#56| Realistic Productivity For Busy Physician Spouses

Productivity feels impossible when our day is built around interruptions, mental load, and everyone else’s needs. We share realistic ways to plan, focus, and build simple systems so we feel more in control without waking up earlier or chasing perfection. 

• why feeling unproductive often means living in an unpredictable environment 
• using a running brain dump list to get tasks out of our head 
• building a daily top three that feels doable instead of defeating 
• organizing priorities by home, work, me, and family 
• using 45-minute timers plus 15-minute resets to reduce multitasking 
• creating simple systems to cut decision fatigue and save energy 
• meal prep, grocery delivery, and meal rotation for easier weeknights 
• running lists for dinners, errands, ideas, and family plans 
• picking one household project a month to make steady progress 
• letting messy days count and redefining what a win looks like 

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DM me on Instagram or email me at amanda@abtnhomes.com with your thoughts, topic ideas, questions, or even guest suggestions.

Transcript

You Are Not Unproductive

The Brain Dump Running List

Daily Top Three By Category

Timers For Focus And Resets

Simple Systems To Cut Decisions

Meal Prep And Meal Rotation

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey there, and welcome to Behind the White Coat. I'm Amanda Barron, your host, physician spouse, and your go-to friend for real talk about this medical life. If you're juggling long hours, solo parenting, or finances and feel overwhelmed, you are not alone. This podcast is your space for honest conversations, real advice, and the support I wish I had years ago. Some episodes will be just me sharing what I've learned. Other times I'll bring on guests to help navigate the challenges of being married to medicine. So grab your coffee or wine, get comfy, and let's dive in. Hello everyone, and welcome back to Behind the White Coat, Real Talk for Physician Spouses. And I am glad you are here today because this episode is um basically gonna be for those of you who suffer from productivity. And my hand is raised on this, but it's not the kind that, you know, color-coded schedules. It's not gonna be like the 5 a.m. miracle morning, it's not you have to get up earlier. It's not that kind of advice. It is gonna be talking about like real life productivity when you are either home with the kids and you are the primary parent, or maybe you are working from home and you have kids at home, or you don't have kids at home, you still have multiple responsibilities where you are working plus dealing with all the home stuff, and your day can feel like it's constantly being interrupted. And if you've ever tried to answer emails while making lunch, reheating your coffee for three times, you know, or felt like you're just got nothing done. Even though you were busy all day long, this episode is gonna be for you. So before we get into strategies, I want to say this clearly. If I could stay up later. You are not unproductive. You are operating in an unpredictable environment, you know, where you are pulled in different directions, you're wearing many hats, and there's a big difference, especially when you are home with kids or working from home, your time is fully um not yours. And your focus gets interrupted constantly. Your energy is being pulled in multiple directions. And if you're anything like me, um, I feel like I have adult ADHD. Um, and this is self-diagnosed. So I just feel like I am constantly multitasking, bouncing between things, getting easily sidetracked because I'm working and then an Amazon, I'm working from home and like an Amazon delivery comes, or I hear the buzzer on the dryer, and just just remembering all the things. And it was like, what was I doing? I've got to get back on track. And especially if I was doing like deep focus work or in the middle of writing a blog, like sometimes it takes me a while to get back on track. And so, you know, a lot of times you feel like you're falling short, and I get it. I feel the same way. I by no means have all the answers and would love to throw, you know, have us all throw out some thoughts and things that that I feel like have helped me. But obviously, for those of you listening, if you do have tips and tricks and advice, I know so many of us have so much to share and things that we could learn. So I am definitely a list person and I used to have the longest, most unrealistic list ever. I would write all these things, and obviously I could not finish all of these to-dos on my list in a day, and I would move my unfinished items from today to tomorrow to the next day, and add them to an already full list for tomorrow. And it was daunting. I felt defeated before I even started my list. And so there's some things that I have implemented and have changed that have really made a big difference for me. And so I just want to share a little bit about that with you. Hopefully, it will help organize your day a little bit better, help you feel a little bit more productive throughout the day. So, one thing that I do first is create an ongoing list, whether it's on my phone, Google Drive, actual pen and paper notepad, whatever works for you. But I write all the things that I need to do, I want to do, goals that I have, and just keep this running list. And then each night I prepare for the next day. And this is something that I feel like has probably been the biggest change for me that I just sit down and write the night before and I create my list of daily top three. And