I’ve mentioned in the past that one of the ways that I keep my marketing fresh is that I borrow ideas from other professions.
This morning I was reading Erika Trimble’s blog, Physical Therapy Biz Success, when I ran across a great little post on setting priorities. She recommends the A-B-C-D-E Method for setting better priorities.
A = Critical and Urgent
These are the things that if you put off, will cost you your practice.
- Professional licenses and certifications
- The rent for your office
- Your mental – physical – emotional – spiritual health
- Transportation to and from work
- A way for your clients to contact you
- Securing your client records (to protect confidentiality)
B = Important
These are the things that really need to be done but they are not critical. If you don’t do them in the short term, there are only minor consequences. However, if you put them off indefinitely, the cumulative effect can bump these into the A = Critical and Urgent category.
- Vacuuming the office
- Networking
- Emptying the trash can
- Cleaning the windows
- Upgrading your computer to the most current Windows settings
C = Nice to do
These include all the niceties and, often, fun-to-do’s that can so easily distract you from your business-building tasks. They may be of added benefit to you or your clients but if they don’t get done, you don’t incur negative consequences.
- Sending birthday / holiday greetings to your clients
- Heating up the coffee / tea pot for your clients
- Lighting the candle in your office
- Writing a new blog post
- Facebook chats
- Returning friends phone calls
D = Delegate
If you don’t do it easily and well, you need to give serious thought to delegating or contracting to get the task accomplished.
- Designing artwork for your new project’s marketing campaign (unless you are artistically inclined)
- Writing the copy for your website
- Billing clients / insurance companies
- Janitorial / building maintenance services
E = Eliminate when possible
These are often acts of repetition or 100% time wasters.
- Surfing the Internet
- Creating handouts for your clients over and over again
- Explaining your policies for payment, no shows, and late arrivals
- Some correspondence including letters of introduction, marketing letters, and reminder letters
As you are gearing up for 2010, make sure you take some time to re-think your priorities. Assign each of your to-do’s an A, B, C, D, or E using Erika’s method of prioritizing and then let me know what changes for you.
What is it that you think is important . . . to attend to, to delegate, and to eliminate as you build your private practice?
Can you tell me why creating handouts for my clients is a waste of time?
Hi, bodiroti! Thanks for dropping in.
Creating handouts is really useful when you are working with clients. However, Recreating handouts is a waste of your precious time. So is creating handoutsat the last minute when you could have done so in a more thoughtful way the last time you had an opening in your schedule.
Stephen Covey talks about the need to create systems that allow us to do the Important and Not Urgent work allows us to be most efficient and most effective in building and sustaining our practices. Strong and vibrant practices have owners who aren’t distracted by putting out fires and reinventing the wheel.
Hope you’ll check back in and let us know where you are and a bit about your place in mental health!