2023-11-11 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCnHHt5LmaE Transcript YouTube English auto-captions. [Music] hey guys this is Dr mikang welcome to another edition of bootstrap MD this is the podcast for healthcare and position entrepreneurs I've heard from many of you you says you know I want to start a business or I want to start a side hustle or be involved in Investments but I just don't have the time I'm I'm working 50 60 70 hours a week as a W2 barely hanging on how am I going to have time to have time for these other endeavors uh I understand the importance of passive income and building mpal trans income but I want to get started but I just can't seem to find the time time well today is your day we're in luck we've got a productivity expert who also happens to be a physician not only a physician she works for NASA guys so I think we're gonna get a lot out of it uh she is a emergency medicine physician Critical Care an aerospace trained doctor she works full-time as a flight surgeon at Nasa and works part-time in the ICU and the r she's also a real estate investor she is the podcast show host of productivity MD where she helps other doctors find more time and help people free up 10 hours a week or more in one hour so they can be in their zone of Genius just incredible individual I got to meet her a couple times and um just just amazing and she found the time to come here today she's got a little bit of a cold but she says she's G she's gonna power through it so I think we'll get through it today an how are you doing thank you so much Mike for the kind words and I'm doing awesome I'm so glad to be speaking to the Physicians um here uh to share what I've learned throughout the years to get my get my efficiency 10x especially after my having my first baby I just felt like I really really needed to do something if I were to actually you know achieve the five freedoms that we talk about the most and uh I didn't ask you about this but I think it's fair to say uh you know you're you're actually working on your second one right now currently yes yeah I'm I am pregnant currently with the second baby and I just know that you know um there I'm always trying to make things more efficient and really the end goal is to achieve like the five freedoms and to not sacrifice quality time with my kids and my husband which is why you know I've always been an efficient person uh my whole entire life that's what my friends know me as but I became like Ultra efficient after having a baby even boosted my productivity was able to start new Ventures because uh I was forced to do it I guess with a new board that's amazing I think you're just taking on new challenges you know as they come at to see how much you can do one PR type but I want to talk about your origin story I'm a bit of a comic book nerd I love to hear this the stories how uh ordinary individuals become superheroes you definitely fit in that category but let's talk about first about your your your medical Journey how how did you get in get into medicine were you around um other doctors in your family how did get started for you yeah I think well first Asian families always want you to be a doctor or a lawyer though you know behind that was a strong push or pull you know uh not just from my mom but you know we I was born in Taiwan I moved here when I was 9 years old um in fourth grade it was just my mom and I because they were divorced when I was a baby so you know my mom worked really hard seven days a week as a waitress at ihob at other Chinese restaurants sometimes working till 2 a.m. because she wanted to take the late night shifts and she had been robbed after those night shifts you know of her her tips uh were all gone you know it's probably at that time was like maybe 40 50 bucks but it was you know everything to her at that time so there was also that push that we I cannot fail uh her I cannot fail this family because um we're all we're all each what each other has essentially like she's all I have and you know I'm all she has so I cannot fail uh this so um and I had I talk to my high school Chinese teacher who spoke to me about medicine it is you know the one career where you're really truly helping people every day I mean at least your true intention right there's Logistics you can talk about medical administrations the charts and everything but really overall you go into work and you've helped somebody every day and that's what uh pushed me to succeed that's what pushed me to have maximal efficiency so that I can succeed and be as productive POS as possible while making mistakes along the way of course and where did you go to medical school so medical school at UT San Antonio University of Texas San Antonio residency at University of Florida in emergency medicine and then I did anesthesia Critical Care at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St Louis then the Aerospace medicine Fellowship uh which came with a master in public health and that's at University of Texas in gston and they have very close ties with um NASA and and I knew I wanted to work for NASA and go into space medicine since I was 19 years old so it was always going to go into that r no matter which specialty I picked anyway so after that applied to NASA and because the residency or the fellow the a space Fellowship was essentially like a almost like a two-year interview so people get to know you you do rotations there and uh it was awesome that I finally got the position there um I I think when I calculated it it was about 16 years after 16 or 17 years after yeah 16 years after I set the goal to be a NASA FL surgeon and finally I got there and I've been there for uh two years now so this is very intriguing it's not a common you know a common occurrence we're he of a doctor interested into space you said at an early age uh you were very fascinated by it what in particular in in space uh really made you interested in choosing this a career I think you know most people think overall it's just such a cool thing such a unique thing um since I was little I read um encyclopedias like people uh I think friends and family bought me encyclopedias when I was five years old um of just photos of planets the Earth Etc space in general and then moving to Houston