How physician execs achieve clarity in 5 minutes (with 1 tool)

The rate of change in healthcare is increasing.

Hard — and true.

For many of you, the journey ahead will be marked by complexity, ambiguity and the balancing act of driving quality patient care amidst the evolving demands of an enterprise.?

I know CMOs submerged in emails, responsibilities and back-to-back meetings — and I know Directors bogged-down by the constant clash of clinical duty and admin demands — and both have little?room for strategic thinking.

And I’ve come to understand that it's not just about the workload.? It's about feeling in perpetual motion without much meaningful progress to show for it.?

This cycle of overwhelm isn't just exhausting — it leads many to question if the juice is even worth the squeeze.

It can feel like a path without much hope.

When clinical leaders feel frustrated, ineffective or overwhelmed — the most common root cause is a commitment?to?"doing more".

There’s a few good reasons why this happens to the best of us:

1. The "overwhelm-cycle isn’t just the symptom of a busy schedule; it's the result of navigating a highly-matrixed web of clinical?and administrative stakeholders.? Objectively, there is a ton on the plate.
2. Most clinicians I know work with a profound sense of duty to “do the right thing” and “get it right” — in a landscape that shifts beneath their feet.? The harsh reality about admin work, as you know, is that there is no ”right way” in the infinite game of healthcare .?
3. The thrill of being “the expert” can be a physical rush.? Our brain drives us to excel by rewarding us with a dopamine boost for our achievements.? The downside — is that it can trick even the highest achievers to conflate being busy with being effective.? This is a force that many new leaders are unaware they’re battling.??

Many of us believe that if we work harder and?conquer?our To Do list — the feeling of spinning our wheels will dissipate.

But experience and research show us, again and again, that multitasking and weekend-email-marathons offer minor and temporary relief (Meyer, Evans & Rubenstein, 2001).??

The reality??

• We can’t do everything on our list, or it would’ve been done already.
• There will always be more?on our to-do lists than we have time for.?
• Focusing on productivity, efficiency and “creating an extra hour” to work just means you’ll spend more of your life working.?

I'm here to tell you: when we feel frustrated and overwhelmed, the solution is rarely to push harder.

After coaching hundreds of physicians to navigate the trenches of healthcare leadership — I can tell you this:

In healthcare, the most positive?changes happen when a?driven clinical leader makes a daily habit of pausing to pair a single insight with a single meaningful action.?

Often they do it in 10 minutes or less.?

Here's how:

????They pause?to clarify a single insight.? Pausing to reflect?allows them to unplug, zoom-out and reframe — giving them the space they?need to clarify what’s most important for the situation at hand.? When they skip the step of clarifying,?their actions become disorganized, distracted, and eventually lead to some form of burnout.

????They commit to taking a single, meaningful action related to their insight.? Taking action pulls them out of our heads and into the real world “where the magic happens”.? Progress requires action.? Insight without action keeps us in the zone of feeling productive when, in reality, not much is actually happening.?

??? ?These actionable insights maximize their efforts and are exactly how driven physicians move themselves from a state of spinning their wheels?to one of consistently achieving?meaningful results.

Unfortunately, in healthcare administration, many people spend most of their time?NOT clarifying and NOT taking action.??

This can look like meeting for the sake of meeting, email marathons, etc.? We feel productive when, in reality, we’re perpetuating?the status quo.? Many of our corporate environments inadvertently reward this behavior.? It’s not bad, and it’s not creating positive change.

The clinical leaders who actually get things done in healthcare spend most of their time clarifying insights and taking meaningful actions, in a variety of contexts.

Here's the 2-step process highly-effective leaders use to make meaningful progress?on what’s most important:

Step 1: Generate an insight by writing for 5 min

The most effective executives in the world all?take time in private to reflectively write on-paper.??

They do it to organize their thoughts and achieve clarity in a matter of minutes, regardless of how chaotic the external circumstances are.

They do it to calm the noise, distraction, worry and fear they feel – by “getting it out on paper".

