MQ DQS ASR tips - Working ASR

Been tracking my work for the last couple of years on ASR, am able to calculate my paycheck usually within a dollar of what it should be upon deposit into my account, and thought I'd share some tips I've learned from ASR:

Keep your fingers on the keyboard. Anyone who says they are bored doing ASR isn't doing it right. It is just as challenging as typing, even more so because of the concentration required. It is much like playing the piano in that one's fingers are always moving. Speed up the sound as fast as you can go while still hearing every word. If the dictator pauses, speed up the sound (ctrl + i), when he starts talking again, slow the sound back down (shift + ctrl + i).

Your left little finger is going to hurt after several hours. Be aware and try to keep it straight as much as possible. It's that finger doing the sound and other commands.

Be aware that if you are going back through and reading over your work, you will lose up to 30% of your pay in the time it takes to do that, which is why extreme concentration is required for every single report. Not paying attention and then having to read back through may cost you up to 30% and it will show on the next paycheck or when you break down your hourly pay.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are the slowest and hardest days of the week on my account as there is often less work in the account and it tends to be work people don't want.  Identify your regular slow days and adapt the mindset going in that this day will be harder and mentally adjust for it. It will help.

Always, always listen to the ADT information twice through, fast at the beginning, a scan-check, but again carefully at the end of the report. Go back, listen to the ADT again, and relisten if there were copies made at the end, again, twice. If they were made in the middle of the report, place a QA marker there and skip back to it again at the end of the report so you can find it quickly and easily and double check. It only takes a few seconds, but I can't tell you how many times I've missed something the first time through, the date, the referring, work type, something. Those will be critical errors.

Slow down on lab values and medications/dosages - these are also critical errors, so be careful here in these sections.

Scan the report quickly at the end. Usually I finish a report, run the spellchecker, then check all the headings with a quick scan under to make sure there are actually medications under the medication heading, etc, or that some alternate heading wasn't accidentally put in. But quickly. Remember, time is money. Finally, I double-check ADT/cc's made with sound. Then the report gets sent out. All of this takes under 20-30 seconds, but without it I stand the potential of multiple critical errors every single day because every single day I catch several of my own mistakes in this manner.

Any distractions cost money. Going to the bathroom on the clock costs money. Walking around doing other things, surfing the web, talking on the phone, all cost money. If you break down your hourly rate and you discover you make $12.00 on average an hour, a 5-minute phone call costs you $1.00. In that way it's easy to see where your money is going when you are not working but a job is pulled up and you're still on the clock.

Schedule some longer breaks in your daily shift of 30 minutes or more. It's necessary to keep up the high level of concentration required to do this type of job. Some physical activity thrown in during these breaks and cutting out the sugar/carbs, which slow the brain down mentally, also are helpful. Caffeine is also useful.

Hope some of the above helps. My production has increased greatly by being aware of where the money is seeping out, how much, and why.