Time Management Expert, Event Speaker: Mark Lamendola
 

Time Tips: Appointments, Dental

Human teeth are evidence that the theory of "intelligent design" is not the product of an observant mind. Humans are the only creatures who must cook their food--otherwise, our soft enamel just wears right down. We have "wisdom teeth" that take up too much space in our jaws and must be extracted. The list of dental defects goes on and on--and those defects produce everything from tooth pain to general headaches.

The point of this opening observation is we all either should or do spend time at the dentist's office. I have an outstanding dentist with an outstanding office staff. Consequently, I have just about zero wait when I arrive for an appointment. But I have had other dentists, and I have experienced the waiting that goes well past the appointment time. My previous dentist once made me wait nearly two hours--after I had waited several months to get in!

So, here are some tips to save time at the dentist's office:

  • When making your appointment, specify what it's for. Decide on X-rays, etc. Then, make sure your dental plan and/or dental insurance information is on file and current--and will cover the proposed treatment. Ask the office to confirm via e-mail.
     
  • Ask if there's a day and time the dentist prefers. Some appointment slots tend to stay open and some days of the week simply are not very busy for specific offices. There's a distinct pattern for each dentist (most of the time), due to the demographics of that office's customer base.
     
  • Make an early appointment. If your dentist runs into problems, cares for emergency cases, or has other delays through the day--you have been there and gone before they happen.
     
  • Consider calling before you leave to see if the dentist is behind schedule--of course, that would be for appointments at mid-morning and probably late afternoon. If your dentist has never made you wait long, don't do this.
     
  • If you have your calendar with you, make your follow-up appt while you are there. Otherwise, wait until you are in front of your calendar. I use MS-Outlook to schedule everything, so a few days before an appointment I make an Outlook appt (for some time shortly after my appointment) to call and schedule my next appt.
     
  • Bring something to read. Delays happen. If you cover your delay time with a useful activity, then it's not wasted time.

Of course, the best way to reduce time at the dentist is to reduce the work the dentist has to do. Here are some tips on that:

  • Get regular dental checkups. It takes less time to get two checkups a year than it does to do a root canal on a tooth that had a fracture that should have been caught six months ago.
     
  • Don't eat sugary foods. Avoid processed foods in general.
     
  • Drink filtered water. The fluoride in the water strengthens your enamel when topically applied, but when ingested it weakens the enamel.
     
  • Use a three-pronged approach to hygiene:
  1. Brush gently, with a gentle brush. Once a day is the current recommendation. Brushing removes the "big stuff."
  2. Floss. The recommendation today is after every time you eat--if possible. And always before bed. Flossing removes the "medium stuff." And it cleans between teeth. Most people do not floss correctly. Ask your dentist for advice.
  3. Use a Water Pick TM or similar device. This gets the junk out from under the gum line and gets rid of the "small stuff."

And finally, don't smoke. This insane practice damages gum tissue, and it causes all kinds of other problems. Even if you don't value your teeth, think of the effect on your brain. Smoking is great for those who want to lower their IQs (do a yahoo search on this subject, if you--for some reason--doubt this). For the rest of us, it's not a good idea.

You can apply all of the above to your doctor, as well--just change the tooth care details to body care details. And remember that doctors and dentists are there primarily to handle the disease--caring for your health is up to you. Every minute spent on healthcare saves you hours of disease care.

 

 
A great way many businesses are managing time is using software. There are many forms of time and attendance software which allows managers to track and monitor employees time usage.
 

More thoughts on time management

The phrase "time management" is an unfortunate language quirk. You can't really manage time. It just is. You can't gain time, create time, or even lose time. Time is what it is, regardless of what we do.

It would be better to say "time allocation" or "activity management" "time usage" or some other phraseology to indicate that it's not time itself you're managing but how you use the time that exists. But we'll use the common terminology here to avoid confusion.

Some things time management is not:

  • Being more efficient. Suppose you become very efficient at making buggy whips. Does this fact mean you are managing your time well?
  • Getting more done in a given amount of time. Getting more done of what? And to what degree of quality? If you rake the leaves on a lawn from one side to the other all day long, does that mean you are a good time manager?
  • Being able to juggle multiple priorities. Instead of juggling priorities, assign priorities. First tend to the urgent things, then the most important things.
  • Mastering multi-tasking. This concept conflicts with what we know about the human brain. If you buy into this self-defeating, time-wasting, quality-killing ideology, you might also be interested in practicing solo flight by flapping your arms frantically.
  • Working faster. No, this mode is how you make mistakes that you subsequently have to spend more time fixing.

Some things good time management involves:

  • Deciding what to do. This is trickier than it sounds. Which is why there are time management experts.
  • Deciding what not to do. This is even trickier than deciding what to do. Which is why there are time managers and why discipline is a huge, huge factor in accomplishing this.
  • Deciding what to do when, and in what order. In essence, prioritization.
  • Determining the scope, goals, and metrics for each activity you undertake. In this area, we the find most room for improvement. Precision here allows you to avoid waste on the one hand, and falling short on the other.
  • Planning out the work, task, project, or activity such that you determine the necessary steps to quality completion. That is, what must you do to meet the intended goal and quality metrics?
  • Identifying unnecessary steps. Get this right, and you can cut your wasted hours significantly.
  • Figuring out what resources to use. Not all resources applicable to a task are equal. Picking the right tool for the job saves time, improves quality, and makes life less stressful.

We've highlighted only some of the factors involved in good time management. We actually teach extreme time management, which is a methodology that allows you to make effective use of your time almost second nature. You don't need a complicated system. Our system puts many of the variables on autopilot, so you have more time to do what you need to do. Our system goes way beyond most other systems in results, yet is far simpler.

Contact us for a presentation to your organization: comments @ mindconnection.com (remove the spaces after pasting into your e-mail client's "to" box.