Episode #73:

How to Improve Your Efficiency by 40%

October 20, 2022

Shownotes:

Episode #73: How to Improve Your Efficiency by 40%

Get your free copy of the 5 Step Ultimate Guide to Stop People Pleasing here.

About the Episode:

What if I told you, you were wasting 23 minutes every hour?!?!?!

Would you want to learn a way to stop wasting this time?

Well, here's the thing, it's highly likely you are.

You see, most of us do something that feels like no big deal in the middle of our work days.

We switch tasks. And, we do it multiple times throughout the day.

Here's something you may not have realized, every time you task-switch, it takes your brain at least 23 minutes to get back into your flow state.

But, there's a way to not let task switching rob you of your precious efficiency.

On this week's podcast, I teach you how to stop wasting those 23 minutes every few hours and improve your efficiency by 40% by doing one simple thing.

Get your free copy of the 5 Step Ultimate Guide to Stop People Pleasing here.

Coaching for Latina Leaders

About the Podcast

Leadership ability is equally distributed but opportunity to lead is not. This podcast is for all women, those that identify as leaders and those that don't, yet. You'll learn how to let go of guilt and self-doubt so you can show up with confidence everywhere you go. No more questioning if your idea is good enough to share, if it's worth it to speak up, or if you're a good enough leader. All that self-critical B.S. stops now. Listen in as masterful educator and Harvard grad physician, Dr. Vanessa Calderón, teaches you how to let go of the things standing in the way of your success as a leader. Get ready, this podcast will accelerate your personal and professional growth.

Dr. Vanessa Calderón, MD, MPP has over 20 years of leadership experience. She is a Harvard grad, ER physician, Life and Leadership coach, and a mother of 2. She's a first generation Latina and is dedicated to uplifting her community. She's the founder of the Latina Leadership Accelerator, where she uses education and coaching to support the personal and professional development of women at all stages of their lives and careers.

Leadership Accelerator

Is a 12-week Life and Executive Coaching program that will help you execute at a higher level, thrive in all areas of your life, and improve your self-compassion. You'll be able to:

• Improve your productivity by 60%
• 10X your Emotional Intelligence
• Have more time for the people you love
• Cultivate an unwavering sense of self-compassion

The next cohort starts in Fall 2022. Learn more and join the waitlist here.

Listen to the Whole Episode:

Full Episode Transcript:

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Full Transcript Here

73. How to Improve Your Efficiency by 40%
SPEAKERS
Vanessa

Vanessa 00:00
Welcome to coaching for Latina leaders, the only podcast dedicated to the advancement of Latinas at every level of life with your host, Dr. Vanessa Calderon, a Latina with over 20 years of leadership experience, Harvard grad physician and mother of two.

Vanessa 00:19
Hello, my friends, welcome back to the podcast. So today I am teaching you something that's going to help you work smarter and not harder, and will improve your efficiency by 40%. None of us wants to go out there and start doing a bunch of stuff that actually isn't effective. So I'm going to teach you a tool today to help your brain work for you.

Vanessa 00:43
Now, before I go on a quick plug for the Life and Leadership accelerator programs, that's my coaching program. It's open right now. And I would love to invite you to join us. Check it out at Vanessa Calderon, empty.com backslash join. Inside the program, I teach you how to be your most effective self, how to be more productive, how to get more done without stress and burnout, how to start using your brain at its highest capacity, and how to do all of that with a ton of self-compassion, a ton of grace. And the beauty of all of this is that by the end of your life, what is going to matter when you are on your deathbed looking back at life, what will matter, I'll tell you what won't matter, it won't matter how much money you have saved in the bank, it won't matter, you know the credentials or the letters behind your name. But what will matter is that you can look back and feel proud that you spent your life and your time aligned with the things that mattered and aligned with your values. And that's exactly what we teach you how to do in The Life and Leadership accelerator program. It's a coaching and professional development program like nothing else. It's the one program that's going to really teach you to up your game. Improve your productivity, your focus, and your performance. So come on in join us it is awesome. It's VanessaCalderonmd.com/join. And guess what we just made the program lifetime access, which means that if you join us now, you join us once pay once and you get access to everything the program has to offer moving forward, any updates, any additions, all of the good stuff, you get access to it for the lifetime of the program. Alright, my friends. So again, it's Vanessacalderonmd.com/join.

Vanessa 02:32
So let's talk about the episode today. So again, today, I'm going to teach you how to help how to have your brain work for you how you can work smarter and not harder, and improve your efficiency by 40%. Okay, so what I'm teaching you today is something called batching. batching is when you pull your work together that requires the same parts of your brain. And the reason why this works is because studies have shown that every time you switch between tasks, it takes at least 23 minutes to get you back into your flow state.

