1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,860 Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills 2 00:00:05,860 --> 00:00:11,260 to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor. 3 00:00:11,260 --> 00:00:17,340 As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients. 4 00:00:17,340 --> 00:00:22,380 When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find 5 00:00:22,380 --> 00:00:27,780 that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research 6 00:00:27,780 --> 00:00:29,200 program. 7 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:35,480 Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit. 8 00:00:35,480 --> 00:00:40,580 However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs. 9 00:00:40,580 --> 00:00:46,200 For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians 10 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:51,800 the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor. 11 00:00:51,800 --> 00:01:01,240 Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene. 12 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:03,640 Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast. 13 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:08,560 I'm your host, Toyosi Onwuemene, and it is an absolute pleasure to be talking with you 14 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:09,560 today. 15 00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:15,320 I want to talk today about mastering the basics, mastering the basics. 16 00:01:15,320 --> 00:01:20,720 And the reason I want to talk about mastering the basics is that you never ever get to a 17 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:23,520 point where you feel like you can just forego the foundation. 18 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:28,480 You're like, oh, let's just give the simple, easy, basic steps. 19 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:30,480 Let's go to the advanced steps. 20 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:34,120 You're always building on a foundation of what's basic. 21 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:38,240 And the reason that this topic comes to my mind today is that I had a recent meeting. 22 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:44,800 I was introduced to someone who is a colleague who I didn't know yet, and this mutual friend 23 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,300 thought, hey, you should meet this person because she's really cool. 24 00:01:48,300 --> 00:01:49,960 And so we had a meeting recently. 25 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:56,360 And one of the first things she said in opening our conversation is, wow, you've published 26 00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:57,720 a lot of manuscripts. 27 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:03,240 And I remember thinking, I have? 28 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:06,480 And I thought, I don't think I've published that many. 29 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:10,160 And of course, if I'm comparing myself to people who've published at least 100 manuscripts, 30 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:12,120 I am far behind that. 31 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:17,400 Or if I'm looking at someone who's published 367, definitely far behind that. 32 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:23,040 And for many of us, no matter what our number of publications or whatever it is we've accomplished, 33 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:27,200 we usually don't have a sense of accomplishment, of greatness, right? 34 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:28,960 We're like, yeah, I'm still on my journey. 35 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:29,960 I'm still on my way. 36 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:32,440 There's still so much I haven't accomplished. 37 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:37,760 Because as people, and especially as academic physicians, we always have our eyes set on 38 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:40,920 what we haven't done yet, the thing we haven't accomplished. 39 00:02:40,920 --> 00:02:48,480 And so sometimes we look down on the things we have accomplished and we don't really recognize 40 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:49,480 our success. 41 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:53,360 But part of that too is that success is a journey. 42 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:55,280 It's not a destination. 43 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:58,820 And if it is a destination, the destination is always moving, right? 44 00:02:58,820 --> 00:03:03,400 Because if you think about your career in medicine, you started out in med school and 45 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:06,480 you finished med school, that was successful. 46 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:07,960 Congratulations. 47 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:10,080 And there was the next step after that. 48 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:17,720 And then you finished your story of residency and finishing residency was the destination. 49 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:22,200 And then you got to a point where clearly you achieved that goal and then the destination 50 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:23,200 moved. 51 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:24,560 And so success is a journey. 52 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:28,880 And sometimes it's a journey from success destination or from success goalpost to success 53 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:29,880 goalpost. 54 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:36,240 But part of the journey is acknowledging, first of all, how far we've come, what got 55 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:37,360 us there. 56 00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:41,280 What are the things that got us here that no longer will get us there? 57 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:45,000 But also what are the basics that we always take with us, right? 58 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:50,800 There's some things we leave behind and there's some things that are basics that we always 59 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:51,800 take with us. 60 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:56,200 So that's what I want to talk about, especially as you think about succeeding your career 61 00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:58,440 as a clinician scientist. 62 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:02,000 What are the things that you always want to think about? 63 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:04,800 And now I'm talking about scholarship in general. 64 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:07,480 So you might not call yourself a clinician scientist. 