Moving Without The Ball

This is my first official blog post from scratch so I hope I can make this decently valuable to someone else. So today’s concept comes from a video I saw on YouTube which I will of course link down below. Now the reason I clicked on the video is because it was centered around Dr. John Boockvar, a neurosurgeon that works in NYC. Dr. Boockvar played a critical role in a project that Netflix had about Lenox Hill Hospital. I watched this series and without giving it away. The show basically reveals the real life experiences of patients, families, and physicians during some of the most difficult times in people’s lives.

Now why I am I saying all of this? When watching the interview I was just relaxing when the interviewer asked Dr. Boockvar how is he able to be so productive being a neurosurgeon, faculty member, board advisor, teacher, husband, and father?

Then Dr. Boockvar said in order to be efficient and productive you have to be able to “move without the ball.” Now what he is talking about is in sports like soccer for example there are 11 players on a team but one ball. The goal is to score a goal and it is possible to “score” with you dribbling the ball the entire time but that is pretty difficult to do. It would be easier for you to pass the ball, run to open space, and expect to get the pass back in a scenario that is closer to the goal.

Basically the context of this, is the key to being very productive and efficient is to be proactive in finding things that can help you. For example Dr. Boockvar tells his resident to not just prepare for a surgical case but to also help with paperwork. Help the patient feel more at ease with the process as well as other team members with their job so that the patient can come back to you a lot faster ready for the surgery.

So a long story short, one of the aspects of efficiency and productivity that is not talked about enough is finding tasks that may not be directly related to the workflow but can indirectly speed up the process or make it better. Sometimes the task itself cannot be sped up but the other aspects that lead up to it can. So instead of always trying to maximize the task find other things that you may have previously neglected emphasis on that can help you in the long term.