when I was in fourth grade exposed me to the Space Center Houston so I was even more fascinated and now I think it is just an awesome place place to it's a good balance from ER and ICU the stressor is way less you don't have high cortisol your entire shift and also you it's interdisciplinary in a crazy way with other biomedical Engineers with radiation with people like working on power with people working on um like satellite Communications and things like that and everybody is so dedicated everyone pretty much has a PHD and is an expert in their field and every body is very detail oriented and uh resourceful and just like you know everyone is type A basically and it's like inter steroids as a doctor I wasn't used to asking for help especially when it came to subjects outside of medicine but then I found physician coaches.com in an instant I found hundreds of experts to help me in all aspects of Life on areas I was afraid to ask dealing with burnout starting a side gig money management even help with my marriage and the best part nearly all experts are Physicians themselves after reading their profile and a quick chat I knew I found the right Mentor for me at physician coaches.com help from professional colleagues is just a click away and and now we're going to talk about productivity and helping our audience shave off more hours out of their week but I I want to know more kind a little bit more of kind of like your dayto day because it's so fascinating you you know I don't have a usual guest who uh you know they say it isn't rocket science but in your case it truly is so tell me like for example what what are kind of your your your your duties that you do at at at Nasa yeah and you know even among like the 30 plus flight surgeons we have each of our Duties are can be different depending on what you're assigned to so I can tell you my current duties I am the deputy surgeon for one of the astronaut who is currently on the space station right now and then my colleague is the prime surgeon each assigned astronaut going on a mission gets two surgeons a prime and a deputy so my main job right now she launched about uh almost a month and a half ago so my main job right now is sitting at Mission Control at Johnson Space Center um working through the meetings talking to her doing private medical conferences um ensuring that she is in Peak Performance like this is why human optimization I love it as well and I get to do in my actual career uh Peak Performance uh she just had a a space walk actually uh two days ago so you know you staff The Space Walk you make sure she's ready before and after and there's just a lot of meetings different types of meetings that discuss operations um throughout that you attend and also you are coordinating with European surgeons Japanese surgeons Russian surgeons because all of them are uh on the station right now as well um some other duties I am also assigned to it depends on the projects or um like Vehicles you're assigned to so I'm assigned to you know International Space Station but other people are assigned to human Landing system to Gateway to Orion capsule so they work on those meetings separately as well um and uh and I work on uh space flight associate neur ocular syndrome so I am like the uh CNS lead um central nervous system lead for that uh on this side so it's variable uh overall you just make sure crew is healthy there and can perform well in a t tip toop shape Peak Performance and you give inputs to other disciplines um in the mission control depending on there's uh any health risks or any health inputs um and that you give future uh Vehicles space flight systems your inputs on the design and how to make sure that the human have what they need in terms of equipment and medical medications etc etc so that is a and you go to launches and Landing if you're assigned you know to a crew but that's a very very brief uh summary of what uh it's like lots of meetings I love it and I could probably talk about this or just pick your brain on this for hours uh you know my my science my science nerd but you know is brain is tingling but I want to talk about this because you talked about optimization which leads into productivity you said you've always been productive your friends tell you you're most productive individual they know so what what led to deciding you know I think I'm going to coach others how to be more productive uh yeah you know it's so funny because when I initially uh started my coaching it was like I I coach on you know Peak Performance um you know human fulfillment which you know I want you I want people to be productive and be fulfilled at the same time and not just do busy work and uh so it's very broad you know because I do fun like you know functional medicine in a way like I I I I love like the concept food is medicine I also love weightlifting so there's that component but I needed to I felt like I needed to Niche down figure out one Z of Genius it's really broad it's not very clear so that's exactly what I did I H took the high five test it gave me the top five my top five strength and then I just asked my friends because sometimes when you are so good that what you do it becomes natural and you don't think it's any different actually you know um because I can do this and this and this and this and this and this um but when I ask my friends like hey what is the one thing that you would recommend your friend to come talk to me to or what is that one quality that you feel like I can share with the world I can benefit the world or what that you would come ask me all the time or the first word you think of and like probably 90% except for like one person said efficiency and productivity so essentially whatever goal I set I will get it done and multiple things at the same time too and I will get it done that that that's great that's amazing that's what led you to NASA and said that's my at the age of 19 so uh our audience are are mostly Physicians we do have other healthc Care Professionals uh dentists nurse practitioners Etc and I know this is a you know a current population that you're familiar with obviously um do are do are there any like traits or qualities of these that you can maybe help pick out because the reason why I mentioned it I