Intended for healthcare professionals

Student Careers

Finding the time

BMJ 2008; 336 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.0805200 (Published 01 May 2008) Cite this as: BMJ 2008;336:0805200
  1. Emma Sedgwick, career coach and trainer1
  1. 1www.healthcareperformance.co.uk

Work smarter, not harder, says Emma Sedgwick

Do you use your free time for sport, drama, studying, visiting your mum, or staying bed? You decide

Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back. Harvey MacKay, US business columnist, author, and speaker

Do you feel that your life is busy, and you can't quite fit everything in? One of the many great things about being a student is that as well as the actual studying and learning there is so much else on offer. I noticed this when I was a student and was struggling to find time for rowing when studying for my pathology exams.

Later on, achieving a balance between work and the rest of my life has become an even greater challenge. After qualifying there are postgraduate exams to study for while keeping up a demanding job as a junior doctor, which may involve shifts. And there are relationships and possibly children.

Sadly many doctors don't feel they get the balance between work and the rest of their life quite right. I believe that one of the ways to adjust the balance is to become more efficient at using your time. Don't work harder—work smarter.

Think about time

NLP stands for neurolinguistic programming. “Neuro” refers to our mind, “linguistic” refers to the language we use, and “programming” is about our sequences of behaviour. NLP offers a useful way to help us think about time.

We all conceptualise time differently. There are two main ways of thinking about time. To find out which one you use, close your eyes and point to where you picture your past, present, and future.

People who are “through time” see …

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