DTD 195
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[00:00:00] This is the Drive Time Debrief, episode 195.
Hey guys. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Amanda. I'm Laura. And I'm Kendra. And don't forget to check out our new Podcast Fast Track. It's at thewholephysician.com/fast-track. It is a guide through some of the more important [00:01:00] podcasts so that you don't have to go all the way back to nearly 200 episodes trying to find the ones that apply to you most.
This is a helpful guide. It's not all of the most important episodes, but it is a series of ones that consistently have been useful for physicians working in medicine. Last week we talked about time wasters. Today we're gonna talk about 12 time management principles for doctors, because time is the one thing that we cannot generate more of.
You can generate more money. You can generate a lot of things, but you cannot generate more time for yourself. So let's start talking about it.
The first thing to do is determine what is urgent versus what is important. And this is something based on a concept called an Eisenhower Matrix from President Eisenhower. He said there are a lot of things that will seem urgent, but that's not the same as important. So it's really useful to notice the things that are getting your attention that maybe would be better served doing something else.
[00:02:00] This is why for some people to-do lists can get us in trouble because we tend to check off the easy stuff and not put any time in the bigger project, the one that's gonna take more of your energy. We don't get started on any of those, and it's easy to procrastinate. Another thing is urgent. This would consider when your phone dings or when you get an email notification that is set up on purpose to make it feel urgent. You get a little dopamine hit, so you're tempted to respond to those things when you should be focused on the important task and making progress on that.
The one that's not as much of a dopamine payoff, but it gives you better long-term results. So it's literally triage for your life. This applies to, do you really need to respond to that email? Do you really need to do that admin task? Do you really need to do that meeting at the expense of something else?
So, sort your tasks into four boxes. Urgent and important. Important but not urgent. Urgent, not important. And neither [00:03:00] one. The ones in the neither box should just get ejected off of your list altogether. But try to focus on some of the important things. Unless you're overwhelmed, then it's okay to pick something easy to just get forward movement. Number two, don't overcommit. Be selective. We talked about this the last episode. You cannot generate more time. So every yes you give is a no to something else. Protect that. Burnout and depletion also come in cumulative small yeses that you keep overcommitting to. Every yes that you have has a cost.
So use this simple filter of does this align with my top three priorities this quarter? And if not, really consider if you need to say yes or if you can say, you know, I don't have the capacity this quarter, but maybe we can revisit it next time. Having some of those canned responses because so many of us are people pleasers, just have something built in where it's ready for you to use.
Like, Hey, can I check back and let you know tomorrow? That gives you that time to put a little [00:04:00] space into it and to consider. Number three, have a plan for your time. This is talking about time blocking and a weekly review. Just know that in the moment, you are going to want to do things that are comfortable. You are not gonna wanna put in the effort.
Just plan on that. That is why a lot of really successful people will do something called time blocking, where they plan their week using the best part of their planning brain, which is your prefrontal cortex. You have a limited amount of mental energy each day. So if you wait until late afternoon to decide some big project, there's a really good chance you're gonna put it off till tomorrow.
Coming up with time blocking early in the week to plan that week out, you write out all of your tasks, decide which are urgent and important, which are non-urgent and important versus everything else, and then you schedule time to do those things. Knowing that when it comes up, you're not gonna wanna do it and you're gonna do it anyway because that's the kind of person that you are.
You're someone who honors your commitments [00:05:00] and you will get so much further in life, especially if you can put two hours or one hour aside where you put your phone down, you're not responding to email, you refuse to scroll. You can probably accomplish the same that you normally would in like two days if you just give yourself that sort of focus time.
And that's a nice payoff. When you can just commit to no distractions for an hour or so and have all of your work done for the week, that feels incredible.
Number four, allow time for the unexpected. And here is some advice for parents of toddlers. Things are gonna be unexpected. They're not gonna go to bed when you think that they are supposed to, and invariably something comes up.
So just give yourself grace for that. Maybe when you're the parent of a toddler or there are people in your lives that things are coming up a lot, just plan on that then. Just intentionally schedule buffers so that you're not cutting those margins so thin that it throws your entire schedule off. It turns out sometimes clinics are really unpredictable.
That is how it is in medicine [00:06:00] sometimes. So count on it being unpredictable and give yourself generous time to get to the next thing. That can save you a lot of frustration, and it also means you're gonna have to say no to a lot more things so that you are able to have that margin where it's comfortable to get to the place.
