When it comes to their desks, doctors have a reputation for being disorganized. Some might even go as far as to call them “sloppy,” but I don’t think that’s what they are. I think they’re just inundated with information, like everyone who runs a business.
Your standard doctor’s desk is covered in periodicals, marketing materials, magazines and three-ring binders full of information detailing all the new products that are available from suppliers. There are also charts and lab cases, as well as a ton of regular mail that’s coming in every day.
When I get home from a business trip, I have all of that stuff plus my travel receipts, airline tickets and everything else I’ve accumulated along the way. I used to walk into my office and think, “Oh my gosh, where do I start?!?” So I learned some basic organizational and time management systems to keep it all in check.
Get It Off Your Desk Now
I want you to think about what happens when you make a to-do list. You start with a long list of tasks. You move down the list and scratch things off as they’re accomplished.
But there’s always something that doesn’t get done and that something gets transferred to the next to-do list and then the next and so on. If it keeps moving, chances are good it’s simply not important enough to be on the list. So why is it there?
The same thing can happen in your office. Do yourself a favor. Look at your desk right now. Pick up the item that’s been there for weeks and ask yourself why it’s there. Take a look at it and then make a decision about where it goes. Is it something that you need to attend to immediately? Can you give it to someone else to do? Can you trash it?
When you let things just sit, you’re constantly spotting them and thinking, “I really have to do something with this.” These items become distractions and these distractions take up valuable mindshare.
Get Rid of The Distractions
Unsubscribe to the stuff you don’t want clogging up your inbox. Or create a separate email address specifically for junk subscriptions. If you ever have a spare moment to look at them, fantastic. But otherwise, let them be Google’s problem.
There’s no way I can read all the magazines I get. So I’ll thumb through the pages and if something catches my eye, I tear it out, scan it and save it into a folder on my iPad. The rest of the magazine goes in the garbage. Then when I’m traveling, I start reading. If I like a particular article, I keep reading. If I don’t, I hit delete and it’s gone forever
Once you’ve gotten rid of the stuff that’s been taking up space on your desktop and you’ve deleted the stuff that’s distracting you from your priority work, you’ll be ready to delegate the tasks that someone else can handle.
We’ll get into delegation in detail in my next post. For now, leave a comment and tell us if you have any great tips for organizing the pile-up.
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