hi everyone. Welcome to Do It Today. I'm Kara Cula, and today I'm talking with Dr. Aegean Chan, who is a board certified dermatologist in Santa Barbara, California. She recently opened her own practice, has done extensive lab research, has published in medical journals, and also happens to run one of my favorite Instagram accounts with skincare advice. And she balances about a million things during her day, I'm guessing, and does it all.
Really well, and I know has a lot of advice, for how to get through the day. So Aegean, it's so nice to catch up with you. It's been a while. And what are you doing today of all days?
Hi Kara. Um, so today is my admin day, which I purposely built into my weekly schedule. So right now I am sitting in my car talking to you and waiting to go into my daughter's school. They have, a little window where the parents can come observe them in their work. And then I have a staff meeting later. So today is kind of like my smorgasbord, kind of do all the random things that I'm not able to do when I'm seeing patients.
And is that every Monday or do you, does it change week to week?
It's either Monday or Wednesday, depending on my clinic schedule. I make sure I have. This stay every week, because otherwise, I think trying to fit meetings, in my 45 minute lunch while pumping between seeing patients, it's just, it's too much. So, I'm happy that I can have the flexibility to have sort of an admin day to, to do all of these things and, and be there for my kids and have that flexibility of time.
you also Have a new baby too. So, how has that sort of changed your schedule to have an infant and a toddler at the same time? Has that really shifted the way your work week is structured and, and the hours that you spend at home versus in the, in clinic?
Oh boy. So, um, she turned six months this past weekend, so, the time has flown and it definitely has been an adjustment. So going from one to two kids, you realize. You actually had a lot of free time when you had one kid unbeknownst to me. so with two, it's definitely been more of a juggle and I've had to be a lot more intentional with trying to find time to do things that aren't childcare related. I've actually just started coming back to work, on my full-time schedule.
At four months I started seeing patients two half days and I was still home with the baby the other times and just squeezing in meetings and I. Making content, during naps essentially. So that felt a little bit hectic. Um, and also doing housework and all of the things that need to happen for a household to run and for people to stay fed and clean. um, and so now, at six months, I'm kind of ramping up into my, long-term kind of full-time schedule. So I see patients part-time.
about two and a half days a week. And then I'm also reading pathology. so I do that, uh, two half days a week. And then, the, I have an admin day and then I actually am, uh, with my daughter at home one day a week. Um, because I've just found with the chaos of two kids, a toddler just sucks my time.
So I really wanted to still preserve a little dedicated pocket of time for the new baby because, a lot of the time and a lot of two kid parents probably understand this, your, your second kid kind of hangs out by themselves in the corner in a safe spot while there's chaos kind of going around them. So that's kind of, what I. Wanted to do to keep myself sane, to just essentially create these little pockets of time and create dedicated time to do these things.
Because I think before things could be free flowing. You could find pockets of time, but I think once you have a second kid, your free time shrinks up significantly and you really have to be intentional.
Yeah. What I'm hearing too is. You clearly have so much that you're doing and so many priorities in your life, but you sound very calm or like you actually know what each week is going to hold. is that true or is that just what I'm reading into, Like you, you know, the expectations of the weeks and you feel like you're putting your time towards the things that are important to you.
Yeah, so I. Definitely have my ups and downs. I think today is a kind of an easy start to the week. Having my admin day on a we on a Monday. so I'm able to regroup after the weekend but I do think that having that slow ramp up period, I was able to think about and see, okay, this is what my life is like. Let me focus in and, and decide what I wanna spend my time doing. And how do I make that happen? How do I carve out time for that?
So going into my more full-time schedule, I do feel really good because I have those set boundaries around my time. you know, like I said, I'm home with my daughter on Fridays. I realize how important it is to actually create time to be present with your kids because. It can feel really stressful. There's a lot of stuff to do, lots of cleanup, lots of sort of toddler maintenance. What have you during the time that you spend with them.
And I was, when we went on vacation in Hawaii, we had a nanny with us and I was able to have dedicated time with my toddler, and I realized, oh, this is really nice. I wasn't thinking about housework, I wasn't thinking about what came next. I just was able to be present with her and I was like, oh, I actually like hanging out with you. And so I realized, that needs to be part of my life on a regular basis. So that started the wheels of motion of like, well, how is my week gonna work?
