Although you can’t invent more hours in a day, you can become more efficient by reducing the amount of process work you do in the office.

THE PROCESS TRAP

What’s process work? It is business-related work — which is not usually income-producing — that can be either reduced or handled completely, by outsourcing it or by delegating it to a staff member.

When you get rid of process work, you free up time to do more productive (income-generating) work.

What are some examples of process work?

To start recapturing more free time, take these steps:

1. Track your time. For one month, track how much time you spend on every task during working hours — such as, ordering inventory, talking on the phone, paying bills, going through mail, walking through the office, adjusting patients, and writing reports.

The main idea is to keep a diary of your activities long enough to give you a clear picture of all your productive and non-productive activities.

If the items are repetitive, such as treating patients, making phone calls or writing reports, add up their total for that day and count it as one item.

Calculate total monthly time spent for each type of task. You’ll use these totals in the next step.

2. Graph your results. After you gather the data on your use of time, transform it into bar graphs. The “Y” (vertical) axis denotes time expended on the task. The “X” (horizontal) axis denotes the item.

For example: Assume you spent 12 hours of total time on reports, and 30 hours on the telephone.

When plotted out, the phone bar would be taller than the reports bar and so on down the list of examined items.

3. Analyze the results. Which activities are

The idea of your analysis is to get an overall picture of what you’re doing and how long you’re doing it during your working hours.

Your analysis will also give you a clearer picture of your organizational strengths.

For example: If you spend considerable time in employee training, answering the phone, or having to order more inventory items when you run out, then you’ll want to investigate why this is so.

4. Delegate. After you determine where you are spending your time, set a goal of reducing your process work by 50 percent. Then, take the time saved and apply it toward income-producing activities such as seeing more patients, market planning or setting new goals.

Here are some examples of how you might delegate:

• Check writing. Put your bookkeeper in charge of writing checks for bills and scheduled payments. Your role: Do a quick review of prepared checks, then sign them.

• Inventory maintenance. Prepare an inventory sheet of all consumable inventory, such as vitamins, orthotic appliances, and other ancillary products held in stock. The sheet should identify minimal and maximum levels to keep in stock.

Assign a staff member to take inventory and order supplies, as needed. Your role: Once a month, audit the sheet to evaluate the inventory levels and change them, if necessary.

• Equipment maintenance. Prepare a maintenance schedule; train a staff member to perform the maintenance/cleaning (or to arrange for it to be done).

• Miscellaneous tasks. Handle mail at the end of the day. Use downtime or midday to make phone calls. Reserve the end of the day for resolving problems, new-patient call backs, and straightening the office.

TIME FOR MARKETING

When you eliminate process work, you free up time for important income-generating work, such as marketing.

Recommended: Set a goal of completing three marketing activities every workday.

Once you cut down your process work and have more time for doing productive work, you’ll see an upward jump in your income. You’ll also feel less stress when trying to get everything done during your work day.

Ivan Delman, DC, is the author of The Business of Chiropractic: How to Prosper AFTER Startup (2nd Edition). He has degrees in both business and chiropractic. He can be contacted at Ivan@BusinessofChiropractic.com or at his Web site, http://BusinessofChiropractic.com.