#9892 - 10/06/05 11:26 AM
Re: Exploring Productivity-Redpen's Exercises
[Re: Redpen]
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New Member
Registered: 06/04/05
Posts: 19
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Hey Peggy, It's so good to see you back! We missed you. I just wanted to update my productivity as well. My record is now 260 lines per hour, and my average is now around 220. It is slowly edging up. I work only when the kids are either sleeping (I get up at 5 a.m. every morning) or when they are busy in the other room and I can devote my entire attention to work. I absolutely do not get up from my chair until my timer goes off. Something seemed to "click" a few weeks ago, and I have noticed that I can just type along now without backspacing so much like I was doing. I can also keep up with the doctors more often, even when they are doing lab values and vitals. My number keys are finally getting familiar to my fingers. In a few more months, I think I will be at or at least very much closer to 300 lph. Susan 
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#9893 - 10/07/05 12:42 PM
Re: Exploring Productivity-Redpen's Exercises
[Re: sueskittles]
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Junior Member
Registered: 10/07/04
Posts: 70
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Thanks, Redpen, for calling my bluff! Saying I transcribed 200 lph but only 1/2 (in my case) of the time really hit home! I now put the dogs in their crate for the hour I'm typing (my major source of interruptions) and type for the hour and then let them out for 30 minutes, and then repeat for all 5 hours. *for anyone who thinks I'm being mean to my dogs, they LIKE their crate  Cara
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#9895 - 10/12/05 11:48 PM
Re: Exploring Productivity-Redpen's Exercises
[Re: cambro]
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Member
Registered: 12/31/69
Posts: 789
Loc: Virtual Oklahoma!
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Quote:
Hello all. I have been lurking for a while now and was so excited with this post and the idea of increasing my productivity, I had to finally come on and introduce myself. I have been working in-office for the last 3 years and just recently took on some sub-contract work on my 2 days off. I have been blown away with how slow I really am! In the office we are paid by the hour and there is no incentive for productivity. In fact, if you type too fast and you run out of work, you are sent home and lose the pay for the lost hours (if you are part-time like me)! That doesn't happen often, but it happens. Doing work at home has been very humbling and I laughed when I read RedPen's original post about focusing on the extras because I have been running around getting the new keyboard, chair, expanders, etc! But I am all set with that now and am ready to sit down and work on my productivity! I am looking forward to your other tips, RedPen, because I can definitely use all the help I can get. I am currently only doing about 133 lph and, believe it or not, I'm the fastest MT at my office!!!. At that rate I won't make any money working at home - or spend all my time working for peanuts!! And I would really like to make 'at home' my permanent job!! So I'd better get to work! Thanks again RedPen!
We're glad you found us, Cambro. Going from hourly pay to production is a shocker, for sure. Especially for you! Few hourly employees have to work slowly to avoid being sent home! You have a double whammy.
We can help you, I think.
However . . . I notice the first thing you said was that you are waiting for my further tips. Everyone wants the rest of the story. What's really important, though, is the BEGINNING of the story.
Most of your production increase is going to come from identifying and eliminating time-wasting activities and non-activities. You've seen 12 pages of people here confessing their sins.
My "further tip" for you now is that you should return to page 1 and do the initial exercise we discussed there. THAT is what is going to help you the most.
You should be able to work very productively at home and get a lot of rest at work.
For now, try doing the initial exercise. Let us know what you discover, won't you? We all learn from each other. Very often, what one person discovers helps many others realize they had the same problem.
No additional tips I can give you will help one bit if you are working inefficiently to begin with. Try the initial exercise for a few days, then let us know what you found.
_________________________
Redpen
The Andrews School
"Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything."
Wyatt Earp
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#9896 - 10/13/05 12:07 AM
Re: Exploring Productivity-Redpen's Exercises
[Re: Redpen]
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New Member
Registered: 10/22/02
Posts: 12
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Hello Redpen :-)
I have been following this thread and have done the first exercise. Discovered several time-wasting habits in myself and am working on eliminating those. I have a question for you and also for those transcriptionists who have chimed in to this thread: what constitutes a line for you? 65 characters per line? 75 characters per line including spaces? 10-five character words? 10 characters/inch with 1" margin X 4 sides of page? If each of you would also post that info, I think it would be helpful. It would be especially interesting to know what Redpen calls 'one line' as that would be our baseline.
Thanks for taking the time to help us all, and now that we have (hopefully) done your first exercise, do you have another exercise in store for us soon? I am ready!
