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When you complain that you don’t have enough time to do all the things you want to do what excuses do you make? Maybe you say you have too much to do; you’ve just had a night on-call and you’re exhausted; there aren’t enough medical staff and you’re covering for your colleague on holiday; you just can’t get yourself and your work organised. It’s a common challenge for doctors to find sufficient time time for all they want to do because Medicine has a habit of taking over your life and leaving very little for anything else. 1. delegating more: those tasks that someone else could do if you teach them what to do Take a look at http://thedoctorscoach.co.uk/timepack I’m enjoying summer and the beach and yet still trying ‘to get my stuff done’ It’s a severe case of procrastination and I feel like I’m the guy in the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P785j15Tzk How about you? Do you feel some empathy for him (and me)? What are your tips for stopping procrastination and getting on with the job? I know it’s partly because what I’m trying to do I don’ like doing so what I must do is to re-frame it somehow and approach it in a more fun way! For me that would mean stating early in the morning, definitely not getting distrcted by opening emails and reading who is following me on Twitter and making big decisions whether or not to follwo them back, because I don’t just follow anyone as I did at first. No I want to read the brief bio and decdie if that person would be an interesting person to follow. All of this distracts me from my task of correcting my manuscript for my forthcoming book ‘ Life After medicine- for doctors who want a smooth transition.’ So that’s all for now but the morning brings a fresh day and determination to get on with what has to be done! Do you have days when you seem to be busy all the time and yet at the end of the day when you ask yourself ‘what have I achieved today?’ the answer seems to be ‘very little.’ I’ve had days like that recently and have been reflecting what that is all about. Then there are other days when whatever I have to do just seems to flow and I get completly engrossed in the task in hand and are surprised when the clock shows how the hours have gone by. Similarly when it’s a beautiful day and I take a picnic to the beach, time seems to stand still. The tide stays out for ages and then all of a sudden it races in towards the shore. Life is like that too: sometimes we have to plod away at something for a long time without very much progress being evident (and if you are anything like me, getting frustrated by that apparent lack of progress!) Then what appears to be quite sudden (like an overnight success) all the bits fall into place and sudden and massive change happens. I’ve been and still am updating my web sites (they are works in progress and have involved me learning new techniques to do so, because like many of you I don’t like delegating (though I know I should) so doing something new means learning new skills). Anyway I justify that be saying that life-long learning is always useful and keeping my brain active must be a good thing to do. Any feedback would be appreciated especially if constructive! What is your metaphor for your experiences of getting things done? Please comment below. What percentage of ‘you’ makes up your ‘medical identity’ and how much of you is left for something else? Medicine can eat you up, if you let it, like a monster who is never satisfied, leaving your un-digestible parts to cope with another day. Many doctors forget they are more than the job. Even though being a doctor is endlessly satisfying, rewarding and interesting, if you allow it to take too much of you then the rest of your life may be forgotten. Yes there is more to life than Medicine. Don’t let it eat you up completely. Make a commitment to spend some time each week doing something you enjoy which is nothing to do with work. If you do that regularly you’ll be amazed how much more energy you have when y return to your duties. How much of ‘you’ is consumed by your medical persona? After a few months ’sabbatical’ I’m back! There’s a new book in the pipeline called Life after Medicine due to be published by Radcliffe towards the end of 2009 or beginning 2010. Meanwhile, if you’ve left Medicine or are thinking of it, contact me about your experiences. I’m planning to offer some coaching courses in the next few months too. If you get on my mailing list by filling in the form at the side, I’ll keep you updated when these are available. This web site is as they say ‘under construction’ I’ll be adding more pages each week. |
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