How to Write a Book as a Physician: The Small Pieces Method

The Setup

Somewhere around midyear, I knew. I had a book to write. September 24 real.

I'm a part-time ENT physician. I've been in clinical medicine since 2005. My calendar fills with patient hours, clinical shifts, administrative work, everything that pulls in different directions. 

There would be no month where fifty empty hours opened up. So I did the only thing that made sense: I built permission into the life I'm actually living.

The Physician's Guide to Owning Your Time exists because I built it in pieces. Small, consistent pieces. Exactly the way the book teaches.

The Method

I borrowed a concept from Jori O'Neale's Talk Your Book: Say It, Shape It, Share It. One core idea: do one thing you care about every day, in small pieces, with consistent action. That's what builds something real.

I used that framework to create 99 prompts of my own. I spoke them. While driving to clinic. 

Walking through the hospital. Sitting in a parking lot between patient hours. Voice dictated, no editing, just thinking out loud about what it means to own your time when everyone else is trying to own it for you.

Then I edited it. Me. I read through everything, sharpened it, shaped it, made it mine. And piece by piece, turn by turn, something that felt impossible became real.

My team transcribed and organized. We saw the patterns. The book emerged from the voice memos, the conversations, the real thinking of someone actually living in medicine.

Why This Works

This technique works for anything you want to build. A book. A grant. A paper. A presentation. A project. A proposal. The method is the same: voice, permission, small pieces, consistent action.

You have your voice right now. You have the things you want to create. You have permission to build them in the time you actually have, alongside everything else you're doing. It works because it's built for how physicians actually live.

Writing a book as a physician doesn't require a sabbatical. Creating something meaningful doesn't mean stepping away from your practice. The small pieces methodology means you can author a book, develop a proposal, or build something strategic while you're still showing up for your patients, your team, your life.

I'm excited about this because it opens up what's possible. Not just for writing, but for any creative work, any strategic thinking, any project that matters to you but keeps getting pushed to someday.

What Became Clear

Doing one thing every day that matters changes everything. Not because you're suddenly productive. Because you're claiming space for what you actually want to create. You're designing your life instead of accepting the default.

That's what September 24 is about.

What to Do This Week

Name your project. What do you want to create? A book, a grant, a paper, a proposal, something else? Don't overthink it. Just name what's been sitting in the back of your mind.

Find your small pieces. Look at your actual schedule this week. Where are 15 minutes you could claim for one thing that matters? A voice memo on your commute, a note during lunch, thinking time in the parking lot. Find it.

Speak it, don't write it. If you're building something, record your voice. Talk through it like you're explaining it to a colleague. No editing. Just voice. That's where the real thinking lives.

Claim permission to start. Block that 15 minutes on your calendar. Tell one person what you're building. Remove one friction point. Make it real this week.

Join Us September 24

The Physician's Guide to Owning Your Time launches September 24 at 7:00 to 7:15 PM Eastern.

• Join the live launch party: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rAsbTeq0SgiyjJHz9DBe3g
• Can't make the live event? Between 7:00 and 8:00 PM ET on September 24, search Amazon for "Stacey Ishman Physician's Guide to Owning Your Time"
• The ebook is what we need for the bestseller ranking (hardcover and paperback available too)
• Type the search term exactly so it helps the algorithm

I genuinely hope you'll be part of this moment. Whether you're buying the book, joining the launch, or sharing this with someone else who needs permission to build something that matters, thank you. This is how we change what's possible.