Organization Skills

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Organization Skills

• James Adams, MD
• Professor and Chief
• Division of Emergency Medicine
• Northwestern University Medical School

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Goals

• Learn techniques for keeping track of activities
• Learn ways to accomplish goals
• Learn ways to manage life.

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Core lesson of efficiency

• It is amazing how many of the things we do will
  never be missed
• Nothing is less productive than to make more
  efficient what should not be done at all.
• Peter Drucker

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You have to have a goal.

• Even if you win the rat race, you are still a
  rat.
• Lily Tomlin

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At the end of your life, what will you wish you
had done?

• Spent time with family.
• Contributed to society and the world.
• Done good deeds.
• Left a legacy.

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Think about your contribution to the world

• Family, spirituality, yourself first.
• Nothing else works otherwise.
• Important, but how urgent?
• Your intellect, your gifts second.
• Realize your power, through focus.
• To focus, we need ambition, organization
• With focus, ambition, organization, we have power
• Important, but how urgent?

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Important Urgent
Not Important Not Urgent
Not Important Urgent
Important Not Urgent
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But I am too busy!!!!!!!!

• With what?
• Running around, paying bills, buying groceries,
  taking care of children, finding a mate,
  cleaning the house, getting the car fixed, doing
  shifts, fighting with my neighbor, sitting in
  traffic, writing a compliant note, going to
  meetings, trying to exercise, answering email,
  getting a divorce, taking care of my parents,
  trying to lose weight, trying to make more money,
  trying to sleep, fighting with my boss,
  organizing my life.

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Life is short

• Do you have a vision for your life?
• Only if you have vision do you have real power.
• Today, and for at least 1 minute every day from
  now on, make this thought important and urgent.

10

• Hard work pays off eventually, laziness pays off
  now.

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• What is power?
• The ability to achieve your objective.
• Ability to make an enduring contribution
• If you have power, but never use it, do you
  really have power?
• Where does power come from?
• From passion, skill, talent, leadership,
  position, skill, kindness, charisma, societal
  respect.
• But these have to point toward a vision

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• We become what we think about every day.

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• Nobody well-rounded ever changed the world.
• Margaret Meade

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We must do it better

• Or you wont have 20 years of experience, you
  will have 1 year of experience 20 times over.

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What defines you?

• This is what you will become
• This will be your legacy
• This is what you will think about every day
• This is how you will improve the world

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Now what?

• www.saem.org
• Read/Explore
• Do literature searches
• Find like-minded individuals
• Request that the SAEM program committee hold a
  session
• Join the interest group

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Give up thoughts of perfection

• Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and
  draw with the other at the same time.
• Dont even try

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• In a game of chess, the number of possible ways
  of playing the first 4 moves, per side, is
• 318,979,564,000
• You dont have to know everything to be a master

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Dont ignore the details

• In 1987, American Airlines saved 40,000 by
  eliminating one olive from each salad served in
  first class
• The little things matter

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Effort and Ambition are required

• Husband Honey, weve been saving since 1979 and
  we are finally able to afford exactly what we
  started saving for.
• Wife, You mean a brand new Mercedes?
• Husband, No, a 1979 Mercedes

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Dont point out others flawsFocus on yourself

• Father, to his 9 year old
• When Abraham Lincoln was your age, he walked 5
  miles to school every day!
• Son, When Abraham Lincoln was your age, he was
  President.

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• Organize your life around your priorities, dont
  organize your priorities around your life.
• Get the stuff out of the way.
• How many of the things you do should not be done?
• Find peace
• Find focus

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• Urgent
• Important

Not Urgent Important
Urgent Not Important
Not Urgent Not Important
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You MUST do important but not urgent work every
day

• Did you ever forget to answer email for a few
  days?
• How many problems just disappeared?

