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 --> 00:01:01,480 Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene. 12 00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:04,120 Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast. 13 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:09,400 I'm your host, Toyosi Onwuemene, and it is an absolute pleasure to be talking with you today. 14 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:11,240 Thank you so much for listening. 15 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:16,560 So today I'm talking about the power of the weekly planning meeting, and I will share 16 00:01:16,560 --> 00:01:22,640 a session that I had with some of my coaching clients recently, and we talked about the 17 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:30,760 weekly planning meeting, and I am excited to bring you this episode, so enjoy listening. 18 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:35,280 So we're talking about the weekly plan and why a weekly plan is so important. 19 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:40,560 And now I'm talking about it very specifically as it relates to your academic work, but it 20 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:42,040 doesn't have to be academic work. 21 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:45,120 This is really just, you're a person who has goals. 22 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:46,840 You have things that you really want to accomplish. 23 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:51,240 And for the most part, the goals don't really happen or they don't move forward in the way 24 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:55,480 you want them to, because there's always a million other things that are vying for your 25 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:56,560 attention. 26 00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:01,680 And so that's why it makes sense to plan, because then you can actually move forward 27 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:05,080 the thing you really want to move forward. 28 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:07,640 So last week we talked about the strategic plan. 29 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:12,080 We talked about it as a long range map, looking at three to four months ahead of what you 30 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:18,600 want to accomplish, your three big smart goals, and then a realistic look at the tasks that 31 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:19,880 make up this big goal. 32 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:23,920 For example, you're writing a grant and you know that the grant is due at the end of three 33 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:28,480 months, but you first of all have to write the specific aims page, get feedback, rewrite 34 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:34,520 the specific aims page, do the background and significance and the research strategy, 35 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:37,000 then go get all the other documents. 36 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:40,480 So it gives you an opportunity to say, well, the big goal, the big strategic plan is I'm 37 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:46,320 writing this grant, but the individual tasks are specific aims, background and significance, 38 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:48,840 research strategy, all the ancillary documents. 39 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:53,040 And it gives you a realistic plan for what you're going to need to do over the next few 40 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:57,240 months where you're not three days to the deadline and you're like, what, I have 24 41 00:02:57,240 --> 00:02:59,840 more pages of writing? 42 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:01,920 Which maybe has happened to you. 43 00:03:01,920 --> 00:03:04,000 It certainly has happened to me in the past. 44 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:05,540 So it's a long range plan. 45 00:03:05,540 --> 00:03:08,300 It allows you to break down the tasks using smart goals. 46 00:03:08,300 --> 00:03:13,120 And that's a realistic look as realistic look as how, as to how these goals actually fit 47 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:14,120 in your schedule. 48 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:15,640 So it's like, oh, I'm gone for three weeks. 49 00:03:15,640 --> 00:03:17,720 Clearly I don't have 12 weeks anymore. 50 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:20,240 I really have nine. 51 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:23,560 So that's what we talked about, the strategic plan. 52 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:24,560 Okay. 53 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:26,600 So what happens when there's no weekly plan? 54 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:28,760 You probably have experienced it firsthand. 55 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:32,800 There always seem to be emergencies every day and they're not true emergencies, right? 56 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:36,040 Because we're all physicians and we actually know what real emergencies are. 57 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:40,720 But you know, there's the email from your mentor saying, have you, have you submitted 58 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:43,000 that thing that's due at 5pm today? 59 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,380 And you're like, oh no, it's due at 5pm. 60 00:03:45,380 --> 00:03:49,200 You throw out all the other stuff you're doing to do this thing by 5pm. 61 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:53,360 Or someone says, oh, that note you're writing, you're going to get dinged if you don't close 62 00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:54,840 the chart by midnight tonight. 63 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:57,680 And then all of a sudden it's like, oh no, I've got to like put aside everything and 64 00:03:57,680 --> 00:03:58,680 write these notes. 65 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:01,760 There's always an emergency, always an emergency. 