67. How to Stop Dreading Charting and Finally Get It Done Faster with Dr. Mary Leung

00:05 Dr. Ann Tsung Are you struggling to advance your career and sacrificing time with your loved ones because of endless to-dos, low energy, and just not enough time in the day? If so, then this podcast is for you. I am your host Dr. Ann Tsung, an ER critical care and space doctor, a peak performance coach, a real estate investor, and a mother of a toddler. I am here to guide you on mastering your mind and give you the essential skills to achieve peak performance. Welcome to Productivity MD, where you can learn to master your time and achieve the five freedoms in life.

00:51 Hello. Welcome to Productivity MD Podcast. I am your show host Dr. Ann Tsung. Today we have Dr. Mary Leung here. She is a full-time hematologist oncologist. She is also a life coach with a special niche in charting efficiently for physicians. Also, a mother of a 15-year-old, a 12-year-old, and a real estate investor. The reason why I have Mary up here today, because in Productivity MD, we want to learn all things peak performance in all areas of life. And charting and getting out of the clinic or hospital quickly to get back to your kids or your loved ones, super important here. So if you’re not a physician, maybe you can still take some mindset tips from here. If you’re a physician, then this podcast episode is for you. So, Mary, thank you so much for being here today. Would you tell the audience why did you get into charting efficiency and coaching in the first place, and what prompted you to begin, go down this route essentially?

01:53 Dr. Mary Leung Yeah, thank you so much, Ann, for having me today. So just to be brief, I always thought that I would just be a physician simply to help people. So after fellowship, I took my first job. I’m still in that job, you know. It has changed from private practice to part of a big institution. Before that happened, I found myself I was just working longer and longer hours. The main thing was really charting into the nights and a lot of times in the weekends. And really, seeing patients became a routine, almost a chore, that I did not enjoy anymore. Because what I really valued was the doctor-patient relationship, the special connection, outside of the diseases and the diagnoses. So I just found myself very miserable, overwhelmed, stressed. Of course, thinking back and looking back, I realized that I was really burned out because I was just going through the motions and all. Then the pandemic came. That was the first taste of me being able to go home on time, because I was only seeing a third of the usual patients that I would be seeing. And that was wonderful. Of course, I did not want the pandemic to happen. But something that came out of it was that I had that taste of this wonderful thing, that I was able to really spend quality time with my family. I thought, what if I could do that if I was going back to seeing the same number of patients as I was before? I see about 20 to 27 patients a day, hematology, oncology. So then, at that time, I also had time to just explore other things and realize that there are a lot of physicians doing things outside of clinical medicine. Curious, I wanted to just feel better. I would do anything to make my life better. So I just took the big leap of faith and joined life coaching program for physicians by physicians. So that’s what changed my life forever.

04:05 I was working with a coach at that time to really talk about that, hey, it was really charting, the long hours I was working that I did not sign up for, that was really a big part of my burnout. At the same time, it’s because still at that time, still during the pandemic, I got into a certification program for life coaching only to learn more about the subject itself. And it made so much sense. So within about three months, I was already going back to seeing 20 some patients a day, and I was able to go home by 5:30 with all my charts done and everything done. That felt wonderful. And I thought, why? I have all this time that I have free out besides spending with my family. What about helping other physicians to do the same thing, so they can also enjoy the time outside of medicine, and maybe they will also enjoy medicine again? Because now I have the capacity, physically and mentally, to connect with the patients again and really to know them deeper than just labeling the diagnosis and treating them. So that’s how I started these coaching endeavors while still working full time. Now I’m actually going home by five o’clock with all my work done.

05:27 Dr. Ann Tsung That’s awesome. So did this coaching that you received, that’s what initially helped you get home by 5:30?

05:35 Dr. Mary Leung Yeah, so it’s the coaching that kind of taught me how to really be mindful of what we’re thinking. Because that affects how we feel. And of course, we, human beings, are really emotional beings. We act upon our emotions. So by thinking things differently, by using different perspectives, we will feel differently. The fuel that we use, our emotions, will just drive us to do things differently. And of course, if you have a more pleasant or more energizing emotions, you’re going to do things more efficiently, too.

