What's a common feature of a doctor's life? The DEADLINE AVALANCHE

One deadline... Piece of cake

Two deadlines... No problem 

Three deadlines... Okay we can do this 

Four deadlines... IT'S ONLY TUESDAY 

Time management 101 isn't enough to save us in this situation of competing demands and conflicting priorities 

The deadline avalanche can be managed by SURVIVING. This looks like staying up late to get everything done, forgoing things you'd rather keep, and even sacrificing things you said you wouldn't. 

Becc can't forget missing a wedding of a loved one when she was in med school. At the time, it seemed necessary to meet the demands of these deadlines. 

On the other hand, the option is not always obvious as a possibility... is THRIVING in the deadline avalanche. What this requires is DIVERTING resources away 

It's true, we can't do it all. 

But it's okay, because we CAN do what's important. 

So here's the catch - and the strategy. To free up our resources for what's important, we need TAKE THEM from somewhere else. 

And we can hear some of you… PERMISSION TO DO LESS? I'm IN. 

And then some of you like… PERMISSION TO DO LESS? … But … It won't be good enough 

THOUGHT: It won't meet the mark unless I give all of my effort

Becc used to have this same thought process. And it meant that she could never give herself permission to give less than 100% effort to any of these competing deadlines. It was too much of a risk. 

The problem with this is, she also never tried less than 100% to see if it would suffice. 

Evidence base for success giving LESS THAN 100% effort: nil 

Evidence base for success giving 100% effort: robust 

When we say 'There's no evidence for that' in medicine, we want to be clear if we're trying to communciate: 

"There's experiments that don't show evidence for that to be true"

OR

"There's no experiments that investigate that question"

And here's what we have to offer on this: 

The belief that is POSSIBLE that less than 100% effort needs to be strong enough for you to choose to do the experiment. If you don't believe it's possible, why try, right?

So, here's an invitation from our shared experience: 

It's possible that you can GIVE LESS EFFORT to some of these deadlines WITHOUT LOSING ANYTHING. 

With that extra effort diverted to the deadlines that are IMPORTANT, it's possible you can GAIN A LOT.

The key here is first getting clear on what's important before your mind gets carried away with what's urgent. 

When you are clear about what's IMPORTANT, you'll have the fuel for the bravery required to divert resources away from its competition. 

Sometimes good enough is good enough. 

What do you think?