Calm the Chaos & Cultivate Harmony: Step 2 – Take back control of your attention.

Last week we covered Step 1 – Taking back control of your time.

As residents and academic physicians with full lives outside of work, the demands for your attention are numerous! Those demands add to the chaos and seeming lack of harmony. This week, we are moving to step 2 of calming the chaos – control your own attention with 4 key tips.

Be present. You may recognize...

I don’t know a single physician who hasn’t felt overwhelmed at some time, and commonly, felt it very often.  For a long time, I was too busy keeping my own head above water to notice how/what others were doing to deal with it.  Surprisingly then, it was actually during a moment of overwhelm that I discovered another possible perspective.

A few weeks after the 2004 Tsunami that leveled much of Indonesia's Banda Aceh province, I worked with an NGO medical...