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• Fax machine
• A device that allows someone in another state to
  pile work on your desk.
• Get rid of opportunities for not important work
  to come to you.
• Create the urgency
• set deadlines
• set goals
• schedule yourself

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• We become what we think about every day
• Think about family
• Think about a specific goal
• The chaos will always be there
• If you think about the chaos every day, what will
  you become?

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• Our ability to screen out stimuli is the
  foundation of our success as a physical being.
• Do you feel the sensation of your shirt?
• Do you feel your bladder filling up right now?
• It is getting fuller and fuller and fuller.

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• The ability to succeed is the ability to
  selectively focus out stimuli.
• Why is the image of the absent-minded professor
  so enduring?

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• Be absent minded every now and then
• Scrutinize your movements.
• Ask What am I really getting out of this?
• You should gain something from every meeting.

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Have a goal or intent

• Be generous, be selfish, but dont just be.

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• First thing in the morning.
• Go to bed with a morning priority.
• One important thing to that will advance you to
  your goal
• Make a phone call
• Look something up
• Write every day. No need to make it perfect.

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Your schedule

• Schedule key events.
• Put time in to rest, to think.
• Your secretary should not have your schedule,
  your spouse should.
• When are you most efficient?
• When you are busy! Plan busy times. Put meetings
  back to back.
• Schedule urgent, not important meetings after
  your evening shifts.

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Learn to say NO.

• Thanks so much, but I would not be able to make
  the commitment this year.
• I appreciate the offer, but right now I would
  not be able to devote the time to do a great job.
  Maybe later.
• That is something I would love to do, but it
  just is not going to work at the moment.

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Focus. Focus. Focus.

• What is worth thinking about every day?
• What interests you?
• What motivates you?
• What would you like to leave as your professional
  legacy?
• Consider this your hobby.

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• How many clinical shifts to the leading
  investigators in EM do each month?

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Choose your priorities

• If you have chosen wisely, you will be
  interested, sometimes excited, by your academic
  adventure.
• Share your knowledge.
• Write
• Generate energy, focus, and time and get it done.

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If you have chosen wisely

• Others will help you
• They will forward articles, share ideas, speak
  about you as an authority.
• You will feel rejuvenated by breakthroughs.
• You will be happy that the topic defines you.

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With focus

• Read, read, read
• Use Endnotes
• Collect books and a few key articles
• Speak to the residents on your topic.
• Dont do research,
• advance thinking.

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• You become what you think about every day.
• I think about my next grant.
• I think about my next article.
• I think about my next lecture.
• I think about my next meal.

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• The icons you need ON THE COMPUTER DESKTOP
• your curriculum vitae
• your lectures
• your writings
• Your endnotes
• Your internet searches

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Paper files

• Working files (temporary)
• Action items
• Project/ongoing items
• Reading, informational items
• Archival (permanent) files
• Label with nouns, not adjectives
• Decide on your filing needs

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Filing

• Alphabetically
• great for names, lousy for most other files
• Subject
• Good when you need subfolders
• Tickler
• Dated, detailed tasks
• Chronological
• Good for ongoing projects, monthly back up

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Files

• Move major themes to boxes
• Eliminate dated items
• If you dont use it, store it

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How do I get the stuff out of the way?

• Buy less things.
• Use less technology.
• The must have technology will be obvious to
  you. Technology takes a long time to manage
• Make sure it adds huge value to you
• Endnotes, cell phone, internet/medline
• Keep your focus.
• Soccer games can be efficient.

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• A surgery resident from Brigham and Womens
  Hospital in Boston also writes for the New
  Yorker. He also is married, has 2 children, and
  does research. After a recent essay titled, When
  doctors make mistakes, he was interviewed by the
  Boston Globe. How could he do all this?

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• Dont feel guilty about rest. Take it as your
  reward and your right.
• Make academic work your hobby. It should be
  enjoyable and relaxing.
• Dont let the interests of random others occupy
  your time.
• Exert energy, feel empowered, and focus.

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• "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug
  used by mankind."
• Rudyard Kipling