Jarrod Shapiro, DPM
Finite

Time is finite, right? Most of the time we spend our days not truly paying attention to the time as it passes. We might glance at our watches to see what time it is. We become acutely aware of the time when stuck with those people who just won't stop talking. This sometimes happens to me when I'm on the phone with family while my young daughter is pulling at my leg to go play. The one thing about time of which I've become increasingly conscious as I've gotten older is just how little of it there actually is, especially when I need more of it.

Time Management Driving in the Los Angeles area provides a constant reminder of the challenges of limited time. Take for example, this second – that is, this moment as I sit here writing this editorial. I'm sitting in the preoperative area of one of my local hospitals ready to go in and fix a patient's ankle fracture but am delayed because the anesthesiologist is stuck in traffic due to an accident. My patient now has to wait that much longer while becoming increasingly nervous. Additionally, I have an important college meeting to attend shortly after my surgery, which I'll likely miss (I haven't figured out how to be in two places at the same time yet).

I found that time management is one of the most important skills in our ever finite world. In the podiatric world, my mentor in this was my residency director. The man was simply able to cram more activities into his day than anyone I have ever met. I once asked him how he did it, and his response was simple...time management.

I rely on my calendar very heavily to manage my busy schedule, and get myself in trouble when I fail to refer to it. Google calendar has been the best due to its simplicity and versatility. This calendar has large colored boxes, which works well with my simple mind. It allows importation of other calendars, and works very well to combine both my personal and residency calendars. It's also available on my iPhone, which is good on the go.

Tonight's Premier Lecture is
Nevus vs Melanoma
Steve A. McClain, MD

For those of you who are time management-impaired here are some quick suggestions to help.

Don't procrastinate. Waiting until the last minute is a giant time waster. Consider breaking up that job you don't want to do into small pieces over a longer period of time. This is much less overwhelming.
Plan. Prepare ahead of time with the steps you need to complete the job and give yourself reasonable deadlines.
Use the best tools. Use some type of organizational method. Paper or electronic – it doesn't matter. Whatever works for you is great.
Avoid last minute commitments. Don't agree to any job of significance that requires last minute work. It's a set up for increased stress and increased failure risk. Negotiate a reasonable time window whenever possible.
Group your activities. Say, for example, you have to round at two different hospitals and work in your clinic during a particular day. Try rounding at both hospitals and then going to clinic rather than sticking clinic between the two hospitals. This requires some planning, but it is possible.
Be a serial task accomplisher (is “accomplisher even a word?) by completing one task before beginning the next. Humans do not multitask well. It's been proven through scientific research. You end up taking twice as long to complete two things.
Stay focused. When doing a task, focus on it and avoid distractions. Distractions are your enemy.
Build free time in to your schedule. Everyone gets behind sometimes, but if you have a little extra free time scheduled, you can use that to catch up. If you're already caught up, then use that time as a reward. Do something fun!

On that note, I think we've run out of time. Oh boy, where did the time go? Seems I'm late for my next appointment (I'm late, I'm late for a very important date). When you figure out a way to slow time down, please be sure to let me know. Until then we're slaves to time.

Best wishes,

Jarrod Shapiro, DPM
PRESENT Practice Perfect Editor
[email protected]