66 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:04,880 And the thing about the emergencies is that they're urgent, even though they're actually 67 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:08,200 not important, they're urgent because somebody else is yelling about them. 68 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:09,480 It gives you anxiety. 69 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:12,760 It makes you afraid, worried about the outcome. 70 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:13,760 You're fearful. 71 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:17,480 You're ashamed that, you know, it's been three weeks and I still haven't closed this chart. 72 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,160 And so it's going to drive your activity, even though it's not the most important thing 73 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:22,200 you do. 74 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,120 And so emergencies will always show up even though they're not real emergencies. 75 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:30,300 And they happen regularly so that you could literally live a whole week being very productive 76 00:04:30,300 --> 00:04:32,600 on just emergencies alone. 77 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:33,600 And that's the challenge. 78 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:37,840 The challenge is that the more emotion that's associated with an activity, the more time 79 00:04:37,840 --> 00:04:39,240 seems to fly. 80 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:42,680 If you're like worried, anxious, afraid, and you're working on something, then all of a 81 00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:45,040 sudden you're like, I can't believe it's the end of the day. 82 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:46,880 And I've just been working on this one thing. 83 00:04:46,880 --> 00:04:50,480 It also gives you a sense of accomplishment because maybe you're working through your 84 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:55,440 email inbox and you have 300 emails and now you're down to zero and you're like, yes, 85 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:58,680 you got all those emails responded to. 86 00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:03,920 That email response, as important as they may be, it's not really in the top three things 87 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:07,760 that you're trying to accomplish over the next few months, but you feel accomplished 88 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:09,640 closing the box, right? 89 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:11,740 That it's not the most important thing. 90 00:05:11,740 --> 00:05:17,360 So in general, when there's no plan, you tend to get carried away by all the stuff that's 91 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:18,360 happening. 92 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:21,320 You could feel accomplished, but you're not actually moving forward the thing you want 93 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:22,320 to accomplish. 94 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:25,600 When you have no plan, what you find out is that you're accomplishing a lot of things 95 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:30,240 that other people want you to accomplish, especially those with the loudest voices, 96 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:33,440 but not really the thing that you want to accomplish. 97 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:35,640 And so what does a plan do for you? 98 00:05:35,640 --> 00:05:39,480 Well, the first thing a plan does for you is it actually gives you space to reflect 99 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:40,880 on what's important to you. 100 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:44,160 Because if you're going to come up with a plan, you actually need time to think about 101 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:45,160 it. 102 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:47,200 Like, okay, well, what do I want to do in the next three months? 103 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:53,240 Yes, I have 16 things on my list, but what are the three most important of these 16? 104 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:58,800 And it allows you to do it when you're cool, you're calm, unemotional, hopefully not under 105 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:02,200 stress, not anxious, or not trying to make anybody happy. 106 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:07,840 It's like your most lucid, most thoughtful, real self saying, well, this is really what 107 00:06:07,840 --> 00:06:08,840 I want to do. 108 00:06:08,840 --> 00:06:09,840 Right? 109 00:06:09,840 --> 00:06:10,840 And it could be anything. 110 00:06:10,840 --> 00:06:14,600 On the one hand, your program director says that if he can get this protocol written by 111 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:17,360 the end of the month, that'd be the most important thing you do. 112 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:20,760 But then you get to sit down and say, well, is it the most important thing? 113 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:24,560 If you don't get this protocol written, is that the end of your career? 114 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:28,960 It allows you to really think objectively without hopefully pressure. 115 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:35,440 So it's first of all, a chance to really reflect and be clear about what's important to you. 116 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:39,560 The second thing it allows you to do is it allows you to make decisions free of pressure. 117 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:45,000 So the email you get in the early in the morning where you open your inbox that totally throws 118 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:50,160 off your day, all of a sudden you can't see anything but the red that this email has brought 119 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:51,520 to your mind. 120 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:56,480 And maybe it's full of microaggressions and then you're like so angry, it derails your 121 00:06:56,480 --> 00:06:57,480 whole day. 122 00:06:57,480 --> 00:06:58,480 Right? 