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Tag: work-life balance

  • Time management

    Time management

    Whether you’re a student making your way through vet school or a practising veterinarian, nurse or technician, mastering time management is essential if you want to balance study, work and self-care.

    One of the most popular methods is the Pomodoro Technique, developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s and named after his kitchen timer that was shaped like a tomato.

    The principles of the Pomodoro Technique can be broken down to:

    • Identify the tasks/goals you want to achieve. This can be anything from finishing a draft assignment, completing study notes, reading x number of journal articles, or finishing all your histories.
    • Break them down into shorter tasks (Pomodoros). It’s important to approach this reasonably. What can you realistically achieve in 25 minutes? Keep these tasks small so you don’t fall behind and lose morale.
    • Work on the task for 25 minutes. This is an intense work period where you’re completely focused, so switch your phone to silent and avoid distractions.
    • Take a break. At the end of the 25-minute period, leave your workstation and stretch, and get a drink. Do whatever you need to do to reset your brain and get ready for the next work stretch.
    • Limit distractions. Try to work somewhere peaceful where you won’t be distracted by anyone. However, if you are disturbed by someone, the Pomodoro Technique has you covered:
      • Inform: let them know what you’re doing.
      • Negotiate: give them a time when you’ll be free for them.
      • Call back when your Pomodoros are finished and you can give them your time.

    No tomato?

    If you don’t have a tomato shaped kitchen timer at the ready, you can set a countdown timer on your phone or computer, or there are a number of free apps available that utilise this technique and can help you manage your time:

    This technique is a guideline that you can adapt to suit how you study or work best. For some people, taking a regular break when they’re really focused on a task can be interruptive, in which case just reward yourself with a longer break when the task is complete.

    Break it down

    If the task is not something you particularly enjoy then you can break it down to 12-minute time slots. Often you’ll find that, once you get started, you can usually knock off two 12-minute time blocks.

    Time management is something we all struggle with, no matter what field we’re in. For those in the veterinary profession, getting to grips with your time management approach, and fighting procrastination and distraction impulses, can give you more control over your time, therefore your life and general satisfaction.

  • Corporate feminisation

    Man in the shadow of a womanIn a previous blog, I alluded to the feminisation of the profession. Here, I speak very carefully to avoid confusion of this with feminism.

    I’m not going to preach equal rights or pick holes in generalisations, but the facts are unavoidable: feminisation of the profession is happening and we need to find the best way to embrace this.

    57% of practising vets in the UK are women[1.Source: http://vetfutures.org.uk/resource/vet-futures-literature-review/], and this balance looks set to tip even further in the female direction. However, I don’t feel this accurately reflects the male presence in veterinary education, which is significantly lower.

    Less than a quarter of students embarking on their veterinary degree in 2012 were male and – upon discussion with other students – it is evident that some schools are worse than others.

    So why is the gender imbalance significantly worse in education than in veterinary practice?

    It has been shown that men are likely to stay in the profession for longer than women, with more women than men opting for part-time work, so the suggestion that males are being put off the degree because it is seen as a less “manly” career choice seems a bit absurd to me – especially as sexism is still extremely prevalent, despite the female shift.

    In one of my interviews for veterinary school, it was suggested the reason males are declining in veterinary education is simply because females are outperforming them academically and so they just aren’t achieving the grades needed to make the offer for a place at vet school.

    Ladies toilet sign
    Image ©iStock.com/DSGpro

    You can speculate as much as you want to try and discover the reasons why, but feminisation is happening and the profession is changing as a result. Corporate chains of veterinary practices are increasing in number, bringing with them rock bottom prices that individual James Herriot-esque practices can’t compete with. But is the attraction of part-time work and “normal” working hours that the corporates offer more attractive, especially to vets (particularly female, but also male) with children?

    I think many of the fairytale illusions that some of us entered the veterinary world with are long gone. The profession is changing rapidly, and must continue to do so in order to accommodate for things like feminisation and increasing graduate numbers.

    While corporate practices may be a short term aid, and potentially offer a better work-life balance, I don’t think they are the ultimate answer.