Here are the golden rules to follow to have better work life balance.
Create boundaries and do your very best to keep to them. However hard you try you can’t be perfect you can only be as good as you can be. That means learning when to stop and when to say ‘no’ if you are being asked to do something which you know either isn’t your job or you really don’t have the time or the skills to do it.
Decide how long you will spend worrying about a particular patient and when you reach your limit seek advice from your colleagues. You learn by watching others and talking about what you find difficult. So stop worrying, identify the person who knows how to deal with the situation and ask for help and advice from them.
You don’t have to take on every problem entirely alone. Talk to someone else about the parts of the job you find difficult and if necessary put aside time to learn the extra skills you need. This is better than struggling on for ages not really having much idea about what you are doing.
It’s OK to say ‘I don’t know what to do’ or ‘ I can’t deal with this situation I need to talk to someone else about it.’ This is how you will learn what to do next time and it is the time-honoured way you can learn what to do.
Decide what can and can’t be achieved in the time available and set yourself realistic goals.
Plan to go home at the end of the day. The routine work will be there for you to continue the next day. Learn to differentiate between the urgent and important, the urgent but not important (and who else could deal with those things) and that which is neither urgent nor important.
Place enough importance on your out of work life so that you don’t neglect it.
There is a life outside of Medicine, even though your work takes a huge amount of time and energy, plan social events and don’t neglect your partner, friends and family. Be aware that life is more than Medicine and make sure you set aside some time each week to connect with friends and family and take part in activities completely unrelated to your work.
When your life is more balanced between work and the rest of life you will feel better, have more energy, enjoy life more and get things into proportion.
What fascinates me about this advice is the advice – quite rightly – that better work-life demarcation leads not only to a better life but also performing better as a doctor.
Even if we do not do it for ourselves ( we should!) we should be doing it for our patients.
It does though remain counter-cultural in many spheres of Medicine.
“Tough” may be the best answer to that !