Maybe build 10 to 20% of your day as unallocated so that when things come up last minute, you've already accounted for that. It makes life so much easier. Add a 15 minute buffer after your clinic before you have to be at the next place. Do things like that. I think that's a hack for stress because when you're running that close to the next thing that you have to do, you're so aggravated, you bring that with you to the next thing.
I would rather say no and then give myself a generous buffer so that it's like, yeah, I'm glad I did that for myself.
So number five, handle things once. So when a task or piece of mail or email hits, you decide immediately.
Do it, delegate it, defer it, or [00:07:00] delete it. So there's some powerful Ds there. Once again, if you have mail, email, text, whatever, decide immediately. Do it, delegate it, defer it, or delete it, right? Don't repeatedly reopen it. Why? Because repeatedly rereading or reopening or going back to something requires time, right?
And so now you're multiplying that time loss. So put it in play, set a decision rule. If it takes less than two minutes, do it now. If not, assign a time or assign a person. And you can use color codes on your Gmail calendar like I do. Or you can divvy out your email inbox. So you put like right now or later or forward it to somebody that's gonna take care of it, but basically figure out a way, get a system and use it.
So for the next 20 minutes, process email with the powerful Ds: do, delegate, defer, delete. Okay? And [00:08:00] just do it once. Then the next one is create realistic deadlines. So this is Parkinson's Law, and I think we have talked about this before. And basically if you don't have a deadline, if something's nebulous and you have something to get done, your brain will offer up that it's gonna take that whole time, whatever it is, however much time.
If you said I wanna accomplish writing a book today, and I'm gonna start with chapter one and that's all you say, then it's gonna take you all day to write chapter one. I guarantee it. But if you offer up to your brain a realistic deadline, like, I'm gonna spend three hours this morning on chapter one.
Then your brain knows, okay, I've got three hours and I gotta hammer it out. You can make shorter time periods or you can integrate breaks in there, but basically it creates a deadline and deadlines create urgency and it helps you focus. And so you can set micro deadlines throughout the day, or if you have a day off and you're wanting to accomplish a lot, be loving with your deadlines, but just see [00:09:00] how much free time it creates when your brain is focused for that set amount of time, and then you do it for that amount of time and then move on.
So short, sacred deadlines beat endless ruminating, polishing, perfecting all this stuff every time. So the next one is set goals for yourself. So this kind of piggybacks on that. When you have a goal for yourself or something that you want to do, we talk about SMART goals a lot. S-M-A-R-T is a mnemonic and it means different things.
Setting specific, measurable, actionable, results-driven and adding a time. That's what the T in SMART goals means. It is setting the goals and identifying time. So if you have a big goal, we break it down into smaller action steps. But even though the big goal has a time deadline, so do the small action steps. Those also, you need to assign a finite time or a deadline because it gives you clarity.
Even though these four action steps will eventually lead you to the bigger goal, each [00:10:00] action step has a deadline, which overall results in your big goal or your major goal or your long-term goal deadline. Okay. Yes, it's adjustable. Yes, be loving. But each time you do that, you allow for focus and you allow for when the action step gets completed, that's a checkbox, a little dopamine, and you're able to finish that task or attain that goal and you can move on to the next one.
Right? And what's interesting is you could have one to three SMART goals going on at a time because you have organized yourself into action steps. And those action steps can be a both/and. So you can be doing several things, but they're all very finite, well-defined.
Okay. And that's the point. The next one is developing routines, so also called habit stacking or keystone habits. So routines reduce decision fatigue and I mean all you physicians out there, do we make any decisions during the day when we work? Just a few [00:11:00] thousand, right? So if we are trying to apply that when we get home, we definitely have suffered from decision fatigue.
So if we can habit stack or basically attach a new habit to an existing one, it really helps to reinforce or cement the behavior. So routines make key behaviors automatic. So if you're trying to develop a new habit for walking or exercising or whatever, and you already know that you wanna have a cup of coffee and listen to one podcast. Maybe you listen to your podcast while you walk, 'cause you know you're gonna listen to this amazing Drive Time Debrief podcast every single morning. And so maybe while you're listening that 15, 20 minutes of an amazing episode, you're walking or you're doing something that you have associated with a habit that's already in place, or a ritual or routine that's already in place.
Okay? So that's one example. You could choose rituals for starting the beginning of your day and ending [00:12:00] it. So a three step routine: review the caseload from yesterday, set three top priorities, breathe for one minute and then stack a two minute gratitude note.
