Do you ever wonder how often most therapists work in the evenings and on weekends? How does your schedule stack up to that of your peers’?
Therapists certainly are a hard working bunch who often put their clients first, and that can mean working weeknights and weekends. When you’re working late or putting in time on a Saturday, it’s only natural to wonder if other therapists are working as hard as you are.
If you’re curious about how your peers are scheduling their time, we have some interesting insights to share. At Owl Practice, we’re able to aggregate data and crunch relevant numbers to give you some interesting statistics about how the average Canadian therapist schedules their time.
Here are some interesting highlights:
- 21% of sessions take place in evenings after 5 p.m. (12% after 6 p.m.)
- Only 2% of sessions take place before 9 a.m.
- 8% of sessions take place at 12 noon
- The average practice has 3 evening sessions (after 5pm) per week
- No Shows and Late Cancellations occur 25% more frequently during the day than after 5 p.m.
- 5% of appointments take place on the weekends (80% of those on Saturdays)
- The busiest day of the workweek is Tuesday with 23% of appointments, and the slowest day is Friday with only 13%
Evening Appointments
Over 21% of sessions happen in the evenings after 5PM, with 12% of those appointments taking place after 6PM. However, on average most therapists book only three evening sessions per week.
If you ever feel like you’re busier at night than you are during the day, it’s only natural that your evening appointments feel more hectic than your daytime appointments. After all, you’ve been working since about 9AM.
Early Mornings
Speaking of the mornings, it turns out that only 2% of appointments occur before 9AM. This shows that Canadian clients prefer daytime appointments. (And hopefully it also means that you’re also taking the time to eat a balanced breakfast before you start your workday!)
Lunch Appointments
As for the midday, only 8% of sessions take place at 12 noon. Many clients like to squeeze in an appointment in the middle of the work day to work with their therapists. Maybe it’s easier to schedule time when they’re away from home commitments.
Weekend Appointments
As for the weekends, most therapists take the time for themselves, with few Saturday and Sunday sessions booked. Only 5% of appointments take place on the weekend, with 80% of those taking place on Saturday. Sunday really is the day of rest for most therapists.
Busy Times
On the whole, the busiest day of the week for most therapists on average is Tuesday, with 23% of the week’s appointments happening that day. The least busy day tends to be Friday, with only 13% of the week’s appointments. It’s always good to get the weekend off to a relaxing start.
Cancellations
We all hate cancellations. They can easily throw a well-organized day into chaos. Here’s an interesting statistic about those cancellations. Believe it or not, it’s the daytime clients who are more likely to cancel. No shows and late cancellations occur 25% more often during the day than they do after 5PM. Apparently the average evening client is better at sticking to a commitment, perhaps because fewer day-time distractions get in the way of attending therapy in the evenings.
On the whole, we found this data to be absolutely fascinating and thought you might feel the same. Aside from its curiosity value, how do we use this statistical data? This data helps us better understand you, our clients, and allows us to better tailor our services to your needs. At Owl Practice, our only goal is to empower therapists, social workers, and psychologists, and give them flexibility and freedom to run a successful private practice. In other words, our mission is entirely about you!
As always,
Practice Wisely
Methodology Footnote:
For this article, we’ve used anonymized system activity to analyze when client appointments are scheduled. All data is anonymous and aggregated and is in no way practice or user identifying. We’ve looked at data from the first three months of 2017, and normalized time data for North American timezones.