remember um talking on a physician on a podcast and and this one physician kind of kind of you know pushed me when when I talked about productivity they said you know what we're we're already high Achievers we need to you know we got into medical school and we most of us graduated hopefully and then we don't need to be more productive so so what do you have to say to to someone like that who perhaps you know dismisses the the benefits of being more productive yeah I would say productivity is not just work productivity I would say that productivity is being able to achieve your dreams things that you've always wanted to do as well not just in the back of your mind and you being able to take action without sacrificing your other aspects of your life your other wheels of your life like your family your own health your spouse if you uh if you have kids um and so you know people can't be produ I've seen many many many Physicians who are productive at work um and they don't have time to spend with their kids they don't have time to work out they feel stressed they stressed about the stuff at in the house as well they feel like they're just kind of uh they're productive at work but they're actually just going on a hamster wheel and just kind of reacting to life instead of being proactive in life in all aspects yeah so you know we just had a call coaching call uh last night and we had a physician who says you know I'm working really hard I'm working in the hospital I'm doing everything I can I want to start you know a side venture or or just be involved in other things and currently my career doesn't allow me to do it and it's and it was almost like uh you you gave up you know gave it so what do you how do you first start you know addressing address addressing that issue with them when they feel like there's you know it's impossible I I don't have any time whatsoever yeah uh absolutely it's very very common people want to do real estate people want to start like maybe their own practice or people just really want some time for themselves to work out but they feel like they're trapped um so I think you you can't you will have time there's always cuts of time it just needs to be examined and prioritized but I would say that Also regarding the time um you're never stuck you're always free you have the freedom to choose where you work who you work for you are never stuck that's a mindset of scarcity right like uh this is the only job for me at this Hospital even though have to take like maybe a toxic atmosphere or a scheduler who doesn't care um it's so funny like two days ago had a coaching client um I asked her um hey um Canen you know she wants to spend more time with her her uh parents and her kids and she thinks that she only has one week in a month to to schedule out but she said I said what what can you just uh pick one week in a month she's a ER physician one week in a month uh January February uh March right now and set it with your kids and your parents so you're good to go and then so she said no I can't because I have to wait for my schedule to come out the ER schedule I was like well can't you just tell your ER that you cannot work this weekend this weekend this weekend now and do not schedule you and it was uh so amazing that she had never thought about that before because we have been uh just so um ingrained in our head since medical uh medical school days since residency since Fellowship that our schedule is our schedule and we have no choice and we just have to take what's given to us it's and I see that so common it's not it wasn't just her but I've seen it multiple times where I say that and they say oh I never thought about to request like a specific day off of the week or a month and we forget our boundaries uh and we forget how valuable we are and so we forget that there's actually abundance of opportunities out there for those people who feel stuck yeah it is amazing when you we see that you know I I remember you know working with doctors and um you know this one doctor said you know she's a radiologist said she's been miserable uh and and uh well why are you U miserable he says you know the the best part of my day is when I get to go home and the worst part of the day is when I wake up and I go and she says well then it sounds like you're in a job that's miserable for she said yes and I said well why are you in that well I have a lifestyle that I need to to lead or I have you know you know pays pays very well and they don't realize is that they do have choices and they have options and they're most likely in their business or in their you know their medical practice they're probably the ones making the most revenue for that practice so uh you know I don't know why you know we're unable to raise our hands like you said it is probably ingrained from just pleasing others you know and uh but uh yeah they they do have choices so so when you work with a client maybe you you could talk about you know what are what are some things that that you look at and what are like the next steps uh you do to to find you know probably time in their schedule uh that they can devote to themselves yeah I think uh this is uh I can quickly summarize the the steps you know when I intake a new client the first is we create a Life vision of where they are and when they're 85 90 years old with full vitality and full health and mind capability what they're doing what they're contributing to um their hob what they're learning who they're spending their time with where they're traveling to um what businesses do they have what residual income do they have monthly that's coming in what businesses have they sold and uh just what are they what impact are they having and then we backtrack to about F to five goals for the year that's going to take them to that vision and start eliminating anything they're doing now that has nothing to do with life Visions because what's the point of doing it just wasting your time and then we take a look at the time audit of how they're spending their time you know hour or by activity through the week and then we see which one is in their zone of Genius which one needs to be automated which one needs to be eliminated and delegated and then we keep like it just depends on each person's