65 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,560 You might say, well, I'm not really a clinician scientist. 66 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:14,720 I'm just a doctor trying to do research. 67 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:20,640 Whatever you call yourself, if you are somebody who is in medicine and you are advancing scholarship, 68 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:26,200 you're advancing knowledge in any way, then you count as my audience, as someone I'm talking 69 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:27,200 to right now. 70 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:29,880 So yes, this is for you. 71 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:36,540 The first thing I want to share is that it always starts with recognizing your expertise. 72 00:04:36,540 --> 00:04:40,200 It always starts with recognizing your expertise. 73 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:41,200 Who are you? 74 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:42,920 What do you excel at? 75 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:45,200 What is your strength? 76 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:51,360 And this is not the time that you get modest and you say, well, I really have no strengths 77 00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:53,880 because that is not true. 78 00:04:53,880 --> 00:05:00,560 You've been hyper-focused in a certain field of medicine for the last decade, probably, 79 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:02,400 perhaps even more. 80 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:03,640 What is your specialty? 81 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:07,520 And you may think, oh, it's obstetrics and gynecology. 82 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:08,520 What do you mean? 83 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:10,280 I'm not an expert in that area. 84 00:05:10,280 --> 00:05:12,480 Well, actually you are. 85 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:18,640 And there's probably even a subset of obstetrics or a subset of gynecology that you are the 86 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:22,160 expert in, but you've got to own your expertise first. 87 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:23,720 Why do you need to own your expertise? 88 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:29,160 Well, number one, your expertise is your foundation for all the work that you do. 89 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:34,120 Now, you do want training in other areas, but you're already very well trained in a 90 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,160 way that other people around you are not. 91 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:42,280 And so hopefully if you're doing your collaborations right, you're not necessarily collaborating 92 00:05:42,280 --> 00:05:46,600 with other gynecologists who have your exact same expertise. 93 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:48,920 You're looking for people beyond your field. 94 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,960 So they may still be gynecologists, but they have different skillsets that they're bringing 95 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:54,640 to your collaboration. 96 00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:58,920 So in your space, in the work you do, you are the master of the thing you're doing. 97 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:03,380 Yes, there may be somebody else across the country who is also kind of sort of master. 98 00:06:03,380 --> 00:06:05,080 This is not a game of comparison. 99 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:09,640 It is just an understanding of the thing that you are really good at. 100 00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:13,720 The thing that you don't have to study too hard to know exactly what's needed in that 101 00:06:13,720 --> 00:06:14,720 space. 102 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:16,600 That is your area of expertise. 103 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:24,120 Now, you own your area of expertise because others who are going to collaborate with you 104 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:26,480 don't have that expertise. 105 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:30,920 And if you're going to have a good synergistic collaboration, you've really got to show up 106 00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:34,760 and be responsible for helping direct them. 107 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:42,140 For example, I have a colleague I work with and we collaborate in an area that I'm very 108 00:06:42,140 --> 00:06:45,400 interested in called thrombotic thermocytopenic perfora. 109 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:46,400 That's TTP. 110 00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:53,440 Now, we sometimes like to distinguish immune TTP from congenital or hereditary TTP. 111 00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:55,760 And so we'll say ITTP. 112 00:06:55,760 --> 00:07:02,440 So confusing because there's another disorder of platelets that's called immune thrombocytopinia 113 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:03,920 and that's ITP. 114 00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:09,560 Okay, that seems like a really basic thing to talk about, but my colleague doesn't know 115 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:12,500 that ITTP is not ITP. 116 00:07:12,500 --> 00:07:14,200 How would she know? 117 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:15,720 She's not done this work before. 118 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:17,340 This is not something she studies. 119 00:07:17,340 --> 00:07:20,600 So when she's looking through the literature, trying to identify articles that are relevant 120 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:25,440 to the work we're doing, sometimes she's pulling in articles that are ITP because, hey, it's 121 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:26,440 a thermocytopenia problem. 122 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:28,560 Why wouldn't it be the same? 123 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:33,920 And I have that expertise to say, oh, no, this is not the right disease we're looking 124 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:34,920 at. 125 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:36,760 Here's the difference between the two. 126 00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:42,560 I can own my expertise so that I can help my collaborators not waste time. 127 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:44,160 That's what expertise does for you. 128 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:49,200 Now, you're brilliant enough that you could go and study somebody else's area of expertise 129 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:55,200 and be able to do or write something coherent, but in reality, you flow most easily in the 130 00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:58,840 area that you're most expert in. 131 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:02,920 But it's important to start from what you already have a strength in. 132 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:05,120 Start from the place of your leadership. 