06:07 Dr. Ann Tsung Would you tell the audience why they should care about this, you know, the physician who’s been charting? And also, from the clients that you’ve worked with, what are the common pain points that they’ve been dealing with, and what can they expect if they actually take some action to make some progress towards getting charts done to get home on time, et cetera? What is the shift that you have seen?

06:29 Dr. Mary Leung So in the beginning, I think one big thing is actually how we feel. I’ll just say that probably three of the most main emotions before is that it’s like frustration, anger, stress, or even overwhelmed — I felt that before. Now it’s more like you’re more in control, more content, more grateful. So I think that shift is so important. Because it’s like once you feel like you’re in control, you actually get more things done too. Of course, when you have more time — and that time is not something that we can go back and buy back, but there is something we can do about it. It’s be more efficient in doing things. And so even if you don’t change your job, there’s something you can do to change things and make things better.

07:17 Dr. Ann Tsung The feeling that you get is so important. It basically dictates how you go about your day, how you interact with your kids or your spouse, right? I’m sure people have been wanting to change for a long time. They want to get out. They feel like the system is against them, and they feel like they just are not really supported, I’m guessing. What do you think is the most top three common habits or mistakes that is in their control that they are doing that’s not allowing them to get their charts done?

07:48 Dr. Mary Leung So first of all, I want to say that the system has to change. Yes, there’s no doubt about that. But before that whole overall can happen, the little things that we can do individually is going to be so helpful, not just for physicians or not just for work but even just for our lives in general. So I think the three things: one is that they think it’s the events of the day that is kind of like dictating how we feel. So one thing I always clarify is that, sure, there are events in the day. There are some predictable and unpredictable things. They’re neutral. It’s just when we label them or when we put an opinion on them, that’s how it generates our feeling. So you can actually change your feeling by thinking differently, as long as it’s believable. Also, you can kind of prepare your day differently. Sometimes it’s like, a lot of times when we get up in the morning, by default, if you’re not intentional about it, you may think that, “Oh, today is going to be a long day,” or, “Oh, there’s that one patient I really don’t want to talk to,” something like that. You already feel the dread. You already feel like you don’t want to go about your day. And so you’re going to drag your feet. You’re going to do things slower, and maybe you’ll feel annoyed easier because of that as opposed to — I always share that you can be intentional about how you start your day, even before you start your day. When you wake up in the morning, just decide how your day is going to be like. So for me, my sentence is, “Today is going to be a good day no matter what happens.” It may not be a sentence but it may be something like, “Oh, today is going to be a manageable day,” something like that. And guess what? Then you’re going to feel more energized. You’re going to feel more able to be more focused and more upbeat about it, and you’re going to do things faster. You’re going to be focusing better, and you’re not going to be distracted as much, and get all these little things count. At the end of the day, you’re going to feel better, and you’re going to finish faster.

09:55 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, I love that. Setting the intentions of the day before you go into a shift or before your clinic day instead of saying, “I can’t. It’s gonna be like a crazy day. The patients are going to interrupt me. I’m going to have an EKG in front of me, whatever, as I’m putting orders.” But setting the intention. I think I remember when I was really trying to work on this in the ER, I said that “I can only do one thing at a time. One thing at a time,” which the only thing I will interrupt is EKGs. I’ll sign the EKG. Or even then, like if I’m putting an order, I will finish putting in the orders then sign the EKG. But if it’s nothing else, if it’s all other interruptions, I’m not going to stop my workflow on the computer and then do something else. I’m going to finish this chart right in front of me, and then I have a list of things like to do, right? So it’s so important. If you can set your intention, then your mind will actually focus on getting, hitting that goal for the day. So maybe, like, I need to get up by 5:30 today. Then you will not allow any distractions to switch your workflow, to task switch as much. That sounds like mistake number one, right? Not setting your intentions. What about number two and three?

