1- IT’S MAYYYYY! This is definitely a full month in our household. Every weekend has something if not multiple somethings, but this one is fairly chill (even if we will be fresh from whirlwind travel). Next week is my much-awaited Hopkins appointment. Then there is also the usual celebratory trifecta for me (Mother’s Day / my birthday / anniversary!). Not doing anything crazy but hoping to also fit in a short couples trip WITHOUT any connecting flights (actually no flights at all, keeping it low key). How is your May looking?
2- Having crafted my own decluttering calendar based on Tidy Dad‘s idea/recommendations, I am actually feeling somewhat motivated to tackle May’s area, shown below with June:
3- Interesting AI-related article about a lawsuit with Meta over pirated books (found via Modern Ms. Darcy’s newsletter). This made me sad.
4- Speaking of sad, this article helped me feel a tiny bit less panicked over the potential loss of federal funding for NPR (which is my favorite news source). (Of course, I still very much hope they don’t lose funding! But I didn’t realize that federal funding is nowhere near their main source of support.)
5- The talk/workshop went well! Josh actually got to hear my talk (he hadn’t heard it any official capacity before), which was fun. I did grand rounds and also a workshop with medical residents, which was actually a first for me (other than previous work with our institution’s residents!). We did an hour of clinical efficiency tips (with some discussion) and then I led them through an hour of seasonal planning; everyone seemed engaged and open to hearing my ideas.
I do feel like I can confidently travel solo in the future, but it was nice to have him on this first trip Post-Incident. And it made the crazy 24 hour day of traveling much more tolerable!
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I’m glad your Hopkins appt is next week! I hope it provides some clarity!! I am so glad it’s a new month, too, even though nothing magical happens when you turn the calendar page. April kind of sucked between Will’s surgery/recovery and me getting sick twice about 10 days apart. Plus the weather will start to really improve! We have a May anniversary, too, so I need to figure out when we get a babysitter and celebrate. I travel 3 weeks in a row in May so the month will be a bit of a blur.
well, it’s a week from Monday 🙂 but yes close to a week away! THREE weeks of travel Lisa- omg, that’s a lot! Will be rooting for you! On the upside think of the points you will hopefully be accruing for future travel!!
Would you be willing to share the full decluttering calendar you put together?? I’m feeing motivated looking at your May areas too! Makes me excited for summer.
I had the same thought/question! I love the idea of an annual decluttering schedule sorted in monthly increments and would take any ideas to jump start this.
Also, so excited that your Hopkins appointment is almost here! I hope it will bring you a lot of clarity and peace.
Let me just ask Tyler (Tidy dad) bc it’s largely based on his, from his book!!
I am so excited for May — the calm before the storm i.e. the 1,000,000 surgeries that happen at a children’s hospital over the summer plus new residents and fellows yay. This weekend we are going to Basan, which is a Japanese restaurant I’ve wanted to try for a while, I’m doing hot yoga on Sunday, and on Monday am going to the Holland tulip festival. It’s supposed to rain, but I’m hoping it won’t be too bad, and maybe it will thin out the crowds.
Now I am curious about the talk you gave to the residents. My friend and colleague has organized a residency prep bootcamp for our med students, and I wonder whether training in how to be efficient (in life? in the hospital? both?) could be of help to our students as well. What is your curriculum? I am realizing I don’t know a lot about whether these sorts of strategies are taught in the bootcamp we currently offer but definitely see this as super important training. Would love to hear more about it!
Omdg glad to learn you have a friend at work!
Sorry, what?
I did an hour of efficiency tips (rounding, documentation, not losing track of stuff in the clinical realm) and an hour of planning techniques- mostly focusing on planning in several chunks (season). I also have a talk that goes through ways to plan on different scales. I would love to make it even more specific to residency or more of a full curriculum of sorts!
Glad everything went well with your talk/workshop! I hope the Hopkins visit is really helpful. With the decluttering, perhaps you could select a few categories within summer clothes if your whole wardrobe is a bit much? Or do the kids one month and adults the next. There’s no rules hey!
May is also looking very full for us – no travel but full calendars for school, work, and social events. Things don’t seem to slow down until late June it looks like! Deep breath!
Congrats on a successful talk! How fun that your husband got to hear your talk. May is always full of mayhem around here, so I’m steeling myself for a whirlwind.
At this point, I don’t see anything truly exciting or truly tragic coming up for me in May. Which makes me think that May will be about as full as April. Now, this could be a reflection – for better or for worse – that I usually don’t plan for each month ahead of time.
I’ve actually never used the Meta AI tool for anything before I read the article “This Is How Meta AI Staffers Deemed More Than 7 Million Books to Have No ‘Economic Value'”. I noticed recently that on Audible, I can just listen to the book “Everything All at Once” by Mr. Bill Nye for free. I think we can dig into whether that’s Audible pirating the book “Everything All at Once”, or Mr. Bill Nye’s consensus to make the audiobook “Everything All at Once” free for all for a period of time, or something else.
And yes, I can find NPR’s sources of supports through their “Public Radio Finances” page.
Since you led everyone in your talk/workshop through an hour of seasonal planning, Dr. Sarah Hart-Unger, my understanding is that not only do you have 2 jobs – the Best-Laid-Plans job in addition to the Medical job, but that your Best-Laid-Plans job can sometimes benefit your Medical job.
I think I’ll also look into whether Mr. Tyler Moore got the name “Tidy Dad” by him appointing himself as the “Tidy Dad” or by someone he knows repeatedly referring to him as the “Tidy Dad” or if it’s any other story.
Wow that’s great that Josh got to see what your other job is really all about! I’m sure it was helpful to have him there and I’m glad it went well!
I love the declutterring calendar idea. Hoping you end up sharing your version!