Productivity is Longevity

Later this year, I will celebrate my 75th birthday. It happens to fall on a Saturday this year, and I suppose we will have a small gathering over the weekend to celebrate, as we traditionally do. But when that weekend is over, I will be back in my office on Monday, where I will see some 50-60 patients, from morning to evening, with only a short break for lunch. I will repeat this on Tuesday, a similarly busy day, where it is not uncommon for us to see well over 50 patients. On Wednesdays, I am not in my office, but instead at the hospital, where I perform cardiac catheterizations for the majority of the day, after which I travel to my office to read the results of various diagnostics that were performed that day. On Thursday, I am back to seeing patients, and on Fridays I hold administrative meetings, participate in provider education lectures and in-services meetings, continue to read echocardiogram and stress echocardiogram reports, and tie up any remaining loose ends from the workweek. On Saturdays—did you think a doctor’s work ends when his office lights turn off on Friday?—I spend the better part of the day preparing letters of medical necessity for my enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) patients. Lately, I have tried to adopt a habit of taking some leisure time on Sundays, but that is a work in progress. Time will tell if practice does indeed make perfect.

The above was just a brief outline of a typical week for me, excluding my devotional and familial duties. And you will have noticed that I made no mention of my hobbies either, of which reading and, of course, writing are prominent constituents. Because I tend to be occupied with some sort of endeavor at every moment of any given day—and surely owing to my age as well—I’m repeatedly asked by colleagues, friends, and even family, “How do you manage to do all that?” In the introduction to my first book, A Prescription for Faith, I touched down on this, and offered that it was out of love for my profession that I continue to work today with the same pace and passion as when I was in my 30s. It was an honest answer—I do indeed love my job—but that is more a question of why I do it. As for how I am able to maintain this pace at my age, I believe the secret lies in having never slowed my productivity.

“But Doctor C,” you must be thinking, “you have just told me the secret to not slowing down is to not slow down. This not only sounds profoundly unscientific, but utterly useless!” Taken at face value, I completely agree—it does sound like empty advice. But I would argue that the science behind it becomes apparent if we pivot our viewpoint just slightly to a condition known as atrophy. In medicine, the term atrophy is used to describe a wasting away of a body part or tissue. Many people are familiar with disuse atrophy, which can occur in muscles and bones if they remain immobilized for extended periods of time—the physical manifestation of the “use it or lose it” adage. In a broader metaphorical sense, atrophy is used to describe anything that degenerates as a result of neglect over time, e.g. you might say a basketball player’s athletic talent began to atrophy after years away from the court. It is widely accepted that you become adept at a skill through regular practice, and maintaining that practice thereafter keeps your skills sharp. I believe the key to keeping your mind and body sharp—in good working condition, so to speak—is to stay engaged in some kind of physically and mentally demanding work. In my case, this means continuing to work as a doctor after 40 years in practice, but for others it needn’t be vocational work. Any activity that challenges the body and mind is sufficient. The point, simply, is to stay productive.

For me, productivity involves growth. While most doctors my age are happily enjoying retirement, I am happily enjoying entering new professional forays. To meet the growing needs of patients experiencing long-term symptoms from COVID-19, I have undertaken the launch of a clinic devoted to treating their conditions with EECP therapy. Some 40 years into a medical career, starting a new venture from the ground up would seem to be a demanding project and a sure way to guarantee that I will not be retiring any time soon—and perhaps it is both those things—but it also represents another way for me to follow my calling to help those in need. It is also an opportunity to return to my roots in medical academia, as there is new data on long COVID every day, and providing the highest quality of care to my patients means staying abreast of the latest research. This new clinic, called the Post-COVID Cardiovascular Care Center of Orange County, is a venture that is sure to keep me physically and mentally busy, and I am looking forward to the unique challenges it will present. I am also in the process of writing my second book, but more on that in the future blog.

