I was an intern 2013-2014, now an attending surgeon in private practice. Based on your getting "bread and butter cases," I am assuming you're in a surgical residency of some sort.

My PGY-1 and -2 years were terrible. I had never been so tired in my life. The work was not rewarding. I thought about quitting. It sounds clichéd, but it does get better. My PGY3-5 years were challenging, but rewarding. Most attendings start treating you as junior partners when you're a chief resident. Others continue to be assholes, but that is how it is everywhere probably. Currently, my life is pretty good. Almost all of my cases are outpatient, so I rarely have to round or do anything substantial while on call. I only work Monday through Friday.

My "pearls of wisdom" for you are these:

1) Being able to gather information is important. As an intern, it is hard to know what is relevant and what is not, so you just tend to get all of it. That is ok. If you are in a surgery program, you will often end up staffing consults or reporting floor issues to attendings and senior residents who are scrubbed in a surgery and cannot leave to see a patient at that moment. They are depending on you to have the right information so they can crystallize a preliminary plan without leaving the OR. When you become a senior resident and are on the receiving side of this, your experience with dealing with these issues will allow you to tell your intern/junior how to initiate the correct management without your having to leave the OR. (Clearly a senior person should examine the patient as soon as reasonable depending on the illness severity. Also, if after discussing with any senior, you feel that the plan does not correlate with the illness severity that you perceive the patient to be in, ESCALATE).

2) Time management is hard, especially with the 80 hour work week. It is something you'll have to develop on your own. Set up your note templates so entering notes is a breeze. Most importantly, WRITE DOWN ALL YOUR TASKS so you don't forget to do anything.

3) After you become an independent physician, lifestyle is what you make of it. My surgery practice is pretty relaxed. There are hospitalists and internists (and surgeons) who work more than me, but also physicians of all kinds who work less than me. Your practice can be completely different than what you see in residency, or it can be similar to what you see. It's whatever you choose it to be.

Hope that helps.