In the mid-1950s, Earl Nightingale, the Dean of Personal Development, hosted a radio program on WGN. One of his young interns once asked him, "How do you manage time?" To which Earl replied, "You can't manage time, you can only manage activities." Each of us has exactly 1440 minutes in a day. The most successful practices learn how to manage their activities to best utilize their time.
Each Chiropractic Clinic is unique in the services they offer. They vary with Chiropractic Technique's offered, number of doctors and staff, and how many patients are served. With that said, there are some initial guidelines that can help any sized practice.
Figuring Out What's Important First
Stephen Covey, who wrote the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, discussed breaking down all tasks into four quadrants:
Quadrant 1 is those items that are important and urgent --they MUST be dealt with immediately.
Quadrant 2 is those items that are important and not urgent--these don't require immediate attention but need to be planned for--these represent longer-term goals.
Quadrant 3 is those items that are unimportant and urgent --these are items you want to minimize or eliminate as they are typically interruptions, distractions, and sometimes become urgent due to poor planning.
Quadrant 4 is unimportant and not urgent and should be minimized or eliminated as these are often trivial, busy work, time wasters.
You want to start with your Quadrant 1 items first and your Quadrant 2 items next. These are the most important activities in your practice. Then work next on Quadrant 3 and 4 -- trying to minimize and/or eliminate these sorts of activities in your practice. So how do you do this? Start writing down all tasks you have currently on your agenda and then give them a priority rating of 1-4 using the quadrants above. Items with a 1 and 2 take top priority above any 3 and 4 activities. Next, you will plan action steps for those items as well as who is responsible for completing them.
Plan Ahead and Put Action Steps on a Calendar
Like you have a calendar for your patient schedule, you need to have a daily calendar in 15-minute increments for all the other activities that occur in your office. Each office has its own systems and procedures. In the practice I managed for over twenty years, we had established days and times of the week and month in which certain activities occurred. Put those on a calendar with specific times for those events. This reserves those times for the important activities that keep your practice running.
From the list you created above, plug into your calendar all action steps with a #1 rating first, then #2 rating and so on down to #4. Remembering that you are in the process of learning to minimize or eliminate those items that are rated a #3 and #4.
If you take care of the most urgent and important issues first, or plan for the important items that are not as time-sensitive, you will gain control over managing the activities which are occurring in your practice.
Pre-plan your business schedule for the next business day by reviewing it with the doctor and any staff members involved before you leave the practice day. Leave some flexibility in the schedule for unexpected new priorities which may arise. This will help everyone be ready to accomplish the action steps during the next practice day so that your team will be successful at completing the goals.
When you start your new practice day, there will be times when you need to re-assess the calendar as new priorities come into the day. As new things show up, give them a rating of 1-4 and put them immediately on your calendar for the appropriate day. If you need to move items on your calendar to accommodate something that needs immediate attention, remember: Items rated as a #1 cannot be moved to another day. Item rated #2 can be moved if it does not hurt the long-term goal of the project. Items rated #3 and #4 are the lowest priority and typically can be moved. To ensure all action steps get completed, any item you choose to move on your calendar can only be moved twice before action must be taken.
As you integrate new ways of managing activities in your practice, have fun and be creative with it. Any new system you bring into your office takes time to establish, so be patient with your initial results and give yourself a couple of months to create this system as a habit. Calendarizing your priorities first and letting go of what isn't necessary for your practice will liberate you and help you keep your focus on what you truly want giving excellent service to your patients.
Anne Prinz is a consultant and has spent over 20 years as an office manager for a successful chiropractic clinic, honing her skills so she could teach others how to do the same. Anne is also the author of the book, Living Your Exclamation Point Life!, and the owner of Exclamation Point Living, LLC. To learn more or contact Anne visit her website: www.AnneLPrinz.com.
