Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
Donny Osmond, Seasons of Love from Rent
My kid he asked me ‘daddy when you coming home to me from work?’
If I’m being honest man that hurt.
O.A.R. I Go Through
There are a lot of important conversations happening around physician burn out and about work-life balance. I have also heard people say that work-life balance is a misnomer because balance implies equality. Equality of time is a standard that almost no one will ever be able to obtain. Using the song from Rent as my starting point my conservative (back of the envelope calculations) are:
525,600 minutes/year
-10,080 minutes a year traveling without my family (7 days in a good year)
-171,360 minutes a year sleeping (51 remaining weeks x 8 hours (if lucky) x 60
-172,800 minutes a year where I am at or traveling to/from work (approximately 60 hours a week x 48 weeks).
Leaves 171,360 minutes per year or roughly 56 hours per week. Some of those minutes my son is asleep and my wife and I have time together. Some of these minutes go to self care including exercise and some go to various projects that need to be done around the house. It is important that my wife and I have time to date to keep our relationship growing.
For me, I have had to quickly realize that what I lack in quantity I need to make up in quality. While I am not perfect, I try to be home when I am home. I try really hard to make sure my family knows when I am home with them I am home. I was excited that I got to take Bradley to school on Thursday for Donuts with Dad. It meant starting my OR a couple of hours late, but it was worth it to be with him for that time.
One of my goals is to make sure that my technology does not become a distraction. I have to be somewhat connected as a physician, but I would like to be able to put my phone away on the weekend and just get it out to catch up at the end of the day.
I am not sure I will ever reach a balance, but I will settle for work-life satisfaction.
Hey son, go to California, live with the angels, love who you wanna
Anyway, you know I’ll miss you, just like your mama, call if you want to
Anytime, you need a hand now, I’ll be there now, just like I taught ya
Anyway, who says you can’t go where you wanna, California
O. A. R. California