Productivity tips for healthcare professionals

From #SMACC2019 Phil Dobson shares some productivity tips for healthcare professionals.

Society trends show that we are increasingly getting busier and busier.

This is making our ability to prioritise harder, limiting our capacity to focus and resulting in an inability to switch off. High pressured, demanding jobs only makes this worse. 

Phil suggests that we need to take a step away from busyness and towards effectiveness. To be less reactive and more self-directive.

How?

The first way to do this is by prioritising. We often prioritise based on what is urgent but by becoming more outcome oriented, we understand that not all tasks are equal and we avoid spending time on the wrong things. Think about your long term goals, yearly goals and quarterly goals. Are you spending time doing the things that will help you achieve those goals?

Secondly, we need to manage our energy. Energy is a variable and it is a precious resource. It is not unlimited and we need to give our brain time to rest and recover. Utilise the times during the day where your energy is at its peak to tackle challenging tasks.

Finally, observe your attention. How distracted are you? Trends are showing that we are giving more and more things our partial attention. Become aware of your attention and how you choose to spend it.

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