133 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:07,160 And so don't start from the place of your deficit. 134 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:08,760 I don't have XYZ. 135 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:13,720 No, start from what you have because what you have is what you build on. 136 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:15,400 What you have is what you can expand. 137 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:17,480 What you have is what you bring to the table. 138 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:21,480 It's what you can gift to others as they collaborate with you. 139 00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:27,640 But it always starts with recognizing your power, your expertise, what you are a master 140 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:32,920 at and building from there because then you will always be building from a position of 141 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:35,760 strength and not a position of weakness. 142 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:39,080 Many people start and they're like, well, I'm not really good at writing grants. 143 00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:40,920 Well, stop telling me what you're not good at. 144 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:43,360 Tell me first, what are you good at? 145 00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:48,080 It's important because the area in which you're an expert in, like you're an expert in this 146 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:52,800 area, you start writing grants in this area, you write more easily than someone who's not 147 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:58,080 an expert because you know the language, you know the lingo, you know what to say. 148 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:00,880 You know when someone's saying something that doesn't quite sit right. 149 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:09,280 So even though you may not have master grantsmanship for so to speak, you still have skill that 150 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:13,440 someone else who's a master grant writer without knowledge in that area has. 151 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:17,360 So you have strengths and it's important to focus on your area of strength. 152 00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:20,000 So that's number one, recognize your expertise. 153 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,560 It always starts with your expertise. 154 00:09:22,560 --> 00:09:26,600 Number two, decide how you want to contribute. 155 00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:28,240 You are so masterful. 156 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:31,240 You have so many areas to which you could contribute. 157 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:36,640 Going back to our era of gynecology, there are so many areas of gynecology that you could 158 00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:37,640 contribute to. 159 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:44,040 So you do benign urogynecology or you do gynecology oncology and even in gynecology oncology, maybe 160 00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:46,600 you specialize just in ovarian cancer. 161 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:49,560 There's an area that there's so many areas that you could contribute to. 162 00:09:49,560 --> 00:09:53,240 What do you want to actually contribute to? 163 00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:54,840 How do you want to contribute? 164 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:55,840 In what way? 165 00:09:55,840 --> 00:10:00,400 Do you want to lead or do you want to be part of somebody else's leadership team? 166 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:02,080 How do you want to contribute? 167 00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:05,880 You could always contribute in scholarship, but how do you want to do it? 168 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:09,600 You get to decide, nobody else can decide that for you. 169 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:12,840 And I think it's one of the challenges, especially on our early career. 170 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:18,000 We're looking to other people to tell us how to contribute and they can and they do, but 171 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:24,640 there's no better place for the decision for how to contribute to come from than you because 172 00:10:24,640 --> 00:10:26,360 you know what makes you tick. 173 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:30,960 Yeah, you know, someone might come and say, well, this area of urogynecology is the most 174 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:31,960 important to me. 175 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:35,080 And you might be like, I'm not really interested in that. 176 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:36,760 For example, I'm a hematologist. 177 00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:39,560 I did hematology and oncology fellowship training. 178 00:10:39,560 --> 00:10:44,000 I couldn't care less about doing scholarship and oncology. 179 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:45,880 It just does not float my boat. 180 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:50,600 And you know, we could go into many reasons why that is, but I prefer the diagnostic aspect 181 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:51,600 of hematology. 182 00:10:51,600 --> 00:10:52,600 I love that. 183 00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:54,880 I'd love to figure out what's going on. 184 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:58,800 And in fact, in all of hematology, I'm most interested in thrombosis. 185 00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:01,060 So what are these rare thrombotic disorders? 186 00:11:01,060 --> 00:11:02,840 How do they result? 187 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:04,240 That's what makes me so excited. 188 00:11:04,240 --> 00:11:05,240 Right. 189 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:07,680 And you could ask, well, why aren't you interested in bleeding? 190 00:11:07,680 --> 00:11:08,680 I do bleeding. 191 00:11:08,680 --> 00:11:14,200 I can, I can, I can, you know, I have expertise in that area too, but yeah, it's just not 192 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:16,680 the thing that's most interesting to me. 193 00:11:16,680 --> 00:11:17,680 Right. 