Analyze your workload. Set aside as much time as it takes to capture–in writing–everything that you typically do on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. Write everything down on four separate sheets of paper or in four separate pages in a document. Examples:

Daily: Review appointment schedules; conduct walk through of front office and clinical areas; bank deposit.

Weekly: Review accounts receivable; review staff schedule; prepare payroll; pay bills; order supplies.

Monthly: Staff meeting; balance bank statement; review monthly reports.

Annual: Staff performance reviews; prepare tax information for accountant; staff retreat.

On a fifth list, write down all of the non-routine projects you currently have pending. This might include things like updating your staff training manual, redecorating the reception area, upgrading your accounting software, writing a practice marketing plan, or implementing a cross-training program for the staff.

Identify what you can delegate. Go over your lists carefully and determine which tasks and projects you can turn over to someone else in the office. Who could competently handle preparing and distributing staff meeting agendas each month? Is there someone in the office who would like to learn how to analyze accounts receivable on a weekly basis and report the bottom line results to you once a month? How about assigning ordering supplies and managing inventory to one or two individuals in the office? Could you outsource marketing activities to a local practice management consultant? Try to come up with a few items that you are willing to delegate from each of your five lists.

Set expectations. When you delegate a one-off project or an ongoing task to a staff member, take time on the front end to be very clear about what you expect in terms of the outcome you’re looking for and what kind of communication you’d like to have throughout the process.

Monitor progress. Keep track of what you assign to whom and check in periodically to make sure that the work is being accomplished. That said, resist the urge to micromanage a project that you’ve turned over to someone else to take the lead on. Doing so undermines that person’s confidence and defeats the purpose of delegating, which is to free you up to focus on other work.

Communicate. Once you’ve successfully delegated an ongoing project to a staff member, make sure that the rest of the team, including providers, knows that that individual is now the person in charge. If employees and doctors continue to come to you with questions related to the task or project you’ve delegated, gently steer them in the direction of the responsible person.

Delegating is an essential skill that can be mastered, but it might take a little practice. If you find that you have trouble letting go of responsibilities, start by delegating small or low-risk tasks and then build from there. As you experience success, you’ll find that turning work over to capable employees becomes easier each time you do it.

First of all, put work in perspective. Your job is probably a significant part of your life, especially if you work full-time, but it’s not your whole life. If you can maintain a reasonable degree of work-life balance, you’ll be more likely to enjoy time spent in the office. For example, if you have something to look forward to after work several days a week (e.g., meeting a friend for a walk, taking an energizing exercise class at the gym, cooking a special meal for your family, or going to your book club meeting), you may find that your hours in the office go by more quickly and that you are more relaxed throughout the day.

If you’re bored with work (and maybe even a little bored with life in general), the solution might be to seek out a new, thoroughly engaging hobby as a way to achieve a sense of balance. Set a goal so that you’ll have something unrelated to work to focus your attention on. Train for a 10K walk or run, learn a new language in preparation for a vacation abroad, learn to quilt or knit and tackle a big project, or embark on a long-put-off home improvement project.

Another way to re-engage with work is to learn something new. Look for a continuing education opportunity related to your professional field, or enroll in an advanced skills training course. If you never got around to completing your undergraduate or graduate degree, get moving on that. Not only will new learning and education help you stay intellectually stimulated now, it might also help you land a better job in the future.

At work, make an effort to be the person known for having a positive point of view. This isn’t to suggest that you show up at the office tomorrow flaunting an inauthentic Pollyanna attitude. But simply learning to take challenges and setbacks in stride can go a long way toward not only making your hours at work more pleasant, but maintaining an upbeat attitude also has the potential to be contagious and improve the overall mood around the office.

If you like where you work but you’re bored to tears with what you spend your days doing, inquire about the possibility of cross-training or even being permanently transferred to another department. Learning new skills and working on different tasks with different people may be all that you need to fall in love with your job all over again.

Give employees the tools they need.  Practices that invest in “the right tools for the job” enjoy not only greater efficiency and productivity, but also better staff morale. Do your employees have ergonomically correct chairs, headrests or headsets for their phones, and proper lighting at their work stations? If not, take steps to get people what they need to be as comfortable as possible while they work. Even little items like quality pens, desk organizers, and Post-it notes in several sizes and colors can help boost efficiency.

Keep supplies on hand.  Set up an ordering system for office and medical supplies that ensures you never have to send someone on a mad dash to the local office supply or big box store to retrieve a ream of paper, toner cartridge, or box of trash can liners. Put one person in charge of inventory control (or one for the front office and one for the back office) and give them the authority to create a system that works.

Maintain equipment.  Nothing brings productivity to a halt faster than a piece of equipment breaking down. Set up a maintenance schedule for all of the equipment in your office, including copiers, computers, and medical instruments and equipment used in your specialty. You don’t drive your car for 10,000 miles without having the oil changed and the pressure in the tires checked, and you can’t expect delicate office and medical equipment to keep chugging along indefinitely without regular attention either.

Allow for flexibility in work hours.  To the degree possible, allow employees to work the hours that they feel are their most productive. Staffers who provide direct patient care, of course, need to be in the office during regular business hours. But someone who does billing, coding, or filing, for example, might find that they’re more productive when the office is quiet and prefer to work from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m., or come in at noon and work into the early evening hours.

Clear the clutter.  Messy work areas slow people down. If you missed our recent blog post on clearing clutter, read it here.

Check your processes and procedures.  At least twice a year, put this item on a staff meeting agenda and allow time for a thorough discussion. The goal is to identify processes or procedures that need to be tweaked or eliminated. It’s not uncommon to uncover something being done, even on a daily basis, that is quite simply unnecessary. Look for where you can streamline, and then do it.