I will explain this, but first I just dump, you know, anything from my brain on this list. And a lot of it is just so that I don't forget. Um, it allows me to free up space in my mind. So I'm not worried. We've all been there in the middle of the night where we wake up because we forgot to do something, and so I feel like I sleep better since I've started doing this. And like I said, this list can be goals, dreams, appointments, to-dos, shopping lists, birthday present, work items you have to do, kids to-do list, just a brain dump. You know, there's there's no rules to it. And then I look at this list and I'm constantly adding to this list. But at night, when I do my daily top three for the next day, and this is where I feel like it starts to feel a little bit more manageable instead of this running long to-do list. So I break it up into home, work, me, and family. So I have these four things I break it up to up into, and then I have three top things under each category. So three top things under the home, three top things under work, three top things for me, and three top things for my family. And again, everybody's list is gonna look different, but maybe for my home is laundry, is planting plants, and then it is making dinner, again, making this up. But for work, maybe it is checking in on all of my clients who are currently under contract. It is writing a blog, and it is um, you know, calling these five people back for me personally. Maybe it is a doctor's appointment, maybe it's getting an exercise or movement, and maybe it is a coffee date. For my family, it could also be an appointment. It could be signing papers, it could be, you know, doing one of my kiddos laundry, whatever that looks like. But I have these four categories: home, work, me, and family. And then from that big running list, I take three items of each and put them under there. Do I always get them done? No, but it's very much less daunting. And why this works is because what most of us do is rewrite 15, 20 things down. We get interrupted all day. We maybe finish five of the 15, and I still end the day feeling like, oh my gosh, I didn't get anything done, or I feel like I failed at something, even though you got five things done. Um, but you don't feel that way anymore. I feel like this gives you direction, gives you clarity. Um, you don't feel quite as overwhelmed. You have a sense of accomplishment. And there's nothing more defeating than a to-do list that grows faster than you can check things off. You keep adding faster than you keep doing. So this allows you to brain dump all the things so that it alleviates some of the stress and all the overload in your mind. So that's your big list. And then you break it up into smaller, actionable items that actually feel doable. So that would be my first tip is the brain dump or running list, the daily top three. And you obviously don't have to break it up like I did. This just happens to be what works for me. And then the second thing that I do is everybody always says, you know, I need to manage my time better, or you need to use time blocking. And obviously, it's different for everyone. I will be the first to admit I have tried color coding, I have tried time blocking, um, and it just doesn't work for me. I don't know why, I don't know. It's just the way that I think I may need to have a little bit more flexibility. It just hasn't worked for me. So, what has worked for me is I have always loved actual timers. They worked great for my kids. They also work great for me, they help me focus. I kind of work against the clock. I remember I used to make it a game for my kids. Like, okay, let's see how much we can get done in five minutes. And it it really has helped me, even when I was like, I don't want to unload the dishwasher. If I actually timed it, it was like five minutes and done and over. And so when I actually saw the amount of time things took, it changed my, you know, my mindset and my uh perception of some of the things. So I have implemented that along with my top three list. So I set a timer for 45 minutes. And let's say I am in my work section for 45 minutes. I look at those top three things. I'm not multitasking, not bouncing around doing household items, just focused work on those top three things 45 minutes. And then when the timer goes off, I have a 15-minute reset. And what I do for that 15-minute reset is maybe I do a quick walk outside just for a little movement. Maybe I read, maybe I go make a hot cup of tea, but I do that reset for whatever will help me come back and focus again in the next 45 minutes. So after that 15-minute reset, I do 45 minutes again. But since I just did a work block, sometimes I'll do a second work block if I didn't get through all of my top three. But if I need a break, then maybe I'll focus on home and I'll do 45 minutes and work on my top three things focusing on home, whether it is prepping for dinner, laundry, vacuuming, sheets, you know, whatever's in your top three for home. And then after that 45 minutes, I have another 15-minute reset. And so again, whatever that reset is, maybe it's just scrolling on Instagram for 15 minutes, but it is my 15 minutes to do what I need to do for a reset and I don't feel guilty. And then I do it again, 45 minutes, and then maybe it's family. And so for 45 minutes, I'm making appointments, or maybe I had to go in and order Christmas cards or whatever those top three were for the family. And so that is how I kind of quote unquote time block and focus for the 45 minutes. Um, and then obviously change it up for whatever works for you. But that just seems to really