Vanessa 03:10
For example, when I sit down to create a podcast episode, I don't just draft one, I sit and I draft four episodes at a time. Because since I'm already in my podcast thinking mode, it saves my brain energy from shifting focus away and then having to shift back. And studies show again that when you batch your tasks, you improve your efficiency by 40%. Because it takes up to 23 minutes to get you back into your flow state. Now batching works so well that I do it as much as possible. So how do you do it? So the first thing I'd recommend you do is start by looking at your week and all of your deliverables, okay, so if you have a bunch of stuff you want to accomplish by the end of the day, by the end of the week, excuse me, I want you to list all of those out.

Vanessa 03:57
Okay. So for me, for example, at the end of this week, I want to have drafted and recorded for podcast episodes. So the next thing you need to do is you need to break down your deliverables into the nitty gritty actions that it's going to need to take. So for me, for example, I need to outline the podcast, I need to draft them, and then I need to record them. So once you have that down, check to see what of those things you can batch together. For example, the other thing I need to do this week is stay on top of my emails. So I put all of my emails together in one way to batch.

Vanessa 04:33
Okay, so once I do that, then I say if you guys have listened to last week's episode, the golden hour, I put the things that's going to require most of my brain power into that time that I know my brain works at its best capacity. So if you haven't listened to last week's episode, yet the golden hour, I recommend you go back and listen to that. So I put outlining and draft my podcast I know that's going to require a higher metabolic load on my brain. So I schedule it for what I'm going to be the most focused and productive. Again, for me, that's early mornings, usually on Mondays. So I block off my Monday mornings just for this task, I'm going to outline and draft all my podcast episodes. And I batch all my outlining. And then if I need to, I take a break, and then I batch all my drafting when I come back and draft them all. Okay, so then I know I need to record my podcast episodes. So I then batch recording separately. So recording for me does not require the same metabolic load as drafting and writing.

Vanessa 05:32
Now, recording for me requires a totally different part of my brain, because now I'm in speaking-presenting mode. So I batch my recordings altogether, but I don't do it during the golden hour, I put it later on in my day, you know, sometimes like two o'clock, or sometimes after sometime after lunch. Okay, so when I do that, I'm able to outline draft, and record for podcast episodes in about two, two days, or two half days. So I want you to think about right now, what are the things that you can batch? What does that look like for you? So I also batch all of my emails, so my emails do not require a high higher metabolic load. So it doesn't require me to critically think, for example, so I usually put my emails at the end of the day, I'll leave about 30 minutes or an hour for my emails. At the end of the day, I batch everything that I need to do, for example, for anything I need to do for the hospital, if I have any credentialing or anything like that I need to do i batch all of that together. Anything I need to do for my kids, if I need to schedule appointments, if I need to schedule after-school programs, I batch all of that together.

Vanessa 06:41
Okay, so you can batch literally anything. Now, there's only one thing that I don't batch, and I do this very intentionally. So if you're a physician, or you're an advanced provider listening, this one is for you. The only thing I don't batch is my charting. So if you are a clinician, again, I'm an ER physician. So the only thing I don't batch is my charting. And the reason why is this that my general practice is to complete my note immediately after seeing my patients, that info is fresh in my brain. And I can quickly get it done, open up my chart and get it done before seeing my next patient takes me less than three minutes to open up my chart and get my charting done.

Vanessa 07:23
Now the reason why I don't batch my charting and leave it till the very end is because if you are working as a physician, by the end of your shift, you're probably pretty exhausted, your brain is not going to be as efficient as it was at the beginning of your shift. And you probably will feel mentally fried. And what would have taken you five to seven minutes to complete, you know, each chart maybe would have taken you five to seven minutes to complete is now taking you double that time 10 to 15 minutes. So if you've seen, let's say 20 patients, that's an extra one and a half hours of unpaid time that you are spending charting instead of doing something that you actually enjoy. So the only thing I don't batch is my charting.

Vanessa 08:11
Okay, so, again, batching helps you improve your efficiency, it helps you improve your efficiency by almost 40%. Because when you switch tasks, it takes at least 23 minutes to get back into your float state. You can batch almost anything, you want to make sure you're putting things that require a higher metabolic load like creativity, focus, innovation, you want to put those things during your golden hour, go back to episode 72 If you have not listened to it yet to learn more about your golden hour, and you again, you can batch almost anything and I recommend you try to batch as many things as possible, except of course charting if you are a clinician, okay, my friends, I want you to take a second right now and ask yourself what tasks in the day can you batch? I want you to envision batching them and I want you to just imagine how much more productive you will be when you start batching okay, my friends, happy batching I cannot wait to see how much more productive you will be. And I will see you all next week at yours.

Vanessa 09:24
Hey, if you love what you're learning, then you've got to check out my free Ultimate Guide to stop people pleasing, where I teach you a simple five step process to stop saying yes. When you really want to say No, you'll be so glad that you did. There's a link to the guide in the show notes. I'll see you next time.