123 00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:02,840 That you can't really think well when you're under that kind of emotional stress. 124 00:07:02,840 --> 00:07:07,760 And so a weekly plan allows you to plan outside of all those things that kind of derail your 125 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:12,880 calendar or derail your day so that you are your most thoughtful, lucid self and you can 126 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:14,900 make decisions ahead of time. 127 00:07:14,900 --> 00:07:19,100 So it's like in the middle of the week, you're going to be overrun by an email that's going 128 00:07:19,100 --> 00:07:20,320 to throw you off. 129 00:07:20,320 --> 00:07:24,960 But the person, you, same you, at the beginning of the week before all of those pressures 130 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:30,320 came in already had the time to make a decision that you know is your true decision because 131 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:34,240 it was your rational, unemotional self making that decision. 132 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:40,120 The third thing that making a plan does for you is that it gives you a very realistic 133 00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:42,620 idea of what your week looks like. 134 00:07:42,620 --> 00:07:48,200 So before I started making a weekly plan, someone would say, oh, Tia, I just need this. 135 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:50,700 I just need you to review this manuscript for me. 136 00:07:50,700 --> 00:07:52,280 It's due on Friday. 137 00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:53,280 And I would be like, oh yeah, sure. 138 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:54,280 Of course I can. 139 00:07:54,280 --> 00:07:58,000 Because I didn't have a good idea of what was on my schedule. 140 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:01,900 And now that I have a weekly planning meeting and I have a really full calendar of all the 141 00:08:01,900 --> 00:08:06,160 things I want to get done, when someone comes in like that and it's like, oh yeah, it's 142 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:07,160 due on Friday. 143 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:13,680 I'm like, hmm, I have to throw away one of my preconceived pre-planned plans to take 144 00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:17,700 over your review that's due on Friday. 145 00:08:17,700 --> 00:08:24,040 Is it worth it to me to take your plan and displace one of the things I said in advance 146 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:25,500 that I was going to do? 147 00:08:25,500 --> 00:08:29,280 So it gives you a realistic understanding of what you actually have to do. 148 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:31,720 So you're not like, oh yeah, I have all this time in the world. 149 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:33,280 I can do all of this. 150 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:38,940 And for many of us who find ourselves in unstructured spaces where we're no longer on the consult 151 00:08:38,940 --> 00:08:47,460 service or rounding or doing things that take our time for a significant amount of the day, 152 00:08:47,460 --> 00:08:51,080 you have all this unstructured free time where it's like, you have all the time in the world? 153 00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:54,600 Of course you can get your notes done for the next three days. 154 00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:58,440 And when you make a plan, you realize that you don't actually have as much time as you 155 00:08:58,440 --> 00:08:59,600 thought you did. 156 00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:04,720 And it helps you to manage other people's expectations as to what you can do for them. 157 00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:05,720 Okay. 158 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:07,720 So those are the three things that a plan will do for you. 159 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:08,720 Okay. 160 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:10,920 So how do you actually do this weekly plan? 161 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,400 How do you operationalize that? 162 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:15,080 So people do it in different ways. 163 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:18,000 I'm just going to talk through how I think about the weekly plan. 164 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,280 The first is that you choose a day to do the plan. 165 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:25,000 So I think a week is a really good, it's a really good discrete group of days that you 166 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:26,280 can use to make a plan. 167 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:31,800 I used to make a monthly plan and the reality of a monthly plan is that it's so far away. 168 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:33,840 It's really hard to be realistic. 169 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:37,240 By the time you get to halfway through the month, the month doesn't look like it did 170 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:38,240 at the beginning. 171 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:44,360 I think a week is useful because in general, we think in terms of the week. 172 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:48,560 Also, the plan can change, but it's not going to change as much as over the course of a 173 00:09:48,560 --> 00:09:49,560 month. 174 00:09:49,560 --> 00:09:51,600 So I think a weekly plan is useful. 175 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:52,980 So you select a day of the week. 176 00:09:52,980 --> 00:09:57,560 Maybe it's a Friday planning for the week starting Monday or it could be a Sunday. 177 00:09:57,560 --> 00:09:59,200 I used to do Sunday mornings. 178 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:02,840 Most of the time I try to do on Sundays and then because it helps me look ahead to the 179 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:06,440 week, but sometimes I'll do Monday mornings as well. 180 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:10,280 Usually the earlier the better, but I like as close to the week as possible. 