How can I structure things so that I can really move things off my plate so that when I'm with my kids, I can actually be with my kids and be present and also have separate time away from my kids so that I can actually enjoy the work that I'm doing.
you know, we've known each other a long time and you really love your work. it's just a really important part of your life. And I can't help but think, 10 years ago, five years ago, how different. Your day was structured. and what sort of lessons that you maybe learned, you know, either going through med school or residency in how to manage your time, how to structure a day, did any of that help, during this also extremely busy part of your life?
I do think so. I mean, I think before, you know, five, 10 years ago, I had the energy to really multitask a lot. So if I was making content, you know, I would be able to carve out 30 minutes in a day to do that, or you know, kind of answer emails between patients. But I've lately started realizing that that takes away from, I. My experience and my attention in a way that I don't like.
So for example, even just a couple years ago, I would just make content in between seeing patients during my clinic day or kind of late at night before going to bed. And I realized that that was really burning me out. That made me not enjoy creating content. I was just doing it for the sake of doing it. And it also took away from. Being present for my patients, being present in the clinic with my staff and being able to manage all the things that are going on there.
once I was visualizing this schedule for once I'm back from maternity leave, I was like, I need to have dedicated time for social media things so that I. When I'm in clinic, I'm in clinic, I'm with my patients and I can be fully present there, and I've found myself enjoying the time that I spend doing the irrespective things that I do. I enjoy that time so much more because I'm able to focus, and I think when you have kids, you're sleep deprived.
It's just harder to do, you know, five things at once and still feel good about them.
And you know, you do have, you know, 36,000 followers on Instagram. You have, you give such great advice. You have fun videos, you have fun infographics. And I look at this and I'm like, how does she make all of this? And so I guess I'm wondering how. Has it added to your life and your work and career in a way that has made you see that it's worth it to take that time?
So it kind of came out of this enjoyment that I got from educating people about a lot of the misinformation out there, the popular, news, media coverage of skincare and what you should be doing and should not be doing. It was really satisfying for me to be like, actually that's not the case. Be able to provide evidence and, and help people in a very practical way, their skincare. And I really enjoyed interfacing with the community of people that started following my content.
It's been really wonderful. I've met a lot of wonderful people, as well as, you know, colleagues, other dermatologists, cosmetic chemists. So that part is really, really fulfilling to me and that's why I keep doing it because I do feel like the information I'm putting out there has been really useful to a lot of people. and it's interesting because. What I talk about on social media is not what I do during my clinic day.
When I'm seeing patients in person, I'm dealing with a lot of more medical issues, more personalized skin issues for people, and I don't necessarily have the time to delve into questions about why parabens are actually not bad. You know, why clean beauty is, you know, just full of informa misinformation and. More of a marketing trend and, and all of those things I think are really important and are things that people are exposed to a lot in popular culture.
So it's kind of a way to, to use both parts of my dermatology brain, And it's, and especially sharing my motherhood journey and interweaving the experience I've had, you know, and all the misinformation I've encountered in that aspect also has gotten a lot of great response. 'cause I think a lot of women are feeling that there's a void in terms of that information out there. So it's been nice to be somebody that can provide accurate information for people with that regard.
so when you post something, you could be up until midnight, you know, answering people and even creating more content As much time as you wanna put into it is as much time as it will take up. So do you have boundaries set around like, okay, I am going to respond to people during this set period of time, because I have these other important things to do.
Oh my goodness, yes. I, I actually, I don't spend that much time on the platform. I essentially spend a couple hours a week. Doing content, some weeks. I can only get out one post, but my goal is to do two posts a week, which I think in. The world of people that are really trying to optimize their feeds. I think that's really counterintuitive. What I've heard is that you really should be posting multiple times a day, which seems wild to me.
Um, but I only go for two posts but I try to make them relatively high quality. know, I wanna make sure that, that it has at least one piece of useful information, for people, but also not too complex. That it'll get lost. it's kind of a balance of this is useful, but it's also bite-sized enough that, you know, somebody swiping and has 10 seconds of attention can gain something useful out of it.