11:04 Dr. Mary Leung You Kind of touched on this. It’s like multitasking, you know. So people believe that, oh, they can do everything at the same time. But it’s like, as you said, your brain is only capable of doing one thing at a time. The “multitasking,” it’s really your task switching from one thing to another. And so every time you do it, it takes you seconds or even sometimes a couple minutes to get back to where you were doing. So if you do this 50 times a day, you’re wasting minutes of doing things. If you can, I’ll just say, especially in the outpatient setting, you want to see the patient and do the chart. Because that way, it’s like you’re finished with one patient and just everything — all the orders, all the notes and everything. Then you can go to the next patient and focus on that one. Because without doing that and then your mind is going somewhere and then you pick up a phone call, and you think you can do that, but it will take you actually longer to complete each of those tasks. So I think that’s the second thing. It’s like, don’t multitask. Just do one thing at a time. Because when you focus on one thing at a time, you’re going to do it faster.

12:11 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, I still in the ER, at the most, I let it build up to three patients. But usually, it’s like, well, after one patient, I would write my note, or after two patients, I would write my note really quick with the Dragon smart phrase. It goes very fast, at least like an assessment plan to get whatever you need down, and at least the basic HPI. Because once you’re out of that mindset of the workup that you’re planning on doing, to go back to it at the end of the shift, like you said, takes twice as long. It’s like, I don’t remember. The note is crappy because you don’t remember. It’s kind of making things up. Read your chicken scratch on the paper. At least, that’s what I used to do. So what is number three then?

12:50 Dr. Mary Leung The belief that I have to keep the patient as on time as possible according to the schedule. So, of course, you would like to do that. But don’t use that as an excuse for you to say, “Oh, if I have to do that, then I got to do my charts later.” So when you do that, we kind of talked about when you go back to writing those charts up, one, you’re already tired at the end of the day. Your brain is starting to shut down, and then you still have that pile of virtual charts to do. Or, if you still do paper chart, it’s still literally a pile. You don’t want to do them. Then it takes you longer to remember what you did. And yeah, as you said, it may be chicken scratches. You’re just kind of making things up. You’re like, okay, did that person have a murmur or not? You’re not going to remember the details as well. So it will take you two, three times longer to do the charts. That’s actually one of the mistakes that I made in the past. And so if you’re allowing yourself to say, “Hey, I’m just going to use a few more minutes to finish that patient’s chart before going to the next one,” you’re actually doing the next patient a favor. Because then you can really be fully attentive to the next patient without thinking that, “Oh, I forgot to do this thing for that other patient or three patients before, and I need to do that.” Then you’re distracted, and then you can’t pay attention. It’s all going to be a mess.

14:24 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, you want to go into your next patient with a clean mental slate, essentially. Like no attention residue whatsoever. You want to be able to not be distracted. Also, you don’t want to be distracted when you’re home with your kids or your spouse because you’re worried about having to complete those charts too. Because it sounds like, number one, if you’re taking time off at home to do your charts, then your spouse doesn’t get your time. Your kid doesn’t get your time. They feel like you’re working too much, and you’re not even getting paid for it.

14:57 Dr. Mary Leung Yes, and for every hour that you’re working, basically, you’re working for free. And you’re actually paying to work. Because guess what? If you use that hour or so to see patients, you’re actually going to earn some money. But you’re like double paying almost yourself. You’re giving away money, basically.

15:16 Dr. Ann Tsung You are paying other people so you can lose time with family.

15:21 Dr. Mary Leung That doesn’t sound too well.

15:23 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, I just think that we often don’t look at our hourly rate. If you look at, I think I talked to another physician before, like how much she was doing charting. Sometimes she’ll wait till her kids go to bed and then she’ll chart like, I don’t know, 8, 9 PM until midnight. Then she’ll do it again and again and again. She’s just drowning in it. Then she’s actually working — I don’t know. She’s salary, so she doesn’t get paid by the hour. So her hourly rate was probably close to half or maybe 75%. Cut by 25% to 50%, let’s just put it that way. So we talked about the top three mistakes. It’s the not setting intentions at the beginning of the day, thinking that you can multitask and you stop what you’re doing and to do something else. And also, it is to essentially taking charts home, thinking that you want to keep things on time to see the patients, and that you end up just thinking to yourself, I can do that later. But that is at the expense of your loved ones’ time, your own quality time that you will never get back and you’re not getting paid for. You’re actually getting paid less. Paying other people, paying the hospital too, not enough time with your loved ones, which is counterintuitive. So I would say, if somebody who is ready for change, they know what they need to do — so they’ve heard this, at least these are the biggest mistakes — what is the most common barrier, still, or a mindset change that they have a really hard time to take action and actually just do it?

