Physicians are overwhelmed with lots of different work which may include patient consultations, administrative work, team and departmental meetings, and much more.

These in turn may result in long waiting hours for patients, work stress and decreased personal time for doctors.

Here’s some advice for time management specifically for doctors

1. Develop self-awareness

To improve time management skills, first analyze your personal strengths, weaknesses, habits, and goals. Plan your work depending on your productive hours, and know if you are a morning person or a night person that helps to improve your efficiency.

2. Start on time

The physician can begin promptly if the first patient is allowed 15mins early so that they can finish greeting, registration, and clinical intake by the actual start of the office hours.

3. Work with your scheduler

Talk to your scheduler for strategies to adjust your workload, if any patient’s visit extends the scheduled time.

A 15-minute break in the mid-morning schedule will reduce your stress, thereby improving your on-time performance, and boosting your patient satisfaction scores.

4. Establish a strategy for dealing with messages

Some doctors handle a few messages quickly between appointments. But for others, that’s the main reason for falling behind.

Waiting for more than 3-hours to respond to the messages may lead to call-backs from patients. Waiting until the end of the day is even worse.

5. Use gadgets and tools

Gadgets like biometrics to log in for your regular activities, fully equipped workstations etc. can save your time. Advancements in the technologies can help you to minimize errors thereby saving your re-correction time and reducing the time needed to complete the task.