Burnout, Creativity & Why I Stopped Letting Email Run My Life

What if burnout doesn’t look like hating your job, but like losing your creativity?

In this solo-style episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin, MD, is joined by her husband Colin after returning from more than two weeks of solo travel through Denmark and Norway.

They talk about how Frances’ relationship with travel has changed since leaving clinical medicine, why stepping away from work often seems to create more opportunity rather than less, and the habits she is trying to unlearn after years of surgical training—including opening email the moment she wakes up.

Frances also shares what she learned from filling an entire journal while traveling, why physicians can become overly precious about creative work, and the importance of practicing before the “perfect” opportunity arrives.

In this episode:

• How burnout can show up as a loss of creativity

• Why Frances stopped checking email first thing in the morning

• Solo travel after leaving clinical medicine

• Journaling and developing your own voice in the age of AI

• Why waiting for inspiration can keep you stuck

• Practicing before the big opportunity arrives

• The surprising relationship between taking time off and getting new work

• Moving beyond travel as escapism

• Creating a healthier relationship with ambition and productivity

• Why your inbox does not deserve to control your day

For physicians, creatives, entrepreneurs, and anyone trying to build a life where work matters without allowing it to consume everything else.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

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