And then in terms of, you know, not letting it take over my, my life, I think last year I decided to not even open the app after 8:00 PM.
Ooh, I love this boundary,
I mean, I'm too tired and so my, my evenings, you know, sometimes I, I'll do some admin, you know, I'll be like, I'm gonna reply to these four emails and I'm gonna, make the schedule for my staff and do that kind of computer work where I have set tasks. But I won't just open my computer or open up Instagram after I put the girls to bed and cruise around. I have to have a reason to do it. um, that's really helped me because I think the pull of the vortex at night is very strong.
It's hard to get out of it.
Yes. It's suddenly just like I'm exhausted and yet I can't stop scrolling.
for me at least late at night, I'm less kind of in tune with regulating my emotions. So that was why I, I picked the 8:00 PM is that I found myself at night, I would be much more prone to those feelings of fomo. And sort of spiral a little bit. And I've heard this from a lot of people too. And I think it's just easier for me during the day to regulate that stuff and keep it moving. Whereas at night, you know, you can kind of get into a thought spiral that might not be the healthiest place
well, it sounds like a really clear boundary, that you have around social media. And looking at the rest of, you know, the rest of your admin day today, do you have any other tools that will help you move through, the emails, the meetings, You know, bouncing between commitments, like are there any digital tools, physical tools or emotional ones that you'll sort of lean on, throughout the day? Aegean Chan Burnett: honestly, the to-do list. is my best friend.
And the calendar, if something's not on the calendar, it doesn't exist. So especially since I've had my second kid, I've really had to be diligent about putting things on the calendar. And I actually have to confess, I rescheduled a dentist appointment for my daughter because last week was my first week back. I was like, oh, it's gonna be too crazy. I have to reschedule it.
I forgot that I rescheduled it and I never took off the old appointment on the calendar, so I, I showed up with both kids in toe at the dentist's office, and so it just showed me, I was like, oh my goodness. Like I literally have no more brain capacity to remember things on my own, I live and die by the calendar. did they get you in or did you have to come back for the other appointment?
No, I mean, she was busy, so I just kind of backed out of the door. I was like, my bad. I walked around the block with Sophia. I was like, sorry, dude, while we're coming back in a couple weeks. you know, but it just made me realize how much I rely on the calendar. And then the other tool that I've really found useful is the Apple Watch.
I didn't have one before I had kits because I was never a watch person and I never, I was one of those people that would leave my phone at the house for hours, you know, if I went on a walk to go get a coffee, my like luxury would be to leave my phone at the house and just be completely unplugged. with kids, you can't do that. And you know, if Mark, my, my husband wants to reach me, needs to reach me for something, you know, so having the watch actually freed me from being tied to my phone.
So before I got the watch, I would have this anxiety of like, oh, where's my phone? And with the watch, now I can run after my kids. I know that if somebody needs to reach me, I'll get it on my, on my wrist. And so I have it limited, so I'm not getting a ton of notifications. So it's really just for text messaging and getting phone calls, and setting timers because toddlers need timers to move through the day. So I, I think that's really the tool that I utilize the most, during the day.
And it actually, yeah, gives me a lot of freedom and makes me feel like I can be more present.
I love that. I feel like that's the best advertisement I've heard for the Apple Watch. Um,
paying me anything.
maybe soon. so this is your admin day, and I was just wondering like, what will feel like a successful day, like when you're sort of winding down is it crossing everything off the to-do list? Is it sort of moving through things without, Overly being stressed out. Like what does, what does like a really positive, full day feel like in your life.
I think. When, when those happen, when I can get most of the things done off of my to-do list, while not being hurried, while not being stressed, and being able to be present for each task, that definitely does make for a day that feels like I've accomplished something and um, you know, I'm able to rest at night. I think that's, for me, the reward is when. I feel like I've done enough that, you know, from eight to 10:00 PM I can sit and watch a show or read a book and not do anything at all.
but I think an important thing to keep in mind is when you're making your to-do list, to do it in a realistic way. so when people make to-do lists, you know, I do this too. I put on too many things. I found that I was putting on too many things, so I never had that feeling because I never felt like I did enough. And then once I started making more realistic to-do lists that really only had three things on them for the day.
