Overcoming Slow Progress in Medical Affairs

Progress in Medical Affairs can feel so slow. In fact, it often feels glacial and painstakingly slow. This is so frustrating! Especially when you want to have a huge impact and do so many things. Or feel like you could be doing so much more. You want your company to move faster. You want to move faster.

When MSLs and Medical Affairs teams get lost in the daily whirlwind, it is easy to forget how these small baby steps add up to huge progress. You are making way more progress than you realize. This article outlines one bad tip and some good ones to help with overcoming slow progress in Medical Affairs.

Plus a free template to track your baby steps and make you appreciate how they add up to big progress. Fill out the form to download!

Medical Affairs Weekly Progress Tracker thumbnail

Tip 1: Be Patient

Isn’t this the worst tip? It’s like telling a worrier to stop worrying. It’s worth saying when it comes to overcoming slow progress in Medical Affairs though. The types of projects and outcomes that we want to see are not an instant thing. They take time. Now on to some more practical tips.

Tip 2: Recognize that most Medical Affairs Activities are Big Long-Term Projects

In other words, recalibrate your expectations on how quickly you should expect to see progress. Medical Affairs teams are tackling whoopers of projects. They are not things that can be completed overnight. Plus they often rely on multiple stakeholders, further delaying the timelines. We are moving mountains here, people 🙂!

If you are waiting to see measurable outcomes, this can take forever.

Think about how long it can take to see a measurable change in patient outcomes. Years!

Think how long it takes for an MSL to build strong relationships with HCPs so they can gather insights. Also years!

The timeline between efforts and visible outcomes can be demotivating. Keep in mind that these are complex projects and progress on them takes time. But all these small things add up when you pause to appreciate them! Tip 4 will provide you with a tool to help you recognize how all the baby steps add up to big progress (even though it doesn’t always feel that way).

Tip 3: Realize that You are Bad at Estimating Timelines

I’m going to be blunt on this one. Humans suck at estimating how long something will take. This is true for small tasks and big tasks.

When I was in college, I worked on a research farm. My PI had this saying that has stuck with me:

Estimate how long something will take, then double it and add the next unit.

So if you think something will take 2 hours to complete, it will actually take 4 days. It seems outrageous but it’s not that far off. Think of some recent projects/tasks and how long they actually took.

When you realize that your expectations around how long something should take are generally unreasonable, this helps you recalibrate and set your expectations accordingly.

Tip 4: Track the Baby Steps & Review Frequently

Just like we are terrible at estimating timelines, we are also bad at seeing progress. Tracking baby steps and reviewing them are a great way to help you see how far you have come. Additionally, it is a great way to demonstrate your value.

This tip has been a game-changer for me! It has changed my perspective of my own work and keeps me motivated. Because this has been so impactful for me, I created a nice template to help you implement this practice 💛. Fill in the form to download.

It’s simple to use. List out your goals and write down what you do for each one each day. Count the smallest action.

This is a great tool for big projects that require many steps. Building relationships with KOLs is a good example. Let’s say you have a segment of KOLs in your territory that you haven’t made contact with and your goal is to build relationships with them. Here are some example steps you might take to build the relationship and what to include in the progress tracker:

Downloaded excel sheet
Sorted by last touchpoint
Researched KOLs in CRM
Started thinking about email

If the template isn’t your thing, try a project management tool. I personally use a simple table in my planner (similar to the template). I love it! I take a couple of minutes every day to fill it in and it makes me realize that I do a lot of work and am making big progress.

Give the template a try and let me know what you think!

If you sometimes get stuck making new habits stick, check out the tips in my weekly reset and how to make your monthly plan stick articles.

Conclusions: Overcoming Slow Progress in Medical Affairs

Things move slowly. Not just in Medical Affairs. It spans all aspects of our lives. We want things to go much more quickly. But it just doesn’t work that way. It is important to realize how your mindset around slow progress can impact your motivation and productivity. This article gives you some tips (good and bad ones🤣) to help you manage your expectations around progress in Medical Affairs and keep your motivation high!

I hope you are inspired to think more about how the baby steps add up to big progress over time.

How do you approach the feelings of frustration that come along with slow progress? Please share your tips!

Comment down below or share with me on LinkedIn.

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Medical Affairs Value Patrina Pellett Photo

Written by Patrina Pellett, PhD

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