The question no one asked you in July
Every July, the same question is uttered around the hospital: how are the new residents, fellows, and faculty settling in? It can be heard in hallways, in division meetings, on calls with referring physicians.
It is a good question. I ask it myself, constantly, about everyone whose year just started.
A month into the academic year, have you checked in on yourself? How are you settling in?
This week I did something I regularly ask coaching clients to do and had been quietly avoiding myself. I opened my calendar, scrolled back four weeks, and conducted an audit. Every meeting. Every clinic. Every email, lecture, and coaching appointment. Then I set the results of the audit next to what I told myself I would do, back in June.
The gap was not subtle. Some of what filled those weeks was work I would protect if I had to give up everything else. A surprising amount of my time was spent on other things. Commitments I took on because I thought I "should." Meetings I attended because they were on my calendar but held little value.
I wrote about a similar audit on the blog last week — four questions to run one month into the academic year, while there is still time for one correction to compound. The post also tells the story of the worst career advice I ever received. It came from one of the true giants of my field, and I considered following it for far longer than I care to admit. The short version: advice without context usually benefits the person giving it more than the person receiving it. The long version is in the post.
Career fit is not a feeling. It is a schedule.
It is Sunday. If you have twenty minutes before the week spirals out of control, take a look at your own calendar and look over the last four weeks. How much time did you spend on something you value? How much went to something you would prefer to give up?
I made one change to my schedule this week. It was small, and it was overdue.
I'm here if you need me.
— Ben
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