Ep #58: A Quick Hack to Easily Get Your Work Done at Work

Episode 58, A Quick Hack to Easily Get Your Work Done at Work

Welcome to Clinicians Creating Impact, a show for physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists looking to take the next step in their careers and make a real difference in the lives of their clients. If you’re looking to improve the lives of neurodiverse children and families with neurological-based challenges, grow your own business, or simply show up to help clients, this is the show for you. 

I’m Heather Branscombe, Therapist, Certified Coach, Clinical Director, and Owner of Abilities Neurological Rehabilitation. I have over 25 years of experience in both the public and private sectors, and I’m here to help you become the therapist you want to be, supporting people to work towards their dreams and live their best lives. You ready to dive in? Let’s go. 

Hi there, friend, I hope you’re doing well today. I’m recording this episode right before I go on vacation to celebrate a milestone birthday. I haven’t shared what milestone it is, but if you want to email me I’m happy to tell you. I just don’t – The milestone isn’t the big deal, it’s the vacation, obviously, that’s going to be super fun. I am super excited to get away. 

And I have also been taking this time, because it’s a milestone birthday, to think about my life and how much I actually enjoy my work. Now, of course there are things that are less exciting about my work, and that’s true in every job. Even in this, being my dream job that I have today. But doing this podcast is definitely one of the most fun things that I get to do. 

So today I wanted to share a gift to you in the form of a quick hack that you definitely can take and adapt as you see fit to your situation. And hopefully it will make your work just a bit easier, and hopefully a lot more fun. I love sharing these kinds of things to make your work easier, and this is exactly why this podcast is a passion project. 

So before I start and share my hack, can I make a quick request of you? You may even know what it is if you’ve listened before. And if you have, thank you so much for listening. Can you help me share this resource and that this resource is actually out there so that others that may benefit can benefit from it? If you’re willing, you can do that in a couple of ways. One, firstly follow, rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to it to help feed that algorithm so that when a clinician just like you is searching for a podcast just like this, this podcast will more easily come up. 

Secondly, if you could share this podcast, or better yet a favorite episode of this podcast with a colleague that you want to help. Consider it an early birthday gift to me, if you like, because I would be eternally grateful to you if you do any and all of the above. Thank you so much again in advance for your help. I very much appreciate it. And let’s get back to an easier work day for you, shall we? 

I want to start by sharing one of the things that I think is so challenging about our work as clinicians is that the work that we do can change on a dime, no matter how much we plan. And I do encourage you to plan in advance, but having said that, no matter where we work, our schedule just as a fact can often shift in an instant. 

So if you want a de-pack on how I suggest you actually plan in advance to create the highest impact for you and those you work with, go back and listen to episode 9 of the podcast, which is How To Get Your Charting and Planning Done at Work. But today’s episode is a bit quicker and something that you could use to decide in advance how you want to adjust on the fly. 

First, I want to acknowledge this isn’t something that I made up myself. It’s actually something that I got from another colleague. Isn’t that the way we see something that someone else is doing at work and we think, “Hey, that’s amazing.” That’s what happened here and so with permission I am happy to share with you. 

So Scott happens to be a speech pathologist here at Abilities and he’s one of the most amazing people, and one of so many amazing people I get to work with everyday. And I actually ended up hearing about this hack from someone else. And then when I asked him about it and he shared it with me, I asked and he graciously agreed to allow me, again, to share it with others. So this is how you’re getting it today. 

This hack is actually a workflow, and he has it laminated in an amazing speech pathologist fashion. And he’s attached it to his desk as his “cheat sheet.” And what it does is it helps him to decide easily in advance what to do next in between his client sessions when he’s at work. I’m actually going to share a copy of his actual sheet in the show notes as an example, if you want to see it, take it, adapt it, modify it, share it. 

And I just want to share that the hack isn’t really that you should follow this work outline step by step to make work easier for me. The point is that Scott decided in advance how he wants to act when he has downtime or when his schedule changes. So he decided in advance what his work hierarchy is so that in the moment he just needs to follow it. 

So for Scott, his hierarchy is, one, prepare for sessions. Two, charting or documentation. Three, email. Four, to-do list. Five, continuing education. And six, pick from the following; run errands, go for a walk, journal, listen to a podcast. Now, again, I’ve run through that quickly, but if you want to take a look at what it looks like visually, it’s really beautiful, I’d invite you to go to the show notes to see what it actually looks like in person. 

So what that means for Scott is if a client cancels at the last second, or suddenly it snows outside, or there’s just extra time in between client or patient care sessions, Scott has a plan already in place. And if I were to guess, Scott has made this list based on what’s important to him and his values. And I could make a guess based on this alone and presume that Scott values his clients, his client time, and his responsibilities as a responsible clinician and team member, as well as his own development and his own health. 

Now, for me, because my role and my work role right now is a little different than working as a full-time clinician, my hierarchy might look a little different. So I took some time to think about that. So because of my role, my hierarchy would look something like this. Number one, prepare for meetings, because more often than not I’m the one actually leading the meetings. It’s really important for me to prepare for the meetings. Number two, texts and emails from team members. 

Number three, I have what I call an overflow list, which is just a glorified to-do list. I schedule many of the to-do lists in my schedule, but if I collect things along the way, that goes into my overflow list. And then number four would be investing in myself. So that would be walking, podcasts, and connecting with team members. 

So what would your hierarchy be for time spent in between clients or patients? Would it be the same or would it be different to Scott or myself? What is something that you’re having a hard time getting done and where would you put it in your own hierarchy? 

I love the quote that Scott actually has placed on his hierarchy, which again, you can take a look at in the show notes. And I also want to share it here. The quote goes, “Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before.” In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it. And that’s a quote from Cal Newport, the author of Deep Work. 

So take a look at how you’re doing things at work and how they are in alignment or maybe out of alignment with your values. What hierarchy can you decide in advance is how you want to do your work and why? Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Yes, you’re right, I am super busy, but I can tell you I am never too busy to talk to you. You can feel free to email me, heather@abilitiesrehabilitation.com because yes, I do have time and yes, I do want to help you. With that, have an amazing week and I will talk to you soon.

If you enjoyed today’s show and don’t want to worry about missing an episode, you can follow the show wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you haven’t already, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a rating and review to let me know what you think and to help others find Clinicians Creating Impact. 

It doesn’t have to be a five-star rating, although I sure hope you love the show. I’d really want your honest feedback so I can create an awesome podcast that provides tons of value. To learn more about me and the work that I do, visit my website at www.abilitiesrehabilitation.com/clinicianscorner to download your free getting it all done at work process and to see what I’m up to. Thanks so much.

Thanks for joining me this week on the Clinicians Creating Impact podcast. Want to learn more about the work I’m doing with Abilities Rehabilitation? Head on over to abilitiesrehabilitation.com. See you next week.