Maybe that comes at the beginning of your day to put you in a good situation, or maybe that's the end of your day when you need to wrap up and close it in your mind so that then you can transition to your next stage, which is home with family or going out with a loved one, or spending time with your spouse, whatever it is, whatever you need. Developing the routine and helping to stack it with something you already do, like go to work or come home, that helps you to then not have to make a decision in the moment and also helps you to create a new habit or have a habit stack.
Okay, number nine. And before we continue, I just wanna say we know this is a lot of information. This probably could have been 10 separate podcasts, and [00:13:00] we forbid you to use any of this to shame yourself because your number one job is to have more compassion on yourself.
These are just some tools that we're offering that you can use to help you as you seek to use your most valuable resource a little bit more in alignment with how you want. So number nine, focus on one thing at a time. So what that means, single-tasking outperforms multitasking. I know it doesn't even feel like we can single-task at work because we have so many people asking us so many questions.
It doesn't matter what field you work in, all the specialties, we've heard the same thing. Nurses are constantly coming up to you. A variety of different administrative things are happening while you're trying to do patient care. Do the best you can, especially when you're doing deep work at home or you're charting. Try to use some focus sprints.
If you're familiar with the Pomodoro method, that's where you take a tomato timer. It doesn't have to be a [00:14:00] tomato, but that's where it came from. Those tomato kitchen timers. Set it for 25 to 50 minutes on, five to 10 minutes off, and take a break. And then repeat your Pomodoro. Why is this helpful?
Multitasking really does increase errors and time per task. Focus sprints maximize cognitive throughput. So while we know this isn't really gonna apply to clinical work, you can use this for research, or if you're writing a book or producing something else, this is what you can use that for. Or if you're just doing tasks around the house, try 50 to 10, let's say like 50 minutes on, 10 minutes off for a deep task.
If your brain likes that or do the 25 and five for shorter tasks. Turn off your notifications during those sprints so that you're not tempted to go check email or answer texts. Here's a quick win. Do one 25 minute focus sprint on a backlog task. That could be, you've got a closet that needs cleaning out, [00:15:00] or you need to write some thank you notes.
There could be any number of things you could use this on. Don't allow any interruptions and notice the progress. Be all there for that one thing rather than half there for many. And I would argue too, you could use this in connection with people. You know, give each of your kids 25 minutes.
When that timer goes off, they might be like, okay, I'm done. But not so if you have younger kids. They probably really, really would value that time with you. Number 10, eliminate or minimize distractions. And this is designing your environment. Design your environment to favor the work you want to do.
Reduce triggers for distractions. So if you're trying to do deep work, put your phone face down kind of far away from you. Turn off the notifications. What I do sometimes, I work in a very small doc box to do charting and put orders in, is I'll bring my AirPods and put them in, and it helps kind of drown out the chaos of the emergency department.
And it is this visual [00:16:00] cue that I'm trying to focus for other people. I always love the meme where the guy puts a post-it note on his back that says, please do not talk to me because I won't be able to stop and I need to get my work done. So that's always an option too.
Again, take social media apps off your home screen. Headphones as a visible cue or a closed door if you have an office that you can close the door. And for clinic, create some protected charting time. So your quick win would be for your next charting session, silence non-critical alerts and put your phone face down for 20 minutes.
Don't rely on willpower. Change the environment to make you more successful. And I think this was in Atomic Habits or Tiny Habits? The environment design, I think it was in Tiny Habits, but like if you're trying to eat healthy, put the healthy food out where you can see it and hide the food that's not so healthy.
Same principle regarding time. Okay. Number 11, outsource tasks or [00:17:00] delegate. That means redistribute work that others can do to free yourself up. I just learned about an app called Poplin now that you can have people come pick up your laundry and do your laundry for you.
Nice. If you don't have a house cleaner, get a house cleaner. Amanda has an organizer. I need an organizer. I haven't done that yet, but like find every possible way that you can use your monetary resources to save you time so that you can preserve it for what you really need to do.
Delegation multiplies your impact. And I cannot tell you, we have so many super busy clients and because they get so much stuff done, every task gets sent their way. And I'm like, no, no. Why are you doing scheduling? Why are you doing prior authorizations? This is ridiculous. You cannot keep doing that.
