It seems that time is one resource chiropractors don't have enough of. When it comes to a chirporactic practice time is definitely money since the number of patients a chiropractor sees a day impacts practice profitability.

Here are some specific tips for better time management:

1. Assess where your time goes. How much time do you spend in areas such as patient examinations, administrative work, and supervision? Keep a detailed time log for a week by category for two weeks. Examine where you are spending your time and decide what is the ideal allocation of your time by category

2. Delegate task others can do. Your time is the most valuable time for your practice. Examining and identify tasks you are doing that can be completed by others. Also, as you work throughout the day keep this question in mind "Should I be doing this or should I delegate it to other staff members.

3. Analyze the tasks you are doing and determine if these taskscan be done in less time and be accomplished more efficiently.

4. If you don't have an administrative assistant, considering hiriing one on a full-time basis or enlisting the part-time help of one of your staff members.

5. Identify less productive activities and eliminate them. It has been estimated that at least 25% of most people's time is unproductive.

6. Add more structure to your day- If you create a structure for each day, you'll get more accomplished. For example, make calls to patients at the same time each day.

7. Create a list of what you want to accomplish each day the day before. The simple act of having a to do list will make you more productive. Divide your list into necessary and essential, necessary but not needed to be addressed immediately, and unnecessary.

8. Realize that you can't accomplish everything you'd like to get done. Trying to accomplish too much in a day will do nothing but make you more productive. Be realistic.

9. Learn to screen out interruptions or to postpone following up on interruptions. Interruptions can reduce your productivity dramatically. One example of an approach to screen out unnecessary interruptions is to pick a regular time during each day where you work in your office with the door closed asking your staff not to interrupt you except in the case of an emergency.

10. Take one or more breaks during the day. Although you may be a hard charging "Type A" personality, if you take a fifteen minute break at least once a day, you can refresh and be a lot more productive.

11. Examine your personal organization. Some people spend a great deal of time looking for paperwork and other items. If that's the case with you, invest some time in organizing your office and practice more effectively. Besides helping you with time management, a more organized workspace will present a better image to your patients.

12. Consider upgrading your practice management and billing system to one that can make your practice more efficient and help you manage your practice more efficiently.

Improving your management of time can help practice profitability and, just as important, make you feel more positive about your practice.