3 Tips for Keeping Clutter Off Your Desk

During the course of doing business with your clients, you may notice that you have a collection of papers, email correspondences, drafts of documents, and other sundry materials stashed in folders, both electronic and vanilla flavored, boxes, or just piled high on your desk.  Below are 3 tips I use to keep my office and desk clutter-free.

Tip 1:  Update your master service or professional services agreement. Your contract should contain clauses that will tell you how you deal with the client’s materials once the final work product is accepted by the client and final payment is made.  As a business owner, I would like to keep myself disentangled from keeping every piece of paper that I have every worked with or on—even in light of the low cost of electronic storage.  Specifically, my contracts (and most often the clients’ contracts too) contain a disposition and retention clause.  With this clause, I know what I will keep and what I will return to the client, thus giving me a level of comfort that requests from the client or an agent of the client or a legal representative of the client or any other person or agency requesting access to my computer records, will not come back to haunt me later.

I have reproduced the clause for you to consider either adding to your own contracts or to search to see if such a clause already exists in your contracts:

Disposition and Retention. All as confidential or proprietary material (including copies and reproductions) received or generated in the performance of the Agreement will be returned to the CLIENT on completion of the contract unless the material has been destroyed or retention of the material is authorized by the CLIENT.

Tip 2:  Organize your papers.  I know this will probably be a hard pill to swallow from many of us because most writers are hoarders—we like to keep a copy of every piece of work we produce and we can give a million reasons why we should keep every scrap of paper.  If you have ever seen the program Hoarders—Buried Alive on The Learning Channel, you can learn a lesson from the professional organizers who try to help people with the compulsion to save everything.  At the end of the project (my preference is to do this at the start of a project), you should make three piles: materials you will keep, materials you will throw away (destroy), and materials you will return to the client. Presto! You have uncluttered your desk and minimized your risk to legal discovery requests.

Tip 3:  Use First-in, First-out filing system. In accounting, first-in, first-out, means that the oldest inventory items are recorded as sold first.  If you have bins that are stacked with important papers in them, the bottom of the pile just hibernates there for long periods of time.  Instead of reaching for the top, dig down to the bottom and start evaluating whether the paper is still important but not urgent, if it’s important and urgent, or if it’s no longer important or has reached its expiration.  Continue to evaluate each paper in this manner until you have three stacks of papers.  File away papers identified as no longer important.  Create a to‑do list for papers identified as important and urgent.  Finally, hang papers identified as important but not urgent using a magnetic paper clip (or push-pins if you use a bulletin board) so that they are visible and easily accessible to you when you have time to work on them.

With a little imagination, these tips can be applied equally to electronic papers and emails. In the end, you'll achieve more when you're organized.  There are always barriers that hold you back from reaching your goals, but organized people find ways to eliminate tasks that aren't necessary and to streamline those that are taking too much time, leaving plenty of time to work on achieving all of those goals on your list.

3 Tendencies that May be Holding You Back as a Medical Writer

So you have been a medical writer for several years now and still you seem to be working on the same type of assignments. You also noticed that others who came in around the same time seem to be getting noticed and are getting the most visible projects. At this time you may be feeling a bit undervalued and maybe a little resentful. However, have you taken a personal assessment of your own behaviors lately? Below are 3 potential tendencies that may be working against you.

1.  Tending to take criticism of the document personally.  As writers, we need to learn from our mistakes and make the necessary changes to improve our writing. However, we should not take the criticism of a document as a personal attack on our character or on our ability to write clear and accurate prose. The intent of peer or team review is to ensure that all involved parties have the opportunity to read and confirm the integrity of the text, tables, and figures used to express the results of the clinical trial. In the end, these reviews should make for a stronger and more tightly written document.

To avoid the likelihood of receiving criticism of a personal nature, make an effort to involve or to interact with the people who are responsible and accountable for the content of the document.  Let’s face it, everyone has an ego. The more a person feels that he or she has been included in developing the document, the greater the likelihood his or her review will remained focused on the content rather than on personal preferences.

2.  Tending to let your writing speak for itself.  Writing is a static form of communication. Even if your prose is beyond reproach, it cannot address a reader’s immediate concern or question. Even with email, there is still a lag between receiving a question and formulating a reply. In dynamic situations such as seeking and exchanging opinions or developing a full understanding of the issues, verbal communication is still your best bet. Whether it’s to discuss results, review comments or formulate a course of action, your ability to state your point of view by choosing your words with the intent of making your message as clear as possible is crucial to your success as a medical writer. By employing good communication skills, others may view you as demonstrating the characteristics of strength, self respect, confidence, assertiveness and self control.

