We’re already well into 2019; have you been sticking to your New Year’s Resolutions?
Frankly, we find New Year’s Resolutions to be more trouble than they’re worth. Instead, we like to think about “best practices.” By focusing on best practices, you can improve things across the board at your mental health practice, keeping you on track for a fabulous 2019. Here are some of the areas you might want to examine!
Keeping Track of Your Time
Whether or not you’re having fun, time flies. You can sit down at your desk at the beginning of the day with an epic to-do list only to discover that, by quitting time, you’re only a few items in. We often wonder where the time went and how we could get so little done when we were so focused and productive.
Investing in better time management is something that always pays off for therapists and other mental health professionals. Using calendars to schedule your day/week/month effectively can be very helpful for optimizing your time usage. Another method is to start time tracking. This is where you literally start a timer whenever you begin a specific kind of task. Keep track of all this data on your computer on a spreadsheet. By the end of the month, even if you slipped up and forgot to start the timer every now and then, you’ll have a considerable amount of data that’ll show you exactly how you used your time. You can then start to make some changes, based on the hours that you put in.
By using a practice management service like Owl Practice, you can save even more time. Our data shows that our clients save over seven hours every month thanks to our practice optimization tools.
Minimizing Distractions
The internet has given us unparalleled productivity tools and features that make our jobs easier than ever.
The internet has also given us YouTube.
Distractions in today’s workplace are more readily available than ever. How tempting is it to watch a short YouTube video or play a game of Minesweeper after finishing something on your daily schedule? If you want to maintain your productivity at work and make the most out of your time, then you may need to take some steps to minimize any distractions.
There are a plethora of programs out there on Windows, Macs, Androids, and iPhones that allow you to temporarily block websites and applications while you’re working. They will completely remove potential distractions, like cat videos, and let you focus on work. You can add exceptions to these programs so, while you might not be able to get on Amazon for a shopping spree, you’ll still be able to access all of Owl Practice’s features with no issue.
Another method of minimizing distractions can be the “Do Not Disturb” feature on your phone. This prevents any alerts, emails, or messages from popping up, pulling your attention away from your current task. You can easily program in exceptions, such as family members, that can ignore the Do Not Disturb in the case of an emergency.
Investing In Your Practice
Investments in your practice can pay huge dividends throughout the year, but you have to be smart about where you put your business’ funds. Let’s take Owl Practice, for example.
While you could invest in stand-alone accounting, invoicing, calendar management, project management, and note-taking software, that bill is going to add up quickly, especially if you’re going with service-based products. When you sign up with Owl Practice, you get all of these features in a single package. Even better, everything will be specifically tailored to the needs of mental health professionals, meaning that you won’t need to do extensive customization to fit your practice or business’ workflows.
Taking Care of Security
Security is a huge concern in today’s world, especially when dealing with people’s personal information. Every time there’s a data breach on Facebook, it can trigger a worldwide panic as people worry that their personal information is now in the hands of untrustworthy people.
This is serious enough when we’re talking about financial info and message histories. It’s on a whole other level when we’re talking about the personal details that are often shared in sessions and appointments with mental health professionals. People get understandably nervous when their innermost thoughts are being stored on an insecure server. One of the best practices for therapists in 2019 is to make sure their session notes and other personal client information is held on a secure, off-site server. And that’s what Owl Practice offers.
The practice information for all of Owl Practice’s clients is stored on Canadian servers that are located in Toronto and Montreal, keeping that data out of the hands of foreign governments or other organizations. Everything uses bank-level encryption (SSL), is continuously backed up, and is PHIPA and College compliant. In other words, you and your clients’ data will be safe in our hands. Sign up for a free demo or if you have any questions or comments about our services, we invite you to contact us at support@owlpractice.ca.
As always,
Practice Wisely
