Wow! That came off the rails in a hurry. After moving into semi-retirement fourteen months ago, I spent a few months working “part-time” and spending afternoons with the grandsons. We have been busy with projects, getting our new part-time home ready for prolonged stays and setting up what would become a fun place for the boys to visit. We almost have it like we want and the boys seem to enjoy staying with us most afternoons when we are in the area. We have also managed to be “in the area” for two weeks out of most months.
What came off the rails is the idea that I am retired (or even semi-retired). I have been putting in full-time hours and that number seems to grow as the house projects decrease. The only thing that changed was that I moved out of direct patient care into a role where I spend a fair amount of time mentoring and monitoring. I also get to spend time optimizing workflows with computer systems letting my inner geek come out. My wife would tell you that I do not have an inner geek- it’s all readily apparent if you know me. Either way, I get to spend time keeping up on the latest advances without being overwhelmed.
The most wonderful part comes in that I now have flexibility in the timing of work. When involved in direct patient care I had a set schedule that someone else controlled. For years, I said that I did not need a watch…I had an office manager, a wife, and a daughter so someone was always telling me what to do and when. I didn’t have to think about what or when, just show up and see patients. In my current role I get to schedule the times I work on projects, the times I schedule meetings, the times I read updates, and the time I have for myself. Being an early riser, this lets me put in a significant amount of work hours by noon giving way to afternoons spent doing the things I love doing. I get to spend time with family and explore options previously not able to wedge into my schedule.
One of the things I love to explore is time management research and how to make use of time and resources that are available to us all. I like to tinker with todo lists, project applications, habit building processes, and critical thinking development. I am enjoying stepping back and taking a look at how this field of time management can be utilized in medicine to help our physician and nurse practitioner resources limit burnout (or moral injury in some cases). How do we protect the time and efforts put in to improve our healthcare systems without putting all of the burden on those already in short supply? How do we preserve the empathy and compassion options while utilizing AI but not putting our patients completely in the hands of machines?
Maybe I used the wrong phrase when I said everything was coming off the rails. Maybe I should have said I was just jumping tracks. Hopefully the tracks I’m on will continue to be joyous but also continue with contribution. I heard a cycling coach say recently that the young riders talked about every day in training is just “one more day”. He, however, saw it as one less day to accomplish the mission. Today, I have one less day to contribute. I want to be sure I am in a physical, spiritual, and mental place to do that.