HISMD: Executive Medical Director and Hospital Chief of Staff

Hybrid with a long commute. Partner (Hybrid). 3 kids - 11yo, 4yo, & 2yo. Seattle, WA. 44.

Each Thursday, the “How I Structure My Day” series features women from different industries, with and without kids, with and without partners, with family living with/near them and not, wfh to 1+ hour commutes, etc. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do!

Before we get to the good stuff…

If you’re ready to learn a calendar-based life + career system designed for professional working women, enrollment for my 10-week Bright Method program opens on August 6, 2026 at 11am CST. At that time, you can reserve your spot for the September 9 or October 1 start date. Learn all about it & jump on the waitlist here.

In the words of one woman who went through the program:

“I am definitely the busiest I have ever been in my life... And yet… I am also probably the most relaxed/calm I have been in a very long time (ever?)... This has sincerely been life-changing. I still just cannot believe how relaxed I am AND still on top of everything.”

– R.D., Physician & Mom of 3

And send any questions my way! Happy to talk out whether it would work for you, your main concerns, timing, etc. Send me a message, and I hope to see you in the program – join the waitlist!

Okay, on to the good stuff!

The Snapshot

• Profession: Executive Medical Director and Hospital Chief of Staff

• Hybrid with a long commute

• Partner: Yes (Hybrid)

• Children: Yes - 3 kids (11yo, 4yo, & 2yo)

• Seattle, WA

• 44

• The sharer shared an update based on questions here and on Instagram. I’ll share responses throughout in bold italics like this.

  • She also shared this: Final comment/not to a specific question... I don’t want to glorify this. This season is hard. It’s too busy. This is how I’m making it work right now but I won’t pretend it leaves anywhere close to enough time for myself or downtime. The Bright Method I think has really helped me take a step back to think about what I want to give up/peel away/delegate since now that I see everything on the calendar, I know it’s actually too much and it’s not just that I’m not being efficient enough or that I’m too much of a perfectionist. That’s been hard to swallow but needed in order to get clarity about what to keep vs toss as I’m able to start narrowing my priorities.

Typical Morning:

• I have not set an alarm in years thanks to a combo of being a fairly early riser and now kids... kids usually wake us up by 6am. I have recently made strides to avoid the email/scroll when I first wake up, but I do check my calendar to make sure I know what's on tap for the day and that no early meetings got added. Then the little kids (4 and 2) head to the kitchen with me for breakfast.

• 6-7 is usually getting breakfast made and kids fed, getting my oldest up for school (he wakes up at 6:45).

• Our nanny arrives at 7:30 M-Th and 8:30 on F.

• 2-3 days a week I have meetings starting at 7am so my husband is on tap from 7 until child care arrives.

• If I don't have an early meeting then I usually take the time to spend with the kids until child care arrives, then from 7:30-8ish I run back and shower/get ready for the day. If I'm in-office I often have early meetings that I do from home first, and then drive in around 8. If I'm WFH then I start in my home office around 8 and get going.

• Of note, our mornings will change a LOT next year with the start of the school year - my 4yo at a new preschool, my 11yo starting middle school (currently he bikes himself to our neighborhood elementary; starting in fall he will need to be dropped off or catch the bus), and our nanny due with her own baby in October so we will somehow have to piece together care while she is on maternity leave for 12 weeks... and we will have 2-3 separate drop-offs and pick-ups every day. Dreading this.

Morning "Make Life Easier" Hacks

• Everything is in the calendar and we have a Skylight with a shared family calendar so nanny, grandparents, kids can see what's on deck.

• I do a LOT of food prep at night after the kids to go to bed - usually breakfast for the next day and also most of dinner for the next day, since we eat EARLY so kids can get to bed and I usually don't make it home from work until it's time to eat dinner.

• I "get the machines going" - always try to run dishwasher at night and start a load of laundry in the morning that the nanny can finish during the day for us.

