4 Productivity Hacks for Behavioral Healthcare Practitioners

Have you ever asked a private behavioral health care practitioner what’s the toughest part of their job? If not, let us tell you. The hardest part about being a private practitioner is managing resources, time, and workflows efficiently while maintaining a successful practice. 

Running a private practice may seem easy, but it’s the opposite. While you may have the flexibility of working on your own time, you have to take care of each aspect of your clinic. Everything is your responsibility, from appointment scheduling to preparing bills and tracking the payment status—no wonder you’re exhausted at the end of the day. 

Meeting clients while handling administrative tasks is too much for any practitioner. How about incorporating strategies to boost your productivity and help you manage your time effectively? 

Imagine how good you will feel after ticking off all the tasks from your to-do list. If you’re ready for that, dive into this article to learn a few productivity hacks you can implement today. 

#1 Prioritize Your Tasks

As a behavioral healthcare practitioner, it’s important for you to prioritize your tasks. Otherwise, there’s a high possibility that you’ll spend the major chunk of the day on tasks that aren’t high-priority. 

It’s easy to fall into the trap of “first in, first out,” but avoid that. Create a priority list where high-priority tasks that demand immediate attention come first, whereas the ones that are of low priority come later. 

Start your list with clinical tasks, such as clients you’ll meet during practice hours. If you are meeting old clients, write down things you want to ask them or let them know. 

Then comes administration work, which includes finishing monthly reports and writing paperwork. 

Also, do not forget to dedicate an hour of your day to interactive tasks. Unread emails? Unanswered texts? Missed calls? No worries. You can answer all of those after you finish meeting your patients. 

Once you start prioritizing tasks, you’d be surprised at how productive you’ll become. 

#2 Leverage Technology

If you still haven’t leveraged technology, you’re missing out on a lot more than you can think. Why? That’s because technology can automate more than half of your tasks, reducing your workload. 

As you’ve already got a lot on your plate, why not make use of technology to automate your workflow? There are tons of platforms designed to streamline behavioral health care practitioners’ workflow. By leveraging those solutions, you can save a lot of time and money that you would otherwise spend on hiring employees. 

Do you find billing too much of a chore? Revenue cycle management has got you covered, as it automates the revenue cycle management process. Telehealth software is also necessary if you’re offering remote therapy sessions, as it will make it easy for you to monitor your patient’s recovery remotely. 

Other solutions that you can use to simplify your day-to-day operations include clinical and administrative practice management tools, therapy notes software, and many more. 

Instead of investing money in a wide array of solutions, your best bet is to look for an all-in-one platform. Many therapists prefer an EHR system for behavioral health because it offers all features under one roof without costing a lot. 

Accumedic advises therapists to understand their workflow before deploying EHR software. It further suggests practitioners examine their procedures, pinpoint bottlenecks and then search for software that will boost their productivity. 

#3 Eliminate Distractions

Switching your phone to focus mode isn’t enough. There are still many things that could pull your attention away. Social media and email notifications while at work are among the major distractions that hamper productivity. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t get pulled into the rabbit hole by reading their friend’s text on procrastination? We all do, and you’re no exception. 

To make sure you don’t get distracted from such notifications while working, turn on “do not disturb” mode. Also, make sure you keep open only those tabs on your desktop that are work-related. 

Feeding tasks into your calendar also helps, so you might as well start doing that. Many people find time tracking helpful, as it keeps them focused on the task at hand. You can do that too to see how much time you spend being productive. Remember, what gets measured can be managed. 

#4 Set Yourself a Reward

Have to get an important task done, but procrastination doesn’t seem to leave by your side? Setting yourself a reward might help. After you finish the work, you can reward yourself by meeting a good friend, having a bubble bath, working on a fun project, or doing whatever you like. 

Setting such rewards for yourself will motivate you to complete the task, making you productive. 

In Summary

When swamped with work, everyone feels overwhelmed, and behavioral health care practitioners are no exception. Organizing your tasks is the key to managing your day-to-day operations efficiently. 

If you are unable to do so, you’ll find yourself stressed, which will lead to burnout. Also, you need to be realistic with your time. Too often, practitioners take as many clients as possible in a day. While that will help you improve your bottom line, your mental health will suffer. When that happens, it will take a toll on everything. 

Work as much as you want but make sure to set aside some me-time to recharge your body and mind. Also, go offline from time to time so that you can return to work refreshed.