Through misadventure I’ve been dealing with a local council recently and it’s been a masterclass in how to work inefficiently. When dealing with local council, any decision that can be delayed will be:
Customer: “What time is it?”
Council worker: “I’ll check with my supervisor and get back with you.”
Any deadline that can be missed will be:
Customer: “You said you were going to call back a week ago.”
Council worker: “We’ve been busy.”
It’s annoying and unproductive for the customer, although the council workers seem to enjoy it. A friend told me that he took early retirement as a builder because, after 30 years of working with local councils, he couldn’t face it anymore.
This got me thinking. When I was in practice, I was always in the top 2% of dentists with respect to productivity. One of the key reasons why was a philosophy that I held to. It was called “Do It Now”.
In my practice, anything that could be done immediately, was done immediately. Any decision that could be taken straight away was taken straight away.
Dentist: “I’ve got time. Would you like me to fix your broken tooth today?”
The patients liked it because they got their problem fixed promptly. It meant one less time that they had to come back. I liked it, it kept me constantly busy and productive.
If you can flex your schedule to allow you to do tasks immediately, your productivity will increase hugely. Don’t push tasks off into the future like the local council. Do it now!
