Turning Technology Off - or, how I manage technology in the quest for balance

Today being July 1, much Twitter chatter has focused around advice for new residents, and fair enough. However, July 1 often also represents the beginning of independent practice for any physician lucky enough to finish residency on June 30th. This transition is a huge one, and it's where you find out all the things you didn't learn (or weren't taught, or both) in residency.

When I work with new colleagues, which is something I enjoy very much, I am often asked how I manage to juggle all the roles I play (Mom/Spouse, Physician, Educator, Administrator, and until recently, Student). This request often moves from the theoretical to the semi-desperate a few months into practice when everything is overwhelming, and, unlike a rough residency rotation, there is no end in sight.

The answers to this question are complex and worthy of much more than a blog post, but there are some very practical tips I pass on (read: things I learned the hard way).  In honour of July 1, I am posting about one of my favourite topics - Turning Technology Off. The irony of blogging about this is not lost on me, but since I can't have coffee with every new attending physician out there, I offer this blog, and my tips.  Grab your salt-shaker and prepare to take grains, as some of my advice is hard even for me to take.

Background

Four months after I started practice, my mother was diagnosed with a rare but terminal cancer at 58. She died 3 years later. Three months after that, my father required urgent bypass surgery, and decided to sell the family home and move closer to us. In the 5 following years, my son was born, and both my parents-in-law had multiple health crises, and they both died before my son got to 2.5 years of age.

Just after my father-in-law died, I realized I could not continue on as I had been doing as I was burning out. I had come back from a 5 month maternity leave 2 years before (an eternity by US standards but quite short by Canadian standards) to a significantly augmented leadership role, and, unexpectedly, we decided we had to forge ahead and design & launch a new curriculum in response to accreditation concerns. While I loved my work (I thought), I was not sleeping well, I was stressed at work and at home, and I was feeling increased guilt about time and energy spent away from my family.

There was a great deal of reflection at this point of my life, and while many of the changes I made were personal, this period was the birth of my new rules of engagement - and Turning Off Technology was born.

  

What is Turning Off Technology?

   
In my case, it does not mean going off-grid, or even avoiding computers at home - or really, would I be blogging? It is really  about setting personal boundaries and enforcing them in a technological sense.

It seems I have a lot to say on this subject, so there will be 3 interrelated posts (hey, I can't help this, I work in geriatrics - everything is complex and everything is related!) to follow.  As they're done, I'll link to them below. The first is about pagers and why they are still wonderful and relevant.  Yes, I sit around an dream up posts about ancient technology. I am, in fact, that cool.

Links - I'll keep adding them as I finish the posts:

Ode to my pager