level because it's one-on-one and super customized and then we figure out Solutions we enact it we come back in two weeks and then we just get things done at a way faster Pace when you actually have accountability so that's a very very short summary of what we do and then we talk about a lot about delegation which is uh huge because like you the the trait another common trait is a sense of control a need for control yeah yeah and the other thing too is is you know what do you what do you see as like productivity wasters I mean I I I can you know suisee I remember like the one doctor was telling me you know he's so busy and he has no time for his family kids yet he's telling me all about the shows you've been watched on Netflix and tells all about the story lines and everything like that um probably not the best use of your time uh social media also is is another have you noticed you know some areas that we need to be aware of that maybe we're spending too much time and and not really helpful in our own life yes yeah agree social media is huge I know a lot of you know Physicians I've talk to or people in general they scroll through um you know their phone right before bed and have it before bed they don't have blue blockers on so they have no melatonin they don't feel sleepy but their body is tired um another thing is not being intentional with their goals of the day and not being T intentional to time block those non-negotiables right why do you give your worst self in the afternoon to your kids and family why not your best self like in the morning um to your kids and family you know just so first is time blocking those non-negotiables which uh for a lot of people they said it is their kids and family but they don't do it they actually they don't block off time and they schedule meetings and work through that time and then when they have spare time which they don't you you won't find it if you don't set it then you you don't get time with them um and then number two is always set intentionally the night before your top three priorities for the next morning so that the next morning when you're in your golden hour of productivity you set them in order rank them one two three the hardest thing the thing that takes the longest the thing that you don't want to do the thing that requires creative and deep work that's what you do first most people do uh I don't know check my email or um like make a call make an appointment or something like that that's that's something quick and most people because they could check it off but that's the it doesn't move the needle of your five goals and we're doing busy work and not moving the needle what is your opinion of productivity apps I I made a statement and this is probably Buzzy because I'm a bit of a nerd in terms of I've said nerd like three times but that's true uh in terms of like productivity apps and people asking like what's the best productivity apps and then what I realize is that this is my opinion so I'd like to hear yours is I spend too much time being unproductive searching for the perfect productivity app so I'm I'm curious you know what works for one person probably doesn't work for another but what do you have to say about productivity apps yeah yeah I I definitely uh use apps to decrease distraction and I can tell you I don't use that many not apps they're extensions actually number one extension I recommend everybody gets is Gmail um extension a Chrome extension for Gmail it's called inbox when ready so once you have that extension um when you log into your Gmail you don't have that fear of getting distracted because you know you are going to because it just it's blank until you press the button show inbox so that way when you have important emails to respond to or compose you just search for that email or you just compose without getting distracted by all the other emails and then later when you're ready when your top three priorities are completed then you go in there and then you press show inbox and then batch check just twice a day um number two in terms of apps I used to use a pomodora timer for like 25 minute you know and five minutes I don't do that anymore I use a brain.fm it's a um a special music that essentially you can pick for Focus deep work creative work or sleep or relaxation it has a timer on there so I do a 60 to 90 minute flow you know session work session and I just time it and when the music stop it's time for me to get up to go look out to whites space um so that's what I use now because I I find that I can focus longer than 25 minutes now uh I've trained my brain to not get distracted other things about um Tech an app I actually uh I I don't have any I know there are apps I restrict like your you know you going to other websites and there's other extensions that do that i uh I I think I guess I I've trained myself enough to not have to do that but I can imagine that can be helpful and then the one thing is phone setup um for those of you guys if you I don't know if you're going to be able to see this on video I could send a screenshot but my phone is always black and white um and I could have a shortcut set if you just Google how to set your phone on grayscale um I I can turn into color just with three clicks on the side button when I need to look at photos and videos so basically it's a dopamine uh desensitization you want to progressively desensitize your brain to any dopamine colors or so the colors are gone you're not distracted I have no badges no notifications nothing on lock screen nothing that swipes down on my phone and everything all of my messages and email are on the second screen not the first screen and everything is grouped in into something called inbox and I batch check it twice a day so I would say it is actually your internal it's training your mind and training to discipline your internal distraction uh that's probably going to get you the most productive and but the technology will help you there oh my God that's amazing I'm looking at my phone and my problem is I got a zillion apps and I have to go through like 10 different pages even to like make a phone call that's how bad I am unproductive on my phone so and then the the inbox extension I gota I got to try that too because I do you know as