If you go into a Starbucks anywhere in the world, you can expect consistency. The employees are all trained to the same high standards, and they deliver good coffee and good service, usually with a smile and a positive attitude. What can your practice learn from Starbucks about providing consistently good service?

When you call internet service provider GoDaddy for technical support, you’re very quickly connected with a real person who is extremely patient. Whether your problem is related to your domain name, an e-mail account, or service renewal, a tech support team member at GoDaddy will spend as much time as necessary to resolve the issue. You know they’re busy, but they come across as though they have all the time in the world – just for you. What can your practice learn about spending enough time with patients so that they feel well cared for?

Walk into your local Walmart store and you’re almost sure to be acknowledged by a “greeter,” often an older person whose primary job is to make you feel welcome and answer any immediate questions you have upon arriving at the store. What can your practice learn from Walmart about making patients feel welcome when they walk through the door of your office?

Home Depot stores are huge, but somehow they seem to have plenty of staff walking around in orange aprons who are knowledgeable about home improvement. Not every person can answer every question, but if you ask someone in plumbing about an item you need over in the electrical department, more often than not they’ll escort you over to the right aisle, rather than just telling you where to go. When you get to electrical, if the individual there can’t answer your questions, they’ll find someone who can. What can your practice learn from Home Depot about having staff that is well-versed and helpful?

Buying shoes is always fun, but buying them from Zappos is both fun and efficient. Place an order and shortly you’ll receive an upbeat, friendly e-mail letting you know that your order has been received and when your shoes will be shipped for free (returns are free and easy, too). The company often ships using a priority service, at no cost to the customer. This level of service, combined with their unique company culture, makes doing business with Zappos a real pleasure. What can your practice learn from Zappos about providing memorable service?

These examples are all from big name, national or international companies. You’ve probably had extraordinary service experiences in small “mom and pop” retailers or services in your town. Spend a few minutes at your next staff meeting talking about the last time you had a “wow” customer service experience, and how you might apply it in your practice.

Before you launch into creating your budget-friendly staff development plan, however, take some time to consider what is needed in your practice. Are some members of your team bored with their work and at risk for career burnout? Are there employees who, due to the nature of their jobs, absolutely must stay abreast of changes in the industry (coders, for example, with ICD-10 looming)? Are there skills that everyone on your staff needs to learn because of an upcoming change in your practice, such as an investment in new technology? Think about what you uniquely need, and then consider some of the following staff development ideas.

1. Set up a system within the practice to provide cross-training. Not only will employees learn new skills that will help them stay interested in the practice, but the office benefits by having people trained in a variety of positions. This can be invaluable when an employee is out sick or on vacation, or when you need short-term, fill-in staff after someone resigns.

2. Ask vendors what extra on-site training they can offer as part of the purchase price of new equipment or software that you have planned for this year.

3. Subscribe to practice management publications and circulate them around the office. Distribute a list of reputable Web sites and blogs (such as this one) for staff to review when they have a few spare minutes here and there.

4. Host periodic “lunch and learn” sessions. Invite the staff from another office in your building or neighborhood (non-competing practices, of course) to visit over the noon hour and exchange ideas about practice efficiency, patient satisfaction and other pertinent topics. Provide a light, healthy lunch for your staff and the visitors.

5. Invest in continuing education that doesn’t require your staff to leave the office.  Greenbranch Publishing,  for example, offers 90-minute audio conferences on a variety of topics for only $237, and the presenters are all experts in their fields. The MGMA offers ongoing webinars on a wide range of practice management subjects, as well.

Keep your eyes and ears open for other low-cost and no-cost staff education opportunities. With a little thought and creativity, you can ensure that your team stays well-informed, even if your budget is limited.

 Before you begin holding huddles, determine your purpose. Is your goal a review of the daily schedule to identify and thwart potential problems? Is the focus on how to maintain a calm atmosphere and deliver quality service and care, no matter how chaotic things get during the day? Is the objective to inspire and motivate staff? Or is your huddle intended to be an opportunity for team members to connect and determine how they can support one another throughout the day?

The purpose of your huddle will drive the agenda. For example, if the focus is on keeping patients and staff moving efficiently, then the main item for discussion each morning would be a review of the appointment schedule, looking for gaps and potential bottlenecks and assigning someone to make needed adjustments.

If your goal is to provide support and motivation, use the morning huddle to acknowledge staff members who went out of their way to support a co-worker or patient the day prior, share positive feedback received from patients and report on small successes. Something as simple as, “We were all out of here and on our way home at 5:15 yesterday,” or, “Mr. Gomez had tears in his eyes yesterday because he so appreciated how Carol took care of him,” can work wonders for staff morale. If your team doesn’t think it’s too hokey, take turns bringing in motivational quotes to read during each huddle.

On the logistics side, the morning huddle should be short (no more than 10 minutes) and it should be held in the same place each morning, and start on time. If your huddle is scheduled for 7:50 a.m. in the break room, starting at 7:52 and arbitrarily moving the gathering around for the convenience of one or two individuals will result in the process being taken less than seriously.

Keep in mind that the huddle is not the proper venue to discuss conflicts among staff, why collections are down, how to convince Dr. Smyth to get to the office on time, or solve other major practice problems. The huddle does not take the place of regular staff meetings or meetings between the practice administrator and managing partners.

And, finally, here’s a twist on the morning huddle: It doesn’t have to be held at the start of the day. Some practices find that huddling mid-day to regroup is even more effective than a morning meeting. Another option is to hold both a morning huddle and also a quick mid-day check in to get everyone on the same page and work out any kinks that may have emerged during the first half of the day.

If you think you don’t have time for a morning huddle, consider the possibility that investing 10 minutes a day has the potential to improve efficiency and effectiveness and provide a return on investment that far exceeds the cost of those few minutes.