194 00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:18,680 Or people. 195 00:11:18,680 --> 00:11:21,160 And we don't have to explain why we're interested in anything. 196 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:22,980 We just are. 197 00:11:22,980 --> 00:11:27,380 And so I get to say, well, this is how I want to contribute. 198 00:11:27,380 --> 00:11:32,360 Maybe I don't want to be the person who's always collaborating with everybody. 199 00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:34,600 Maybe I want to lead something too. 200 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:36,560 I get to decide that. 201 00:11:36,560 --> 00:11:41,800 But until you decide you can't be a good collaborator because sometimes you'll be leading when you 202 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:42,800 should be following. 203 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:45,060 And sometimes you'll be following when you should be leaning because you haven't really 204 00:11:45,060 --> 00:11:46,640 decided how you want to contribute. 205 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:49,040 So you're just kind of filling gaps. 206 00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:52,700 But how you want to contribute helps you decide how to show up. 207 00:11:52,700 --> 00:11:57,600 But until you decide that you kind of look wishy washy to yourself mostly. 208 00:11:57,600 --> 00:11:59,320 So this is not even about how do you look to other people? 209 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:00,320 It's to yourself. 210 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:01,320 You haven't committed. 211 00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:03,720 Your mind hasn't committed with you. 212 00:12:03,720 --> 00:12:04,720 Right. 213 00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:09,560 But the moment you decide this is how I want to contribute, then you can hold fast to that. 214 00:12:09,560 --> 00:12:16,680 Now I think this becomes more challenging for us when we are just trying to win. 215 00:12:16,680 --> 00:12:17,680 Right. 216 00:12:17,680 --> 00:12:18,680 Which trying to publish a paper. 217 00:12:18,680 --> 00:12:20,120 So then it doesn't matter how we contribute. 218 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:22,600 It just matters that at the end we just want a paper. 219 00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:24,920 But I'm not talking about just publishing papers. 220 00:12:24,920 --> 00:12:28,240 I'm talking about really contributing to an area. 221 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:30,600 And you decide how do I want to contribute? 222 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:32,640 And sometimes we just want to do what's easy. 223 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:33,640 Right. 224 00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:37,200 What gets me fastest to the published paper? 225 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:43,720 And we do that, but it's not always the best strategy because that's short term thinking. 226 00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:47,600 If we're really going to contribute in a way that's meaningful and impactful, we're going 227 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:49,680 to need to do it in the long term. 228 00:12:49,680 --> 00:12:52,360 And that comes from you deciding how do you want to contribute. 229 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:53,360 Okay. 230 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:55,280 So you recognize your expertise. 231 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:56,600 You decide how you want to contribute. 232 00:12:56,600 --> 00:12:59,800 And then the third thing you do is create a plan. 233 00:12:59,800 --> 00:13:01,200 Create a strategic plan. 234 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:03,480 You can go to different things. 235 00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:07,160 Some people will say it's an individualized career development plan. 236 00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:09,120 But I think I'm speaking a little bit more narrowly. 237 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:12,600 It's like, so in the next few months, how do you want to contribute? 238 00:13:12,600 --> 00:13:15,800 What do you want to contribute in the next few months? 239 00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:17,360 And you map that out. 240 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:21,360 And the reason you want to do that is because it gives you a roadmap for where you're going. 241 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:22,360 Okay. 242 00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:25,760 In the next three months, I will have contributed in this way. 243 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:29,320 I will have written three manuscripts and submitted two. 244 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:31,920 I will have given seven presentations. 245 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:36,040 That sounds like a lot, but you know, whatever, whatever floats your boat. 246 00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:37,800 But this is what I choose to do. 247 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:38,800 These are my goals. 248 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:43,800 And it's helpful because what it does is it creates accountability for you. 249 00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:45,880 You're saying this is what I want to do. 250 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:50,640 And now you can work towards it and you have something to tell you if you miss the mark. 251 00:13:50,640 --> 00:13:55,320 And so creating a strategic plan is so important because wow, life is full of stuff. 252 00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:56,720 It just comes up. 253 00:13:56,720 --> 00:13:57,720 It takes your time. 254 00:13:57,720 --> 00:14:00,840 It leads you to places you don't want to go. 255 00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:04,960 You know, you could just go from week to week to week and say, wow, I've been so busy, but 256 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:06,560 what did I do? 257 00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:08,920 So creating a strategic plan gives you accountability. 258 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:12,160 It gives you direction, gives you a roadmap. 259 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:16,560 You know exactly where you want to go and you can execute on that roadmap. 260 00:14:16,560 --> 00:14:18,800 So a strategic plan is important. 261 00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:21,160 Now how do you create a strategic plan? 262 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:25,400 I have a prior episode where I've talked about creating a strategic plan, but it's essentially 263 00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:30,520 looking at the next 12 weeks or more or less of your life, choose a defined period. 