Fortunately, effective communication skills can be learned. It’s important to listen well, recognize nonverbal communication signals, manage stress, and stay connected to your emotions. Of course, it takes time and effort to develop these skills and become an effective communicator. The more effort and practice you put in, the more instinctive and spontaneous your communication skills will become.

3.  Tending to expect to be recognized. If you expect to be recognized as the go-to medical writer, you may be waiting in vain, especially when your peers are doing whatever it takes to show that they are the logical choice for the next big project. With the emergence of the global economy and the influx of new medical writing resources from around the globe, merely being a competent medical writer may not insure your place in the medical writing community. To be truly successful, a medical writer needs to incorporate new skills and hone personal attributes that will help him or her embrace medical writing within the context of a global environment. Not only will the new breed of medical writers be expected to write well, they will also be expected to plan and implement effective documentation processes, by using tools such as project management and workflow assessment, as well as contribute to best practices in planning, authoring, and reviewing. Medical writers will also be expected to be effective communicators, with knowledge of interpersonal communication and group dynamic strategies, who will foster greater understanding among colleagues of different gender, nationality, and culture.

To begin reinvesting in yourself, check with your HR department or Training group to see if there are courses available to you that focus on broadening your skill sets and personal attributes. There are also many online resources that are available for free or for a modest fee. Also inquire about a mentoring program within your company. A mentorship is a great way of learning about your organization as well as learning about how others have become successful. Alternatively, think about becoming a mentor. The potential benefits of being a mentor include broadening your skills and knowledge, increasing your personal and professional network, and seeing others develop from your experience.

5 Top Attributes of a Successful Medical Writer.

Over the years, I have come to believe the following about being a successful medical writer:

1) The ability to disconnect oneself from the document at the time of review. This is no easy task, as many of us have been accustomed to cringe and become defensive when we see red ink marking up "our" prose. All through school, we have been subjected to this red ink and have come to associate it with poor performance, a lack of understanding, and a need to do better. A writer who can differentiate between criticism of self from criticism of the document, will stand a better chance of becoming an successful medical writer rather than a writer who is left feeling undervalued and unappreciated and needing to defend oneself.

2) The ability to ask the right questions of the right people. I look at this as the investigative reporter's instinct for knowing which question to ask of his or her sources, after doing the appropriate level of research. A medical writer is not expected to know everything about the subject at hand. Likewise, a medical writer is not expected to write in a vacuum. Knowing which questions to ask of which team member is a great way to learn about the subject at hand and to establish a level of trust among team members whose own expertise is acknowledged and valued.

3) The ability to arbitrate and negotiate well. On a continuum, there is your way, our way, and his or her way. Knowing when to argue your point (stand firm), to negotiate a rational consensus (compromise) or to accept a unilaterally decision (giving in) is a crucial skill that cannot easily be taught. It takes years of practice and patience and perseverance; all with an eye towards making the document better. Doing this well and consistently will help you be seen as a trust-worthy and competent member of the team.

4) A firm grasp on the principles of good medical writing. I cannot recount the number of times I have been called to pull the proverbial "rabbit out of the hat" for a client who thought that anyone on his or her team with enough scientific/medical background could write a report or a submission document--it's only writing, right? Wrong. Medical writing has evolved through decades of regulations and codes and laws as its is own form of writing with its own group of practitioners. The medical writer who keeps himself or herself informed, who seeks opportunities for professional growth and development, and who strives to embody the principles of his or her profession will always add value to whatever he or she is writing.

5) A passion for writing. The writer who approaches each new project with excitement and anticipation will most likely depart that same excitement and anticipation to the team. I know of writers who will only accept projects that rise to their level of professional expectation. I prefer to evaluate each project on its own merits, knowing that each piece plays an important part in a submission. I am no less excited to write a patient narrative than I am writing a full clinical study report. Like the game Jenga, if one piece is not written well, the whole thing can come tumbling down.

Concerned about Getting Paid after Submitting an Invoice?

Use an escrow service. An escrow service is a licensed and regulated company that collects, holds, and sends a client’s money to a contractor according to instructions agreed on by both the client and contractor. Both parties agree to terms of the transaction, which includes a description of the service, price for each phase, the number of phases, number of days for the client's inspection, and who pays the escrow fee. Typically, once the client receives and approves the item from the contractor within an agreed time frame, the escrow service then sends the payment to the contractor. In this manner, you know that the money is available for the project, and that it will be released at pre-specified milestones.
 

Here are a few escrow service providers:
www.Escrow.com
www.iescrow.com
www.professionalescrow.com