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Douglas Flora

Apr 11, 2025, 06:08

Douglas Flora’s Career Lessons: Importance of Learning Habits

Douglas Flora, Executive Medical Director of Oncology Services at St. Elizabeth Healthcare and ACCC President-Elect, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“The “other ROI”: Return on Attention: My One Remaining Analog Habit

I had breakfast with an old friend yesterday. Midway through, he pulled out this tiny worn leather notebook full of scribbles, and read me something he’d jotted down years ago.

It made me think about my own stack of old notebooks – over thirty of them now – filled with notes, quotes, and ideas I’ve collected over the years.

I started this habit by accident. Just highlighting passages in books, then writing down the ones that really hit home. Nothing fancy or systematic. But looking back, its become one of those rare practices that has stuck and keeps paying off.

Three things I’ve noticed:

Those notes from Adam Grant or Simon Sinek books are still relevant years later. Different context, same wisdom.
It slows me down in the best way. Instead of just consuming and forgetting, writing forces me to digest what matters. (Studies show we’re 33% more likely to remember something when we write it by hand vs. typing it.)
My perspective at 35 reads differently than my perspective at 53. Same notes, new eyes.

My team (and family) probably roll their eyes by now about certain phrases they’ve heard me repeat so often – “We don’t water our weeds” or “Integrity never goes out of style” – but they started as someone else’s wisdom I thought worth keeping.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I wish I’d known earlier in my career. This simple practice of capturing ideas on paper is near the top of that list. Nothing revolutionary. Just consistently useful.

Do you have a simple habit that’s unexpectedly stuck with you?”

Douglas Flora