264 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:35,520 There is no magic number, but choosing an extended period of time where you say, within 265 00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:40,280 this timeframe, it is reasonable for me to expect that I would have finished up this 266 00:14:40,280 --> 00:14:44,240 manuscript and submitted it for publication or I would have done this or I would have 267 00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:45,240 done that. 268 00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:48,280 Like you get to decide that. 269 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:52,320 And then looking at the timeframe and saying, okay, well, how, what will I do in the next 270 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:53,320 week? 271 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:54,500 In the next three weeks? 272 00:14:54,500 --> 00:14:56,760 What needs to be done in the next four weeks? 273 00:14:56,760 --> 00:14:58,280 And just really having a plan. 274 00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:00,920 At the end of the day, it's not the kind of plan you have. 275 00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:02,920 It's that you have a plan. 276 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:06,640 Speaking of planning, number four is to have a weekly planning meeting. 277 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:07,640 Yes. 278 00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:12,120 Every week you look at that big master plan that you've developed and you say, well, what 279 00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:13,720 can I accomplish this week? 280 00:15:13,720 --> 00:15:15,600 What can I move forward this week? 281 00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:21,440 One of the reasons planning is so important, especially for us in academic medicine, is 282 00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:27,720 that our schedules are so busy that the things that are so pressing and urgent just take 283 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:28,720 priority. 284 00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:29,940 They take precedence. 285 00:15:29,940 --> 00:15:35,880 And then we forget to do the things that are not so urgent, that are not so important, 286 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:36,880 right? 287 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:39,640 Oh, that are important, but they are not so pressing, right? 288 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:40,760 They're not urgent. 289 00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:43,480 So important, but not urgent. 290 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:45,440 And you forget to do them. 291 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:47,880 And you feel accomplished because you're doing a lot of stuff. 292 00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:50,280 You may be answering a lot of important emails. 293 00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:54,280 But you're not moving the thing forward that you want to move forward. 294 00:15:54,280 --> 00:16:00,360 And so the key is that you plan so that you can move forward things that are very important, 295 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:01,980 but not so urgent. 296 00:16:01,980 --> 00:16:04,960 And so planning is so important. 297 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:12,160 But a plan that lacks execution is just a piece of writing. 298 00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:13,160 It's like ancient art. 299 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:17,080 Oh, look at that beautiful plan, but no executions. 300 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:19,160 And then it is lifeless. 301 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:21,080 And so a plan comes to life through execution. 302 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:23,100 And what's the execution? 303 00:16:23,100 --> 00:16:25,020 It's committing to daily writing. 304 00:16:25,020 --> 00:16:27,400 That's number five, committing to daily writing. 305 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:31,800 And now when I say writing, I say writing based on what I learned from Carrie Ann Rockmore 306 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:35,720 in the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity. 307 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:42,480 She talks about writing is anything that gets you to a finished published outcome, right? 308 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:48,840 So it's not just that I am physically writing the manuscript, typing words onto a page. 309 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:51,000 It's that I'm doing the research that leads me to the manuscript. 310 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:54,280 It's that I'm doing part of the reading that leads me to the manuscript. 311 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:58,920 I'm doing all the activities that get you to the final finished product. 312 00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:03,200 Because sometimes we're like, well, I didn't officially write more than three sentences 313 00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:06,240 than I wasn't writing. 314 00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:10,040 We tried to get, we start to get caught up in definitions. 315 00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:12,880 And it's not really about those distractions. 316 00:17:12,880 --> 00:17:14,320 It's just, are you moving forward? 317 00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:15,320 That's it. 318 00:17:15,320 --> 00:17:16,320 Are you making progress? 319 00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:18,000 Are you making progress in a meaningful way? 320 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:24,580 Now you could read a lot of web pages in a 30 minute period and not really advance. 321 00:17:24,580 --> 00:17:27,360 You could be procrastinating, right? 322 00:17:27,360 --> 00:17:32,040 And you are the one who knows what a meaningful forward motion is. 323 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:37,920 For example, I wrote the introduction to the manuscript today for 30 minutes, or I spent 324 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:42,040 45 minutes and I revised the discussion paragraph. 325 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:43,400 That's concrete. 326 00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:45,360 Or I did the analysis. 327 00:17:45,360 --> 00:17:46,360 That's concrete. 328 00:17:46,360 --> 00:17:50,560 Those are the kinds of things you want to commit to doing every day, every day. 329 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:53,960 Now every day in your work week, right? 