A healthcare professional’s day is a busy one. If you waste just one hour a day, in ten years you will have lost 3,650 hours or 152 days of your life. Every single hour is important. Time management in healthcare is a survival skill. In order to survive and thrive, you need to effectively manage your time. It’s a learned and acquired skill that must be practiced every day.
Here are 4 time management tips to help you get on the road to managing it wisely.
Reality Check
It’s easy to get stuck in a routine and think you are doing all you can do to effectively manage your time. If you constantly find yourself strapped for time, try taking a step back and track your time for a week. Sometimes just the simple act of writing down and planning out how your time is being spent each day can help you determine different ways to more efficiently manage your time. Here are some productivity time management apps to help you better manage your time and schedule.
Determine Your Most Productive Time of Day
Capitalize on your best time of day to work on your most important tasks. You know your body best. These peak periods are when you’re most alert mentally and physically.
Customers of HybridChart have significantly reduce their readmission penalties. One customer was able to reduce hospital readmission rates to 1/3 that of the national average! Ready to reduce yours? Watch a Recorded Demo Today!
Avoid Procrastination
We’re all guilty of procrastinating from time to time. But don’t put off something that can be done now! This is the cornerstone of great time management skills in healthcare. In order to stay on schedule, you need to actually perform the tasks as you’ve laid them out for the day.
Just Say No
One of the most powerful time-saving words in the English dictionary is “no”. It can be easy to say “yes” to everything and everyone, but learning to say “no” more can add time to your hectic day. Set limits to protect your time and energy. Set boundaries and try not to allow interruptions while you’re working. Most things can wait.
Just because you are short on time doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice patient satisfaction. Follow these tips for those moments you feel like there’s not enough time and your clock is ticking.
Learn how to streamline your practice and reclaim what’s most important to you: your time. Download Your Complete Guide to a Streamlined Practice and a Happy Team now!
- More About Dr. Sanders
Dr. Gregory Sanders is a Harvard-trained, practicing cardiologist and founder and CEO of HybridChart. He has been coding since the 1980s and has spent his medical career focusing on improving processes. His patient care skills earned him recognition as one of Phoenix Magazine’s TOP DOCs. He lives in Scottsdale with his family.