Be Strategic With Your Time

Fall is upon us, and despite my first name, it is my favorite season. The cool morning breezes replace the stifling heat and humidity of the summer, and the seasonable temperatures improve my chances of going for long walks.

As the seasons change, I often find myself evaluating my goals and my progress in accomplishing them since the year will be ending soon. I have certainly achieved some of them, still have time to accomplish 1 or 2 more, but there are a couple I know I won’t attain this year.

Rather than being upset about not attaining every goal I set out to achieve in 2022, I would rather reflect on what I did instead of making time for those goals. 

Instead of saying yes when given the opportunity to challenge myself professionally or adding something to my to-do list, I chose to say no. I think I have a previous blog post entitled “Just Say Yes” so I am contradicting myself a bit here.

By saying no to some opportunities (big and small), I have increased the control I have over how I spend my time. Therefore, I think I would change my advice about just saying yes, and instead, advise you to be strategic about the activities you say yes or no to.

Being strategic about my decisions has been a good lesson for me to learn in 2022.

At work, I spent time coaching and mentoring hospital leaders and my coworkers. As a consultant, I travel to different hospital systems around the country to assist with performance improvement initiatives. I was assigned as the coach to two new associates this year.

These new staff members are new to the workforce and had recently graduated college.  I have not mentored anyone at this level for a long time, and I found it a challenge. I loved getting to know them and helping them learn how to navigate the world of consulting. 

It was great to put my preceptor hat back on and help these new associates adapt to the environment and to have success. Being their coach is something I am happy I said yes to.

Even though they are not nurses, they needed to learn how to prioritize and delegate their tasks and how to escalate a problem when they needed help to solve it. It was great to put my preceptor hat back on and help these new associates adapt to the environment and to have success. Being their coach is something I am happy I said yes to.

I mentioned I travel a lot for work. That eats up a lot of my personal time and decreases the amount of time I spend with my husband and two children. To achieve balance here, I manage my travel schedule so I do not have to miss important events. It is also great that we have technology now making video calls and texting so easy that it is much easier to stay in contact with them.

Earlier in my career, I may not have always put them first and let work dictate my schedule more than it should. This is another example where I strategically say yes or no to stay in control of my work-life balance. 

We only get to live once, and I encourage you to use your time strategically and to do the things that bring you the most fulfillment. Don’t be hesitant to reevaluate what is important to you regularly, perhaps with each change of the seasons, or whenever the time is right for you.

Thank you for everything you do for patients, and enjoy autumn!