Have you ever had a goal or wanted to complete a task that seems so big that you don’t even know where to start? For this episode, Andy is joined by Resa Lewiss, MD and Adaira Landry, MD to discuss the topic of Micro Skills and how everyone can benefit from incorporating them into their lives.
What are Micro Skills?
The concept of Micro Skills encompasses taking a complex process and breaking it down into smaller steps down to the fundamental building blocks. This can be applied to all kinds of tasks like learning to suture a wound or tie your shoes, to some of our most complex goals.
MicroSkills: Small Actions, Big Impact
Resa and Adaira are coauthors of the incredible book MicroSkills: Small Actions, Big Impact which will be coming out on April 16th. It is meant to be a comprehensive guide that people can use at any point in their career to help break down their goals into the smallest finite measurable skills. It can be read from cover to cover or be used as a manual as needed to focus on particular goals. The table of contents is user-friendly and clearly outlines each Micro Skill that is covered in the book. The book helps break down the “how” of achieving one’s goals, similarly to how as EM physicians taking oral boards we break down the case into “critical actions”.
The tagline that has followed the book is “Buy the book on Friday…be better at your job by Monday.”, which truly emphasizes the big impact that these small actions can have. This is the perfect book for people who have ever been up against a task or goal that just seems so big that they don’t know where to start or are paralyzed by all the steps that stand in their way. It focuses so much more on how you are going to accomplish the goal in attainable pieces than what the goal is that you are trying to accomplish.
Take-Home Points:
- Time can only be spent. You cannot be deposited or withdrawn from a savings account.
- The world is not equitable. Everyone starts in different places.
- Learning is limitless.
Post by Patricia Capone, DO PGY-2
About Our Guests:
Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Coauthor of MicroSkills: Small Actions, Big Impact.
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Coauthor of MicroSkills: Small Actions, Big Impact.
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