A Doctor’s Perspective
Life is busy. Whether it’s juggling work and the kids or maintaining a home business whilst running a household we are constantly multi-tasking and trying to keep afloat of our projects.
As a General Practitioner, cosmetic trainer, clinical lead for a digital application and social media content producer I can certainly vouch for the hectic patterns that life can sometimes deliver. Staying organised, therefore, is vital to avoid drowning.
Here are some of my top tips to help you stay afloat in the new year.
Keep Tidy
Out with the old, in with the new. The new year is often a good time to start fresh. Many of us will spend some time throwing out old clothes or perhaps items in the garage. Or maybe a good spring clean of the wardrobe or your office. As humans, our brains appreciate clean spaces. When we have clutter surrounding us, our focus over time, is lost.
Research has shown that if we have a constant visual reminder of disorganisation, our cognitive resources are drained reducing our ability to focus.
Personally, whenever I start a shift as a General Practitioner, I spend the first 5 minutes tidying my desk, disinfecting the work spaces and keyboard and organising my equipment trolley. This helps me to create a zen space. In the knowledge that my surroundings are clean and organised, I feel ready to take on what ever problem comes through my door.
I know for a fact, that during the morning session, if my desk gets a little crowded with paperwork, I can get distracted by this and have a mid session tidy up to maintain my full focus.
Tidying up doesn’t have to stop at work. At home, spend 5 minutes tidying your bed and wardrobe, put the dishes away and put the laundry in the basket. Do these simple tasks as soon as you remember them. It’s so easy to say ‘I’ll do it later’ and then find yourself in a mountain of clothes, a sink full of dishes and an untidy bed and feeling very quickly overwhelmed.
By performing such simple tasks, you’ll get into the habit of keeping tidy, allowing your brain to keep its focus on tasks that are harder to perform rather than constantly feeling distracted and unhappy about your environment.
Write A List
Now that you’ve created an enjoyable working space, it’s time to prioritise your time and maintain your focus. The simplest of ways to do this is by creating a list.
Lists help to us to give structure to the tasks we need to achieve. They also help us to look back to see what we’ve achieved.
The lists could be chunked into time periods such as daily tasks or weekly tasks. However, it’s important that you don’t get too carried away with writing them. Many people will spend too much time on the act of writing it and little time performing the tasks.
I write a weekly task list of projects that I want to achieve by certain days. I maintain a sense of realism to ensure that I can actually achieve the tasks rather than being too optimistic. There’s no point giving yourself unachievable tasks as this will only make you feel more overwhelmed when you look back at your progress.
Once you have completed the task you have the gratifying ability to cross or tick it off from your list. Interestingly, the reasons we feel gratified when crossing off a task lies deep in our brain. When we tick off a task from our list, our brain releases a chemical called Dopamine, this is responsible for making us have feelings of satisfaction and happiness. By releasing this, you feel motivated and happy about your achievements, helping to propel you to continue ticking off your tasks.
Prioritise Your Time
“I just don’t have enough time”. Sadly all too often I hear this as a General Practitioner. It usually is in relation to carrying out regular exercise. Certainly we all do have our reasons why don’t have enough time, but ask yourself is there something you can change to give you time? Take a think of your day today. How did you spend your time. Did you spend some time scrolling through social media. If you did was this useful to you. Could this time be spent elsewhere, for example, going for a walk or working on one of your tasks?
We all loose minutes procrastinating and unfortunately this can be addictive because it’s much easier to procrastinate than it is to actually perform the task at hand. When I am met with people who simply just don’t have any time for exercise we go through their day. What time do they wake up? Could they wake 30 minutes earlier to do some stretches or go for a walk? What does lunch involve, is there a possibility to use this time for exercise. How about after work, whilst supper is cooking, could this time be used for home exercises.
By having the ability to dissect your day and the time spent on tasks you become more in control, gaining the ability to prioritise which tasks need to be done now and which can wait.
With the ability to do this, you’ll also be able to grasp how long a task should take you. This will in turn help you to structure your list above and allocate reasonable times for each task helping you to achieve more in your day.
Plan Ahead
This leads nicely to the next point to help keep you organised - plan ahead. We all do this to some degree, for example, planning the next holiday or what you’ll do on the weekend. If we are able to plan our days and chunk tasks into different time slots, we become more efficient with our time. By planning ahead you also allow yourself to be more organised. You’ve now allowed for a time to carry out certain tasks helping to keep you on track of your goals. By doing so you’ve become more organised, not only with your actions but also your thoughts as well.
In fact, by creating a task list, you’re almost half way there to planning ahead. You’ve already set yourself some goals, now it’s time to work out when you’ll actually do them. Your list can now become more detailed and if you wish, you can manage your time accordingly. As an example, performing household duties by midday, anything that isn’t done by this time can be left till the next day. By giving yourself strict times you will be more motivated to get the tasks done more efficiently. Even if you don’t complete your task, at least now you have the ability to take a break and do something else, rather than dwelling on the task that you couldn’t achieve.
Routine
All of these points seem like common sense but it takes time to articulate them into real life circumstances. It takes time to incorporate them into your day to day challenges. Just like any routine task, once you get into the swing of structuring your day or week, you will become more organised. You’ll have more clarity and be able to judge tasks better and know when you are out of your limits.
Not only will it become second nature, the process of getting organised and staying organised will take much less time, allowing you to spend more time and efforts on other projects.
I hope that you have found this article helpful to becoming a better, more organised version of yourself. Wishing you all much success for the new year.
Take care and stay healthy,
Dr Nora x
Please note that the contents of this article are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health or personal advice. Always seek the guidance of your doctor or other qualified health professional with any questions you may have regarding your health or medical condition.
