North Texas Dentistry Volume 9 Issue 5 2019 ISSUE 5 DE | Page 26

practice management
MAKING SENSE OF
INFORMATION OVERLOAD
by Bethany Petty
You invested in continuing education... maybe you snuck away
to the convention solo to get a few good courses under your belt.
Maybe you took the plunge and brought your whole team.
Maybe you looked at the calendar and panicked knowing you
only had a couple of months to finish your requirements. What-
ever the reason, you invested in a convention. You invested in
drinking from a fire hose of information and ideas. Now what?
We sit with clients on a daily basis that suffer from IDKWTD.
You haven’t heard of that acronym? You may not have heard of
it, but I am certain you have experienced it. I need to make some
changes in my practice, but IDKWTD. I have this new technol-
ogy that I really want to utilize in my practice, but IDKWTD. I
invested so much money in a CE course for my team, but now
we aren’t implementing... IDKWTD. I am at a course and have
so many ideas, but there are just too many to grasp and under-
stand. IDKWTD – I don’t know what to do.
Implementation is often the hardest aspect of making changes
and improvements. In fact, struggles with implementation are
often at the root of many problems. The good news is – you are
not alone. As a doctor or practice owner, your plate is constantly
full. So, taking the time to sort through the items on your plate
plus add new items for improving yourself or your practice is
simply overwhelming. We have developed an easy way to start
chipping away at those lingering items.
STEP
Buckets.
1
It is important to reduce the clutter in your
brain. Take the items on your plate and sort them
into four buckets. The first bucket is Me Only Immediate. This
bucket should contain items on your list that should be com-
26 NORTH TEXAS DENTISTRY | www.northtexasdentistry.com
pleted within the next couple of weeks. They need to be handled
quickly, and they can only be handled by you. The second
bucket is Me Only Later. This bucket contains items on your list
that either have no timeline or do not need to be handled
quickly. In addition, these are items that you cannot delegate to
others. The third bucket is Delegate. This bucket should be filled
with anything and everything that could possibly be delegated
to someone else. That someone else could be a team member, a
spouse, a partner, a third party company, or something that can
be automated. The fourth bucket is Goals and Ideas. This
bucket should be filled with all of the random things that you
have been hoping to achieve, desiring to change, or wanting to
implement. This bucket will be extra full after a day or two at
the convention. Organize the buckets in the way that works for
you. Some prefer to handwrite their lists in four separate note-
books. Others prefer electronic documents. Some may prefer to
create actual buckets that house separate sheets of paper with
items written down. Find a way that works for you.
STEP
Delegate.
2
Immediately get rid of the items in your
delegate bucket. By acting quickly, you will
reduce the amount of mental space that these
items consume and will be able to focus on the other three buck-
ets more easily. If you are passing items to someone else, then
schedule a time to sit with that person and pass off the items
you wish for them to handle. Offer any necessary explanations
and create deadlines for them. It is very important to schedule
a follow up meeting with this person approximately one month
later to ensure that tasks are being handled. Our best tip is to
schedule that follow up meeting at this first meeting with