Productivity is probably my favorite topic.
Over the years, I’ve read every book and studied any piece of information about how I can get more high-value work done in less time.
More importantly, I’ve implemented these “hacks” and learned my own set of best practices to maximize my output.
I feel I could write a book on the topic … and maybe one day I will.
But today, I want to share what I believe is the most important productivity hack that hearing care clinic owners can utilize to get more high-value work done and accelerate their clinic’s growth.
But first, let me just address the elephant in the room.
My day-to-day looks very different to yours.
- You have a back-to-back schedule with patients
- You’re being pulled in so many different directions
- And you’re often trying to persuade people to make a decision they don’t want to make (resulting in utter exhaustion).
For me to sit here, writing this article from a coffee shop on the other side of the world, to tell you how to be more productive … well, it’s somewhat short-sighted.
I hear you.
And I want to be clear that what I’m about to share is not just my opinion.
It’s based on the evidence of what I’ve seen by partnering and working with some of the best-performing private practices in North America. There’s a direct correlation between their growth/output and the lessons within this article.
If you’re thinking I’m talking absolute bullshit – then you’re welcome to that opinion. But I strongly believe that what this article shares will be helpful to you.
Let’s get started.
Understanding The Value Of Your Tasks
Note that the entire focus of this article is what you do when you’re NOT spending time with patients. When you’re face to face with patients, you’re performing magic and there’s no productivity trick in the world that will change that.
The area that I want us to focus on is the time outside of seeing patients.
It could be your lunch break, it could be the 30 minutes between patients, or it could be what you end up doing when you have a no-show.
This is the area where you have direct control of how you spend these valuable minutes, and that’s what I want to focus on.
Because, here’s the truth:
- We all have never-ending to-do lists
- They drag us in different directions
- And many of the things on them never actually get done.
Yet if you break down every “task” that you have on your to-do list, they all fall into one of four categories:
- $10.00 tasks
- $100.00 tasks
- $1,000.00 tasks
- And $10,000 tasks.
Some are low-value activities, and some are incredibly high-value activities.
Your job is to spend more of your time focused on the high-value activities and minimize how much time you spend on the low-value tasks.
Let me share examples of what type of tasks fall into each category.
$10.00 tasks
These are the low-skill things that often take up the majority of our time but often don’t need to be done by us.
Things like:
- Replying to emails
- Completing admin tasks
- Paying invoices
- Ordering products from manufacturer
$100.00 tasks
These are the things that often feel important in the moment but could also be completed by somebody else.
Things like:
- Staff appraisals
- Managing cash flow
- Solving patient challenges
- Firefighting internal problems
$1,000.00 tasks
These are the things that proactively move your business forward and focus on winning tomorrow’s patient or making a sizable difference to your clinic.
Things like:
- Working on your next database campaign
- Training your front desk
- Executing marketing campaigns
- Creating content
$10,000.00 tasks
These are the insanely high-value tasks that move the needle within your clinic but often require the most brain power to complete.
Things like:
- Working on your pricing
- Building a new commission structure
- Planning the clinic’s growth
- Working on sharpening your value proposition
Where Are You Spending Your Time?
Based on the above, I want you to ask yourself where you’re spending the majority of your time?
If you’re like most business owners, you spend the majority of your time on the $10.00 and $100.00 tasks. They often feel the most important in the moment, they’re time critical, and you may feel like you’re the only person that can do them.
What I want you to consider is how you can dedicate more of your time to the $1,000 or $10,000 tasks.
Because from my experience, there are only two ways to give these high-value tasks more of your time:
#1 – Ruthlessly Delegate
We’ve all heard about the importance of delegation, and I would say that many clinic owners are very good at this.
But if you had to delegate your $10.00/hour or $100.00/hour tasks to somebody else, what would that look like?
- Could you hire a virtual assistant to clean up your inbox and only raise the important emails to you?
- Could you delegate the repeatable tasks that you often end up doing to a virtual assistant?
- Who else on your team should be ordering units from manufacturers?
- Could you hire some help to take care of invoicing/managing cash flow, etc.?
- Could you promote somebody internally to be head of HR or take care of staff appraisals?
Although some thinking is required, it can definitely be done.
Best of all, this doesn’t COST you money; it SAVES you money.
If you can have other people take care of the low-value tasks, then it frees you up to focus on the high-value tasks, which in turn allows you to grow the business.
#2 – Your Daily 90 Minutes
This is something I personally put into action in my life many years ago, and it’s been one of the best things that I have ever done.
Every day, I have a 90-minute scheduled block (first thing in the morning) where I solely spend my time working ON the business.
- I don’t check email
- I don’t do any “IN” the business tasks
- And I don’t speak to anybody.
I lock myself away and solely work ON the business.
Essentially, I spend 90 minutes on the $1,000 and $10,000 tasks.
It means that week on week, we’re able to make significant progress.
Now, I’m not saying that you need to find 90 minutes per day – but even consider what 90 minutes per week would do.
One slot in your schedule where you turn off all distractions and you SOLELY focus on the high-value tasks.
Food for thought.
My Final Advice To You
The first $10,000/hour task that you can complete right now is actioning the above.
It’s changing your schedule to find that 90-minute window of time to work ON your business, or it’s going to hire a virtual assistant to take your $10/hour tasks away from you.
Just imagine the impact that being able to spend more time working on the high-value activities would have on the future of your clinic.