Is it Time to Give your Private Practice a Little Spring Cleaning?
Are you feeling done with winter? Even as a therapist, you might get the winter blues from time to time, but not to worry. It’s time to wipe those grey days away. Say goodbye to SAD and hello to SUN!
Everyone has their own personal rituals and habits to get ready for the spring and many people the world over participate in some kind of spring cleaning. Whether it’s washing all of the curtains in your house, putting away your winter coat, or decluttering your office, it feels great to shake off the cobwebs and ring in the new season. Tidying up, getting rid of all of the clutter in your life, and simplifying your work processes is a great way to re-calibrate and set yourself up for success for the rest of the year.
The value of spring cleaning is especially important for therapists, psychologists, and social workers. A little tidying up around the office can really pay off, and give you a clearer head and space for when you see your clients. Here are a few ways to get the best out of your spring cleaning this year.
1. Get Scrubbing
Yes, this is bit literal, but so important! Spring cleaning is a great time to literally clean your practice space. That means giving a thorough cleaning to all of the places your patients will see and the ones they’ll never see. Even if you keep everything mostly tidy throughout the year, odds are that dust and other grime is going to build up behind the desks, along the tops of shelves, on the computer fans… And when was the last time you cleaned the office microwave or fridge?
A deep cleaning can make a world of difference. Every place of business should do a head to toe cleaning at least once a year to prevent a multi-year grime build up and to keep things feeling fresh, if not entirely new. Wouldn’t you enjoy peace of mind knowing that nothing is growing behind the file cabinets? Ick!
2. Clean Out Your Clutter
Dealing with clutter can be a bit more of an involved process than a simple office scrub.
This is the time to go through your old files, desk drawers, and cabinets to throw out anything that doesn’t have a use anymore. Other likely candidates for the trash are old phone books, spent markers and pens, and any knick knacks you’ve been keeping in the cupboards. If you look at something and think, “Wow, I haven’t used that in years”, then odds are you can get rid of it with no ill effects to your practice.
3. Take Back Power Over Paper
Do you have a big stack of papers on your desk? Why? Get rid of it! Paper takes up space, is bad for the environment, and just isn’t secure.
An organized workspace is one of the primary benefits of transitioning your practice management to Owl Practice. Using tools that are designed specifically to keep therapists organized will help to declutter your environment so that you can turn your full attention to the things that matter most.
4. Tidy Your Digital Clutter
Nowadays, there’s far more to an office than just the physical. Digital clutter and mess is very real, and spring cleaning is a great time to tidy up your megabytes.
If you’ve been using Owl Practice, you don’t have to worry about your client files, invoices, and other practice documents. They’re already organized since they’ve been saved in the right locations automatically as you’ve been working–and you don’t even need to worry about back ups! If you haven’t signed up for Owl Practice yet, now is a great time to take a tour to see how it can help you to improve your practice management.
5. Clean Up your Email
Then there are other aspects of digital clean up to consider. Do you get a lot of spam? Or maybe you’ve been subscribed to far too many newsletters that you never read? This is a great time to go through your email to clean up any spam that may slipped through your filters and unsubscribe to all of those mailings that you never open.
It’s also a good time to go through all of your contacts to remove duplicates and update phone numbers. If you have so many icons on your desktop that you can’t see your background image, some organizing into folders might be in order.
6. Spruce Up your Website
What about your online presence? Take a good look at your website, navigate around, and test the usability. Are there any broken links? Is the design looking a little dated? Does the website list the right copyright year? Contact your web designer and ask them to fix things up for you this spring.
7. Streamline your Systems
Many practices use a number of different services to handle their needs. They may use software on their office computers to book appointments, have a completely separate calendar app, use an independent invoicing service… Having multiple services and programs can be confusing, overwhelming, and can take up a great deal of your time.
One great way to “clean up” this spring is to migrate all of these services over to a single provider. Owl Practice is dedicated to making your life as a therapist easier. With our online booking system, your clients can book and manage their own appointments directly from our website. The appointments will immediately appear in your intuitive calendar. Those appointments link directly to our secure client data management system, so you can keep track of all your patients’ contact information, clinical notes, and billing details. Use the invoicing system to create invoices and receipts that you can send directly to your clients by email. And, best of all, it’s completely PHIPA compliant.
Having all of these systems in one place can be a huge time saver and a great way to cut back on the “clutter” of your office management systems.
A Time of Renewal
After a long, cold winter, there’s nothing like a little bit of spring cleaning to freshen things up. It’s not only a great time to tidy, it’s also great motivation to get your life organized and ready for the summer ahead. With Owl Practice, we try to simplify your life and your practice, to save you time and energy that you could better spend elsewhere. With all of your confidential information secure and organized in one place, and accessible to you anywhere at any time, you’ll have one less thing to worry about this spring and summer. Take a tour of Owl Practice and learn more about how it might be just the right solution for you this spring.
As always,
Practice Wisely
