This question really is the Holy Grail, isn’t it?
It is after all what everyone wants so you would have thought that mankind would have worked out the answer by now.
Well, it has. The issue is that in order to work less and have more fun you need to have a certain mindset. And this mindset is one which everyone tells us is bad. One which our parents said proved we are lazy and would not get us anywhere.
You see I try to work a three and a half-day working week with about 10-12 weeks holiday a year. And many people I talk to think I am lazy.
You see our parents and society instilled within us that we must study hard, work hard and never slack off. Well, the problem with that is that work comes first and our lives come second.
Then as medical professionals, if we feel we are not looking after our patients we feel as if we are slacking.
If that is true, the chances are our ability to work less and have fun will not quite work out as we expected.
But let me ask? How does that make you feel? You see most people are unhappy about following what other people believe. Does that make sense to you?
So how do you work less hours and have more fun? Here are a few pointers
- You come First. Work comes Second.
This is the biggest step you can make. If your work comes first then even if you are on top of things you will find something to do which keeps you busy, such as medical research, etc.
If you, on the other hand, put yourself first, the things you want to do suddenly happen. You just have to put time to it.
For example, I always have Friday off. This usually means limited phone calls & no emails. It is actually a day for my wife & I to be together. By putting us before work we have more fun.
- It’s about what is important.
How do you know what is important and what you need to spend time on so you have more fun?
Well to help you I have designed a ‘Wheel of Desires’
This Wheel of Desires shows the common things we want in our lives. It is below
So rate yourself. If for example your financial life is great and just as you want it to be it is a number 10. If it is a bit shocking it is a 0. And just because you earn $600,000 but spend $580,000 on your lifestyle does not mean your financial life is great. It means it is probably only 5 because there is likely to be a pain as you have not prepared for the future.
You need to not just think about it casually. Think about it in detail.
Now do it for all parts. If you want to have more fun and less spend time working you need to move the needle from low numbers towards 10.
So how do you do that? Well, it means spending more time and focus on it. So if your financial life is at say 5 you have to ask what you have to do to get it better. It might be seeing a specialist who works on increasing wealth who can help you.
- Its about doing only what you need to do
So I know what you are thinking? It’s all well and good saying spend more time on the above but where is the time going to come from?
This is a common question that I hear when we discuss reducing hours. However, I have found that once your mindset is based on enjoying your life the way you want it be then you will work more towards making it possible.
The only way to work less hours is to be
- Work efficiently and effectively
- No, do it at all
Working effectively and efficiency goes only so far. Not doing it at all is a lot better. Ahh but you say. I cannot delegate looking at a 4-year-old who decided to stick Lego up their nose.
Besides the next patient could be George Clooney or Olivia Wilde and you definitely don’t want to miss that.
I am not saying you do not do medical work. That is just not practical. But what I have found is that most medical practitioners do more work then they need to and by delegating more routine work down the chain can give you back hours.
So how do you do that? Well analyse what you do and only do what you have to do. The rest get someone else to do it.
The only way I can get away with working 3 to 4 days a week and take so much time off is because I only do what I have to do. So all you need to do is medical work. Everything else should be done by someone else.