You are going to kill yourself and you're not doing the work you have to do. That all needs to be delegated. So if [00:18:00] it's not something that only you can do, try to find a way to offload it. Use a four step delegation script where you explain the outcome, what you would like to have happen, give a timeframe, provide resources, and set a follow up. If you have stuff related to your work in medicine and you work in an academic place, find a talented medical student or resident to help you do some of that stuff. They would probably enjoy the opportunity to spend time with you and help you too. Identify one task you do regularly that a nurse, assistant, admin, or medical student or resident could do.
Explain the outcome and hand it off this week. Just remember, your time is the scarce resource. Spend it where only you can add value, where you can do what you uniquely need to do. Number 12, leave time for fun and play. Recovery and productivity. Recovery equals productivity. This is all from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective [00:19:00] People, that sharpen the saw.
We have to have time to be human and experience joy and play. Play is gonna help our brains actually work better. Rest and recreation are gonna replenish our cognitive resources. Recuperation reduces errors, boosts creativity, and prevents burnout, ironically, making us more efficient. So in that book, Stephen Covey told the story of, I think it was Abraham Lincoln, who was talking about cutting down a tree and if he had six hours to cut down a tree, he said he would spend four hours sharpening the saw.
That's what we're talking about. I know you're not gonna be able to spend more time recuperating and having fun, but it is important to carve that time out so that you can be your sharpest and most efficient. So, block a weekly play appointment: family time, date night, hobbies, exercise that feels fun.
Treat it like clinical duty or an obligation that you [00:20:00] must do because you really must to be able to stay sane. Also, give yourself some short micro breaks during the day. And I'm not talking about going on social media. Find something that lights you up. That's fine. Maybe you wanna grab one of the coloring pages from where I work. We have coloring pages. Maybe just doodle for a couple of minutes or write a couple of lines in the novel you started. Or take a minute to daydream about what you really want for your life. Just take a few little micro breaks and those will also be powerful for you and help you to get through your day.
Okay? So here's a quick win. Book one 60 to 90 minute fun block this week and guard it. No work allowed. You know, go to the axe throwing place or go to the park and feed the ducks. There's a million different things you could do to create that fun for yourself.
Go do that. We promise it will benefit you and everyone around you. Just remember, rest is not optional. It's the fuel [00:21:00] that makes everything else possible and sometimes we forget that. So let's not. Let's be intentional about putting rest and play back into our schedules. So when some of those really successful people talk about their own personal time blocking,
this is the first thing that they time block. Yes, and that does a couple of things. It creates a sustainable life because what do perfectionists do? They over-schedule themselves. When you schedule your fun time and your time that you know to connect with your family or friends or those sorts of things that many times you end up not allowing for yourself, first of all, that creates a beautiful life for yourself.
Secondly, you start realizing, oh, I don't have that much time to say yes to that next committee or do somebody else's work for them, or overcommit to this thing or that thing, 'cause you're physically seeing like, oh, if I really am gonna have the life I want, I don't [00:22:00] have extra time. So I love that scheduling the fun and the play and the connection first
makes you see how much time you truly do have left available. And then the last thing is some of us will over-schedule ourselves so much that then we rebel against our own schedule. Like, well this is impossible, like this sucks. Well that's 'cause you didn't schedule fun and play and connection and that's why you have to do that first, 'cause otherwise you'll make some completely superhuman schedule that's just not sustainable. Yeah, that's a good point. And also, I'll piggyback on that, that this may seem a little foreign to most of us that went to college and med school and residency. Like that was the thing we sacrificed, right?
'Cause we felt like we were all in to learn medicine and [00:23:00] get our trade. And so when we would see something, if we had to take a call or pick up an extra shift, that's what got sacrificed was our playtime, was maybe a concert we were going to go to or meeting a friend for dinner. And we thought, well, [00:23:00] that's sacrificeable or whatever. We're just encouraging you to reframe that thought. It's actually not. It's probably one of the most important things, and we're giving you permission. Okay? So permission to have a fun block and to schedule it first. Okay? So we hope that you've enjoyed this episode. Thank you for joining us today. That's it. We love that this conversation is animated, but we hope you found it helpful, and the best way that you can help us is by leaving a review.
And making a comment because it helps other physicians find this podcast and moves this up on the list. And we'd also love to hear from you. So if you have any awesome time hacks or things that you found work for you, email us at [email protected] and we would love to hear all your good stories.
But don't forget to follow us on the socials at The Whole Physician. You'll find us there and we love to connect there as well. So thanks for spending time with us today and until next time, you are whole. You are [00:24:00] a gift to medicine and the work you do matters.