• For my whole adult life until I had young kids I was an early morning workout person - that has gone by the wayside for now but I really want to start incorporating that. However, my kids can sense it if I wake up early and then they do too (even if I make no noise) and come out to find me and then it all goes downhill.

Transition Into Work Mode

• Honestly it's usually a gauntlet right now - hurrying to say goodbye to kids to either jump straight into a meeting from my home office, from the car, or driving to work early to get to in person meetings or clinical obligations. I wish there were more of a buffer but because I'm a physician executive a lot of my really important meetings occur between 7-8:30am or 4-6pm around other doctors' clinical hours.

What My Work Day Looks Like

• Every day is completely different. I have about 80+ physicians that directly report to me, plus other clinicians, operations people, strategy, c-suite folks, etc that I need to reguarly meet with. As hospital Chief of Staff I am responsible for overseeing the entire medical staff of our campus which is well over 1000 physicians and advanced practice clinicians. Then sometimes I am clinical seeing patients. I absolutely live in my calendar which is the only way I manage it, and still sometimes I miss meetings if they are at odd hours. I'm trying to get more intentional about scheduling blocks of time for deep work/focus time/strategy/etc, but they often get booked over because so many of my meetings are with large groups of very busy execs and it's impossible to find times for everyone that are free. As a previous hospitalist (inpatient shift-based doctor), I'm used to every day looking different so this has probably helped me in this role as well.

Lunch/Snacks

• No regular time, and usually during a meeting. About once a week I will try to schedule an in person 1:1 over lunch so that at least I get one lunch where I actually sit down and eat, even if I'm meeting with a colleague at the same time! I keep a stash of ready made lunch stuff and snacks in my office so that I can eat quickly when I don't have much time, and I also try to pack a lunch of leftovers the night before from home.

Breaks

• I really need to be better about this - major growth opportunity for me. This week someone told me they were looking to book a 15 minute meeting with me and couldn't find an opening for 3 weeks, so this was a real indication of my problem. I need to block short break times for myself throughout the day as recurring events.

Leaving Work

• I usually try to stop working by 4 for my main workday (I start at 7 most days) because our nanny leaves at 4:30. But then I regularly have 5-6pm or 6-7pm meetings (probably about once a week), and I am often working for about an hour after the kids go to bed as well. Clinical days I get home more like 6pm.

Transition Out of Work Mode

• If I'm in the office, I usually sit in the car for 5 minutes in the driveway before I go into the house listening to something, scrolling, or just being quiet. If I'm WFH there really is no transition - I open the office door and immediately have 3 kids on top of me as if I've been gone for a week.

After Work/Evening Hours

• We try to eat dinner between 4:30-5pm. I know this sounds crazy to some people. We used to eat more like 5:30-6 but the kids were starving at 4 so they'd have a big snack and then not eat dinner, and my 11yo would miss dinner for sports two days a week and then be eating really late. It was like a rushed meal trying to get done before bedtime for everyone. My 4yo dropped her nap in the fall and went through some pretty rough sleep deprivation - she's also an early riser - so we realized she really needs an early bedtime. So we flipped it - now we have dinner at 4:30-5, done by 5:30 then kids play for a little bit.

• The 2yo and 4yo go back to get ready for bed around 5:45-6, lights out by 6:30. 11yo cleans up dinner dishes while we do that (one parent puts 4yo to bed and the other puts 2yo to bed on nights we are both home) and then gets his stuff ready for school.

• At 7ish me, my husband, and the 11yo have "together reading time" where we read a book together or each read separately but sitting together - honestly I could use this time for work but we started this as a way to get him to read more regularly and it worked so well that he really loves it and cherishes that time with us after the younger kids are in bed.

• He goes to bed at 8, then I do work/dinner and breakfast prep for the next day/cleanup.

• I want to be in bed by 9:30ish since I get up early, but in all honesty, most days it's 10-11. Working on this!

