If you just show up each week and attend the meetings on your calendar you are not being strategic or having as large of an impact as you could be. When you realize this and develop a time-management system, you go from being average to high-performing. But how does this work in Medical Affairs when the core thing you need to do is build relationships?

Relationship building is inherently messy and doesn’t like to follow time-management rules. Plus how can you do this when you have back-to-back meetings all day? This is also not ideal for connecting with your stakeholders. Here is a calendar trick to help build relationships: schedule in gaps.

Complete Breakdown and Burned Out

A couple of years ago, I had a complete breakdown because of work. It was so stressful and just unrelenting. The workload was impossible to handle and I was overwhelmed.. All of my free time was spent recovering from work. I went to bed at 7 pm and then spent the whole weekend sleeping. Things had to change! This was not how I wanted to live my life.

That’s when I got obsessed with time management and productivity. I developed an amazing system to help me stay on top of everything, focus on what matters the most, and not get overwhelmed. Don’t get me started on this, I won’t shut up 🙂. It seriously changed my life. Below are several articles to help you develop a time management system that works for you.

If you don’t have a time-management/productivity system pretty please start working on it. Reach out to me if you need help and accountability. Happy to help!

My Time Management Relationship Building Moment of Truth

Fast forward 9 months. Things were going really well with my new time management system. My calendar was under control, I didn’t feel overwhelmed and I was not on the verge of tears. I was a machine. Planning out when I would do each high-impact activity/task. But if something unplanned happened, my schedule was thrown. I noticed that I didn’t want to pick up the phone when my Medical Affairs and MSL connections were calling out of the blue.

At the time, I was leading projects for several different Medical Affairs teams. It was my job to build a deep, trusting relationship with these folks. I couldn’t get annoyed with a Medical Director for calling me to discuss a new idea for territory management or when an MSL wanted to ask me a question about insights because it messed up my calendar. Is there any other better indicator of your impact and ability to build relationships than people calling you for advice or to ideate?

That’s when I realized I needed to have gaps in my schedule. This small change in how I managed my time gave me the flexibility to connect better with my customers. Medical Affairs professionals need to do the same thing:

• If you are an MSL and a KOL calls out of the blue to ask you something, you need to be available.
• If you are an MSL manager and one of your MSLs needs help with a difficult KOL, you need to carve out time.
• If you are a Medical Lead and a cross-functional partner calls to ask you something about insights, you want to take that call to showcase the impact of your team.

Conclusions: Calendar Trick to Help Build Relationships

It’s common to be in back-to-back meetings all day. This is not ideal for building relationships or doing your high-impact needle moving work. Give yourself flexibility in your calendar to have ad hoc calls with important stakeholders so you can build the relationship.

Do you have a system for dealing with urgent items that surface on a daily basis and still ensuring that you are also getting your important work done? Please share!

It’s a delicate balance.

I am a huge advocate of being the boss of your calendar. Check out the resources above to build a time management/ productivity system that works for you.