Reclaiming Time by Not Rushing: Why Slowing Down Can Help You Get More Done

You are halfway through clinic and already behind. The schedule is full, or even overfilled. The phone is ringing. Messages are piling up. A patient needs more time than expected. You look at the clock and realize you have a few more patients to see. Your instinct:? Speed up. You talk faster - sometimes even to the point of interrupting patients. Move faster. Type faster. Try to answer a message while finishing your note. Tell yourself you will catch up later.

And somehow, later becomes 7 pm. 

What if one of the ways you reclaim time is not by doing everything faster, but by learning how to stop rushing”?

Rushing is a natural response when you are behind schedule. When you are behind, your brain interprets urgency as something that requires immediate action. Moving faster feels like you are taking control. However, rushing can create a hidden productivity tax. When you are rushing, you may make mistakes that require correction. Have you tried to type your password as fast as you could and ended up typing in the wrong password? You had to enter it again - which took more time than needed. When you are rushing, you may reread information because you were not fully focused. YOu may forget something and have to get back to it. You may switch between tasks constantly. You may interrupt yourself repeatedly. You may carry unfinished thoughts from one patient to the next. You may create additional charting or follow-up work later. Rushing may help you feel like you are doing more, without actually help you accomplish more. The extra work after the last patient is not always caused by having too much work. Sometimes the way the work was done throughout the day created more work to finish later. 

When you are behind schedule, the internal dialogue might sound like: “I’m already 30 minutes behind. I don’t have enough time.” 

I invite you to contrast with this: “I have a finite amount of time. What is the most important thing for me to accomplish with the time I have?”

The latter statement does not deny reality. You may still be behind. You may still have a full schedule. And you are no longer allowing the clock to dictate how you work. 

Efficiency does not require feeling rushed. You can move with intention without moving with panic. 

What does not rushing actually looks like in clinic? You are in more control than you think. When you are not in a rushed mode, you pause before reacting. Before immediately opening the next message, clicking into another chart, or responding to the latest interruption, take a moment to ask: “Does this actually need my attention right now?”

Choose one thing. Multitasking often feels necessary when you are behind. Switching between your note, inbox, phone, and another patient’s chart can fragment your attention and increase the time everything takes. 

One focused task can be faster than five partially completed ones. Stop letting the clock create panic. Check the time intentionally rather than constantly. Knowing you are behind is useful, but repeatedly thinking “I’m behind, I’m behind, I’m behind” is not. 

Reassess instead of react. Your plan for 8 am may no longer make sense at 2 pm. Pause. Look at what is left. Decide what truly needs to happen today and what can wait.

“But I don’t have enough time.” 

Not rushing does not mean pretending your schedule is not full, or that you have all the time in the world to do a few things. Sometimes there genuinely is not enough time. Sometimes the schedule, staffing, inbox volume, documentation requirements, or patient volume needs to change. And this is important:

Not rushing is not about doing the impossible calmly. It is about separating the reality of having too much to do from the belief that panic and speed are the only ways to respond. 

If there is too much work, name it, identify it. 

If there is unnecessary work, eliminate it.

If something can be delegated, delegate it.

If your workflow is creating unnecessary work, change the workflow.

If your own expectations are keeping you at work late, examine those. 

The deeper question is: What are you rushing to try to catch up to?

WHat if the goal is not to “catch up”? Many physicians spend the entire day trying to catch up to a schedule that was never realistically going to fit. Instead, the goal can become: “How can I work intentionally enough that I don’t create another three hours of work for myself after clinic?”

That reframes the entire day. You are not simply trying to move faster. You are trying to close loops, protect your attention, make decisions, and finish what matters.

You do not become more efficient by constantly feeling like you are running out of time. You become more efficient when you trust yourself to use your time intentionally. You do not need to stop caring about the clock - in fact, it is essential to be mindful of the time without feeling rushed. You do not need to become slower. You need to stop allowing the clock to make you frantic. Calm is not the opposite of efficiency. Sometimes, calm is what allows efficiency to happen. When you stop spending your entire day rushing to try to catch up, you may discover something powerful: the time you thought you needed to find may have been hiding inside the way you were working all along.

If you are a physician who regularly finishes the last patient and realizes you still have hours of work ahead of you, you do not have to accept that as the price of practicing medicine. Sometimes, reclaiming your evenings is not about working harder or finding another productivity hack. It is about understanding where your time is actually going, what is creating unnecessary work, and what needs to change - both in your workflow and in your mindset.

That is the work I do with physicians in my 1:1 Physician Coaching Program - helping you create a way of working that allows you to leave work on time, feel better, and have the energy to enjoy your life - and medicine again. You do not have to keep rushing through your days just to spend your evenings finishing them.