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The Healthcare Professional’s

Guide to Stress Management:
A 10-Step Campaign

Manage your time

Problems with time management can be a major source of stress in your personal as well as your professional life. Many jobs in clinics and hospitals don’t allow for a great deal of flexibility (patients become ill and get injured 24/7), and the inability to manage the pace and flow of work can be stressful. So don’t expect that you will always be in control of your time, but when you do have minutes or hours that are yours to manage, make the most of them with a “to-do” list. This tried-and-true method really works — if you keep your list simple and use it consistently. To begin, make your list and then rank order tasks according to importance. For example, a project due in three weeks shouldn’t take priority over returning a phone call to a patient this afternoon. Don’t make your to-do list too long (i.e., it shouldn’t include all the things you want to do from now until the end of time). Indeed, you may set important monthly or weekly goals, but keep your list manageable by making a new one for each day, and make sure it includes the most important items in addition to the most urgent ones. Get in the habit of writing your list before you go home each night and you’ll find that you’re much more organized and energized at the start of each new day.

 

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