A Focus a Day

As business owners and administrators, we have a lot on our plate.

By Tannus Quatre, PT, MBA

One day to the next poses challenges both foreign and familiar, and within just about any domain under the sun. From marketing to finance, operations to recruiting, and more, the demands on those running the business are great, and they do not trickle in one by one.

Challenges rear their head when least expected, and opportunities fall into our laps even when we do not have the time necessary to devote fully to them. All the while, the day-to-day operations of the business must take priority to progress.

For those that relate to the above, the discipline of focus—while critical—is sometimes not enough. The ability to schedule one’s focus is often the winning ingredient. And that is where a focus a day comes into play.

A focus a day looks something like this:

• Monday: Team/operations
• Tuesday: Marketing/sales
• Wednesday: Finance
• Thursday: Human resources
• Friday: Process improvement
• Weekends: Writing/creative work

With this practice, each day has a general focus, or theme, and allows for a natural cycle of focus throughout the week. By having a general outline in place for one focus each day, two very important things happen.

First, you are assured that no major area of your business will go a full week without your attention. If you have ever gone two or more weeks without documenting a new process or pursuing a referral source, you will know what I am talking about.

Second, you relax a bit, knowing you do not need to make time for every area of your business on every day of the week. Finance often benefits from more time than you can devote on any given day, and it is not required of you every day of your week. Having it on the schedule will allow you to spend time focusing on other areas such as marketing and human resources—without feeling the constant pressure to get back to it each day.

Whether you work as little as three, or more than five days a week, providing one focus each day will help you stay on top of your greatest challenges and responsibilities each week. You may find it to be the one ingredient that brings your existing focus into far better alignment.

Try it out, and let me know how you are doing.

Tannus Quatre, PT, MBA, lives at the intersection of physical therapy and entrepreneurship, spending his time helping physical therapists build and operate successful practices through his company, Vantage Clinical Solutions. He specializes in marketing, finance, and business planning, and authors and speaks regularly for the APTA and PPS. He can be reached at tannus@vantageclinicalsolutions.com.