What’s the secret?

Most of us are stuck, subconsciously circulating through the same thought loops over and over again.? We ruminate on the circumstances as we see them, and the options we think might work (Paivio, 1971).

Highly-effective leaders write on paper because?it forces their brain to process through their circulating thought loops — which unlocks new ideas and new perspectives that inspire them to take actions they hadn’t even considered before.? And those actions tend to generate more impact than they thought we were capable of, before they started writing.?

And so they rinse and repeat the process.?

Simple.

Reflective writing isn’t a hobby; it's a necessity for leaders who want to make a difference and get stuff done.

Do yourself a favor and uncover an insight that’ll propel you forward today:

??(5 min)?Set a timer on your phone for 3 minutes and write “stream of consciousness ” with a pen and paper.? ?Then read what you wrote and circle or distill your single biggest insight into a sentence.? Tim Feris does this every single morning to clear the dull roar of distraction, worry and fear in his mind.

??(1 min)?Buy the 5 Minute Journal and stick it next to your bed.??This is the highest return you can get from investing 5 minutes of your day.??It's backed by research and designed for people who don’t have time to journal .?

??(10 min)??Break?out of your circulating thought-loops by following this specific 5-step process . ?Use the Change Map to make progress on a specific challenge or opportunity on your plate.??Every single client I’ve guided through this exercise uncovers something of value.??If you're not convinced it'll help, watch?how a physician used it to navigate the?unexpected and emotionally-charged?furlough of his team.

??(3 min) Leverage the 5 Why's Framework, a short reflective journey to pinpoint hidden contributing factors.??Pick a specific challenge or objective you want to make progress on and write the answer to the question "Why is this happening?" or "Why is this important?".? Look at your answer and ask yourself the same question again, five times in a row, to break free from your stagnant thought-loops.

??(20 min) Anchor yourself in the future with our guided, audio visualization and journaling experience .???Here’s the deal: 90% of our actions are unconsciously automated and based on past experiences.? ?This audio connects you to insights about your potential by anchoring you into your future.

Step 2: Design a meaningful and exciting action

Insight alone is like an unlit candle.

Action is the spark that illuminates the path.?

Next week, we'll uncover the 5 criteria to design a "leap" — which is an action that turns our insight into a meaningful result, every time...

The future of healthcare is being shaped by people like you.

Since uncertainty, complexity and the rate of change in healthcare are only increasing — I believe healthcare systems will be revolutionized, not by traditionalists and bureaucrats, but by adaptive clinical leaders.?

More specifically, healthcare will continue to be shaped by the leaders who make a daily habit of toggling between the “balcony and the dancefloor” — by pairing a single insight with a single action.?

The overwhelm you feel today might be an opportunity for change, calling out for your unique abilities.

You are naturally creative, resourceful and whole.

The world is waiting for your insight.

With unwavering support,

Whenever you're ready, there are 4 ways I can support you:

1. High Impact Physician Newsletter : Join 1,000+ subscribers for bi-weekly emails with our best practical advice for driven clinical leaders who are in the trenches of leading change.? Unlock tons of free value — no fluff.
2. High Impact Physician Podcast :?Join 1,000+ listeners who?feel inspired when accomplished, world-class clinical leaders?get?candid about the mistakes they've made and the lessons they've learned the hard way.? Tune in to?accelerate your growth and development in less than 30 minutes.? ?
3. Physician Coaching Guide for Organizations :? Access 25+ years of experience?coaching physicians?— distilled?into a single PDF.? Unlock our?recommendations and "expensive knowledge" about how to?launch a successful coaching program?at?your organization,?including all the common mistakes to avoid, and what to do instead. ?
4. Bring Coaching to Your Organization : Ready to unlock hidden talent, boost retention rates, and support?your people?to effectively lead change?? ?We've partnered with 30+ organizations to do just that, so book an Exploration?Call today and I guarantee you'll walk away from our conversation with at least one free resource or recommendation — no selling.? ?