Disrupting Distractions as Physicians

Just a few years ago, I would walk into my office with moderate anxiety, thinking about how many inbox tasks there would be. Would there be a record-breaking number of things to do? Would there be things too much for me to handle?

As I was sitting at my desk, waiting for my computer to turn on, more thoughts came up as I recalled what my schedule looked like. There were too many patients on my schedule. I still recall that helpless and overwhelmed feeling. My heart was beating fast. All these happened before seeing the first patient.

That was just another typical day in the office. As I was seeing patients, there were many things on my mind. Thinking about what messages were coming through, anticipating being interrupted by my staff of another physician’s phone call, questioning how I could finish my notes at a decent hour – all of that while getting annoyed at the fact that I was not able to be as efficient as I wanted to be.

The undisciplined mind is easily distracted. There are many thoughts in our head, and they come up as you think them. Some thoughts are louder than others, which lead you to focus on them more. The louder thoughts are not necessarily the helpful thoughts – unless you intentionally choose your thoughts.

Why does it matter? Our thoughts affect how we feel and how we act. This means that some thoughts will make us more efficient, because your emotions and actions will be different.

In other words, having distractions is a form of having an undisciplined mind. Having this realization is powerful because we can train our mind to work for us. The more awareness we have of our thoughts, the better we can manage our minds.

Distraction happens when you have more than one thing you are trying to focus on. In clinical medicine, there is always many things going on simultaneously. Accept this reality as part of practicing medicine.

As you are going through your day, with your plate full, you are tempted to look for the easy tasks to do first. In the outpatient setting, you see patients according to their scheduled time. What you can do to choose is with your inbox tasks, for example. You open the task to find out what it is, then decide if you are going to do it right away or to return to it late. This means that you are reviewing certain tasks at least twice before you act on them. Or you may continue to find other tasks to do before going back to the original lists of unfinished tasks. This avoidance of more complicated tasks is wasting your time and effort. It adds to your decision fatigue as you are making more decision than if you complete the task write when you see it.

Most physicians know about the distractions from your nurses asking questions, your staff with an urgent phone call, or some other unexpected surprises. Anything that shifts your focus from what you are doing is a distraction. It is possible to have the interrupter without being distracted. Of course, there are strategies to minimize these distractions with standard protocols.

Besides minimizing the actual number of distractions, it is more important to train our mind to focus despite having distractions. Our mind works best when we give 100% focus on one thing at a time. When you find yourself thinking that “everything is important”, or you cannot decide what to tackle first, go back to your goal.

What is your goal for the day? For example, the goal is to take good care of your patients and finish your work by 5:30 pm. Be as specific as possible. Thinking that you want to do a good job today is not a specific enough goal. In order to achieve your goal in this example, it is important to maximize your efficiency. Efficiency comes from laser-focused work, doing one thing at a time.

To choose what to do first, prioritize. This means that you do not necessarily want to do tasks according to their level of difficulty.  Open your inbox only when you have a designated time block to do so. Manage each task as you open each message. You are saving time by not reading the same message twice.

When you are seeing patients in the office, you may be tempted to do things other than to write the patients’ notes. To minimize the distraction from thinking and switching back and forth among patients, it is more efficient to complete each patient’s note after the patient is seen. Then you can give your full attention to your next patient.

Our minds come up with many different thoughts. With the awareness of what you are thinking, you get to decide what thoughts are helping you and what thoughts are not. Remember your goal for the day, and you are taking actions to achieve that goal. In order to be more efficient, you can maximize efficiency by turning down noises and focus on doing one thing at a time. Designate time blocks to do certain tasks, such as managing your inbox.  As we work best with a focused mind, anything we can do to minimize distractions will increase our efficiency at work.