You May Be Closer to Change Than You Think

“It’s not working.”

You have tried different strategies to get your work done during the workday. You have learned new techniques, changed parts of your workflow, and experimented with different approaches. Yet you are still answering messages, finishing charts, returning calls, or catching up on weekends. It is easy to conclude, “It’s not working.” Before deciding that, I invite you to consider another possibility: you may be closer to change than you think. Sometimes the problem is not that nothing is changing. It is that we expect change to look bigger or happen faster than it actually does.

Have you given the change enough time? A new strategy can feel ineffective when you have only used it intermittently. Ask yourself:

Have I stayed with this long enough to see its effect?

Am I consistently practicing it?

Am I changing strategies before giving one enough time to become a habit?

Physicians are often excellent at trying new things, but sometimes the desire for a quick solution gets in the way of allowing small changes to take root. A strategy does not necessarily fail because you do not see dramatic results immediately.

Are you looking for the wrong kind of progress? Progress does not always mean suddenly leaving the office an hour earlier. Small signs of change might include one fewer chart waiting at the end of the day, finishing documentation a little earlier, spending less time rereading notes, catching yourself before getting pulled into a distraction, making a decision more quickly, leaving one task for tomorrow without feeling guilty, recovering more quickly when the day gets off track, or having fifteen to twenty more minutes of your evening back. The important question becomes:

What is different now that was not different before?

Even a small difference is information.

Small changes compound. One small change may not feel life-changing. However, when it is repeated consistently, small changes can become new patterns. New patterns can change how your day flows. Eventually, those changes can translate into meaningful time reclaimed at the end of the day. Fifteen minutes reclaimed today may not feel significant. Fifteen minutes reclaimed consistently can become hours of life returned over a month. The goal is not perfection. The goal is progress that compounds. 

Develop an eye for progress. Become an observer rather than a judge of your progress. Instead of thinking, “I’m still working late, so this isn’t work”, try this on: “I’m still working late. What has changed?”

At the end of the week, ask yourself:

What felt a little easier this week?

Where did I save even a few minutes?

What did I do differently?

What worked better than before?

What small change am I willing to continue next week?

This makes progress visible. 

Do not abandon something just because the transformation is not immediate. This is especially for the physicians who feel stuck. You do not necessarily need another strategy. You may need to stay with the right strategy long enough to see what it can do. You may need to make smaller adjustments rather than constantly starting over. You may need someone to help you recognize possibilities and progress that are difficult to see when you are inside the problem. 

You may be closer than you think. Maybe you are not starting from zero. Maybe you are not failing. Maybe the changes you have been making are already creatinine movement, and you simply have not paused long enough to notice. Keep going. Look closely. Give small changes room to grow. Leaving work on time may not happen through one dramatic change. It may happen through a series of small changes that, together, transform your workday, and give you back your evenings, weekends, and ability to enjoy practicing medicine. You may not need to try harder to try something completely different. You may need to notice the progress, stay consistent, and give small changes enough time to compound.