Dinner Time/Meal Tips

• See above for timing - flipping to early dinner was a game-changer for us. Kids aren't hangry, 11yo gets dinner before any sports practices and younger kids get to bed on time. Everyone can have a snack before bed if they're hungry but this way it has changed from "fill up on snack at 4pm and then don't eat dinner and then get hungry again right before bed" to "eat a solid nutritious meal by 5pm, then a small snack before bed if hungry" and it's so much better.

• As I mentioned I also do a ton of prep the night before for breakfast and dinner the next day. I almost always double batch whatever I'm cooking and freeze half for another meal - a gift to my future self. This lets us rely on pre-prepped things I have frozen for dinner about twice a week especially on days I didn't have time to prep anything the night before or am getting home late from work.

• As part of our Fair Play experiment, we started alternating responsibility for meals - I do two weeks in a row, then my husband does two weeks in a row. This was also a game-changer - I was getting so burned out on meal stuff especially with 3 kids so someone was always not eating what I made/complaining/etc. He didn't really get it (nor how much time it truly takes between planning, shopping, cooking) and then when we started alternating he was like "OH MY GOD THIS IS HARD". So now we each get a break every two weeks (the person who is "on" is FULLY responsible for all meals, grocery shopping, cooking unless they ask for specific help because of a conflict or other circumstance) and it's great. I typically plan my whole two weeks out (at least roughly) for more efficient grocery shopping. I haven't found AI great for meal planning yet, but I do use it to make my shopping list - I'll put photos/screenshots/links of recipes in for the week and ask it to make me a shopping list, telling it over time what staples I pretty much always have that don't need to be included.

• I will often do a lot of cooking on Sundays - like this week I'll be out of town for a week, so I premade a bunch of things for my husband to use while I'm gone and stuck them in the freezer - double batches of healthy muffins, waffles, veggie meatballs, bean/cheese/rice burritos, tacos, an oatmeal bake, and some other odds and ends.

• What recipes I use: Caroline Chambers is the GOAT and her cookbooks and substack are life. They are true 30-minute dinners, minimal cleanup, tons of subs for dietary preferences. Cannot recommend her enough for busy families. We also do a lot of easy freezable things (healthy muffins/waffles or I’ll make a bunch of burritos or breakfast sandwiches and freeze them) - I almost always double or triple batch when I have the time and am cooking anyway. This is one of my biggest overall time savers.

Evening Non-Negotiables

• Always clean the kitchen, run the dishwasher, look at my schedule for the next day. If laundry is piling up I try to put a load in the washer and not run it yet so I can hit start in the morning. And food prep because nothing derails a family evening with young kids faster than dinner being late/burned/etc.

Afternoon/Evening “Make Life Smoother” Tips

• I Brick my phone from the time I get home from work until my kids are in bed, and then again starting at 9pm.

• Early dinner as above.

Sharing the Load with a Partner

• Fair Play all the way. Everyone should read it. Sometimes it's easier said than done to implement it but the framework of someone completely owning a task when possible has been really helpful (otherwise I was planning/conceptualizing everything and then even if I asked my husband to execute, it was still my mental load and I felt like I needed to check to make sure it got done etc).

• We also have a regular Sunday night meeting with a long agenda about what is on tap for our next week and our next month as well as a mini relationship check-in.

Things You Do For Fun/You During the Week

• This is also too limited right now.

• I do have a monthly get together with a bunch of women physician friends that is life-giving. I try never to miss that unless out of town.

• I'm considering signing up for an adult ballet class once a week - I have never done ballet in my life! But my daughters' dance studio has an adult class once a week for total beginners at 8pm so it's after my kids go to bed... I think I'll sign up.

Exercise/Body Movement

• Yes but it's totally haphazard and WAY less often than I would like. This is my biggest area of challenge right now as far as getting things done or the thing that most often gets left behind.

Outsourcing

• We have a great nanny. House cleaner twice a month. Occasional garden clean-up help. I would outsource way more if it was financially more feasible!

