"This is not what I signed up for.

Have you ever said this when you are rushing home 1.5 hours after the last patient left and you still haven’t finished all your charting? You grab a handful of forms to take home with you with the hopeful expectation that you will get them done tonight too. After you have done 'enough' to appear to be a present parent and prepared supper and said goodnight to the kids, that is.

You sink into the couch at the end of the household rush with the guilty constant 'should be' invading your every breath. I should be finishing my notes. I should go empty that inbox. I should tackle one or two of those forms. But your body feels heavy, and your couch entraps you with its soft embrace, you open Facebook and disappear."

Sarah J. Smith is a family physician and can be reached at the Charting Coach.

She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "You didn’t sign up for this. You don’t have to drown in the paperwork." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/01/you-didnt-sign-up-for-this-you-dont-have-to-drown-in-the-paperwork.html)