Category: General Medicine
4 hours a week
80 to 90 hours per week.
That’s the typical workload of a Doctor.
Overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated work, as the Doctor nobly fights to save each patient he or she comes across.
But what if instead of 90 hours a week…The Doctor worked only 4?
4 hours a week?
What would happen if that were the case?
What would the world look like where every Doctor only worked 4 hours per week in practising the craft of Medicine?
What would the implications be?
How can a Doctor work fewer hours and achieve a much greater impact?
Just some of the questions I’ll be exploring in my new Medium.com publication: The 4-Hour Medic
I’m importing the Tim Ferriss 4-Hour Work Week meme into the world of medicine to see what breakthroughs it can help unlock.
Maybe nothing. After all, this might not work.
Or maybe it will spark just a single conversation…a single idea…that leads to a breakthrough that changes the face of Medicine and health care for the next 2,000 years.
That’s the goal. Let’s see what happens.
An empty book
This year – if you want it to be – is an empty book, waiting for you to fill it with your dreams, goals and stories of daring failures and exploits.
This year – if you do nothing – will be a pre-written manual, filled with the agendas, directions and fearful thinking of those whose dream is for you to be a perfectly well-educated cog in the system.
What do you want it to be?
Leap ahead
While they’re struggling to fit in…dare to leap ahead.
10,000 times better?
If you take any activity and intentionally do it 10,000 times in a row…you will be much better at it than when you started.
That’s the simple idea behind this post.
Pick something, do it 10,000 times and you will get better at it.
Now whilst this might seem silly and obvious, it’s the perfect antidote for those who who are allowing the pursuit of perfection to rob them of the pleasure of progress.
They’re paralysed by trying to figure out how to get better, rather than focusing on just showing up to do the work that will make them better, the more they do it.
Ira Glass calls this “closing the gap”:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/24715531
The problem with this idea is one word: time.
It’s one thing to do something for an hour, a weekend, or even a year.
But 10,000 times in a row…seems like a daunting, insurmountable challenge that isn’t even worth starting.
And when you’re feeling frustrated and backed into a corner by unpaid debts, peer pressure, and the weight of your responsibilities…probably the last thing you want to hear is anyone talking about “10,000 steps” to success.
You needed success and breakthrough before yesterday.
If that resonates with you, then the good news is that you’re not alone.
Each person who quietly toiled away for 10 years, ten thousand hours, or ten thousand repetitions …before becoming a resounding “overnight success… did so whilst managing the exact same feelings and frustrations that you’re using as reasons for not starting this 10,000 step journey.
What set them apart is that they kept showing up to do the work despite how they felt.
They kept shipping projects, writing articles, painting a picture a day, recording a new song each week…consistently publishing messes in their pursuit of creating masterpieces.
That’s how they did it, and that’s how you’ll do it too.
Besides, the time is going to pass anyway, whether or not you decide to use it to walk a 10,000 step journey.
But if you do decide to walk this journey, you can do so with the surety that when you’ve completed it…you will be much better than you are right now.
So given that you know the path to walk (do it 10,000 times in a row), and you know that it’s going on take some time…here’s the critical first step you must take:
Pick something worth being better at.
What would you like to be GREAT at over the next 5 to 10 years?
You know the answer to this.
It’s the answer that others have often silenced because of how “impractically fragile” it seemed when you uttered it.
But this answer holds the key to your sense of satisfaction and fulfilment. It’s the reason for you being alive on this planet.
And 70 years from now, you will be so grateful that you dared to invest 5 to 10 years of your time to become better — even GREAT — at something you reaped the benefits of for the next 60+ years of your life.
It’s the equivalent of putting a single $10 bill into a machine…and being given six authentic $10 bills in return.
Again — as Ramit Sethi often says — the time is going to pass anyway. In fact, it’s been passing as you’ve read this article.
All you have to do is commit to intentionally doing 10,000 reps of that thing you’re passionate about…and you will win.
Don’t look at the time you’ve lost already, or even at the where you wish you already were.
Instead, look at where you’re going. Picture yourself being better…being GREAT…at that Thing you’re passionate about.
Fix your eyes on that picture, and then take a step. And another one. And another one. And just keep stepping towards it for no matter what.
Keep that up for 10,000 times in a row…and you’ll win.
Become a meaningful specific
…and not a wandering generality. — Zig Ziglar
And the key to doing this is being brave enough…to pick one.
Be clear and specific about the ONE thing you stand for in each area of your life, and then use that ONE thing to define everything you do.
You already know how to do this, and you already familiar with that persistent Whisper that wakes you up at night with “impractical” ideas, images and thoughts about who you really are.
Dare to allow that “still small voice” to have a greater (final) say on the specific decisions you make in your life.
Reject the deception of “keeping your options open”.
Fiercely commit to becoming a meaningful specific, and refuse to remain as a wandering generality.
Lifetime Patient Capacity
What is the Lifetime Patient Capacity of a Medic?
What is the maximum number of patients that a Doctor is capable of treating or consulting with over the lifespan of his or her career?
And why does it matter to figure this out?
Under the 20th century industrial-complex model of medicine:
80 hours/week × 50 weeks/year × 40 year career = 160,000 hours.
160,000 hours of service as a Doctor.
If you could see and treat a new patient every 10 minutes, you’d be seeing/treating 6 patients an hour…or 960,000 patients over the course of a 40 year career.
960,000 patients.
Just 40,000 patients shy of a million.
And when you factor in the mortality rates and life expectancy of these patients over your 40 year career…The total number of patients you’re able to impact under the conventional system of Medicine will be much smaller.
Given how small each Doctor’s potential Lifetime Patient Capacity is…and how vast the number of patients is for various conditions…It seems important that we talk about the best way to use and leverage each Medic’s potential for the sake of all humanity.
Maybe one-on-one defense isn’t the best way.
Maybe we need to play a Zone.
Maybe the best defense is a strong offense.
Maybe the Heads of departments and Ministers of Health need to look like Doctors but think like Phil Jackson, Sir Alex Ferguson, José Mourinho and other legendary sports franchise coaches.
The first step to winning the health care battle is to look at our stats and use them to play as if we’re serious about winning.