• Meals are the one thing I haven't found a good solution to outsource - we are mostly pescatarian and eat pretty healthy/whole foods as much as possible so I haven't found a meal solution we like better than just planning and shopping for our own meals.

Travel (Answered in response to some question)

• How this works when I travel for work/leisure? I do a lot of pre-prep most of the time when I travel, not because my husband can’t handle things alone or because I think I have to, but because it just helps things flow more smoothly for everyone. So on a weekend day before I go (not for a short 1-2 night trip but for anything longer) I’ll prep a bunch of dinners and breakfasts he can use while I’m gone and then put some in fridge and some in freezer. I actually feel like I get way MORE done professionally when I’m traveling for work because I have no kid demands, so I am super productive and use plane rides to get through all my email backlog, do a clean slate session, etc. If it’s a family trip and I’m not working, there is definitely a lot of catch-up upon returning - I try to block the full day from meetings when I come back so I have the whole work day to get through emails, Teams messages, urgent things and calendar out what I missed that I need to address.

• I always order (Instacart) groceries on our travel day home so they’re waiting when we arrive back at the house and there’s no scrambling for dinner that night or breakfast the first morning back

• For longer trips we often try to come home on the Saturday of the weekend vs the Sunday. When I didn’t have kids I used to try to maximize every second of away time - coming home late Sunday night from a trip when work started Monday, etc. But with young kids I find that coming home Saturday night is a game changer - it gives the kids the first morning back to sleep in if they need to, and all of us a chance to have a chill day at home, unpack, mentally transition back to home life before jumping back into work/school/camp/whatever.

Anything Else the Sharer Wants to Share

• I always always fold a set of sheets and then place the fitted and flat sheet and the second pillowcase neatly folded inside the other pillowcase. This way the linen closet stays organized and sheets are together with their mates and I can just grab a pillowcase bundle when I need a fresh set for a bed. I honestly thought everyone did this but when some girlfriends saw me doing it they were like WHAT IS THIS and it has apparently changed their lives so I am sharing here. Ha!

• Final comment/not to a specific question... I don’t want to glorify this. This season is hard. It’s too busy. This is how I’m making it work right now but I won’t pretend it leaves anywhere close to enough time for myself or downtime. The Bright Method I think has really helped me take a step back to think about what I want to give up/peel away/delegate since now that I see everything on the calendar, I know it’s actually too much and it’s not just that I’m not being efficient enough or that I’m too much of a perfectionist. That’s been hard to swallow but needed in order to get clarity about what to keep vs toss as I’m able to start narrowing my priorities.

That’s a wrap for this one!

Thank you so much to this woman for generously sharing. These publish every Thursday!

A reminder of the ground rules to ensure women continue wanting to share about their days and feel safe doing so.

• Encouraging comments always welcome!

• If you have questions or even hang-ups about what someone shared, you are welcome to ask a question for the sharer in the same kind, genuinely curious way you would if you were looking at that woman in her eyes. She might respond through me.

• If comments are judge-y or mean-spirited, I reserve the right to delete comments. I can handle being criticized about my own work here (and even still, to a degree – I’m also a person), but I go into full mama bear mode when people come after my people – including women who are being vulnerable and sharing in the first place.

• Thanks to the vast majority of people who are so kind!

New here? Welcome!

I’m Kelly Nolan, an attorney-turned-time management strategist and mom of two. After experiencing overwhelm as a young patent litigator in Boston, I figured out a time management system to help me show up in the ways that I wanted to at work and at home – without requiring my brain to somehow magically remember it all. I now teach other professional working women how to manage their personal, family, and career roles with less stress and more calm clarity using realistic time management strategies. My system, the Bright Method, has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, and my work has been published in Forbes, Fast Company, Business Insider, and more.

→ Learn more on my website, come learn bite-sized strategies with me on Instagram, or jump into my free 3-day program.

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