181 00:10:10,280 --> 00:10:14,000 So select a day of the week and look at your strategic plan. 182 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:18,400 Remember, so we talked last time about the strategic plan where you've already determined 183 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:22,240 these are the top three things I want to accomplish over the next couple of months. 184 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:27,680 So from your strategic plan, select three things, three tasks, right? 185 00:10:27,680 --> 00:10:31,220 For the example of the grant that you're writing, well, you're not going to write the whole 186 00:10:31,220 --> 00:10:33,040 grant in the next week. 187 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:35,720 And I hope you don't try to do that though. 188 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:39,960 I certainly know that it happens, but you look at the week, you say, well, I have this 189 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:41,940 grant that's due in three months. 190 00:10:41,940 --> 00:10:45,160 This week I'm just going to focus on writing the specific aims page. 191 00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:47,320 So that's your one big goal for the week. 192 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:50,240 And maybe you have more than that, more than that one goal. 193 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:54,080 Maybe there's a manuscript that you're working on because perhaps you'll finish the specific 194 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:58,560 aims page on Wednesday and you're like, oh, I'm done, but I still have Thursday and maybe 195 00:10:58,560 --> 00:10:59,720 Friday. 196 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:04,560 And you'll say, well, okay, so then the manuscript, this manuscript that I'm revising and resubmitting 197 00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:06,280 will be number two. 198 00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:09,880 And one of the reasons you want to do that, especially when you think about longer range 199 00:11:09,880 --> 00:11:13,720 things like the grant is that it takes time to write well. 200 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:16,060 And the bigger something is, the more time it takes. 201 00:11:16,060 --> 00:11:20,360 And so you want to, you really address it a little bit each time rather than trying 202 00:11:20,360 --> 00:11:22,320 to crunch it all at the end. 203 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:23,800 And so anyway, so you might do that. 204 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:24,800 So you have three goals. 205 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:26,720 One is the grant, one is the manuscript. 206 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:29,200 And this week for the grant, all you're doing is specific aims. 207 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:34,600 And so maybe Monday you're going to outline paragraph one and two on Tuesday, you're going 208 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:36,740 to draft paragraph one. 209 00:11:36,740 --> 00:11:41,840 And then on Tuesday it'll be paragraph two, Wednesday it'll be the actual aims page. 210 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:45,560 And by the end of the week, you have a whole specific aims page. 211 00:11:45,560 --> 00:11:49,120 And you can decide that you're only going to focus on one paragraph, which won't take 212 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:53,200 you the whole day of your writing or maybe it will, but at least it allows you to say, 213 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:55,520 okay, I finished this first introductory paragraph, I'm done. 214 00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:59,240 I'm now going to move on to the manuscript and revise the introduction. 215 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:03,520 So anyway, so that's an example of how you could take two things from your strategic 216 00:12:03,520 --> 00:12:09,240 plan and fit them into your week to have no more than one to three major things that you're 217 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:11,080 trying to accomplish in the week. 218 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:12,080 Okay. 219 00:12:12,080 --> 00:12:15,800 So that's what you're going to put on your weekly plan, right? 220 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:20,000 And those are the first three things you do before you really add anything else. 221 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:21,960 Then your priorities are already scheduled. 222 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:23,760 You're going to put them on the calendar. 223 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:26,800 So Alison and I were talking about this earlier where you're actually going to look at your 224 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:31,840 calendar and say, if I'm going to write paragraph one of my specific aims page, that's going 225 00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:34,520 to take me, I think about 90 minutes. 226 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:37,540 So I'm going to do 60 minutes, right? 227 00:12:37,540 --> 00:12:40,960 When I wake up in the morning and then I'm going to do the remaining 30 minutes at 2 228 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:41,960 PM after clinic. 229 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:42,960 I don't know. 230 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:44,200 I can't do anything after clinic. 231 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:49,240 So usually it will have to happen for me before clinic, but you get to look at your calendar 232 00:12:49,240 --> 00:12:52,240 and actually block out the time. 233 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:54,820 And the two, there are many reasons why you block out the time. 234 00:12:54,820 --> 00:12:56,800 One is to tell yourself it's a real meeting. 