Optimize Performance With the “lowest Effective Dose” for Tasks
When you feel overwhelmed by your daily routines, finding the most efficient way to accomplish your tasks is key. You can save yourself a lot of grief if you find the “lowest effective dose” for your task.
Medically speaking, the “ minimum effective dose ” or MED is the lowest dose of a pharmaceutical product that will cause significant changes in the health or well-being of a patient. Dr. Christine Carter suggests finding the perfect balance of productivity and time management in your life to find MEDs for everything you need to do:
If we do not like feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, we need to recognize that more is not necessarily better, and that our go-go-go culture, if not controlled, will push us not only beyond our MED, but also beyond the “maximum tolerated dose” range, the level at which an action (or drug) becomes toxic and begins to cause an unwanted reaction. The first step to getting rid of the hustle and bustle of everyday life is to determine the minimum effective dose of everything. Ignore what other people think, assume, and demand from your time. Find out how much time you really need to spend on email, meetings, taking kids to class, etc., to be effective at home and at work.
It makes no sense to burn yourself out in activities that can be done with much less effort. You can find your MED for everything: sleep, check email, workouts, various work tasks. Once you determine your DER for your daily tasks, you will feel less stressed. You may even find time to do something that you always wanted to do, but never felt like you had time. Determine your MEDs, stick to your dosage, and understand that overdose does not mean you are doing something else.
How To Find More Than 24 Hours A Day | Christine Carter through Inc.