Creating Time with the Fab Fifteen

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About a year ago, I was handed a challenge: create a live video to post on social media every day for 15 days.

I hated the idea.

I’m an introvert and prefer one-on-one conversations and small interactive groups. What I don’t love is sharing before an audience that I can’t see. But I couldn’t resist the chance to stretch myself.

I chose to share a tip every day on how to create more time. Every day I added the caveat that we can’t actually create more time. Instead, we can become more aware of how we’re spending our time and more intentional about spending it on what is most important to us.

Rather than share links to all 15 video clips, I’ll summarize my ideas here:

1. Try the Pomodoro technique for greater focus.
2. Strive for mastery or good enough rather than perfect.
3. Be more strategic with how you spend your energy (i.e., don’t only focus on how you spend your time each day).
4. Take a break—you’ll be more efficient. Just 30 seconds makes a difference.
5. Try a bullet journal to track the daily activities that are most important to your wellbeing and goals.
6. Try a mini mindfulness practice. Drop me a line for some ideas.
7. Ditch tasks. If you were to accept that you can’t do it all, what might you let go of? How about that voluntary committee position?
8. Just say no. Learn how.
9. Take your work email off your phone. Communicate how to contact you in a real emergency then excise it. It is possible.
10. Hire the help you need at home. Spend that time on yourself and your family.
11. Get more sleep. Try for just 20 minutes more each night.
12. Give yourself the gift of being in the present, keeping your brain where your feet are. See what happens.
13. Put those big rocks in the jar first. Ping me if this makes no sense.
14. Eat the frog first. Ditto.
15. Address that self-doubt and indecision. I can guarantee they are holding you back and using up valuable time and head space.

There’s the fab fifteen.?

Is there one item that intrigues you? One that calls out and makes you curious about giving it a try? I encourage you to do a small experiment and see what happens. Then share the results with me. I’d love to hear!

Dr. Shannon is a certified coach and co-author of?Preventing Physician Burnout: Curing the Chaos and Returning Joy to the Practice of Medicine.?She helps physicians create personal and?professional lives that work and advocates for system change to?address the drivers of clinician burnout.?