Then that's when I was able to have that feeling at night that felt like I had accomplished something. and then also the concept, this kind of ties into the concept, especially once your responsibilities grow and you're taking care of tiny humans. and I cannot remember why I heard this quote, but you know, all of your responsibilities are either glass balls or plastic balls that are up in the air and you just have to be okay with the plastic balls falling.
Mm.
So once I took that mentality, I'm like, okay, my job is to keep the glass balls up in the air and if the other non-essential, non-critical things fall to the wayside and somebody has to send me a reminder email, that's okay. It doesn't mean I'm a failure as a person, doesn't mean I did a bad job. It just is. Um, and that really has helped a lot of that negative self-talk that I think.
can consume you when you're a really busy person because it's just impossible to do everything in a timely fashion.
What an amazing, clear metaphor I think for everyone. Just that acceptance it's okay if some will fall. I think that that will be really helpful. and like you said, finding yourself at the end of the day, like you've accomplished the things that you've wanted to accomplish. You didn't overextend but you didn't feel like you were disappointing yourself or anyone else. how do you unwind and prepare for the next day?
it's hard because depending on how long it takes me to get my kids down, and I'm also currently breastfeeding and pumping, so that's also basically a second. Part to full-time job. it really, I think I maybe have about an hour to myself at night, and honestly, right now is the golden age of television. We have succession, we have yellow jackets. Love is blind. I mean, we got the full gamut. the more mindless reality tv, it is.
That's my true kind of guilty pleasure where I can just turn off my brain. just watch and enjoy the dynamics that are going on on the TV is no consequence to me. That's probably my biggest guilty pleasure. And it's funny 'cause my husband, he's always like, you're such a smart person. Why, why are you watching all this? But I've heard from a lot of people that really enjoy, particularly trashy reality tv. They're very high functioning people. and that seems to be an escape for a lot of people.
So I'm gonna go on record.
go on record as Love is Blind. Uh, fan girl. Uh, yeah. Well, you know, you don't have to follow complex storylines. You don't have to think too deeply. You know, there's a time and place well, I feel like. I'm going to get angry emails if I don't ask you, what your skincare routine looks like during the day. because you are the only person who's ever convinced me to wear sunscreen, so I, I have to thank you for that a hundred times over two finger lengths full of sunscreen, right?
Every day. Um, I, I listen, I listen to you, and so, what does your skincare routine look like during the day?
Oh boy. Well, it is not complex at all and you know me. Less is more. the more simple. It can be the better. And again, when there's, I have no privacy either. My two and a half year old is usually in the bathroom with me. Maybe there's also a baby sitting in a bouncer at the floor. So my morning skin routine is pretty quick. I basically just wash, um, I have been testing out some vitamin C serum, so I'll slap that on and then I'll put moisturizer and sunscreen on.
So that probably takes me about, I. In total, And then at night it's pretty much the same, but instead of a vitamin C serum, I'll either use a retinoid or I've been using lactic acid lately, so I'll alternate between those two. I'll use sometimes a hyaluronic acid serum. I've been feeling really dry lately. so I'll do that and then I'll use a thicker moisturizer on top. So usually either Cetaphil cream. Or I've been really liking the Laroche Poe Saplat balm.
it really seals and everything, so when I wake up, my face feels really hydrated, and ready to go for the day. So it actually took me longer to describe it to you that it actually takes me to do it. So it's pretty, pretty straightforward.
No, I, I, I just love you. You talk about this a lot, on Instagram and your website and, and wonderful newsletter that, it doesn't have to be complex. Like often we make things more complicated, than they need to be. And for something that is, easily replicated day to day and that feels like something you can maintain, Simple is better. So, uh, I just really love that piece of advice, both for your skin and also how we move through the days. Right.
it sounds like you have a really smart system that works for you Involving lots of boundaries and things that I'm totally gonna steal for my own life. Uh, so thank you for bringing us into, your day and I hope we can actually hang out, uh, soon
I would love that.
thank you so much for, taking the time.
Thank you.