Are you overwhelmed? Working earlier and later but never catching up? Time management is a critical skill, and in our work recruiting healthcare executives, we have seen many ways of successfully dealing with overload. As a healthcare executive search firm, we are retained by clients to find leaders, and interim leaders, for their organizations.  We would like to share with you some of our insights about becoming a more effective leader by managing your time better.

First of all, analyze how you spend your time. Keeping a diary for a few days may be helpful as you do this analysis. Maybe you check your email early, at home, to get a head start on the day. How often are you wafting off on a link in a newsletter that leads you to an article and then another?

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning.” Not Mark Twain

We all have “best working times”; identify yours and use that time for projects and tasks that are high priority.  Schedule hard tasks for the time when you work best.  Set a time limit for tasks. You’ll work better when you know you only have to “eat the frog” for 30 minutes.

Plan your week and each day. Prioritize and delegate. Set aside focused times for certain work. Focused time means no checking email or social media.

Use a notebook for notes in meetings and calls. Personally, I haven’t yet found a great electronic equivalent.  A notebook provides me with a chronologic, portable, easily accessed record. In my experience, people who take notes on a legal pad and then file them are always looking for the files.  Or don’t file them and can never locate them again.

Focus on efficient meetings. No free falls.  They end in thuds. Have an agenda for the meeting and preferably circulate it in advance. Start on time and end on time (or – gasp – early).  There are two schools of thought about cell phones in meetings. One says to institute a phone ban in your meetings. The other says that you don’t need to do that if you make meetings relevant.  Your first priority should be to make meetings efficient and relevant, but given our universal phone addiction, banning may still be necessary.

Organize your inbox. Set up filters/rules to sort incoming mail, then touch an email once. You might create folders for your enewsletters and for messages from people you know are copying you as an FYI. Schedule time to read and respond to emails. Turn off your computer “pings” so you won’t be tempted to divert yourself to see what just came in. Social media alerts aren’t helping you manage your time. Turn them off.

Take breaks. Spend time not working? Yes, it is counterintuitive. But you’ll come back from a break sharper and able to work more efficiently. Since so much of what we do is tied to screens, get away from them. Move around—take a brief walk outside, climb stairs, do ten minutes on a rowing machine. Do this without looking at your phone; putting it in your pocket instead of checking messages helps you refresh.

As you know, sitting is the new smoking. I wasn’t able to work efficiently using a standing desk, but it’s worth trying. Stand up and move around frequently, especially on calls—that’s why speaker phones and wireless headsets were invented!

Make the most of time. Waiting for someone? This is the time to prune your inbox. Remember that when you are watching your kids playing soccer, you aren’t waiting. Focus on them, not your phone. You’ll be glad you did.

Anita Karcz MD MBA is Senior Vice President at ZurickDavis, a retained executive search firm exclusively serving health care organizations.  Our ZDmd division specializes in recruiting physician leaders. Our ZDinterim division places interim executives to assure strategic momentum and leadership continuity. www.ZurickDavis.com @ZurickDavis

Posted on Jan 25, 2022