is certainly not a replacement for the basic necessity of an organized thought process.

However you accomplish it, be organized. Have a routine and try to follow it when practical. There is almost always a method to the madness, but you have to actively engage it in order to succeed…