Everyone is trying to figure out how to get it all in.
PA students are crazy busy. For three years, I barely saw my wife. She had a very tough time with it. She was working full time and supporting us. I was in school full time and studying in almost all of our free time. I’d leave her even on the weekends and be in the library for 8 hours at a clip.
Once graduation hits, you’re learning a whole new set of skills and medicine. Then, along comes kid #1 and kid #2, and somehow it’s even busier??
So, how do you fit it all in? How do you get done the things you need to get done?
I’ve got two techniques that help make it possible:
#1
I don’t get it all done. I choose what’s important now and what can be put on hold or let go.
For example, there have been long stretches where I did not produce a single podcast. I was coaching 3 baseball teams and had to get rid of something. The podcast went. Not forever, but for those moments.
#2
I decide ahead of time what I’m going to get done. Last week, I had a day where I wanted to get to a CME conference at my hospital. My CME are due in December, and I need a few more. I got to work at 7 am. I had to round on two patients from the day before and see my first surgical patient before the conference started at 7:30, so that I could run back up and be right on time when my case started.
Now, it wasn’t impossible to get all of that done, but it took a little planning ahead. Had I gotten to work a little late and then went and gotten a cup of coffee then made my rounds, there is no way I would have made the conference. Thinking ahead I knew what I needed to get done, the order I would do it, and more importantly that I couldn’t dilly dally. That I needed to be moving.
I got it all done, and it wasn’t a big deal, but if I had been 5 minutes slower it wouldn’t have happened. Now that wouldn’t have been a big deal, I would have just missed the conference, and that would be ok, but that would be average. I wanted to reach for above average.
You definitely need margin in your day. You need time to breath and clear your head, but if you’re not careful you waste away big chunks of your day that you could have been moving ahead.
Success and getting better aren’t about what happens in one day. It’s about slow, methodical progress every day. You get a little better every day and, in a year, you’re miles ahead.
I created “Maximize Your Time and Efficiency” to help busy PA students with these issues. Then, I added “Get it All Done Without Losing Your Mind” when COVID hit and we were all trying to get the same work done but now a home with family or friends all around.
There are loads of ways to make this game easier. Maybe you’re doing it the hard way. Maybe you’ve got a few tricks up your sleeve, I don’t know, but what I do know is that we can all get better.
Click here to find out more:
https://wallacedm.lpages.co/myte-get-it-all-done-open
Brian Wallace
P.S.TFS 2.0 will be available very soon.