16:59 Dr. Mary Leung I think one of the most common things that I’ve heard is that physicians will say that, “Oh, I’ve tried all things, you know. I’ve tried everything.” That’s one thing. The second thing is like they don’t believe that it will work for them. So I think those two are really the main obstacles. Not so much the technique part of things; it’s really the mind. Because I do believe that whatever we do, it’s 80% is our mindset, and everything else kind of follows. So I think the important thing is really be open and be curious about things. Be light hearted about things. I know no one really likes charting. I do it as a means. As long as you have to see patients, we have to chart something. Charting is really just a communication tool to remind us of what we found out about the patient, what our plan is, and to communicate that information with the other clinicians. So we don’t have to do it perfectly, you know. We always say like we are A plus students, but now B plus work is okay with the charting. So I think it is important to let that go, the perfectionism, but also really to believe that you can do it. Don’t think about the how just yet, but just believe it first that, hey, if someone else can do it, I can do it too. Because they are proof that it is possible. And it’s not just one person who did it. It’s like many, many people can do it. So I think that just to have that belief is so important. Also, be open to trying different things. Because it’s like, sometimes maybe you just have to tweak a little bit different technique and be able to do it the way that you want to.

18:44 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, the number one. Let go of perfectionism, it’s number one always. It’s mindset then the how. So letting go of perfectionism. Number two is believing that you are resourceful. You’re a physician. You graduated in med school, and you know that you can get this done if you want it to. If you prioritize it, you can do it. Then the technique thing. Just probably two months ago, I changed one technique, and that’s really helped me. I use MEDITECH in the ER. I don’t know if you’re familiar with it. But lots of clicks. Not like Epic where you have — well, the Dragon has smart phrases. But with MEDITECH, you got to click, click, click, click, click, click, click a lot of required items. That doesn’t have a smart click like Epic. Anyway, though, my technique was like, I actually had a smart phrase that has my HPI, have my review system and my assessment plan all in the free text box of the main HPI. Then that worked because I don’t have to go into click in the review system, click the vitals and go click and find the physical exam portion and put in the physical exam. As long as you document everything in there, it’s there. So I just put everything in one free text box in the front page, and I edit as I go. Then just there’s like two clicks, the subsequent pages, and that’s it. Like two required clicks, and that saved me so much time.

20:07 Dr. Mary Leung Oh, yeah, sure. I think you brought a good point. It’s like, of course, every EHR is different. You just have to know it well, whatever you use. So if you have to use three different ones because you go into three different hospitals, you have to know them really, really well so you know the techniques, kind of like the little shortcuts and what you can do to kind of get around things. I actually did something like you did for a one-year trial system. It’s like, I also do the same thing for them. There’s too much clicks, too many different sections that I have to click on and type my notes. I’m like, forget it. I’m just going to do it all in one box. That’s how I do actually for my inpatient notes because of how the EHR was set up. So I think that is really, really great. The other thing is, also, you mentioned, it’s like the text expanders or whatever you call it. If there’s something that you always go back — like say, for me, it’s the assessment for anemia. Say, I have the whole differential diagnosis — I just open up. It’s like anemia. It’s like, hey, this is what it is. I think this is this, is this. Then I just change a little bit of things. Or, like, I do bone marrow biopsies. I just have the procedure note in the text expander. So I just type in like BMX, for example, then the whole paragraph pops up. I just have to change how much light again I use, left or right, which side I did. So that’s so helpful.

21:31 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, that’s a great point. I didn’t use to save all of them in my Dragon. Now I’m like in the process of saving. I used to go through the procedure box and click, click, click, click, click. A size like, what each size ET tube, and what meds you use, da, da, da, da, da, da? Now, you pretty much use the same meds, you know. So if you can do that, if you have Dragon or, like you said, some other smart phrase that you can say for all the procedures that you do, that would really save you a lot of time. You don’t necessarily have to click through everything. Like in the ED, we have special forms or HPIs for special complaints. With each special complaint, there’s different required clicks. For an NIH Stroke Scale, you need to click that. Differential, you have to click a specific thing. But I just moved over to just everybody’s general. Everybody has a general template. Less clicks, less required clicks. Everything is in one box and be done. So find out if there’s something like that in your EHR that you can do to do less clicks.

