Wasted Planning

[Shevek]

Recently I had to meet a new doctor and staff, and spent hours trying to come up with a good reply to "how are you feeling." I have occasionally been able to use some phrases I thought up in advance, but this time, I realized that when acting in real time, almost everything I say is very strongly constrained by who and what I'm responding to. It is a bit like planning a trip from the air, and then getting confined to the road network and its rules. I should spend less time planning conversations, and have more faith in my fast-response circuits. The effort should go into trying to learn from past gaffes, like not realizing that "the best time to reach me" should not fall far outside of normal business hours.

 

[Rodafina]

I have had this experience of wasted planning, too. I agree that honing our skills to be able to react in real time and learn from the past is more important than having pre-planned content for any given conversation.

For me, cultivating the right mindset - confident and calm - can help my "fast-response circuits" do their thing. Once I manage any anxiety I notice, my circuits are more accessible.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

At least within the narrow context of dealing with open-ended questions from medical professionals, and I literally deal with this every day, when a physician asks the nurse or other medical professionals how a patient is doing, or even if they are asking the patient, "How are you doing?" "How do you feel?", "How's the patient doing?" What they are really asking for are the "top 10" signs and symptoms you or the patient are experiencing. In other words, "What's not normal and bothering you today?" I joke around a bit, but the truth is, physicians generally don't care what you think, nor what your opinion is. Just give them all the available facts and let them make their own opinion. Very rarely are they actually interested in "how you feel".