Advice: don’t look at your work schedule ahead of time if you are prone to worry

After a week off work, I was feeling blue about going back. A close friend and fellow orthodontist also had the week off and was feeling the same. In my case, I was simply feeling a bit down, but nothing major. However, my friend had looked at her schedule and was dreading seeing a couple of challenging patients. It dawned on me that I used to look at my schedule ahead of time- both at the start of each day and each week. It was a huge source of anxiety!

With this in mind, here is some advice to improve your Sunday blues and pre-work anxiety:

-Your team should check for appliances and other items needing prep and upcoming consults.

-If you have a challenging case, take progress records. Review your progress records shortly after the appointment, add next visit notes in your software program, and then do not revisit again. If you have a consult, do the same and review the case ahead of time. You can quickly glance at your notes when the patient comes in.

-Do not look at the upcoming week’s schedule.

-Do not look at your day’s schedule in the morning. You can assign a lead assistant to review it and let you know if there are any major items you need to know.

In my experience, looking ahead at the schedule is much like reading orthodontic facebook groups. I thought that I needed to and that my work would suffer if I did not do it. But, that has not been the case! In fact, I think my work is better when I am in the present moment and not consumed with anxiety and worry.