Thanks, TxCPC
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#9897 - 10/13/05 12:15 AM
Re: Exploring Productivity-Redpen's Exercises
[Re: sueskittles]
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Member
Registered: 12/31/69
Posts: 789
Loc: Virtual Oklahoma!
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Quote:
Hey Peggy,
It's so good to see you back! We missed you. I just wanted to update my productivity as well. My record is now 260 lines per hour, and my average is now around 220. It is slowly edging up. I work only when the kids are either sleeping (I get up at 5 a.m. every morning) or when they are busy in the other room and I can devote my entire attention to work. I absolutely do not get up from my chair until my timer goes off.
OK, good. Everybody should be working with a timer by now. And you absolutely do not get up until it goes off. Set it again for a break and get back in that chair the minute it dings.
Quote:
Something seemed to "click" a few weeks ago, and I have noticed that I can just type along now without backspacing so much like I was doing. I can also keep up with the doctors more often, even when they are doing lab values and vitals. My number keys are finally getting familiar to my fingers. In a few more months, I think I will be at or at least very much closer to 300 lph.
Lovely! This is very good. I'm glad you mentioned this, because it gave me a perfect introduction for the next steps.
I've posted my next couple of tips based on what you said above. If you'll step over to that thread, please . . . see you there.
(Those still working on the initial exercises can continue to do so on this thread. Just switch to the next thread for the next exercises.)
_________________________
Redpen
The Andrews School
"Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything."
Wyatt Earp
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#9898 - 10/13/05 12:24 AM
Re: Exploring Productivity-Redpen's Exercises
[Re: TxCPC]
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Member
Registered: 12/31/69
Posts: 789
Loc: Virtual Oklahoma!
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Quote:
Hello Redpen :-)
I have been following this thread and have done the first exercise. Discovered several time-wasting habits in myself and am working on eliminating those. I have a question for you and also for those transcriptionists who have chimed in to this thread: what constitutes a line for you? 65 characters per line? 75 characters per line including spaces? 10-five character words? 10 characters/inch with 1" margin X 4 sides of page? If each of you would also post that info, I think it would be helpful. It would be especially interesting to know what Redpen calls 'one line' as that would be our baseline.
Thanks for taking the time to help us all, and now that we have (hopefully) done your first exercise, do you have another exercise in store for us soon? I am ready!
Thanks, TxCPC
Line lengths vary greatly, so I never look at them. I only look at the relative proportion of before and after.
Most people are working in the same ballpark. When you see someone saying she made it to 300 lph, it didn't happen because she's calling a line 30 keystrokes. She's using 65 or 70 or something like that--the usual. She might not even know how her company software calculates it--she may just have a "line" count or she may have a total characters count which she's converting for ease in understanding.
What's important, though, is seeing her go from 120 to 300 over time by doing x, y, and z.
Maybe if people would post their line definitions, that would help, though. I doubt if anyone is using linear inches.
I think of it, most often, as 65 or 70 characters.
_________________________
Redpen
The Andrews School
"Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything."
Wyatt Earp
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#9900 - 10/13/05 08:03 PM
Re: Exploring Productivity-Redpen's Exercises
[Re: Redpen]
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New Member
Registered: 09/13/05
Posts: 21
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You're right Redpen, I will do the first task and mark down my wasted time - though most of it right now is researching new terms/doctors I don't know for this new job and adding new words to my shorthand dictionaries! I will use a timer, but I find right now, especially with the kids in school, that I sit down and don't look up for several hours! Do I need to make myself take breaks?
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#9901 - 10/14/05 01:03 AM
Re: Exploring Productivity-Redpen's Exercises
[Re: cambro]
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Member
Registered: 12/31/69
Posts: 789
Loc: Virtual Oklahoma!
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Quote:
You're right Redpen, I will do the first task and mark down my wasted time - though most of it right now is researching new terms/doctors I don't know for this new job and adding new words to my shorthand dictionaries! I will use a timer, but I find right now, especially with the kids in school, that I sit down and don't look up for several hours! Do I need to make myself take breaks?
Yes, you need to make yourself take breaks. You will get progressively slower and slower and s l o w e r if you do not. You'll never notice it happening.
Take a minimum of 10 minutes every hour, whether you think you need it or not. Get out of your chair and do vigorous exercise of some sort. Even vacuuming.
You'll be very sorry soon if you do not. Not taking breaks is the first step toward repetitive strain injury, too.
_________________________
Redpen
The Andrews School
"Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything."
Wyatt Earp
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