"Kicking the can down the road" is a common behavior that manifests in various ways, from delaying difficult patient decisions to avoiding complex tasks. We explore the reasons behind on-shift procrastination and strategies for overcoming it. Our discussion includes practical steps to recognize and address decision deferral, techniques for managing aversion to some decisions, and pre-loading accountability. We also highlight the importance of building decision-making resilience and creating systematic pathways to streamline the decisional process. For full show notes of this episode and all sorts of other goodies, visit our podcast websiteWe Discuss:What does it mean to kick the can down the road?How procrastination shows up on a clinical shiftWhy does procrastination happen?It doesn't take much dread for can-kicking to occurAvoidance AwarenessDecisional InterrogationKicking the can because deciding will set off a cascade of more workAvoiding the infinite test of timeIdentify how, when, and where you’ll make high-level decisionsLong term guests | How is it that decisions can finally be made when the shift is over?ChunkingZero in on your critical decision pointsKicking the can at work: pick one thing and identify YOUR decision pointsPreloading accountabilityPerfectionists get caught in a tree when they're actually in a tunnelMentioned in this episode:Out On Time CourseFinishing shifts with a stack of charts to complete gets old fast. It also contributes to burnout.
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