TGIF: Making Fridays More Productive for Your Office

Updated on July 31, 2014

Brent ShealerBy Dr. Brent Shealer 

When I was again presented with an opportunity to pen another column here, I was asked if I could write something about practice management. My first thought was, “Sure, that’s easy.” I mean I’ve run my own private office for over 10 years, so sharing some tidbits and tips that I do around here shouldn’t be a problem. 

Boy was I wrong! Here I am, a solo-practitioner Chiropractor, and I’m going to offer practice management advice to larger volume offices, multi-disciplinary clinics, and other clinical specialties? No way! What works for me on a daily basis couldn’t possibly be expected to work across that broad of a spectrum. We’re all in the medical field, but how we function from a practice management standpoint in our respective offices often is so very different.

But then it hit me, I can share one simple little thing that I do, and have done for years, that really does help in running my office.

So TGIF right? We’ve all heard it. I mean of course everybody loves Friday because for most of us it’s the end of the work week and the beginning of the weekend. Because of that though, too often Friday can tend to become a very unproductive day for both us as a provider and/or business owner and our various staff as it’s too easy for us all to slack a bit and have our eyes on the weekend. I completely understand that, but there is one simple little trick you can do that can make Friday more productive in your business, professional, and clinical life. 

If you keep any sort of weekly business or clinical stats, figures, cycles, ordering, insurance posting, billing, filing, record keeping, etc., use Friday as the beginning of your week, not Monday. That’s it! That little simple shift in thought will change your mindset. Making Friday the beginning of your week for these types of things will have the effect of making it a more productive day because we all should want to “start the work week off well”.

In my office, I use Friday as the beginning of the week when I tabulate all of my weekly numbers. Weekly patient visits, weekly profits, weekly billing and collection, expenses, etc. are all done on a Friday-Thursday basis. To expand, this can work well for any business regarding any sort of weekly stat, calculation, or figure. 

It also can work well for your personal life. Do you try to go to the gym x amount of days/week? Well if so, use Friday as the beginning of that count. Do you count calories? Use Friday as the start.

This little shift in your mindset can be used in many different applications, but they all have the same end result of making Friday a more productive day and thus allowing you to accomplish more in whatever it is that you choose to do.

And to all of you weekend warriors out there who usually just trudge through Friday, think of it like this, if you work to make Friday more productive it will tend to go faster and then the weekend is here sooner! So as you can see, this shift in thought has nothing but great outcomes.

After attending Penn State University, Dr. Brent Shealer graduated from Sherman College of Chiropractic in 2001. Upon receiving his Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.), Dr. Brent associated with Newman Chiropractic in Pittsburgh. He then opened Shealer Chiropractic, P.C. near the suburbs of Monroeville and Penn Hills in June of 2003. For more information, visit http://drbrentchiro.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/DrBrentChiro.

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