work well for me because it still gives me structure without rigidity and it works really great for, you know, if I did get interruptions, but I'm like in a zone for 45 minutes. So I try to silent my phone, I try to just really focus for 45 minutes and it seems to keep my brain engaged, it seems to help with my productivity, and it also helps me not get burned out where I've just sitting for hours on end or I'm stiff. I've actually gotten up and moved, and so it's it's definitely helped. Um the next thing that I would recommend is um, you know, some sort of systems, and I feel like this really saves you. And again, it's not about doing more. I feel like if you have a really good system, it's actually making you decide less. Decision fatigue is a real thing. That's why things like the capsule wardrobe works because you have a small amount of choices, it makes decision making much easier. So I do the same as far as like in life trying to implement these super simple systems, which I know some of these you guys know, but it does help to just hear it again. So one obviously is like meal prep. So we meal prep one day a week. I have groceries delivered, so that makes it so much easier. It can save time, mental load, and it's actually pretty quick because I can click on like order these items again. Um, so I don't, and honestly, it has saved me money. I don't have mindless shopping when I'm hungry and throwing stuff in the basket, or especially if I have my kids or my husband, they're always throwing extra stuff. So for me, it's actually been a time saver and money saver. So I have those delivered, and then Sundays is just meal prepping, whether it's chopping veggies, it's roasting veggies, it's prepping protein, or making some protein, or we like to make quinoa or rice ahead of time. So it makes it super easy for salads and bowls, and it just saves so much mental energy during the week when you're tired or you have late nights, whether it be because of work or school events. And sometimes I'm not home, but my kiddo's home. He can just heat up stuff that's in um the refrigerator and it just makes things a lot easier. The other system we have that has made a big difference for us is like meal rotation. So we don't try to reinvent dinner every night. For those of you that make huge family meals from scratch, that's amazing. And we are just not in that season of life currently. So we have 14 meals on rotation that work really great for us. And then again, like these simple, easy meal preps where we can do bowls and salads pretty easy has definitely helped. We also keep running lists of things that as a family make things helpful for us. So grocery lists, um, whether it's a dinner list. So if somebody is home first, they can start making dinner if we don't have something already prepped. Um, like I said, our to-do list, ideas, ideas or movies or restaurants we want to try. We keep running lists so that it just removes, hmm, where do we want to go tonight, or what movie do we want to see tonight? It really sounds so simple, but it makes things so much easier and we're not constantly trying to reinvent the wheel or or think harder than we need to on a night that we're really tired. And then, like I said, we love lists. So one of the lists we make is um a project list, and then we pick a project a month that we kind of focus on. Sometimes it doesn't take a full month, and then sometimes it does, but we have limited time because of kids' schedules or work schedules or my husband's call schedule. And so a lot of times the project may be organizing a closet, it may be restaining a deck, it may be organizing photos, whatever that happens to look like, painting a bathroom. We keep this list, and depending on how long we think it's going to take, also weather, if it's going to be something that's outside, and we kind of focus on that, check it off, and move on. I know a lot of people do the same thing, but it's projects like more zoned for the house. So garage projects or bedroom projects, bathroom projects, and they just keep a running list and kind of check through it that way. So I hope this helps a little bit. Um it's just the way that my brain kind of works and it helps me kind of come up with a good plan. But some days will feel messy and some days you won't get your top three list done. And some days survival is your win, and that's okay. You are doing a full-time job, caring for the house, managing your home, trying to be productive, and maybe trying to work as well, and that's enough. And so I would love to hear from you. If you have any tips or advice that you want to share, things that you have found to make things a little bit easier, more manageable, please send them my way. So many of us are wanting to work smarter and not harder. And so I would love to hear from you. Send questions, concerns, comments. It just really helps all of us kind of get a good plan of action and learn from each other and what makes life a little bit easier and more manageable. So remember that we are in this together. And thanks for joining me. Until next time. That's a wrap on this episode of Behind the White Coat. I hope today's conversation left you feeling more understood and supported. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another physician spouse. Your support helps more of us connect. This podcast is for you. So let's keep the conversation going. DM me on Instagram at Amanda BarronRealter with your thoughts, topic ideas, or guest suggestions. I would love to hear from you. Thanks for spending part of your day with me, and remember, you are never in this alone. Until next time.