Home is supposed to bring in comfort and yet home-based medical transcription can be stressful. Let’s look at the factors that cause stress to the home-based medical transcriptionist.

• Absence of a working plan/routine: Discipline is important if you want to do well working from home. If you don’t have a work routine in place, you are doomed to spoil your work, thereby causing yourself stress. It is important that you fix up your working hours, work with a plan, and stick to it.
• Incomprehensible recordings: The first and foremost thing in medical transcription is to make sense of the dictations that come your way. If you keep getting incomprehensible recordings consistently, you are bound to get stressed. The only way to avoid this stress is to let the doctors know about the quality of the recordings.
• Isolated work environment: In spite of all its perks, home-based work can make you feel lonely. The absence of supervision and guidance causes stress when you are faced with difficult situations. Even otherwise, you crave for company. The best way to deal with this is to spend quality time with family and friends on a regular basis.
• Irregular inflow of work: When you are working as a freelancing medical transcriptionist, you need regular work to keep you going. If you don’t have enough work in a month, stress becomes inevitable. Make it a point to keep your resume functional and don’t ever become complacent about looking for work.
• Too much work: There are times when you become greedy and keep taking on work without realizing the burden you are making yourself subject to. You need to learn to say ‘no’ when you have your hands full or you’ll not only invite stress but also put your credibility at risk.
• Uncomfortable home-office: Your home-office is where you will spend 8-10 hours of your day. It is important you keep it comfortable or you’ll invite stress owing to physical discomfort. Get yourself a comfortable working chair. And make sure you use ergonomical keyboard and mouse.

Take breaks every couple of hours and vacations every couple of months. They will keep your rejuvenated.