Parkinson's Law Has Been Working Against You Your Whole Career
Oct 23, 2021
Parkinson’s Law: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
In other words, if you don’t assign an amount of time to complete the task, it will take up all of the time you have.
And *cringe* that, my friends, is what is wrong with you and your charts.
When you get to the end of the clinic day or your shift, and those 15 (or more!) charts are sitting there, incomplete, and you dig in, they will take as much time as you let them. The charts don’t care. The charts don’t have a life. They don’t want to go home and eat dinner with their loved ones. They don’t want to go out for a run. They don’t have any wants. They just sit there.
And you? Are you feeling some relief that the last patient has left, and now you can “just finish these up,” and a moment later 3 hours have gone by and it’s dark out and there are 5 more to go?
There are lots of reasons why notes can take you forever:
-You have a week to finish them until your Clinic Chief bugs you about them
-The Hospitalists/Specialists tell you that you write such great notes, and you don’t want to disappoint
-You just need the labs or the advice from the Specialist before you can close the note
-There are no patients waiting, so you can take your time
-Your partners write crappy notes, and then they leave the office at 5:00 and you aren’t like that
-You can’t tolerate it not being perfect
-ad nauseum
I know that you have your reasons for why your notes are how they are. And, if you are spending too much time working on them, judging other people’s notes, setting high standards, people-pleasing by having amazing notes, hating on the “Epic Efficiency” team that tried to help you, then you are likely also resenting the time that you spend on your charts. Your notes don’t heal people. Your listening, your diagnostic skills, your knowledge and advising, your procedural skills, these are the things that help and heal. Not your notes. Your notes are simply a succinct description of what happened and what you think is causing it, what your best plan for moving forward is, in the moment.
It is not a publishable work of art.
So, take a breath, and if you want too, figure out how to use Parkinson’s Law to your advantage. You’ve got 15 charts. How long do you want to spend doing them? How much time does that give you per chart? Can you do more in the room with the patient? What do you need to stop doing in order to meet your time goals? How will you try again and again and see what works and keep going so that you don’t resent all of the time suck. These are the questions we ask in coaching. You’ve got all of the obstacles, all of the “but,” “I just,” “this is how I” barriers, I know. And that’s normal. And life is better when there are no-shows and you can catch your breath, I know. And scribes and fewer patients and all sorts of things… But right now, if you want to stop spending untold hours staring at Epic, it’s going to take some different thinking. A different approach. A letting go. A stopwatch and a determination to stop when it beeps. A try and fail and try again.
I’m here to help.
Hi There!
I'm Megan. I'm a Physician and a Life Coach and a Mom. I created this blog to help other Physicians and Physician-Moms learn more about why they feel exhausted, burned-out and overwhelmed, and how to start to make changes. I hope that you enjoy what you read, and that it helps you along your journey. And hey, if you want to talk about coaching with me, I'm here for that too! I offer a free 1:1 call to see if we are a good fit. Click the button below to register today.
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