I’m Dr. Hassan, a Board-Certified Physiatrist and Independent Practice Owner. I help physiatrists start and grow their own profitable practices so they can achieve financial independence and live without limits.

When building a profitable practice, you must learn how to prioritize your work. One of the best ways to improve your productivity is to prioritize your work. But if you’re new to goal setting and time management, it can be tough to know how to do this.

Read on for tips on how to prioritize your work and get the most out of your time:

  1. Brainstorm. The first thing you should do is make a list of everything that needs to get done. This includes tasks for patients, tasks for yourself, and other tasks that need to get done to further your work. Exhaust every piece of work you think you need to do.
  2. Determine time sensitivity. Some things need to be done urgently while other tasks aren’t time-sensitive. Take the list you brainstormed and divide the tasks into two categories: urgent versus not urgent. Urgent things are those that are related to deadlines.
  3. Determine importance. In addition to knowing what’s important time-wise, you should also look at the importance of each task. A task is important if it supports the overall vision of your business and supports the bigger goals and priorities. For example, exercise may not have a deadline necessarily, but it keeps your brain, heart, and energy levels running optimally. Therefore, it supports your bigger goals and should be treated as such. Don’t forget to prioritize taking a break too. (Here are 7 advantages of taking short breaks.) Some tasks are not as important but need to get done. Laundry is a great example of this. And when you may even find there are things that aren’t really that important at all, it can be deleted from the list. Rate both the urgent and not urgent list by importance.
  4. Know your limits. You can become overwhelmed if you give yourself an unrealistic number of tasks to complete. Be realistic about what you can accomplish, even in a given amount of time. Overloading your to-do list can cause you to become paralyzed and get less done.
  5. Set limits for your tasks. If you contend to spend too much time on a task seeking perfection, you need to give yourself a time limit so that you won’t focus on one thing for too long while neglecting other tasks. That may mean throwing some of your perfectionism out of the window.
  6. Set deadlines. Set deadlines when you feel like you have all the time in the world to complete a project. You’re less likely to get it done in a reasonable amount of time. Set deadlines so that you can be motivated to finish in less time and get more done.
  7. Allow time for personal projects. Sometimes you’ll find that there are things you want to do for your business that aren’t necessarily critical at the time. Don’t forget to give yourself the time to work on projects you enjoy. When you feel fulfilled and happy, you’ll be more productive.

When you learn how to prioritize your work, you’ll know which tasks need to be done right away and which ones can wait. In the end you’ll get more done, and you’ll feel better about the work that you do.

I am Dr. Hassan, Board-Certified Physiatrist and Independent Practice Owner. I help physiatrists start and grow their own independent practice so that they can achieve financial independence and live without limits. Please go to businessofrehab.com/guide to pick up the free guide to help you determine the best business entity for your new practice.