235 00:12:56,800 --> 00:13:01,080 It's not just one of those things where somebody calls you and says, oh my gosh, I need you 236 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:02,400 to pick me up right now. 237 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:04,480 My car has a flat tire. 238 00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:07,040 You're like, you know, it's just, and then you look at your calendar, you're like, oh, 239 00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:08,040 of course I'm free. 240 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:09,520 The next meeting is not till three. 241 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:13,560 It's helping you recognize that any meeting with yourself to move your work forward is 242 00:13:13,560 --> 00:13:14,560 a real meeting. 243 00:13:14,560 --> 00:13:19,280 Like, you know, you're, you're paid actually to be productive academically if you're at 244 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:21,080 an academic medical center. 245 00:13:21,080 --> 00:13:22,080 And so it is a meeting. 246 00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:26,000 You put it on your calendar and in places where people can schedule meetings onto your 247 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:30,980 calendar without your express invitation, you especially want it to be on your calendar. 248 00:13:30,980 --> 00:13:35,160 So they don't find the space and say, oh, I saw that you were free at 6am. 249 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:36,860 So I put the meeting on there. 250 00:13:36,860 --> 00:13:40,300 And then when you finally get someone who can help you with your scheduling, then they 251 00:13:40,300 --> 00:13:42,520 also know that, okay, this time is blocked off. 252 00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:44,300 It's not available for a meeting. 253 00:13:44,300 --> 00:13:46,380 So you're going to put it on your calendar. 254 00:13:46,380 --> 00:13:48,720 So you put all your big activities on the calendar. 255 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:51,640 Your next step is to say, well, what are all your other activities? 256 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:52,640 Right. 257 00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:56,080 So the things that are on your calendar, you're meeting with your mentor on Thursday morning, 258 00:13:56,080 --> 00:13:59,940 clinic on Tuesday afternoon, those are already at your calendar. 259 00:13:59,940 --> 00:14:01,840 That doesn't have to be part of your weekly planning meeting. 260 00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:03,380 It's just on your calendar. 261 00:14:03,380 --> 00:14:06,480 And if you're like me, if it's on your calendar, it's probably going to get done. 262 00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:07,480 Right. 263 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:09,960 Because you get those alerts, you know, it's there, all of that. 264 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:14,120 It's all the other stuff that you're now going to make an exhausted list of what are all 265 00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:15,900 the other things I need to do this week. 266 00:14:15,900 --> 00:14:19,560 You could say, oh, okay, well, my city training is due on Friday. 267 00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:20,560 That's the deadline. 268 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:21,560 Okay. 269 00:14:21,560 --> 00:14:22,560 Well, you put that on there. 270 00:14:22,560 --> 00:14:24,060 It's not the most important thing. 271 00:14:24,060 --> 00:14:27,960 It's not on your top list of things that you're trying to accomplish in your strategic plan. 272 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:33,440 But it's kind of important because, you know, you want to be able to continue to work here, 273 00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:36,000 but it's not so important that it should take up all your time. 274 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:37,080 And so there you go. 275 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:41,620 You write that on the list and then maybe your mentor said the abstract that's due three 276 00:14:41,620 --> 00:14:44,140 weeks from now, you need to have a draft outline. 277 00:14:44,140 --> 00:14:45,720 You put that on the list as well. 278 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:49,640 Now it's not your primary priority, even though it's your mentor's priority. 279 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:53,520 So it doesn't supersede the work you've already pre-established that you're going to do, but 280 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:54,760 you would add it to the list. 281 00:14:54,760 --> 00:15:00,460 And so by the end, you have an exhaustive list of all the things that you need to do. 282 00:15:00,460 --> 00:15:05,100 So now you take this list and you look at your calendar and you say, well, you know, 283 00:15:05,100 --> 00:15:07,900 you already have meetings that are blocked out. 284 00:15:07,900 --> 00:15:11,300 You already have the time in which you're going to accomplish your important thing. 285 00:15:11,300 --> 00:15:13,440 And now you got to find space for all of this stuff. 286 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:16,960 And there's always going to be more things on that list and there is space on your calendar. 287 00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:21,360 But what you want to do is you want to honor the calendar and put them on the calendar. 288 00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:25,060 So realistically, okay, maybe the city training is number three. 289 00:15:25,060 --> 00:15:26,560 Where are you going to put it on your calendar? 290 00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:27,560 Okay. 291 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:30,460 It's going to take you probably there, maybe 15 modules. 292 00:15:30,460 --> 00:15:32,620 You're going to speed through everything. 293 00:15:32,620 --> 00:15:35,800 So you're like, okay, I need three hours for the city trading modules. 294 00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:37,920 You sit down and you find the three hours on your calendar. 295 00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:39,600 You're like, I can do this after clinic. 296 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:41,340 I don't even have to be paying attention. 297 00:15:41,340 --> 00:15:43,120 You put it on your calendar, right? 