There are a lot of things going on in a dental practice at any given time. Nobody knows this better than the people on the front lines – the team members. The valuable members of your practice have to greet patients, answer calls and check insurance coverage. They also process payments, handle appointment confirmations and even function as bill collectors. The reality of modern life – and certainly in a dental practice – is that you have to be able to juggle priorities all the time.

But there is also a growing field of evidence from cognitive scientists that the concept of effective multitasking is really an illusion. The truth is, no matter how many things demand our attention at any moment, we can only really give our full focus to one thing at a time. Divided attention is diminished attention.

That's why I like the idea of giving people who work for me "protected time" to do the crucial things that need to be done. I want the people around me to be flexible, and I want them to be able to prioritize on the fly and know when to drop one task in favor of another that is more pressing.

At the same time, I recognize that sometimes the most efficient use of a team member's time comes when you give them the opportunity to focus with no distractions on completing a task. For example, if you have two team members at the front desk why not reserve some time for one of them to leave the front desk and catch up on things in the morning and after lunch. Another opportunity is right after patients are seated. This allows one of them to return messages, send emails and make courtesy calls. This strategy also applies if you have two assistants. When you are working on a longer appointment with one of them, give the other some protected time to focus on those duties that always seem to have to get squeezed in otherwise.

This may seem at first like you are diluting your resources. Why take someone off the "front lines" where they might be needed? However, this is a strategy that usually pays off. It is understandable that you like to see your team busy toggling between essential duties all the time. But the simple truth is that tasks that can take hours to complete amid the daily routine can often be done in minutes by one dedicated worker who is given "protected time" where they are isolated from the noise and given the pleasurable intellectual freedom of focusing on one exclusive purpose.

So make a list of the things that need to get done but are usually accomplished in a here-and-there way. Then isolate some time and assign a team member to it. When it's done right, this can be a powerful way to amplify the value of time in the practice.


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