The 60% Rule

Last year, my counselor introduced me to a groundbreaking concept.

If you feel like you have no time in the day, are spread too thin, and are battling burnout...try the 60% rule.

You can read more here. The 60% rule acknowledges that perfectionists (and many SLPs are perfectionists), do much more than is needed to complete work tasks.

So dial back your work tasks to 60% effort, and use the extra 40% for self-care, learning, and loved ones.

Struggling with Organization?

Check out this workbook to support executive functioning. Use this for yourself and your students!

Barriers for SLPs...

The 60% rule is not a spin on "lazy girl jobs" or "quiet quitting" trends. This is most helpful if you find yourself always in the fast lane, going top speed until your energy is so depleted you crash.

On so many levels, this is an unhealthy pattern that many of us have to un-learn after graduate school.

Recently, my work bestie mentioned that she had been prepping for the day until 11:00pm the night before. We started talking about the 60% rule and why it is so hard for SLPs to apply this concept.

Below are barriers and solutions to help you reduce burnout so you can enjoy your career and have a life!

Barrier One: Scope of Practice

Speech-language pathologists are generalists by training. We have to demonstrate competence to serve the wide variety of students who arrive at our door.

Having worked in higher ed, I know how much graduate programs are tasked with teaching. Our scope of practice is ever expanding. At minimum it includes professional and service delivery domains.

Service delivery areas include fluency, speech sound production, language/literacy, cognition, voice, resonance, feeding, and auditory habilitation/rehab. Professional domains include: advocacy and outreach, supervision, education, administration, and research.

On one hand, this means speech pathology is never boring. We are lifelong learners, and can find areas to specialize in, like gender-affirming voice, AAC, or pediatric feeding.

On the other hand, it means SLPs cover a lot of professional ground. Given that our code of ethics starts with "Individuals shall provide all clinical services and scientific activities competently," our ever expanding scope of practice can be daunting.

Barrier Two: Career as a "Calling"

As we used to say in Louisiana, bless your heart if you approach your job as a calling. No doubt, a huge appeal of working as an SLP is being in a helping profession and empowering vulnerable populations.

But conflating a career with your calling sets you up for unpaid labor. In both speech pathology and higher education, I have fallen into this trap. Cliché phrases like "It's not work if you love it," set us up for overwork and burnout.

Barrier Three: "Type A" Personalities

I have lost count of how many SLP graduate students tell me they are “type A.” They describe themselves as competitive, high achievers, who perform well under pressure.

Since SLP programs are highly selective, it creates a perfect funnel for self-professed Type A SLPs.

The problem of course, is that spending your career in a highly perfectionist and pressured mindset leads to burnout.

As an SLP, developing cognitive flexibility and relaxing your internal expectations are essential.

Solutions

Here are strategies for anyone who is approaching or struggling with burnout.

Strategy 1: Apply the 60% Rule

Try giving 60% to the next small item on your to-do list, whether it loading dishes or putting up a bulletin board.

60% may look differently for everyone, but the key is to realize this mindset frees up 40% of your time to do things that you enjoy or bring you flow.

Find ways to delegate tasks or get help. I personally don’t like cooking and finally realized even planning dinner every night was a huge stressor for me.

I signed up for a meal service plan 3 nights per week so no more decision fatigue…and it is well worth the money.

Strategy 2: Prioritize Tasks & Use a Timer

We all have long to-do lists. Having a way to prioritize your tasks can help free up time. I am a big fan of the Eisenhower matrix. This 4 square chart breaks up tasks into more or less urgent, vs. more or less important.

Do the urgent and important things first. Delegate or delete things that are less important.

Personally, I don’t list more than 5 to-do items per day. It is too easy to feel overwhelmed when you have 20 items you don’t get to.

If you struggle with time blindness, set a timer on how long you will work and don’t go over.

Let’s say you have progress notes due next week. Work on progress notes for 30 minutes, maybe only writing 1-2 sentences per student to get them done. If you have more time at the end, go back and add more detail.

Strategy 3: Compartmentalize Work

This is another good strategy if you struggle with burnout or time blindness. Having specific hours around when you are working is essential.

I have never brought IEPs or evals home to work on at night or the weekend.

Another tip is find hobbies outside of Speechie stuff. One trap I have fallen into is having my whole identity be a “speechie” and all my hobbies, socials, and attire orbiting around being an SLP or University employee. I still struggle with this, so I may need your ideas here!

Strategy 4: Advocate as an SLP

As a group, SLPs tend to be people pleasers, whatever the demands are. I love that newer graduates are advocacy minded and fighting for higher compensation and better work conditions.

It is hard to free up time when everything feels urgent and important. So reducing our overall workload is important. Here are three areas where we all need to be advocating:

• Jobs that pay for indirect as well as direct time. If you are a salaried employee create your own time boundaries and stick to them. Being salaried as an SLP does not mean working 24 hours per day!

• Caseload caps are a game changer if you work in the schools. Some U.S. states do have caseload caps and compensate SLPs if they have higher numbers. It may be easier to get local change rather than waiting for ASHA to help, so advocate with your teacher’s union to fight for district-wide caps if your state does not have them.

• Higher reimbursement rates. A lot of terrific, SLP-owned practices have difficulty paying SLPs higher rates because they are not getting paid well by insurance companies. In schools, that means SLPs should not be on the teacher pay scale.

I hope this gives you useful strategies whether you work in schools or another setting as an SLP.

This is not about abandoning patients. Ultimately, our students and clients are better served when we are in a good head space.

Today, try giving a small task 60% effort and reflect on how that feels. What are some areas that you are giving more effort than you need to and could free up some time and energy? Let me know what you think… I can’t wait to hear from you!

More Self-Care Tips for SLPs

Keep reading and share this with your SLP bestie!

8 Winter Self-Care Tips for SLPs

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