If you’re a healthcare practitioner, you know that it is hard to finish your day early. The average worker in your sector is putting in nine hours a day or more, which is quite a lot when you compare it to other lines of work.
But, of course, that’s not the case for all medical professionals. Some practitioners have figured out clever ways to shorten the working day and give themselves a better work-life balance.
Here’s what they’re doing:
Prioritizing Tasks With The Eisenhower Matrix
First, many of these practitioners are plugging into productivity tools to help them get work done faster, like the Eisenhower Matrix. This breaks down the day into urgent, important, and delegable tasks.
The idea here is to focus first on high-priority patient care and then relegate admin duties and non-urgent routine tasks to another time of day. It’s not the most sophisticated method, but it works across multiple verticals, including healthcare.
Use Documentation Tech
Another approach is to invest in an AI scribe and use documentation tech. These systems plug into your workflows at multiple points, allowing you to get more done, shortening the time you have to spend in the office doing things you don’t want to do.
For example, you can sometimes find documentation tech with template features that allow you to fill them out quickly. You can also get AIs to summarize patient meetings and store conversations in EHRs. These allow you to wrap up patient notes faster and simpler than ever before.
Use Time-Blocking For Patient Visits
Another approach to finish earlier is to use time-blocking for patient visits. You want to ensure that you cluster them together so you can do one after another and avoid shifting between tasks.
For example, you could do admin from 8 am until 9 am and then see patients from 9 am until 1 pm for the morning session, and from 2 pm until 4 pm for the evening session. Then you have the rest of the time for other tasks.
Perform Admin In Batches
Don’t attempt to perform all your admin ad hoc. Instead, do it in batches during dedicated time slots.
When you approach admin in this way, it teaches you to be more productive. Not only are you performing the same repetitive tasks, but you can also keep a lookout for productivity hacks that will automate rote tasks. Stopping yourself from switching between different types of jobs enhances your productivity and lets you get more done before the day ends.
Train Support For Delegation
Finally, you can often finish earlier if you make better use of existing support staff. Delegating tasks for them, such as routine task handling or chart prepping is useful, and can save you several hours a day if you get it right.
Once you have this support in place, you don’t have to worry so much about critical tasks going undone. You can focus on your primary role while trusting people in your team to do everything else you need.