soon as I get Gmail you know I live in fear you know that I'm gonna get sucked into something uh but uh yeah it's like a test it's a test every time right it's like oh my God am I gonna fail when I log in or am I gonna pass yeah so just just take it away and yeah just don't even like seriously when you log in you're you're going to have like relief you're not going to always have that anxiety because it's just blank yeah well I know you're you're productive and but I and so I want to respect your time obviously to the productivity uh expert for someone who uh is having you know feel that they're not productive you are a a a coach maybe maybe you can talk about you know what uh what how does a productivity coach how can they help you I mean intuitively we understand it but for someone who reaches out to you um you know what what what can they experience and maybe you can share like an ex success story uh for someone who's worked with you yeah yeah I would say what you can expect well we talked about the Life vision discovering your five strengths your time audit and then how to automate eliminate delegate and have action plans so I would say you know as an example before it was very unclear like I have you know some clients who are very unclear have like 10 goals uh on their list and they want to do this and this and jump multiple steps and do this and do this but the most immediate goal and the next action step is actually not there and it's not specific oftentimes it's not very specific like I want to invest in real estate okay by when how many units how much do you have do you know your finances Etc or I want to start a coaching business no okay who's your avatar like how how Niche like why do you want to teach on that subject uh where do you want to take this in five 10 years so essentially coaching can uh get you to be ultra specific and get you the next action step within two weeks we follow up make sure you've completed it so we have C you know quarterly goals that we meet and oftentimes my clients find that um one of my clients she had her five goals but within like three four months she already achieved three of them so she needed new goal so she had five goals for the year but within three four months she hit like three of them already so essentially what coaching does is uh give you your time back and Quicken up the pace to your dreams and your goals and we also not just talk about optimization but also what you're eating your workouts your mindset everything that's going to that it's all it's it's a entire Spectrum it's not just systems and knowledge but it's an entire spectrum of your mind body and technique to kind of get you there so that's why I say it's Peak Performance Peak Performance human optimization and productivity all at the same time that's that's awesome and if you happen to be uh an astronaut to and want to be on the ISS you're probably the person we need to talk to if that is your goal who knows you you never know who who you might you might be listening and this has been great I know we're GNA have some resources in the show notes but if somebody wanted to read to reach out to you possibly learn about your your your coaching what's the best place to go yeah I would say um they can go to productivity md.com if you're interested in learning more what the coaching is like you can book a 30 minute complimentary Discovery call with me and uh I have some resources I can share with you guys because I talk about you know uh automating delegating eliminating a lot and especially delegating like I have some resources on how to create you know somebody create slideshows for for you the person I use resources that where I found my virtual assistant or virtual professional and what kind of example tasks have I had them do for me so you can kind of get inspirations and I will have resources of the house manager that I have and all of their roles and responsibilities so just reach out to me you can book a call with me and that I can share those Resources with you so that you can just take that away and actually start enacting some of those oh and okay this is tremendous we'll need to get you back on the show you can go to productivity md.com to reach out we'll share again the resources here in the show notes thanks again for uh joining us any uh last minute thought before we end the call today um and actually I've uh wanted to mention as well um so the currently the podcast has a lot of free knowledge it's right now call it's not rock and science show but it's transitioning to productivity MD very soon so you can search for both depending on the timing when you listen to it it'll pop up show notes are on productivity md.com and you can find me on Instagram Facebook LinkedIn uh at andung TS nmd do um well just MD um and really for for the clients right now you for your audience right now I just want to say that um in action leads to dreams killed so what I'm saying is that you know no matter just don't listen to this podcast and that's it and be done with it just absorb the knowledge without action I would urge you to no matter what either download inbox when ready or uh maybe do a Time audit or you know what is a non-negotiable Time block you're definitely going to spend time with your wife and kids or you know your husband or when's the next date now you're going to plan do something because then finally you will actually be able to get to your life Vision get to your dreams and don't ever settle just because you feel like you're stuck don't ever settle feel like you have no choices because of the lifestyle because you can have a even better lifestyle doing something you love uh again love it this has been an action power packed episode I appreciate all of the resources thank you again an for joining us on the podcast today and thank you The Listener for for uh joining us today I'm sure you're going to get a lot of those resources check those out check out the check out the inbox extension the focus all that stuff that great great stuff and as always you know you've got lot lots of different goals maybe too many goals if you can just pick one thing that that that you know empowers you makes a difference in your life do one SLE one simple thing every day um to get [Music] forward