It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the seemingly endless responsibilities of your job in the healthcare industry. To prevent burnout, it’s important to be prepared when you feel your day is beginning to get beyond overwhelming.

Here are a few of our favorite tips on how to stay focused and remain productive and positive throughout the day.

 

Think Action, Not Reaction

Most everyone has a similar work routine:  get into the office, sit down and open up email. It may seem like the best way to get right down to business and hit the ground running, but experts suggest beginning your day differently.  

Before you jump right into email, try setting aside a few minutes to plan out your day.  Jot down your tasks and goals for the day ahead and prioritize them by order of importance. By planning your day first thing, you’re focusing your day on action, not reaction.  It will help you to get centered and remember your priorities.  Then, set a specific length of time to check your email, and start tackling it before you move on to other priorities!

Train Your Mind Like a Muscle

Multi-tasking is now the norm.  But did you know that when you multitask you are actually losing your ability to focus?  Distraction becomes a habit and our brain quickly adapts. Instead of trying to manage ten things at once, turn off all distractions and fully commit your focus to one single task.  One!  Start out small with around five minutes a day, then work up to larger chunks of time.  If you find yourself losing focus, return to the task at hand.  You have to build the muscle to be focused—so start training your mind!

 

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Schedule Your Interruptions

Okay, okay…you can stop laughing now.  How, you ask, is it even remotely possible to schedule interruptions? Although you can never completely eliminate unplanned interruptions from your busy day, you can do your best to minimize them.  Instead of leaving your email open, check it only once every hour, or a set time where you know you will have a chunk of your time to focus on just email.  Silence other distractions like instant messaging, your phone or social media for certain periods of time.  Set aside the same hour or two each day where your staff knows that they are able to come to you and have a conversation, rather than popping in and out of your office throughout the day.  

One of the best solutions on how to stay focused?  HybridChart!  Our integrations save you time and headaches so you can focus on what really matters rather than an overwhelm of paperwork and follow up.  Stay securely connected with your team, hospital staff and patients — wherever you are.

Learn how to streamline your practice and reclaim what’s most important to you:  your time. Download Your Complete Guide to a Streamlined Practice & Happy Team here.

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Dr. Gregory Sanders is a Harvard-trained, practicing cardiologist and founder and CEO of HybridChart. He has been coding since the 1980s and has spent his medical career focusing on improving processes. His patient care skills earned him recognition as one of Phoenix Magazine’s TOP DOCs. He lives in Scottsdale with his family.