298 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:45,280 And then, you know, clinic notes are part of that list. 299 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:48,400 And then you're going to say, oh, I'm going to be too tired after clinic on Thursday. 300 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:52,520 I'm going to put my clinic notes on Friday after my Friday morning writing. 301 00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:56,320 And you put them on your calendar and you try, you give yourself a realistic estimate 302 00:15:56,320 --> 00:15:58,680 of how long it will take you. 303 00:15:58,680 --> 00:16:02,280 You know, the realistic estimate is in quotes, because to be honest, the more time you assign 304 00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:04,320 to something, the more time it takes. 305 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:07,560 And when you just say, hey, the deadline is at 5pm. 306 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:08,760 I'm going to start at two. 307 00:16:08,760 --> 00:16:09,760 Guess what? 308 00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:11,960 You are going to be done by five because you didn't meet the deadline. 309 00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:13,680 And it's not even that important anyway. 310 00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:18,680 So that's one of the ways that I use my calendar as a forcing function to help me do things 311 00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:24,920 that other people want me to do, I don't think is as valuable to supersede my work. 312 00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:28,480 And so I kind of leave it to the last minute so that the deadline helps me move it forward. 313 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:30,520 But anyway, those are the things you put on your calendar. 314 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:35,080 And what you're going to notice is that at the end of putting things on your calendar, 315 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:37,360 there's stuff that just is still there. 316 00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:41,360 It doesn't have space on the calendar, unless you're going to lie to yourself and pretend 317 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:44,800 that the city training is only going to take you 10 minutes, which of course it's not going 318 00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:45,800 to. 319 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:48,120 But if you're going to be honest, you're going to see that they're going to be things on 320 00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:50,920 the list that are not yet on the calendar. 321 00:16:50,920 --> 00:16:53,720 And those are the things you're just going to put in the question mark box. 322 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:55,360 It's like if it gets done, life is good. 323 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:57,840 And if it doesn't get done, it'll be okay. 324 00:16:57,840 --> 00:16:58,840 Right? 325 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:02,320 There will never be enough time to do all the things you don't want to do. 326 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:03,320 Never. 327 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:05,800 You never have time in life to finish all the things you hate. 328 00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:07,960 And they're always going to be on your list. 329 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:10,800 The first thing is, can you delegate those activities? 330 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:15,240 When you find someone else who would love to do them for you, maybe there's a med student 331 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:18,040 who really wants to write that abstract because they want to be first author and you're like, 332 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:20,280 I couldn't care less about being first author. 333 00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:21,280 Here you go. 334 00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:25,120 Like who could you delegate tasks to? 335 00:17:25,120 --> 00:17:29,280 And I will say that there is always someone you can delegate a task to. 336 00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:30,960 You may be feeling like I'm just a fellow. 337 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:32,920 No one will do this thing for me. 338 00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:34,960 Think again, who can do it for you? 339 00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:40,200 Who actually will do it where they will actually find it really valuable to do where you might 340 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:42,480 not find it as valuable. 341 00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:46,320 For example, people have probably told you never to write another book chapter. 342 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:50,280 The reality is that book chapters have a role in helping people learn. 343 00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:54,280 And maybe it's not as important for you anymore now that you've moved on to the big and bad 344 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:59,480 manuscripts that you're writing as first author, but somebody else wants their name on something 345 00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:04,080 and they will gladly take the book chapter and write it with you. 346 00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:05,080 Right? 347 00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:09,360 And so think about who you can delegate things to that don't fit in your top priority. 348 00:18:09,360 --> 00:18:11,760 There will always be someone you can delegate to. 349 00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:12,760 Okay. 350 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:18,360 So now you are left with a calendar that by the end of your weekly plan is full. 351 00:18:18,360 --> 00:18:21,340 By the end of your weekly plan, you have a full calendar. 352 00:18:21,340 --> 00:18:24,640 So when somebody shows up and says, Hey, there's this great opportunity. 353 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:26,160 There's this two page grant. 354 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:29,480 It will only be two pages and it's due on Friday at midnight. 