In the first post for the “How I Work Smarter” series, I called out one my favorite, accomplished clinician-educators Dr. Victoria Brazil, because she makes extreme-productivity look easy. Victoria was kind enough to provide her trade secrets, and it is with great pleasure that I share her responses to the questions in this series.
- Name: Victoria Brazil
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Location: Gold Coast, Australia - Current job: Emergency Physician, Gold Coast Emergency Department Associate Professor and Lead for clinical skills and simulation, Bond University (aka ‘Bond girl’)
- One word that best describes how you work: Enthusiastically (mostly)
- Current mobile device: iPhone 5 (… there are other devices?)
- Current computer: ASUS Ultrabook 13’ (that’s right… not a Mac)
What’s your office workspace setup like?
It’s definitely ‘the cloud.’ I have 5 ‘offices’ – two different EDs, 2 different university sites, and home. My satchel carries a laptop or ipad, phone, portable laptop speaker, earphones, remote clicker, iPhone microphone adaptor, and adapters for lightning to everything AV, and occasionally lipstick.
What’s your best time-saving tip in the office or home?
Inefficiency is not necessarily poor productivity…. I spend a lot of ‘office time’ just chatting with people But I do use Dropbox, Any.Do, and Mozy back up to manage projects/ activities/ documents.
What’s your best time-saving tip regarding email management?
- Delete most.
- Ferociously ‘unsubscribe’.
- I use tags in Gmail. An email has to earn getting into my ‘AAA to do’ to be given attention.
What’s your best time-saving tip in the ED?
Try and build relationships with everyone, so you can delegate effectively and safely to junior staff, nurses, orderlies and even patients.
ED charting: Macros or no macros?
No macros. Write less. Disclaimer: our billing is not tied to our documentation in Australia.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received about work, life, or being efficient?
- Armani is always worth it (from my mother).
- Self discipline is far better than self esteem (also from my mother, I think)
- Very successful people are absurdly selective (from a random self-help blog)
Is there anything else you’d like to add that might be interesting to readers?
- I choose projects, jobs, and talks all based on who is involved – mates should always take precedence over prestige.
- Running is my creative time.
Who would you love for us to track down to answer these same questions?
- Hillary Clinton
- Chris Nickson
- Natalie May
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