You know those workdays when you get to the end and feel great? You might be a bit weary, but you got so much done and despite everything feel energised? Then the good feeling carries forward into other parts of your life and you feel like you’re really nailing things.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t necessarily continue the next day or rest of the week. As healthcare business owners, managers and decision makers, part of your role is to be responsive to what’s needed for the practice, plus this and being pulled in many different directions is often just part of the job.
So, taking this into account, the question is how do you make more of your workdays really productive, save time, be more efficient and end off with that great feeling?
Time saving and efficiency tips
Following are strategies we’ve implemented over the years ourselves, and with our business coaching clients. Not all of them are right for everyone, so pick out a few and give them a go. You might find it takes a bit of persistence to get to the point where they become habitual, but the results are worth the effort!
Plan tomorrow before you finish today. Before you head home for the day, spending even a few minutes mapping out tomorrow will help you leave work behind for the day, plus mean you hit the ground running in the morning.
Create a to-do/task list. It’s an oldie but a goodie. We suggest not only including the day-to-day things you need to get done, but also the next actions you need to take on your bigger/longer term projects. This way you’ll keep making progress on those too – making you more proactive and really driving motivation! Some people prefer a hand-written list they can tick off, others use an App or program that gives them reminders and helps them prioritise. How you track your list doesn’t matter, as long as it works for you.
Break bigger projects down into smaller tasks. Doing so and putting the steps in order will make it clear which to add to your current to-do list.
Ensure you’ve got enough time allocated to:
Challenge yourself.
Do the things on your task list through to completion.
Allow for the inevitable interruptions, plus some catch-up time.
Have a lunch break!
Be sure to take into account heavy meeting days, or when you have other commitments.
If when you’re planning your day you can see that you don’t have enough time allocated, reprioritise your list. Otherwise, you risk spending all day playing catch up and still not getting everything done. No matter how productive you’ve been, you’re not going to feel satisfied at the end of the day.
Work out when you’re most/least effective. Then allocate those times to appropriate tasks.
Delegate. Another common suggestion, but something people often find quite challenging for a number of reasons. Starting small can help. As can being really clear with instructions, the outcomes you’re wanting and when you expect to get an update.
Schedule regular time for the different parts of your role. Most of us have areas of responsibility that get pushed to the side in favour of more urgent things (or those we prefer doing). Having regular time allocated in your calendar will help keep all areas of your role on track, including the ones that don’t seem urgent right now, but are important over the long term.
Turn off alerts and remove distractions. There’ll be some you need to keep on but turning off alerts (or at the very least the sound) for anything that’s not essential to your role, will really help you to focus. Also, for most Apps these days you can set periods of time each day when you don’t want to receive alerts. Self-discipline can be the trickiest thing on this point!
Close your office door for blocks of time. Doing this to allow you to focus on tasks and not be interrupted, can actually support an open-door management approach – because you’re getting through what you need to, you’re more receptive when people come in when the door’s open.
Make your meeting time really productive. We’ve all experienced what a time-waster some meetings can be, but a few things can make a big difference:
Ensure that beforehand you review the notes from the last meeting, as well as any information on items to be covered at this one. For regular meetings, this is a good action to lock in regular time for on your calendar.
Make sure there’s an agenda and others also arrive prepared.
Turn up on time. If others are late, have something with you that you can keep working on until it starts.
Make sure that someone is taking notes/minutes, including the next action needed, who will be doing it and by when. Then get these distributed straight after the meeting to maintain momentum and accountability.
Lock out time in your calendar for your follow up after the meeting – things like distributing notes, actioning things you need to straight away, adding points to your to-do list etc.
There will also be other opportunities within your practice to save time and be more efficient – things that are specific to the way you do things and workflows. Getting your team together to discuss and share ideas can uncover all sorts of strategies.
When you’ve chosen the strategies to work on, keep at it and refine them as needed. Plus, identify time wasters and strategies to overcome them.
And, when you have those really productive and satisfying days, take a few minutes to reflect on what contributed, then try to repeat those actions and strategies.
If you’d like help coming up with and implementing strategies to save you time and make you more efficient, get in touch with the Augmentum team and find out more about our Business Coaching. We work with individuals and teams in the medical and allied health fields, tailoring our services to empower them, plus build knowledge, skills and confidence where they need it most.
Or to find out more about our broad range of healthcare-focused consultancy and management services, check out our website www.augmentum.com.au.
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