Reclaiming My Time: How I Stopped Working Nights and Weekends Without Quitting Medicine

Let us travel back in time to 2021. The COVID pandemic brought about a lot of changes in life, including mine. The first taste of consistently going home on time while I was seeing less patients than usual. For a long time, I had silently accepted the fact that, as long as I worked, seeing twenty-some patients a day, I would be working three to four extra hours after seeing my last patient. Without realizing it at the time, I adopted that belief. That belief had become my reality.

Stuck. Annoyed. Frustrated. Other than changing my job situation, I did not see any other way. It seemed to be a simple solution, yet I did not follow through for various reasons, worrying about financial compensation, leaving family and friends, traveling, etc.

Unsettled. Sad. Hopeless. Do I have to work like this, spending extra hours at nights and on the weekends to finish the patient charts and inbox tasks, until I retire? That question kept coming up, and my subconscious answer was a “no-other-way” yes. That was until I considered something different. It also started with a question, a question that changed everything: what if it is possible to stay at my job, (seeing the same number of patients), and leave work on time? Instead of completely shutting that idea out, I thought about it. And I thought about it more. I imagined what it would be like to leave work by 5:30 pm with everything done. That other somewhat sneaky question would come up – but how are you getting this done? With the implication that the actual execution was not possible. The real change happened when I first focused on entertaining the idea of possibility, of the favorable result I wanted, instead grabbing on to possible ideas of how to do it.

The curiosity sparked the belief in possibility. It gradually became “it is possible for me to leave work on time with my work done”. That was exciting. I felt hopeful. Realizing I could not do it alone – otherwise I would have done it already – I asked for help from a physician coach. When you want a different result, do something different. Coaching was never on my radar, in fact, I did not even know what life coaching was. As the belief that it was possible to leave work on time got stronger and stronger, I was more and more willing to examine what and how I was doing my work as a physician. The more I examined, keeping in mind not to add judgment but in a loving manner, the more I found things to do differently. There were other beliefs at work which were holding me back, just as the initial belief that there was no way I could leave work on time with the workload I had.

One of the biggest ones was the belief that I had to keep patients as close to their scheduled time as possible. That belief cost me to rush to see the next patient and the following patient. The only solution, I thought, was to finish the patient charts at the end of the day. That seemed to be a logical thought, until the end of the day came. I was exhausted and wanted to be done with work already. And I would still have ten to fifteen notes to finish. With resentment, frustration and fatigue – forget about efficiency. I was working in a super slow-motion mode, as if it was like a Chinese saying goes, “pulling a cow on to a tree”.

Sure, it is best to keep your clinic as on time as possible. How are you doing it? Are you doing it at the expense of your own time and well-being? I was, because I did not want the next patient to wait a few more minutes for me to finish the previous patient’s charting. That turned out to be a very expensive belief. When I allowed myself the discomfort of having the patients wait a little longer, not because I was being lazy or doing non-clinical work, everything changed. Being able to see a patient and finish the note before taking care of another patient was a game-changer.

If you are a physician who is like where I was, having a full schedule of patients in the office and catching up to finish your work late at night, on the weekends and even during vacations, you are not alone. I was exactly where you are. I invite you to question your belief. Before figuring out how to do it, believe that it is possible to finish your work on time. Examine your life and explore what beliefs you have may be hindering your efficiency. When your belief that you can achieve something is strong enough, you will find ways to achieve it, which includes asking for help if you need it. Your belief becomes your result.