Let’s take a look at the top efficiency tips for nurse practitioner entrepreneurs. What makes time efficiency so important for NP entrepreneurs? Being able to effectively manage your time is a skill that everybody, regardless of profession, should learn. We only have so many hours a day and have to juggle multiple things throughout. Optimizing our time allows us to create a battle plan which we can use to organize our tasks and get them done. As a NP, it can seem that you need to be as efficient as humanly possible. Many of us are mothers and have to balance out the duties of motherhood with our duties as NPs. If you are seeing patients about 30 hours a week, that is close to the hours of a full-time job. Trying to keep up both with your tasks as a mother and a NP can be overwhelming. Here, time efficiency can help you break down your day into bite-sized chunks so that you can accomplish your goals. Without further ado, we present our top efficiency tips for NP entrepreneurs to help you manage your time and tasks.
Make a List
Our first tip is seemingly simple, but it can be powerful in helping you ground yourself and get started. There is something about writing a list compared to just typing your tasks down into an app or dictating to your phone. Unbelievably, it just works! Taking the time to really sit down and organize your thoughts by hand gives you the clarity to really figure out what you need to do. The act of writing things down is immediate, it is grounding, and it is motivational. So, begin your day by making lists. You can choose your own stationery when it comes to list-making. If post-its are best for you because you can stick them around your house as a visual reminder, then you can go ahead and use them. If having a notebook with all of your tasks neatly laid out in one place works best for you, go ahead. The key is finding out what best motivates you and going along with that.
Prioritize Your List
Once you have made your list, the next step is prioritizing it. We have a million things to accomplish each day, so if we just think broadly about the things that we have to do, our task list can seem insurmountable. Everything is always more overwhelming when it is abstract. The purpose of writing your list is to help you distill your daily tasks and get to the bones of what needs to be done. Now that you have an outline for your day with your list, it is time to get to work.
Perhaps you need to take the time to go over your list and arrange your tasks in order of most important to least, working through the tasks in that order throughout the day. Perhaps you want to organize your list according to how long a specific task may take, or which is most difficult and which you want to get done first. Certain times of your day may be most suitable for you to accomplish certain tasks. Make these arrangements to your list if necessary.
Once your list is more organized, you can get straight to it. Once you have the large things out of the way, or the things that you were putting off, the rest of your list is going to be much easier to manage. Time efficiency is not just about getting things done fast. It is about getting things done! Prioritizing your list and making sure that you actually make the time for it is what will really make the difference and help you accomplish your tasks.
Be a Laser
So, you have written down what you must do. You have arranged your tasks in order of priority. You have a plan, and it is ready to go. What comes next? The answer: It depends on you.
After a morning spent taking care of your kids, they are finally napping, leaving you with two to three hours free for your own work. Perhaps you have a babysitter coming in for the afternoon, and you have it all to yourself. Once you have that time, you have to be proactive in dealing with it. You have to have laser-focus. You have to push yourself to sit down and get to work. Instead of sitting down and looking at Facebook, online shopping (or online window shopping), or calling your sister just to chat, you turn to the list that you have made and vowed to prioritize. You made a pact with yourself. You will set this time over to work, and you will knock out what you can. You will not get waylaid by distractions. Use your laser-focus to plow through your list, especially the items you have prioritized. When you have accomplished them, then you can reward yourself in the ways you enjoy– perhaps a nice, long walk with music or something sweet to eat. We all need a way to unwind, but you must be certain that you spend the hours you have devoted to work actually working. At the end of the day, efficiency is a matter of willpower.
Putting it Together
The three tips that we have laid out today may seem simple, but they are powerful. Part of time efficiency is clarity, focus and proactivity. Starting out with a list helps you realize what you need to do. Prioritizing your list helps you figure out how you want to do it. “Being a laser” ensures that you get it done.
Now that you have a better idea of how you can organize your time, you can start thinking more about starting your own telemedicine practice. If you are a nurse practitioner seeking a collaborating physician, Collaborating Docs is the perfect place. We match NPs with carefully vetted collaborating physicians. Request a free quote from us today.
