Back to Clinic!
After a full TWO WEEKS OFF (my last day of work was Tuesday December 20 – so I truly had 14 days!) — I feel ready to head back to work! I am not really looking forward to seeing the state of my inbox (my guess is that there will be >20 Patient Advice Requests, >10 Staff Messages, >30 Patients with multiple lab results, and many refills.
BUT, I am looking forward to catching up with staff, seeing patients, and even (eventually) getting my EPIC inbox back to zero. I do plan on working a little later today but probably need to also allow for some catchup time on Friday afternoon when I have some admin time.
(What will I not be doing? Clinical work on my non-work days (ie, Tuesdays + Thursdays, or paid leave days). I want to continue to set hard boundaries around that. CLEAR being my word of the year and all!)
Screen Time Widget
I learned something from Kae yesterday! I am doubling down on my non-scrolling goals and was amazed to find out that you can actually add Screen Time as a widget on your phone’s home screen. Simply click to customize the screens, “add widgets” and pick Screen Time! I don’t know how long it’s been available, but I love it. Thank you Kae!
My goal is always under 100 minutes (1 hr + 40 min). Some checking of WhatsApp, texts, podcasts, Duolingo, etc makes this the lowest reasonable daily cutoff. Plus obviously my daily Wordle (thus far I’ve only gotten “3” in 2023. This will probably end soon though!).
Strava
I decided to go back on Strava after many years off. It has been motivating to see some of my friends and relatives KILLING IT in their workouts. Also Josh and I like to give each other thumbs up (ha). I am hoping that 2023 is going to be a big training year — as I’ve mentioned, I’d like to set “40s PRs” in multiple distances and maybe even approach some of my times of the past.
Maybe my super shoes (on their way to me) will help . . .
You can ‘follow’ me if you’d like by searching for my name; probably the only Sarah Hart-Unger there (the beauty of a hyphenate!). I’m also theshubox on Peloton though prepared to see just a bunch of strength workouts in my feed there!
19 Comments
I had 80 messages in my EMR inbox when I returned to the office yesterday and then got at least 20 more over the course of the day. Most are quick and easy to sort out, but I find it frustrating that people send multiple messages when they get an out of office each time they send a message and then get upset they didn’t get a response while I was away. We all deserve down time and are better at work for taking some breaks!
I go back tomorrow and can’t quite psych myself up for teaching prep and two chapters that need revising. I went Nordic walking today with a local group of old ladies and am doing a deep clean of our bedroom. Moved the bedside tables etc.
Same boat! I did an on campus writing retreat yesterday to force myself to work on an IRB.
When you get refill requests and patient messages, are they also routed to a nurse? Just curious. When I have made refill requests (though rarely through EPiC) – I know my messages to pediatric specialists are also viewed by a nurse (and APN, in some cases).
If those messages go to just you, wow, that’s rough!
Thanks for the screen time widget and pretty tech backgrounds recommendations!! Happy 2023!
Yay! I just read Kae’s post and added the screen time widget (thanks @Grateful Kae!).
Off topic question but I am wondering when/how Josh trains for things? He seems to work incredibly long hours so when does he fit it in!! It seems like he’s home after dinner every night! I’d love a “day in the life” or “week in the life” snapshot of how he fits in things he does outside of work!
I hope your epic inbox isn’t bad. I feel like I get so many responses from nurses and people covering for my doctors. But it must be a very different set up for peds endos? Or a different set up at your practice? I’m most impressed with my rheumatologist’s response time. I really can’t believe how fast she gets back to me – although as I’ve mentioned before, my questions can get billed as a “visit” if it’s more than 7 days since my last appt. So I think/hope she’s getting some compensation? I also really got to know my OB’s nurses during my high risk pregnancies. I’d say “hi Dr. XX and Christie!” when I sent messages since 90% of the time I was hearing back from her nurse.
We are snowed in here with our kids since we got a dumping yesterday and more overnight + more is coming today. We’ve never had this happen. But we do not have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. So much for getting back to “normal” this week!
Some things were covered but some weren’t. Making great progress though!
Josh sometimes does late runs and some days he doesn’t have to go in as early as I do and can run after.
If anyone else is on Android, there is also the screentime widget for us. Moved some things around to put it on the front as well. Thanks for the tip!
Oooh the screen time widget is excellent…except it doesn’t work for me! It stays on the same time throughout the day. I want to be able to glance at it and get an answer without actually opening up the screen time app. Does yours do this, too? Or is it just adding the widget so it is accessible and it’s too much to ask that the widget display the current screen time for the day?
(I have no idea if I explained that correctly, but basically when I added the widget it was at 38 minutes for the day, and that is where it stays. When I click on the widget I can get the updated minutes, but the display on the widget itself stays at 38 minutes)
Mine does update throughout the day! On the widget, without having to click on it. I did have one instance yesterday where it seemed to get “stuck” and then suddenly bumped up a whole bunch all at once- I’m not sure what happened. But today it has been updating normally all day- a different time amount every time I look, and when I go into the Screen Time app itself, it matches what the widget was showing (and will say like “last updated at xx:00). Maybe try removing it and reinstalling the widget?
Thanks. I have uninstalled and reinstalled and found that it DOES update…but just sort of on a delay. Which sort of defeats the purpose of giving me the real-time data, unfortunately!!! It seems like it only updates when my phone screen is on and doesn’t refresh in the background. I can’t figure out if there’s a way to change that but I’ll keep trying!
SCREEN TIME WIDGET IS A GAME CHANGER!!!!!! I’ll stop type shouting now but giant thank you Kae & Sarah!
Sarah, come on, that home screen is too perfect. Mine looks like a crazy carnival fun house next to that minimalistic, beautiful perfection!! 😆😅
Exciting about super shoes on the way!! You may know this already, but I’ve heard that the shoes with carbon plates have a life of 150-200 miles, compared to the usual 300-500 miles in standard running shoes. I have a pair that I keep for racing and maybe one or two workouts leading up to the race. (I used them a few extra times the first race cycle to make sure they didn’t cause any issues). That being said, some of my friends use them all the time. I just don’t want to pay for them every month or two! Good luck on your training an upcoming races. I’ve always loved your blog, but as an avid runner, I’m really enjoying all of your fitness updates.
Yes! I am saving them to race in plus 2-3 workouts pre race!!
I love this wallpaper/background idea. Changed my work desktop to the same January scene with little cottage and it is bringing me a lot of joy!
Will follow you on Strava, I find it motivating to follow other runners, especially people I know.
Will follow you back!!!