355 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:34,480 Then you get to really understand that your calendar is full and now you have to take 356 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:38,360 something off to be able to put this wonderful new opportunity on. 357 00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:42,680 And so it's an opportunity for you to ask yourself, well, is it a real opportunity or 358 00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:45,560 is it a fake opportunity masquerading as a real opportunity? 359 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:47,060 But you get to decide, right? 360 00:18:47,060 --> 00:18:51,800 Because when you will come and Lucid, you decided what was most important to you. 361 00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:55,040 And then someone has come and they've brought something that they think is more important 362 00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:57,880 than what's on your list, but they don't know what's on your list. 363 00:18:57,880 --> 00:18:59,840 They have no idea what you've put on your list. 364 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:05,160 And so that's why you really are taking ownership of your time saying, Hey, I realize that this 365 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:10,200 is a great opportunity and I have other priorities on my calendar already. 366 00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:12,040 When is the next deadline for this grant? 367 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:13,720 Because grants will always come back. 368 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:15,200 They always come back. 369 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:17,980 No matter what happens, the grants will always come back. 370 00:19:17,980 --> 00:19:20,800 They come back every quarter or they come back once a year. 371 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:22,200 They will always come back. 372 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:26,160 Anyway, so there are things like that, that honestly it's like, if you miss the city trading 373 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:31,640 deadline, you probably have another day or two over the weekend to get it done. 374 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:35,600 There's always room to move things that are not as important to you. 375 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:38,680 Now is there room to move your stuff out of the way? 376 00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:39,680 Absolutely. 377 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:43,760 But the goal is to move your work forward because that's a thing with your name on it. 378 00:19:43,760 --> 00:19:45,240 That's a thing that matters to you. 379 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:47,960 It's a thing that you really want to move forward. 380 00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:53,520 And so the tendency in life is to push all your stuff aside to accommodate other people. 381 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:57,440 If you're a good doctor and you've had good training, that's what you learn to do. 382 00:19:57,440 --> 00:20:01,280 You learn to just put all your needs aside and meet other people's needs. 383 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:07,120 So one of the reasons we do a weekly plan is to help us be very clear that we don't 384 00:20:07,120 --> 00:20:11,880 want to do that unless there's a good reason for why somebody else's recommendation should 385 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:14,480 supersede the work that we're doing. 386 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:15,640 All right. 387 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:18,900 So number three, step three is just execute on the plan. 388 00:20:18,900 --> 00:20:24,000 You have a plan and the benefit of a plan is when you actually work the plan. 389 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:26,640 So every day start with a look at your plan. 390 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:30,040 So you made the plan last week or Friday, or maybe you made it at the beginning of the 391 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:34,360 week, Sunday, Monday comes and you look at your planning, you're like, okay, well, today 392 00:20:34,360 --> 00:20:37,880 the most important thing I'm doing is writing the first paragraph of my specific games page. 393 00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:40,040 You know what's number one. 394 00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:43,000 You might have a number two and number three, maybe number three is getting to the gym or 395 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:45,440 maybe it's number one. 396 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:48,240 And the specific games page is like number three, whatever. 397 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:52,440 Just you know the priority you've assigned to it before you look at it and then you start 398 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:55,520 working with the highest priority thing first. 399 00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:57,480 It's like, you know, the book, eat that frog. 400 00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:00,920 It's like, you know, the thing that you said is important is going to be the hard thing 401 00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:01,920 to do. 402 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:05,200 It's going to be hard staring at the blank page, trying to come up with that one paragraph, 403 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:06,660 but it's the thing you said was important. 404 00:21:06,660 --> 00:21:11,000 And so it's the thing you should do before you get onto the thing you love about, you 405 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:14,400 know, meeting up with your friend at the gym, which even though the gym is important, it's 406 00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:16,080 the thing you actually are enjoying. 407 00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:17,520 You would enjoy doing. 