Healthcare environments are fast-paced and stressful. Patient care is endless but rewarding. However, finding time to build your skills, develop resilience to avoid burnout, advance your career, and enhance patient care can be challenging. You may feel overwhelmed about making meaningful changes in your life. We have tips on using microhabits to manage your time, advance your career, and improve life for your patients.

What Are Microhabits?

Microhabits are small, consistent actions and behaviors that you do daily to change your life. Instead of taking big strides with life changes, you take them step by step with manageable practices and goals. These small steps add up to achieve the greater goals of acquiring new skills, developing resilience, advancing one's career, and providing better patient care.

What Happens with Big Habit Changes?

While change is beneficial, it needs to be implemented gradually and thoroughly. Permanent, meaningful differences in your life and career are not made all at once. Significant habit changes are not as long-lasting as small, steady changes. Some problems with big habit changes are:

Changing Too Many Things

Making too many changes can cause you to lose focus. When trying to change multiple things, you cannot focus adequately on each one. Change requires establishing new behavioral patterns. Each new change requires a difference in your routine, and setting new routines takes time and effort. You are more likely not to carry through with multiple changes. Putting all your effort into one change saves you time and energy, setting you up for success, not failure.

Expecting Immediate Results

Changing habits takes time. With big habit changes, you might expect immediate results. Significant habit changes don’t allow you to take time to see what works in your habit and routine. A big habit change mentality puts you under pressure to do everything at once, a sure habit killer. A microhabit approach helps you meet your goals gradually and permanently.

Lack of Consistency

One reason habits fail is a lack of consistency. Consistency is key to habit success. You need to work on your habits on a regular schedule. Keeping track of too many habits means you are scattered among habits, and you can’t be consistent with all of them. Using a microhabit approach means you can track your progress and be consistent.

Not Having a Clear Plan

Tackling too many habit changes at the same time means you don’t have a clear plan for each habit. Lack of planning leads to not tracking your progress, frustration, and abandoning your goals for the habit. In contrast, using a microhabit approach allows you to create a plan for reaching your habit goals.

Suggested Microhabits for Healthcare Professionals

There are many areas where you can develop habits that benefit you and your career. Some proposed microhabits focus on personal care related to maintaining your health, while others address workplace-related habits. Some microhabits to consider are:

Microbreaks

Taking a few minutes during your work recharges you mentally and physically. Take a few minutes to step away from work, stretch, or refill your water bottle. Even taking just a few minutes to breathe deeply can help recharge you during your shift.

Better Sleep Hygiene

Have a consistent and earlier bedtime routine. A healthier bedtime routine may involve minimizing noise and limiting screen time before bed to improve sleep quality. A microhabit of better sleep hygiene helps you cope with workplace stress, contributing to delivering excellent patient care.

Prioritize Tasks

Learn to prioritize tasks based on their importance. Focus on urgent and essential tasks first. While you can’t always control what is urgent and critical in emergent medical situations, plan what tasks you can control. Use a day planner to identify tasks that require your most pressing attention.

Time Blocking

Dedicate blocks of time for routine tasks. An example is checking and responding to emails at the same time. With dedicated time blocks, you know when you are doing something, and you do your tasks routinely. This helps your career by demonstrating that you complete tasks, are consistent in doing so, and are dependable. Reliable healthcare professionals are leaders respected for their work and are successful in their teams.

Communication and Patient Relationships

Make it a habit to check if patients understand the information you have provided. Use plain, non-jargon language and provide translation for patients who require these services. Encourage patients to share their concerns. Communication is at the heart of good healthcare practices. As a professional, being a good communicator helps you give better patient care and succeed in your career.

Learn One Clinical or Leadership Concept a Day

Having a successful career means constant learning. Try to learn something new in your profession every day. Read medical journals, watch videos, or listen to podcasts. Some suggestions are UpToDate Talk, NEJM Journal Watch, or MedEd podcasts. Continuous learning helps you maintain your professional skills, knowledge, and career competence.

Microhabit Tips

Microhabits require time, patience, and effort. Be patient with yourself and refrain from judging your performance. Failure isn’t failure but a learning experience to help you grow more knowledgeable about yourself. Habits are about progress, not perfection. And you don’t have to go through the process alone. Ask for feedback from your colleagues, family members, friends, and managers. They may have valuable advice on how to manage and succeed in changing habits and advancing your career.

Microhabits help you develop lifelong skills and knowledge. These seemingly insignificant changes add up to long-term growth for you and your career. When you take care of yourself physically and mentally, manage your time effectively, communicate clearly, and learn, these small changes benefit you, your team, and your patients who rely on your presence, competence, and compassion.

At ChenMed, we encourage employees to develop good habits to help them succeed in their careers. Our culture is supportive of your career, your professional goals, and the healthy habits professionals pursue.

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