330 00:17:53,960 --> 00:18:00,440 So I'm going to come to breast shortly, but you're not going to do this every single day. 331 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:02,640 There are going to be days that you're going to take breaks. 332 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:05,880 And so for me, it's a four day writing week actually. 333 00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:07,120 Sometimes it'll go to five. 334 00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:10,360 But usually for me, I'm writing at least four, I'm writing four days a week. 335 00:18:10,360 --> 00:18:12,200 It's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. 336 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:13,920 I'm writing four days a week. 337 00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:18,080 Fridays are my days for my personal development and my growth. 338 00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:23,200 And so I will do some creative work on Friday, but usually not writing. 339 00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:28,080 Sometimes because I really love writing manuscripts, I'll finish up some writing on Friday mornings. 340 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:31,780 But really I'm writing four to five days a week, not six to seven. 341 00:18:31,780 --> 00:18:38,600 But define your period of time and commit to daily writing, commit to daily moving work 342 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:39,600 forward. 343 00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:43,480 Now, daily writing is better than binge writing, right? 344 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:47,960 The binge I'm talking about where you are waiting for that block of eight hour time 345 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:51,920 that you're going to take and start the manuscript from start to finish. 346 00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:53,880 Because you don't make as much progress in that way. 347 00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:56,040 You make a lot of progress in that moment. 348 00:18:56,040 --> 00:19:00,960 Again, that's short term, but over the long haul, it takes longer because you get there 349 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:03,960 and it's been maybe a few weeks since you touched this manuscript and you're like, wait 350 00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:05,440 a minute, where were we again? 351 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:07,520 What manuscripts did I find that I would cite? 352 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:12,520 What, you know, you're just having to remind yourself of where you are, you were for the 353 00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:18,200 first couple of minutes or even sometimes an hour or two of your writing time. 354 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:22,580 And instead of moving things forward, the benefit of writing consistently over time 355 00:19:22,580 --> 00:19:27,080 is that you keep that project front and center, you know, exactly where you were because, 356 00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:31,080 hey, you were just in it yesterday and you really make progress. 357 00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:33,920 It's like the difference between the tortoise and the hare, right? 358 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:39,240 You know, the story, the tortoise was just plodding along slowly, but steadily, but surely 359 00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:44,560 the hare is moving so fast, getting tired and sleeping in between and missing the opportunity 360 00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:50,320 where the tortoise was able to just, because they were slow and steady, they won the race. 361 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:55,600 So you want to commit to daily writing, daily moving your research forward. 362 00:19:55,600 --> 00:20:00,440 Now I might hear you saying, I'm so busy, I have clinic daily. 363 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:04,000 Well, yes, you have clinic, but you don't have clinic from morning till night. 364 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:08,640 Well, maybe you do, but how can you set aside time for yourself? 365 00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:12,280 Whether it's just 20 minutes a day, whether it's just 30 minutes a day to say my clinic 366 00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:14,960 starts at 10 a.m. at 8 a.m. 367 00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:18,120 I'm going to complete 30 minutes of writing and I'm going to know that I've done that 368 00:20:18,120 --> 00:20:21,400 and I can put that aside and focus on my clinic. 369 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:25,800 And early is better for me because I'm a morning writer, but maybe it's maybe, maybe the evening 370 00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:27,760 time is good for you. 371 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:32,920 I'm usually pretty tired by the end of the day, but creating space to do it matters. 372 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:35,180 You may not have much time. 373 00:20:35,180 --> 00:20:38,280 You want eight hour blocks every day, but you don't have that yet. 374 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:39,760 What do you have? 375 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:40,760 Start with what you have. 376 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:42,960 And you may be like, well, I only have 15 minutes. 377 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:45,680 Okay, start with 15 minutes a day. 378 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:49,680 What you'll find is that as you measure your 15 minutes a day, you're going to start to 379 00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:50,680 expand it. 380 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:52,360 You're going to start to find more time. 381 00:20:52,360 --> 00:20:55,960 You may not find eight hour blocks, but you certainly can find those little pieces of 382 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:56,960 time. 383 00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:00,200 And if you are struggling to find that in your schedule, we'd love to coach with you 384 00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:05,760 and coach you through how to how to best find writing time and to expand that. 385 00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:06,760 Okay. 386 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:08,640 Number six is to celebrate your wins. 387 00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:12,520 Now, this is kind of, this has two components to it. 388 00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:16,280 If you're going to celebrate your wins, you first of all have to reflect on what you did 389 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:18,720 and identify what was a win. 390 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:20,880 And so celebrating your win is a discipline. 