22:35 Dr. Mary Leung Exactly. Because as long as you document everything you need to document for the information and also for the billing purposes, like the level of billing, say, if you’re level four, you got to document a certain degree of information. As long as you do that, that’s it. Then move on.

22:53 Dr. Ann Tsung Yes, agree. What are your thoughts about — there’s a lot of scribe AI type tools, where I’ve demoed one at Emerge, where you could just do it on your phone. It records everything on your phone. You can set up your assessment plan the way you want, and then it connects to the laptop or desktop. It basically pastes onto a Word document, and it will transfer. You can copy and paste it to your EMR, electronic medical records, so you don’t have to have it integrated with your electronic medical record. Then each physician can have their own. You just kind of pay monthly. You don’t have to deal with hospital IT system, et cetera. So I’m curious, what are your thoughts about those?

23:33 Dr. Mary Leung Yeah, I think I got the demo also. I think it’s a great tool to use. I mean, I haven’t used it because I’m part of the institution. I don’t anticipate them going to pay the money for it. But I think for private practice positions, especially if you’re not good with typing fast or using the Dragon, I think that’s a great way to do it. Be it be the AI or even like a person to scribe, that’s kind of the same thing. So I think that it may save you a lot of time just because, by the time that you’re done with talking to the patient, then you already have the whole note. Then you just have to look at the note to see if there are kind of mistakes or anything that you need to change. So I think it’s a very, very useful tool. I hope that more physicians, especially behind, really just to explore different options, to see what worked for you.

24:28 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, I’ve heard that you can actually be more present with your patients, and it actually catches things that they say that you may not have actually caught until you go back and you see the quotes. I’m like, oh, okay. That’s what they said. And I know, for what we demoed, that you don’t necessarily have to have the hospital buy-in. I think there’s a dongle that you can connect to the laptop or desktop, depending if your hospital system allows you a space. You could just get your own account and start recording as you’re in the room with the patient. You just copy and paste that note into whatever EMR you’re using. But yeah, I would say, if you’re in clinic — I mean, sorry. Clinic leadership. Because I know there’s a concierge medicine clinic. They want their docs to leave on time to have less burnout, et cetera — it could be something that you could do. There are also virtual scribes, like you said. They get on either the phone or something, and they are real-time scribing for you. I had ScribeAmerica, who is like an in-person Scribe. If you get an experienced one, it’s great. If you don’t, you’re going back to edit a bunch of stuff too because either it’s missing a lot of things, or it’s not correct interpretation of what she said or what the patient said.

25:44 Dr. Mary Leung Yeah, and also, I think if you’re using a real person scribe, you got to train that person really well. Then, of course, you’ll maybe in a little trouble if that person is out, or on vacation, or something like that. That may be not the quality that you want. The other thing is virtual, I think, is the same thing. I guess when I talk about the charting, I would say that I’m not for the transcription services. Only because that you usually kind of send it out, and then you don’t get it back until the following day. Then you have to look through the clinic day all over again, and then you have the real clinic day the same day. So that’s probably not the best thing to do. If you can, just do everything the same day.

26:30 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, if it’s possible. I mean, I’m really a fan of Dragon. After I started using it, I’m like, you have to go back and look. But it’s quite good in all of the medical terms. You can just speak your smart phrases, and everything just populates. I can be way faster than having an in-person scribe because everything is in my own words and my thoughts. So if it’s possible, look into Dragon for your clinic, or maybe the hospital can get some licenses for the physicians working. Because the more patients you see, the more money they make, right? So use the financial incentive.