In light of having gotten a glimpse into my typical work week, many of you must be wondering “Where do you find the time for all of that?” The simple answer is this: I make the time. An essential element of productivity is knowing how to find the time to achieve your goals. Too often, I hear people speak of their dreams as though they are distant and unattainable objectives, and it is generally the case that such people have given up on realizing these dreams because they feel they lack the necessary time to pursue them. They will tell you they are too busy with work or that family obligations prevent them from advancing toward their goals. I don’t doubt that they have busy professional and home lives—we all do. But if I were to ask those same people how many hours they spend each day being idle—how many hours in front of the television or staring at their phones—their responses would likely be quite high, and rightly so from their standpoint. After all, what is wrong with catching up on a few TV shows or sending out one, two, or twenty tweets after a long day at work? Well, nothing is wrong with that—if your goal is to maintain the status quo. But imagine if the people in question were to take those same hours and apply them instead to pursuing their dreams. Making the time to be productive is not about shirking existing professional and personal responsibilities to allow more time for new agendas. It is about converting idle time to constructive time in which you are actively moving closer to your goals.

Learning to make proper use of the time you reserve is the next key to living a productive life. This begins with the formation of a plan. Create a roadmap denoting where you are, where you want to be, and every leg of the journey in between, divided into small steps, not great leaps. The idea is to plan your journey such that there is a constant sense of progress. If you find that you were able to free up only a small portion of time to devote to your goals, set many goalposts at small increments. By scaling your aspirations to the amount of time you have to realize them, you will come away from each session feeling a sense of accomplishment for having moved one step closer to the finish line. This will imbue you with a sense of momentum that will fuel your desire to remain productive. In short order, you will find that you no longer need to push yourself to make smart use of your time. On the contrary, you will look forward to moments when you are free to use your time constructively and progress toward realizing dreams that are merely a series of steps away.

There will be roadblocks, of course. There is adversity on the path to even the most modest goals. In lieu of attempting to plan for every possible setback, simply learn to be flexible. Be ready to detour when you reach a roadblock, and return to the path you laid out when it is sensible to do so. Remember, the only obstruction that can truly derail you is your own willingness to give up on the journey. The roadmap you create is just one of many routes to your goal. Sometimes when we are well into our journeys, we realize the landscape is quite different than we had anticipated. The proper response to roadblocks is not to turn around, but to find a way around. Oftentimes this means devoting additional time and work. Embrace this not with bitterness, but with vigilance, and an understanding that the rewards when you cross the finish line will be that much sweeter for your efforts.

The final step to living productively is knowing where to draw the line. There is a point after which your faculties are expended and additional work becomes counterproductive. Finding and maintaining a balance between advancing your agendas and allowing your physical and mental resources the time to recharge is perhaps the most difficult aspect of living a productive life. There is a degree of obsession associated with every passion, and this has given rise to some of the greatest innovations in history; however, taken but a step too far, this zeal can become consumptive in nature. Remember: The gas pedal will get you to where you would like to be, but it is the brakes that will ensure you survive the trip. To the degree that productivity is impelled by a willingness to apply oneself physically and mentally, it is equally dependent on allocating sufficient time to replenish the resources required to sustain the journey.

Lastly, at the risk of sounding clichéd, I will remind you that it is never too late to follow your dreams. At the, shall we say, moderate age of 72, I realized a life-long goal of becoming an author. I had long delayed the endeavor, deeming it too daunting and too time-consuming a project to fit into the kind of work week I shared at the start of this blog. But after so much hesitation, I finally resolved to write a book at whatever pace my schedule would allow—one word at a time and a single paragraph per session, if necessary. In time, I began to see my dream materialize in front of my eyes, and then one day the book was done. Was it easy? Certainly not. It was a physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing experience for not only me, but also my dear wife, who waited with saint-like patience as I toiled away at the project weekend after weekend. But writing that book was also a deeply rewarding experience, so much so that I am doing it again. And if it were not another book, it would be an undertaking of a different kind that would occupy my mind, body, and heart, and challenge me in new ways and allow me to remain productive.

In closing, I will return to the notion of atrophy, which in my view is a direct consequence of idleness. Make use of the resources you have, and you will have them for life. Fail to harness your God-given talents, intellect, and able-bodiedness, and they will wither away before you know it. In the end, being productive is not only a means to bring your fondest dreams and aspirations to fruition, but the key to staying vital, sharp, and motivated over time.

Trust me—I’m just getting started.

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

--Stephen King, American author