My Favourite Time Management Metaphor

Every time I get sick, I fight 2 battles simultaneously. My immune system fights 1 and my insatiable need to be productive fights the other. Only in the last year or so have I given myself the permission to stop “pushing through” my to do list when I’m sick.

As a result, I want to revisit a concept I mentioned back in February.

Your waiting room is always full.

This is a really powerful metaphor for understanding how to structure a lot of work and time. Let’s look at 12 reasons why you should stop trying to “just be more productive” to empty the waiting room.

1) Waiting rooms have a capacity, it is unethical to accept more patients than you can treat.

Saying yes to commitments you can’t follow through on or loading things onto your to do list that you will never complete is not good for anyone.

2) Some patients leave on their own, medical intervention isn’t always necessary.

I don’t know how many times I’ve put something on my to do list only to take it off later because it wasn’t relevant anymore.

3) Hospitals don’t win awards for the cleanliness of their waiting room.

I’m as guilty as anyone about the feeling of satisfaction that comes with a clean to do list. No one is showing up at my door with a weekly achievement award though.

4) Triaging patients is one of the most important roles of a doctor.

Aiming to do the most tasks instead of the important tasks is like administering 3 sets of stitches and a saline bag instead of treating the guy with 7 gunshot wounds. See: Emails, housework.

5) Arriving at work with an illness can do more harm than good.

Trying to push your way through your activities while sick is going to only make the quality of everything worse and risk making more work for yourself in the future.

6) Some patients are only admitted to hospital for observation.

Again, sometimes tasks will get easier, change or become irrelevant over time. Taking the time to assess instead of grinding away at a task for the sake of it can make your life easier.

7) No one else is competing with you to see your patients.

You don’t need to race through tasks to finish them ahead of some other imaginary person. No one else has the same list.

8) These patients are indifferent to long wait times.

You get lulled into a false sense of urgency by almost everything on your to do list. Rarely is anything urgent, for a prime case study on this I suggest checking out Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week if you’re one of the 3 people who hasn’t read it yet.

9) Rushing through patients can lead to mistakes.

Checking things off your list for the sake of checking them off your list is a surefire way to end up needing to redo them properly later.

10) Hospitals don’t compare waiting rooms.

If you’re like me, you spend a lot of time comparing all the stuff you need to get done to everything other people need to get done. It’s not helpful.

11) Delegating patients is important.

Are there things on your to do list that could be done better or more efficiently by someone else?

12) Some patients are regulars.

No matter how fast or how many times you clear some things off your to do list, they always come back.

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