27:05 Dr. Mary Leung Yeah, actually, for me, it’s like, I don’t have a scribe. I just do everything myself. So I’m mainly doing outpatient. When I go into the room, I just start typing. When the patients tell me how they’re doing, I just start typing. Sometimes, occasionally, I’ll have patients that’ll say that, “Oh, I’ll wait till you’re done.” I’m like, “No, no, you continue. This is all about you, so I don’t forget.” Then they’re okay with it, you know. It’s just little things. Because also, I think the way that the room is set up is so important. Because my exam room is set up that I’m facing the computer, I’m also facing the patient. So I’m actually looking at them while I’m typing. Then I just glance on the screen just to make sure I don’t make silly typos. So I think that’s really helpful. So by the time that I’m done with the patient encounter, I’m actually, at least the HPR part is done. Then, of course, if it’s like a follow-up patient, a lot of things don’t change. Then I just change whatever I need to change. Or sometimes, if the patients, they love to talk, I may let them talk while I’m typing the rest of the notes. So by the time that I’m done with seeing the patient and get them out of the room, I’m already done with the note.

28:11 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, I know there’s discussions in the past. Like, the patients want you to be — it’s a tug of war. The patients want you to feel like you’re listening to them and be present and looking at them. And so it’s like an art form where you can kind of look at them, look at them mostly, but you want to get the HPI down at the same time and type. So learn how to type blindly really well. Any other last tips that we haven’t discussed that your clients or physicians you’ve talked to that they’ve really found that worked well for them, like something they didn’t think about or something that they tried that was like it made a big difference?

28:49 Dr. Mary Leung I think the big thing is, as we mentioned before, it’s, really, set the tone for the day. Just pick your own sentence to start your day. One of the things I also find helpful is, it’s really to have a quick morning huddle with my little team. I work with a medical assistant, and they rotate. I don’t work with the same people all the time. I just set the tone for them, too. Because I say that today is going to be a great day. These days, when I work with them, whoever, they actually say it first before me. So it’s like, you want to work with a team. Because if you work with a team, it’s better communication. It’s going to be more efficient. Because then, you know what the other person is doing. Of course, the focusing part is so important. That’s why you want to set the tone for the day and minimizing distraction. So that’s a couple of things. It’s like, you know your own distraction. Meaning, like your mind. If you catch yourself wandering off, bring it back to say, “Hey, I’m seeing patients right now. I don’t want to think about what Facebook is writing about.” So you have to bring your mind back.

29:50 The other thing is the external distractions like the emails, the phone calls. So you may want to put your personal phone away or silence it. And also email, turn off the notification. Because every time you hear the notification, you may be tempted to look at it. But even if you hear the thing, you’re may be like, “Oh, what is it about?” Then you decide if you want to look at it or not. That’s already a few seconds of your time. Then also, the kind of develop protocols for your staff, to say, “Okay. This is when you can absolutely interrupt me. Otherwise, don’t.” And see if there’s like a triage nurse or somebody who can take the calls. And maybe, sometimes you don’t even have to be involved in the phone call, and they can take care of it. All these little things add together. Kind of like you’re saving seconds here and seconds there. In the whole day, it really adds up. I think the other thing also important is really, be your own cheerleader. Meaning that, it’s like you’re mindful of how you’re doing what you’re doing. Say, if you have 20 patients that you’re seeing in the day, after two patients, you can just say to yourself like, “You don’t have to have a big celebration with confetti or whatever.” But just say to yourself, “Hey, acknowledge it that I’m 2 patients down. 18 more to go. Let’s do it.” And really, that little boost of dopamine, it’s really energized for you. Then it will take longer for you to feel tired. Of course, taking breaks is so important. Like scheduled breaks, not like the unscheduled breaks. So you have to break before, the bathroom breaks, lunch break. Because those are the time that you can really be refreshed, recharge. Because if you work straight through — which actually used to be one of my mistakes. I thought that I had no time. I couldn’t have lunch because I had all this work to do. And guess what? Second half of the day, I was slower because I was getting tired, and I was making all these decisions. It’s kind of like the physician with the physician’s fatigue, because we’re making life-and-death situations all the time. So we need the time to break. Like even a five-minute break, that is so helpful. So I think all these things just add together. That’s how I kind of save, I will just say two and a half to three hours a day.

