Working Smarter: Aligning Your Daily Tasks with Core Values
Working Smarter: Aligning Your Daily Tasks with Core Values
A guide for physicians to simplify their workday and reconnect with what matters most
Introduction: Are you aligned with what matters most?
As physicians, our days are filled to the brim with clinic visits, rounds, endless hours of documentation, and various administrative tasks. Not to mention the five million other duties and responsibilities we often have outside of work. But how often do we feel that the work we're doing reflects our deepest core values?
For many of us, the demands and pace of work can result in disconnect- a feeling of grinding through tasks but rarely being energized by them. That's because the day-to-day doesn't always align with our core values, the things that truly fulfill us professionally and personally.
What if we could shift from exhaustion to alignment, redirecting our time and energy to tasks that matter? In this article, I'll discuss how you can:
Identify your top core values for greater clarity
Conduct a quick time and energy audit of your daily schedule
Simplify energy draining tasks and focus on high value work
By working smarter and aligning with your priorities, you'll experience greater fulfillment, improved focus, and more energy for the things that truly matter to you.
Step 1: Define Your Core Values
What matters most in your career and personal life?
Core values are the principles that make us who we are and reveal our essence. They connect us to our purpose and can serve as a powerful guide in forming decisions. As physicians, many of us have core values such as, “meaningful connection”, “growth and learning”, and/or “making a difference”. When we can anchor our work around these and other core values, every task feels more intentional. But when our daily activities stray from our core values, focusing instead on perfectionism or low impact tasks, we may feel drained, unmotivated, or disillusioned.
Reflection: What are your core values?
Start by asking yourself these questions to uncover what matters most:
Reflection prompts:
What brings me the most joy and pride in my professional life?
At the end of the day, what makes me feel most accomplished?
What do I want my colleagues, patients, and/or loved ones to remember me for?
Example core values:
Providing high quality patient care
Mentoring and uplifting peers and/or students
Spreading knowledge within my field
Prioritizing family connection and well-being
Actionable Step:
Write down your top three core valuables (both professional and personal) and consider if your daily tasks and experiences reflect your priorities.
Step 2: Conduct a Time and Energy Audit
Where is your time going- and is it serving your priorities?
As physicians, we are often caught in a whirlwind of tasks outside of direct patient care. These may include patient notes, prior authorization calls, emails, and meetings. Without clarity, it's easy to lose time on activities that don't serve our higher purpose.
A time and energy audit can help you assess how you're spending your hours and identify gaps between your values and your work.
How to audit your time and energy:
1. Track your daily activities for one week in categories like patient care, documentation, mentorship, admin tasks, meetings, and any others you want to include.
2. Reflect on each activity using these questions:
Does this task align with my core values?
Does this work energize me or drain me?
Create a chart like the one below, including all your daily tasks. You can include tasks at home if you choose as well.
Actionable step:
After you review your chart, identify one activity that you will reduce or simplify this week. Your initial reaction might be, “There is no way I can change any of these tasks!” That is normal and expected. Yet, you can choose to be open to the idea that it might be possible to change something. This alone, may create space for innovation to take place so you can minimize the time on a less preferred task and redirect that time to a task that is better aligned with your core values.
Step 3: Simplify and Delegate Low Impact Tasks
Not every task needs your time or perfection
Many time-draining activities can be streamlined, simplified, or handed off to others. Focusing your energy on high value work starts with identifying tasks you can let go of.
How to work smarter:
Batch routine tasks: Group similar tasks such as documentation or emails into a dedicated block of time rather than addressing them intermittently.
Delegate non-essential work: Empower team members to handle tasks like managing messages, answering emails, filling out forms, setting up procedural equipment, providing patients with follow-up instructions, etc. At home, delegate age-appropriate chores to family members and or hire someone that can help with various tasks.
Leverage technology: Consider investing in speech-t-text software or other AI software on your personal computer to make note writing at home more efficient. You might also consider hiring a virtual assistant to help keep you stay on top of home related tasks like making appointments, keeping track of important kid school dates, reminding you of due dates, etcetera.
Go back to basics: Go back to using the S. O. A .P. note write up. Keep it simple. It is much more efficient and valuable if your note sticks to the relevant facts of the patient visit versus cutting and pasting useless information from the last 10 prior visits. Use a dot phrase for the physical exam and note only the pertinent findings.
Be playful: When we are in a playful mood and mindset, our brain is primed to work more efficiently. When you know that you must do a task that typically drains you, consider how you can create a game out of it. An example might be setting a timer and playing “beat the timer” or anything else that sounds fun to you.
Callout: What Can You Let Go Of?
“Efficiency doesn't mean doing everything dash, it means doing the right things. Well. Delegating or simplifying just one energy draining task can create space for what matters most.”
Actionable Step:
Choose one task to delegate, automate, or make into a game this week. Track how much time and energy you save.
Step 4: Redirect Time to Meaningful Work
Make space for tasks that fulfill you
Once you've reclaimed time by delegating or simplifying low value work, redirect it towards tasks that align with your priorities and bring joy and/or satisfaction (professional and or personal).
Examples of Value-Aligned Activities:
Relational patient care: Spend extra moments with patients to build trust and connection
Mentorship: Schedule a resident mentoring session
Family presence: Block uninterrupted time at home for dinner or bedtime rituals
Actionable Step:
Dedicate 30 minutes of reclaimed time this week to a value driven task- whatever might energize you most.
Step 5: Addressing Perfectionism and Reactive Thoughts & Behaviors
Your mindset matters as much as your tasks
Perfectionism is one of the biggest culprits behind physician burnout. It's often fueled by reactive thoughts and behaviors arising from neural patterns in our survival brain that push us to overwork or strive for unnecessary perfection (AKA Saboteurs).
Common Saboteur Thoughts and Reframes:
Saboteur thought: “It's not worth doing anything if I'm not striving for it to be perfect
Reframe: Use the 20/80 rule: Which of my responsibilities require me to strive for perfection (e.g. patient care)? Those belong in the 20% bucket. Which will be just fine if I aim for “good enough” (e.g. notes and emails)? Those belong in the 80% bucket.
Saboteur thought: “No one else will do this task as well as I can.”
Reframe: “Delegation lets me focus on what only I can do best”.
By putting into perspective what truly needs to be perfect and what we can be satisfied with being good enough, we ensure that we do not waste mental energy unnecessarily. This allows us to have mental capacity to give our highest attention to what is most crucial.
Conclusion: Build a Smarter, More Meaningful Workday
Aligning your daily tasks with your core values will allow you to work smarter, create more fulfillment in your professional and personal life, focus on what truly matters, and reduce stress.
Call-to-Action:
Ready to Work Smarter and Align with What Matters Most?
This week, take one small but powerful step:
Delegate 1 draining task
Reclaim 30 minutes to spend on a fulfilling, value driven activity
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