How to use time to your advantage
MD2MD were excited to be joined by Dr Heather McKee for a workshop on time management recently. Heather is Europe’s leading lifestyle behaviour change specialist and she spoke to our members and their teams about how to use time to their advantage and create habits that last. Read the insight below to learn all about Heather’s top tips from the session.
The five key pillars of reclaiming your time
- Prioritisation
- Elimination
- Delegation
- Scaling
- Letting go
Your four burners (key areas of your life)
- Health
- Work
- Family
- Friends
In order to be successful at any of these things we have to focus on just one of them and eliminate the rest.
Thought you could keep all four of your burners going at the same time? You’re not alone – most people, especially MDs, think that too!
We have to let one or two or three things go – it’s important to recognise what season of your life you are in right now – which burner are you focusing on and what is the most important for you at this time. What is your primary burner? What is your secondary burner you are going to use to support that?
But what about the rest of my burners?
Scaling
If your main priorities right now are work and family but you want to still engage with your health and friends – what could that look like for you?
If you have deprioritised one of your burners, look at it on a scale from 1 to 10. We don’t have to be going at 100% all the time to serve the value of that burner.
Let’s take mental health as an example, your 10 out of 10 might be to go to a yoga or meditation class once a week but a 1 out of 10 is just breathing in and out when you open your email inbox in the morning. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of time or intensity.
Use this scaling technique to work on those burners that aren’t currently your priority when you don’t have the time, energy or bandwidth to fully commit. It gives you permission to not have to be all or nothing all of the time.
Dr McKee offers you to take part in her free 5-day Bite Sized Habits challenge, you’re going to walk away with the tools you need to start creating healthy habits that stick. Get the evidence-based, research-backed blueprint for making lasting positive changes in your life.
Listen to a bit of a boost podcast appearance with fellow MD2MD speaker George Anderson.
Watch 5 Habit myths around health
Links to further resources Blogs, guest podcasts and newsletters
Watch Dr Heather McKee’s reclaiming time speaker workshop summary video for yourself
