Dentists – Planning for a Breakthrough

“A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.”  H. Stanley Judd

As a Coach, one of the key issues I hear from our clients is that “they don’t have enough time to do the work in the management program.”

One thing that I know for certain is that there is one area in which all men are truly created equal and that is in the area of time.  God gave us all 24 hours each day to live our lives.  The problem arises with how we each use that time.  Do we allow the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years to just happen through our lives?  Or do we plan our lives in a way that we maximize what has been given to us?

“We need a sense of the value of time—that is, of the best way to divide one’s time into one’s various activities.”  Arnold Bennett

Many of us fail to plan because we are too busy doing instead of thinking.  We feel we have to be doing and as a result we react to whatever is happening around us.  How then do we take control?  Planning is an attempt to leverage our activities against the passage of time.  Keeping in mind that there are some things we can’t control.  However, to fail to manage whatever time you can will minimize your effectiveness.  Whether you control 8 hours or 1 hour of your day is irrelevant.  What matters is that we manage whatever time we can, in order to spend as much time as possible on the important things.

“We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then is not an art but a habit”   Aristotle

 The daily planner (the to-do-list) is the most common plan used today.  Daily planning is worthwhile but weekly planning is better.  This gives us a longer range perspective and more options.

 The best way to create a weekly plan is to ask six basic planning questions as suggested by the Carlson Learning Company.

1. 1. What results do I intend to achieve?
2. 2. What must I do to get those results?
3. 3. What are the priorities?
4. 4. How much time will each activity require?
5. 5. When will I do each activity?
6. 6. How much flexibility must I allow for the unexpected things I can’t control?

You must allow time for unexpected things.  Flexibility will be the key to successful planning.  Remember that you are attempting to eliminate reactive behavior.  You will want to be slow to change your plan when the unexpected happens.  A thoughtful response versus the usual reactive one is desired.

“A first-rate organizer is never in a hurry.  He is never late.  He always keeps up his sleeve a margin for the unexpected.”  Arnold Bennett

 It is best to write out your plan for the upcoming week on Friday or whatever day is your last working day of the week.  Ask others to do the same thing.  You can review these plans at your weekly staff meeting in order to coordinate priorities and activities.  Be sure to prioritize you activities and timelines.  Set deadlines that are realistic and be sure not to ignore them.  Preparing a weekly plan requires about 30 minutes but it will allow you to recover one hour per day for the week.  An extra hour per day for important work (working on the practice) will produce remarkable results.  Are you ready for your breakthrough?  Plan it today.

“Plan your progress carefully; hour-by-hour, day-by-day, month-by-month.  Organized activity and maintained enthusiasm are the wellsprings of your power.”  Paul J. Meyer

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Chris Ellison, Practice Development Coach