391 00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:26,680 It's something you do to help you recognize what has come, what has come before. 392 00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:28,260 What effort did I put in? 393 00:21:28,260 --> 00:21:29,620 What did it yield? 394 00:21:29,620 --> 00:21:31,440 It's a place of reflection. 395 00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:35,760 It's also a place of appreciation so that you recognize how far you've come and how 396 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:37,720 far you're moving forward. 397 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:41,160 So celebrating your wins is one of the basics. 398 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:43,440 That's important to do regularly. 399 00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:48,200 You know, what's even better than celebrating your wins alone is celebrating your wins with 400 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:50,880 others. 401 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:55,240 Because one of the things that other people can do for you is that they can help reflect 402 00:21:55,240 --> 00:22:01,760 your, they can reflect back to you what you had said you would do before and what you 403 00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:02,760 have done. 404 00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:08,600 So in a way they can give you a nuanced view or a nuanced picture of your win that you 405 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:10,240 might not have. 406 00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:13,400 Celebrating your wins with others is always more fun because parties are fun. 407 00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:18,640 Even if it's just a win celebration party, to definitely celebrate your wins. 408 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:22,640 The last thing I want to share is that you do need to rest. 409 00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:24,680 Rest is so important. 410 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:27,760 And this is not the kind of rest where you wait a few months and it's like, oh my gosh, 411 00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:28,760 it's time to rest. 412 00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:31,600 It's rest built into your daily schedule. 413 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:36,920 What does a daily schedule look like that's not so packed full that you have no breathing 414 00:22:36,920 --> 00:22:37,920 space? 415 00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:42,880 What does a daily schedule look like that allows you to take downtime during the daytime? 416 00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:47,800 What does a schedule look like that allows you to take off weekends? 417 00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:52,760 Now I know as academic physicians, you can get really busy, but you control your time. 418 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:54,960 You control how you use your time. 419 00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:57,120 You control what you schedule. 420 00:22:57,120 --> 00:22:58,800 You control what you do. 421 00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:03,360 So at the end of the day, if you feel as if life is so rushed, you are not able to get 422 00:23:03,360 --> 00:23:08,120 any rest, the only person who gets to fix that is you. 423 00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:13,160 You may say, oh no, my mentor says I have to do X, Y, Z. I have no choice. 424 00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:15,240 You always have a choice. 425 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:20,000 You get to decide whether you exercise that choice or you give it to other people to exercise 426 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:21,420 for you. 427 00:23:21,420 --> 00:23:25,720 At the end of the day, rest is your responsibility. 428 00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:28,480 It is your privilege and it is your right. 429 00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:33,720 And I hope that you take it because rest is a thing that allows you to recharge and allows 430 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:39,960 you to come back stronger, come back with brighter ideas, come back with energy to really 431 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:40,960 move the work forward. 432 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:41,960 All right. 433 00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:46,040 So I talked about seven basics that you need to master and you take along with you no matter 434 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:47,040 what. 435 00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:50,160 And that's first, recognizing your expertise. 436 00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:53,200 Second deciding how you want to contribute. 437 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:55,560 Third creating a strategic plan. 438 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:58,000 Fourth having a weekly planning meeting. 439 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:00,040 Fourth committing to daily writing. 440 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:03,360 Six, celebrating your win, especially with others. 441 00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:05,640 And seven, resting. 442 00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:12,280 I invite you to look and see which ones of these do you need to brush up your skills 443 00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:17,840 on and do a little bit more often so that you can advance in the way that you need to. 444 00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:19,360 Thank you so much for listening. 445 00:24:19,360 --> 00:24:24,480 I look forward to talking with you again next time on the Clinician Researcher podcast. 446 00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:37,520 Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher podcast where academic 447 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:42,680 clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they 448 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:44,280 have a mentor. 449 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:50,400 If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself. 450 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:52,160 Someone else needs to hear it. 451 00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:56,200 So take a minute right now and share it. 452 00:24:56,200 --> 00:25:01,680 As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation 453 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:22,720 of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.