Time Management

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” Carl Sandburg

It’s all the same. No matter where you go in the world or what you do, there are only 24 hours in a day. As dental professionals, we do seem to focus on time more than other industries; manipulating the way we spend our hours can make or break our businesses. Now is a great time of the year to reflect and look at how you are directing your and your team’s most valuable resource. It’s time to answer the question…where should you invest your time and energy?

1. Huddles: Everyone has heard of huddles, yet few dental teams take the 15 minutes per day to do them consistently. It can be difficult to get everyone present, on time and productive. Why? The assumption is that a huddle really isn’t productive or is a time-waster. Balderdash! Remember, you are in control of what is covered in these huddles. What’s needed are fifteen minutes and a solid checklist, or these meetings will consist of what everyone did after work yesterday.
The primary purpose of the huddle is to get everyone focused so that we can accomplish three things:
o Take care of the patients
o Take care of the team
o Make more money
Every day patients come into your practice for a scheduled procedure. In most cases, they need more work than they are scheduled for. If we are "asleep" or unfocused, we will miss these opportunities. We may not be able to get a patient to come in to fill an appointment for an 11AM cancellation, but Sue Smith (our 10AM hygiene patient) may have outstanding work that needs to be done. And wouldn't it be a win for all of us if she did it today?

2. Staff Meetings – Now, this topic may elicit a yawn. But honestly, if you aren’t having a regular team meeting then you are open for the biggest distraction possible for any dental practice - unresolved issues. These issues may be plans that never got put into action so they keep being rehashed…or worse, there may be items that team members are upset about because they never get addressed.
There is one simple formula for successful results-oriented staff meetings:
o A weekly team meeting with an agenda
o Accountable people for each item
o A promise day for each items’ completion (with notes put in writing)
o Consistent follow-up

If you aren’t getting the results you want, consider your meeting as planning time to set goals, follow up and celebrate each success…no matter how small.

3. Delegation (a.k.a. training)
It sounds so easy. Train your team members to do tasks that they can legally and ethically do. Let me give you an example: In a practice producing one million dollars per year, each minute of the doctor's time is worth $10.85. Imagine an average of twenty minutes of the doctor's time is spent making temporaries, and our imaginary doctor completes an average of four units of crown and bridge each day. This equals $166,656 of our imaginary friend’s time each year making temporaries. OUCH! If you see yourself in this scenario, it’s not too late to change your outcome. Dentists hold on to procedures and tasks that others could be doing for two reasons: fear of letting go and the belief that no one else can/will do the job as well as we can. These beliefs cost you more than the example above shows.
How does a dentist overcome these issues of delegation? First let's look at what not to do. Don't just say, “Okay, assistant #1, you are now going to be making the temps.” The correct path is training, mentoring and follow-up. For example, if you are training a new or existing assistant on making temporaries, you should set aside training time for that person when there are no patients being seen in the practice. You or another highly skilled member of your team will work with this person on making impressions, creating the temporary, trimming it and making it fit. The next step it to have the trainee make temporary crowns with the doctor or assistant mentoring them. Then, once the trainee has proven their ability to make quality temps, they are ready to be turned loose.

All three of these energy saving measures require planning. Create your plan once and execute a thousand times. Take control of precious time in your practice now and invest in a more profitable and less stressful way to practice dentistry for the future.