408 00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:21,440 So sometimes it's like the reward and you keep the thing that you really are looking 409 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:25,040 forward to doing or the thing that's most exciting to you. 410 00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:28,480 So you can get the thing that's actually a little bit harder to do first, but you want 411 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:30,080 to do the most important thing first. 412 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:34,520 One of the benefits of doing that is that no matter what happens with the rest of the 413 00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:38,720 day, you know, a flying saucer falls out of the sky. 414 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:40,640 Your mentor has a conniption fit. 415 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:43,280 No matter what happens, you've already won. 416 00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:44,720 You've already won. 417 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:49,000 And that's why it's important to be very clear and start the day with it. 418 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:53,800 And some people would recommend don't check email because email, I am easily distracted. 419 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:57,240 So I can't start the day with email because then the whole day goes down the drain. 420 00:21:57,240 --> 00:21:59,960 And I'm like, wait, I feel so productive, but what did I do? 421 00:21:59,960 --> 00:22:02,960 Oh yeah, I responded to that email that took me three hours to write. 422 00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:07,560 So you want to start the day with the thing that's most important to you. 423 00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:10,960 And then when you end the day, you look back. 424 00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:16,600 So you've got to reflect and the reflection is important because, you know, if you don't 425 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:21,600 stop and reflect, then you don't really have a chance to evaluate what worked, what didn't 426 00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:22,600 work. 427 00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:26,520 So when you're reflecting, you're saying, well, I set out to do this one paragraph of 428 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:31,640 a specific aims page and I ended up taking like the whole day and I only wrote three 429 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:35,400 sentences and it helps you think about, well, what happened, what went wrong, what could 430 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:37,080 be different next time. 431 00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:42,240 But reflection is important and gratitude to say, okay, well, job well done. 432 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:46,200 And even if you didn't accomplish everything you said you wanted to, it helps you reset 433 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:52,320 and say, well, maybe it takes more than three hours to write this first hardest paragraph 434 00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:54,360 next time I'll split it over two days. 435 00:22:54,360 --> 00:22:59,080 I'll just start with the outline today and I'll do the actual full draft, ugly draft 436 00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:00,080 tomorrow. 437 00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:01,880 And so it just helps you over time. 438 00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:05,880 You start to learn what's realistic, what can be done in 30 minutes, what can be done 439 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:10,920 in two hours worth of writing, like how much can you get done even though clinic starts 440 00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:11,920 at 9 a.m. 441 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:17,960 It just helps you become more aware, more self-aware so that you can be more productive 442 00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:21,560 with your day in a day that's meaningful to you. 443 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:26,120 So that is a summary of the weekly planning meeting and it's not too late. 444 00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:27,740 Today is Monday, end of the day. 445 00:23:27,740 --> 00:23:29,440 It's not too late to plan the rest of the week. 446 00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:32,120 Like if you miss Sunday or you miss Monday, it doesn't mean you're done. 447 00:23:32,120 --> 00:23:36,860 But it just allows you to pause and just say, okay, well, let's look at the calendar. 448 00:23:36,860 --> 00:23:40,200 Let's make sure that everything is on there that needs to be on there. 449 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:43,120 You want to always leave white space in your calendar for yourself. 450 00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:46,880 Like don't be like me stacking meetings back to back to back. 451 00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:49,240 Give yourself time as well so that you have white space. 452 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:54,360 Yeah, I think that's all I want to say about the weekly planning meeting. 453 00:23:54,360 --> 00:23:55,360 Thank you for listening. 454 00:23:55,360 --> 00:24:05,640 I look forward to talking with you again next time. 455 00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:11,000 Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast, where academic 456 00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:16,200 clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they 457 00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:17,760 have a mentor. 458 00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:23,720 If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself. 459 00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:25,640 Someone else needs to hear it. 460 00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:29,680 So take a minute right now and share it. 461 00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:35,120 As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation 462 00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:48,000 of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.