To all the fourth years out there, a hearty, extremely caffeinated congratulations on completing med school. (Cheers!)

You’re about to embark on the next chapter of your medical journey, and what better way to do so than to arm yourself with some tips for how to be successful in your residencies?

Regardless of where your residency is taking you geographically or the specialty you’re pursuing, everyone can benefit from getting a leg up early on with real-life survival tips.

Two of our chief USMLE tutors, Drs. Nicholas Rowan and Michael Coords — who are starting their fourth years of ENT and radiology residencies respectively — rose to the occasion and put their heads together to help you start strong and do well.

Without further ado, here are our Top 10 residency tips:

1. Get and be organized. Idiot-proof yourself from yourself.

This is probably the most important piece of advice. Put your pager with your keys, wallet, badges, etc…. Put them in the same place every single time, or leave them in your car. When you’re a robot going in to pre-round at 4 a.m., it’s hard to remember all of those things!

Make a system of checkboxes, different colored pens, basically whatever works, to keep track of things on the fly because as smart as you are, you will inevitably forget things. And believe me, forgetting things sucks. Now that you’re an MD and this is your job, forgetting things = more time in the hospital and potentially hurting someone.

2. First impressions, as always, are important.

Attendings, senior residents, co-residents and support staff will be judging you very early. Always be professional and keep your cool. Unreasonable requests will be made daily and people will be looking to blame you for things you had almost no part in. Keep your composure and be professional. Do what is right by your patients and NEVER screw over one of your co-interns. If that means staying late to not sign out a ton of stuff then so be it. You are all in it together and you do not want to be known as the resident who doesn’t work hard.

3. Realize that every moment is a teaching moment.

Regardless of how many times you’ve seen the diagnosis, read the chest X-ray, performed the operation, etc., there’s always something to gain. There is always something to learn even if you feel like someone is wasting your time. On that note:

4. People will inevitably try to waste your time. 

However, it’s up to you to have something to do when your attending is getting Starbucks and you’re looking to go to bed. I prefer to use Todoist which is a helpful app/website to keep track of what I need to get done.

5. Learn the power of “No.”

This is really really hard, but residency is also really really hard. When you take on more than you can handle, things will inevitably go south. Before saying yes to a project, an extra shift, etc., make sure you really can accommodate that and you’re doing what is best for you.

6. Try to maintain the 3 A’s: Available, Affable and Able.

The first two of these are the most important. Like Dale Carnegie’s famous book “How to Win Friends & Influence People,” striving for the 3 A’s is always important. Being Available, Affable and Able is important to any doctor’s practice, interns to attendings. While we may not necessarily be “able” all of the time (that’s what our seniors are for!) it’s important to be available and affable even when you’re getting a 3 a.m. consult for earwax removal.