“You must have more hours in your day than everyone else Steph!” How many times have I heard that!? It’s not true though, honest. Although there have been many occasions where I have closed my eyes and wished for a Bernard’s watch (If you know, you know) unfortunately one has never materialised. I do however, manage to balance a high demand job as a Doctor with my equally demanding fitness lifestyle quite efficiently but it’s not magic!Here are 5 steps I think are paramount to being ruthlessly efficient, steps 1 and 2 are the big dogs and lay the foundations for the later 3:
Set your goals.
My favourite way to look at goal setting is the “Big Rock” analogy. Imagine you have a glass jar and a load of rocks of varying sizes. The rocks are your goals, your “to do list”. The big rocks are your non-negotiables, your top priorities. Now these will vary for each person but it is important that you know what these big rocks are. The medium size rocks are important, but less so, and the small rocks, well if you can’t fit them in the jar once your bigger rocks are in then so be it. These are the lower priorities, the “bonus” tasks but shouldn’t really mind if they don’t get done. The only way you’re going to be able to fit your big rocks into your jar is if you put them in first, simple.
Big rocks:
Training: 4 weight sessions
Work: My timetabled shifts, any work that is due to be submitted
Other: Meal prep, 1 Headspace session a week (The meditation app)
Medium rocks:
Training: 140minutes on the bike, 2 HIIT sessions, 70,000 steps (in reality these rarely get missed, but if they did I wouldn’t cry about it)
Work: Portfolio assessments (we do these on the job in order to progress)
Other: Down time with my fiancé, 7 hours sleep a night, speaking to my Mom every other day
Small rocks:
Work: Extra reading, publication work, e –learning, exam revision (it’s in March so I have a while)
Other: Extra Headspace sessions
Everything else, nail appointments, trips out etc are not constants every week and so they will be incorporated as and when required.
For my big rocks, I use an app called “Done” to keep myself on track. It’s super simple (another tip – keep it simple!) an each day you just add in what you have done towards your daily or weekly target. Here’s a screenshot of how I have mine set up. I track my water on here too. You can also use it to quit a habit, set yourself an alcohol limit for the week for example.
When you’ve finished reading the article, have a go at writing down your rocks.
Know your limits
When you are setting your rocks, or making your to do lists, the most important thing is to be REALISTIC. For example, if I’m revising for an exam and I have 12 topics to cover I could either:
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Set myself 6 topics a day for 2 days, get 4 done and then feel really rubbish that I’ve not finished my list, feel like I’m starting the next day way behind and I’m fighting a losing battle because now I have 8 to do when I couldn’t do 6 yesterday, then inevitably need the following day to do the remaining 4. Total time 3 days.
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Set myself 3 topics a day for 4 days, actually manage to get 4 done and feel great because I did even more than I set out to do and go into the next day with a spring in my step, do 4 more and then voila! Finish my topics after 3 days instead of 4 and I’m a Goddess of revision! Total time 3 days.
See what I mean? I know what I’d rather. I always go for option b and it makes me feel great! For Longevity of productivity it’s much better as well as no one wants to constantly feel behind, but feeling constantly ahead is quite addictive!
Plan your time ahead of time
Once you’ve got step 1 and 2 in place, get it down on paper (or on the computer/iphone). I use Google Calendar and if it’s not in my calendar, it’s not happening! I tend to plan my whole week in one go, but others plan the night before for the day after and I guess you could do a bit of both! Just get those realistic goals down!
Prepare in your downtime
In the middle of a run of hectic shifts is not the time to be preparing food or planning your week. You need to be doing this in your down time. When you’re executing point 3, make sure you identify your planning time for the following week and any time for your meal prep. Do you have time during the week to do your prep 3 days at a time? Or after the first 3 days are you going to be too busy? In which case, get it all done at the start. Sometimes I have a run of two weeks where if I was going to have to meal prep, another of my big rocks would have to go. That’s not an option so I’ll prep all my food for those 2 weeks before it starts and freeze what I need to. This requires some foresight and planning though, otherwise you end up in the middle of the two weeks like oh, well now I’m stuck.
Know when to rest
If you’re like me and you insist on doing so many things that it’s only just possible to balance it all, it’s not sustainable all the time. Make sure you rest, and yep, you’ll need to plan this in too, otherwise it won’t happen! If you look at your calendar and its not got some downtime and rest factored in, you wont manage it, simple. Get rid of some of your small rocks and if needs be, your medium ones. After all, what’s the use in being an efficient task busting machine if it’s only survivable for one week and then you have to spend the next week recovering!? That’s counterproductive.
In summary:
Know your priorities, make them realistic and make your plan (including the downtime) ahead of time.
Have a go at writing down your rocks now and next time you make a to do list, give yourself the chance to be a God/Goddess and go easy! It feels great! As always, hit me up on social media drsteph_scrubsvsshreds with any questions!
Dr Stephanie Hill MBBS BSc
@drsteph_scrubsvsshreds
