Finding the time

Do you use your free time for sport, drama, studying, visiting your mum, or staying bed? You decide

Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back. , Harvey MacKay, US business columnist, author, and speaker

Do you feel that your life is busy, and you can’t quite fit everything in? One of the many great things about being a student is that as well as the actual studying and learning there is so much else on offer. I noticed this when I was a student and was struggling to find time for rowing when studying for my pathology exams.

Later on, achieving a balance between work and the rest of my life has become an even greater challenge. After qualifying there are postgraduate exams to study for while keeping up a demanding job as a junior doctor, which may involve shifts. And there are relationships and possibly children.

Sadly many doctors don’t feel they get the balance between work and the rest of their life quite right. I believe that one of the ways to adjust the balance is to become more efficient at using your time. Don’t work harder—work smarter.

Think about time

NLP stands for neurolinguistic programming. “Neuro” refers to our mind, “linguistic” refers to the language we use, and “programming” is about our sequences of behaviour. NLP offers a useful way to help us think about time.

We all conceptualise time differently. There are two main ways of thinking about time. To find out which one you use, close your eyes and point to where you picture your past, present, and future.

People who are “through time” see all their time spread out in front of them, like a time planner on a wall. Their past is to the left; their present is straight out in front of them; and their future is to the right. “In time” people have a time line that runs straight through them. Their past is behind them; their present is right inside them in the here and now; and their future is somewhere stretching out into the space in front of them.

Because “through time” people see time in front of them they tend to be organised and are good at planning their time. “In time” people are associated with the present. They live what is going on right now, but as a result can have difficulties organising their time. If you are an “in time” person you may find it helpful to switch your time line around in front of you when you need to plan and schedule.

NLP applies the concept that if someone can do something well then someone else can learn how to do it too. This is known as modelling. The chances are that you will know someone who is organised and good at using their time. They effortlessly manage a number of different things at the same time, do them well, and meet deadlines. So ask them how they do it. Learn their tips and solutions for time management. Put these into practice yourself, and if necessary go back to them for more information to refine your techniques.

Using limited resources

Each of us has only limited resources of time, money, and energy. Some people have more of each than others, but even people with plenty have limited resources. This means that you have to decide how to spend each of them. This is the concept of voting.

Do you use your free time for sport, drama, studying, visiting your mum, or staying in bed? You decide. But there is an opportunity cost. Whatever you spend your time doing means you can’t do something else in the same period of time.

You may be interested to know there are only 8760 hours in one year. You decide how to spend those 8760 hours. Even living to be 100 years old provides fewer than a million hours to do what you want to do.

I coach doctors who feel that their work-life balance is out of kilter. In my experience these doctors have been voting with their time in a way that doesn’t honour their values. Values are the qualities that define you, that are at the core of who you are. Your values are the things that matter most to you. Without these things you would not be you.

Our values help us make choices about what we commit to in our lives. If you commit time and energy to something that violates or neglects one of your core values you will most likely feel resentful and frustrated. If you do not honour your values in your activities and relationships you will begin to get a nagging feeling that something is missing or wrong in your life.

Ask yourself the following questions to define your values:

• What is important to you?
• What do you care about?
• What do you want in your life?
• When do you feel happiest?
• What do you react negatively to?
• What makes you angry or frustrated?

Your values don’t necessarily have to be fulfilled at work. For example, you may think it important to help others for little or no financial reward and also have a need to earn a lot of money to maintain a certain lifestyle. So when you qualify you may decide to have a successful private practice to fulfil one value and to be involved in charity work in your spare time to honour the other.

Concepts and tools

The greatest detraction from the management of time is procrastination. I’m sure you are familiar with the notion that when you should be revising even the washing up can seem more attractive.

You can overcome procrastination in a number of ways. Firstly, acknowledge that you are procrastinating. Don’t call it something else; just call it what it is—procrastination. It’s not that you want to do the washing up. It allows you the opportunity to put off sitting down and doing your revision. When it occurs again you will learn to recognise it.

So why does it happen? Procrastination is caused either because you feel overwhelmed by the task or because it is too unpleasant to start.

To overcome your feelings of being completely overwhelmed, take the task and break it into smaller tasks. You can then start with the smallest and easiest task. Once you have achieved even a small part of the whole, you will feel better as you will be on the way. So, for example, instead of thinking “I will learn the whole of the cardiovascular system module this weekend,” list the chunks that make up the whole task. You might list the anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, and pathology. Each of these topics can be further divided into more manageable chunks.

If you need to tackle an unpleasant job, focus on the outcome, and set yourself a reward for when it is completed. Try to imagine what it will be like when you have done it. Many athletes use this technique with their training. They are clear about the goal they wish to achieve. They know exactly what it will feel like to win the gold medal, and they run this video in their heads. This motivates them to do whatever is necessary to attain their goal.

Additionally, you could ask someone else to hold you accountable. Ask a good friend or relative to keep ringing or emailing you to ask if you have done your revision or assignment yet.

Another motivator can be to think about what will happen if you don’t complete the task. You can also calculate the cost of your time. Consider how much each hour of your time is worth. Then add up how much time and, therefore, money you are wasting by not getting on with the task.

Other techniques and tips

We all have a time of the day when we are most alert and efficient. Find out when yours is. It may be first thing in the morning or late at night. It doesn’t matter when it is, but exploit the times when you know you can focus on work and get more done.

Try to avoid switching between tasks. It is tempting to keep checking your emails and therefore get distracted from what you are doing.

If you want to revise or concentrate on a particular project you need to look at scheduling your time. Look at your available time by day, by week, or in the coming month. Next list all the various tasks needed to achieve the goal, and break these into smaller chunks. Then consider which tasks are the most urgent and the most important. The truly urgent and important tasks should be scheduled first. The least important and least urgent tasks should be scheduled at the end, when you have achieved the others.

I passed my pathology exams, and my rowing crew were successful. I realised that my most efficient time of day for revising was first thing in the morning. So I would look at my diary a week at a time and work out when I could get up early to work. I was clear that I wanted to pass and also achieve my rowing goals, so I ensured that when I worked that was all I focused on. Small changes to the way you manage your time can have far bigger effects and benefits in the longer term.

Competing interests: I am a director of Healthcare Performance, the company I set up with a business colleague.

Provenance and peer review: Commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.

For more information see www.mindtools.com.

       

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