32:02 Dr. Ann Tsung That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s all micro habits stacked together. First, you want to remove all the distractions. I talked about gray scaling your phone, taking away all the notifications, nothing on the badges. If you gray scale your phone, make your phone black and white, then you’ll be less distracted by it or wanting to check it. And remove the notifications. Like you said, nothing swiping, coming down, dropping down, nothing in the lock screen. Or just put your personal phone away, not touching you, so you don’t feel the vibration. You’re like, “Oh, I got to go check out. Who is that?”

32:33 Dr. Mary Leung And also the watch.

32:36 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, I was like, there’s no way I’m getting that watch. Oh, my God. It’s so scary to me. But yes, if you need to put your watch away, well, turn it off somehow if there’s a way, then do that. Because that every moment of distraction, it takes you like — it depends on how brief — 5 to 20 minutes to get back into flow again. Right. Setting expectations, morning huddle, showing gratitude to them, and then telling them expectations that if I’m putting in orders right now, then don’t interrupt me. Or, if I am actively speaking into Dragon, then don’t interrupt me. I mean, if it’s something important, of course, like life-or-death situation, if there’s an EKG, you could just put it on the side and I will get to it. Things like that. Then I think, what was the last thing, just to summarize? There was one last thing you had talked about.

33:21 Dr. Mary Leung Celebrate.

33:22 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, celebrating. Yes, like the wins and taking care of yourself. Like you said, hydrating. I do some green juices, or I do my supplements. Throughout my shift, I still take my supplements. I used to get out on time. I would definitely eat. I would usually be charting. But recently, in the last two shifts, I have actually just sat there and ate for like 5, 10 minutes and not sit in front of the computer. Because to be productive, like you said, you want to pull back, give your brain some rest time to get back into flow again. So that’s awesome.

33:58 Dr. Mary Leung That’s great.

3:59 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, thank you so much for everything that you have shared. I know that was a lot. Lots of action steps. If they just take one step, one micro step or one micro action, what would you suggest the audience take?

34:11 Dr. Mary Leung I would say, set the tone for the day. That is kind of like the biggest shift. I think a lot of people don’t realize that, oh, I can actually do that to change my day around. Of course, pick something that is really believable for you. Because right now, if you think that, oh, today is going to be a wonderful day, if it’s not believable, it’s not going to work for you. So maybe instead of having a dreadful day, maybe it’s like going to be like an okay day or a manageable day, something like that.

34:39 Dr. Ann Tsung Yeah, a manageable day. Or, today, after two patients, I’m going to go back and chart no matter what. Then I will go see the next patients. Because they’re always going to be there. I mean, at least in the ER. They’re always coming.

34:53 Dr. Mary Leung Yes, that’s true.

34:55 Dr. Ann Tsung It’s not like I can count down from 20 to 18. So, for me, they’re always there. Just pause after two. For me, do the charts and then the next two, and then next two, and then next two. So that’s awesome. Thank you so much, Mary, for coming on the show. How can people find you if they want to learn more about your coaching and learn more about especially how to get them out of the charting hell?

35:20 Dr. Mary Leung So I offer this one-on-one physician coaching program, and you can find me at shiningwithgratitudemd.com. Because I’m really full of gratitude to be able to get to this place. My email is [email protected]. I do write a blog post twice a week. I just share my thoughts also on Facebook and LinkedIn. On LinkedIn, I’m Mary Leung, MD.

35:45 Dr. Ann Tsung Awesome. Thank you so much, Mary. Everybody, go to her website, or just email her right now. Take a micro step right now. If you’re interested in diving in and getting coaching from her, take this micro step right now. Send the email. A lot of times, after this, you’ll say you’re going to do it like in a day or two, but you’re not going to do it. So do it right now. So, again, thank you so much. Everything that we talk about, it’s going to be in the show notes at www.productivitymd.com. And for anybody who’s interested in joining the Productivity MD Time Creators Mastermind, you can join that at the website, too, to learn more tips and tricks about how to maximize your efficiency. So, again, Dr. Mary Leung, thank you so much for being on the show. And for the audience here, just remember that everything we need is within us now. Thank you.

36:36 Dr. Mary Leung Thank you so much for having me.

36:39 Disclaimer: This content is for general information purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine. No doctor or patient relationship is formed. The use of this information linked to this content is at the user’s own risk. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical conditions they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions. The views are personal views only and do not represent any university or government institution.