Time realities
In literal fact, everyone has the same amount if time in a given day. We may have a different number of days, but the amount of time in a given day is the same for everyone. This may seem like a semantic hair-split, but it can actually be an empowering concept. When you feel that time is in short supply, ask yourself, “What am I choosing to spend my time doing?” In some situations, the choice of what to do with your time is at best theoretical. If you are a new parent, for instance, what to do with a sick or injured child is not really a matter of choice. If your job is to assemble equipment or machinery, there is not a lot of choosing involved. However, at least some of the time spent in a business or professional environment is done out of habit or convention, not really conscious choosing. Stepping back, even briefly, and asking about yourself about the choices you are making is helpful and makes you more present-time conscious.
Priorities
Steven Covey wrote extensively and seminally on the critical nature, and the difficulty of prioritization. It was a big part of 7 Habits, and nearly the exclusive subject of First Things First. His model using a 4-bos analysis comparing urgency and importance is a simple yet compelling tool for any project or workload. The take-away summary is that in a work environment, you should spend zero time doing things that are not important. These tasks are either deceptions (you thought it was important, but turns out to be trivia or minutiae), or diversions. Important tasks fall into two categories, urgent and non-urgent. Nearly everyone will perform high-importance, high urgency tasks first, and rightfully so. Prudent time managers consistently sequester time for non-urgent but important tasks. Ignoring these time choices ends up with tasks that were non-urgent becoming so behind your back. The questions to ask yourself to evaluate this is, “How much time per week do I have slotted for box 2 tasks (low-urgent, high importance)? When is this scheduled? Am I actually doing box 2 tasks during this slot?”
This is one of those areas where later can easily become never. If a task is truly important, it must be accomplished, even if it’s not right this very minute.
Tools and organization
I am still amazed by the frequency with which I see professional people fail to use the myriad scheduling calendars available. This means using your desktop, laptop, tablet or smart phone’s productivity suite to create your work and personal schedule ignoring patient care hours. Your patient care hours are already scheduled on your work computer, no need to re-create that in your personal calendar. It’s my opinion that with the onslaught of information, tasks, requests, new skill requirements, etc. that every doctor has to deal with, you can never achieve high productivity and organization without the use of this tool.
Once you have the e-calendar in place, and you’ve blocked off, say Tuesday from 10-noon, now what? If you just attack whatever’s on the top of your pile first, you have missed the first and critical step in the process. Here are some steps that will help you use this time slot more effectively:
- Make a list of all tasks you intend to complete.
- Determine which has the biggest impact on your business as a whole, either positive or negative if unattended.
- Do larger tasks first
- Remove visual clutter from your workplace.
It’s also helpful to estimate the amount of time you think something is going to take, and then time yourself. This serves two purposes: it frames any given task in a time-sensitive dimension, and it also makes you better at time estimation. If you intuitively feel that a task will take 15 minutes and it ends up taking an hour, you are going to feel and be behind on a regular basis.
Types of tasks and problems
Ronald Heifitz wrote extensively about two different types of situations that arise in a workplace that require attention: A technical problem and an adaptive challenge. Knowing the difference and treating them differently will help you manage your time better and will give you better outcomes.
A technical problem is something that has a solution that can essentially be purchased. Perhaps your office management software is outdated or non-compliant. Perhaps your personnel roster is inadequate to meet your hours. Perhaps one of your employees does not know how to operate a piece of equipment. These are all things that can be addressed with proper use of time and money.
An adaptive challenge is subtler, more difficult and increasingly more common, unfortunately. This is a situation where there needs to be growth, compromise, understanding, gaining new sets of expertise, and the like. Perhaps your office has developed a culture of blaming and finger-pointing. Perhaps your associate is disinterested or disengaged. Perhaps your own motivations have flagged or weakened. Perhaps the outside environment has changed (or is threatening to) and some of the rules are not the same. Nearly all health care providers are facing this possibility with the onset of the ACA, happening right now!
The key point here is that spending your time on adaptive challenge by treating it like a technical problem will usually give you a bigger and now more expensive problem. This topic is one with a great deal of leverage and will be addressed more thoroughly in future blog posts.