As a therapist and a business owner, there are many tasks to keep track of! There are certain tasks you will do each day and other tasks that only need to be attended to once a quarter or once a year. Routine tasks for therapists include everything from clinical documentation to acquiring continuing education hours to filing taxes. Creating strong systems and routines help therapists avoid important tasks falling through the cracks.
When determining where they need new or refined systems and routines, I recommend that therapists start by doing a series of “brain dumps.” These brain dumps are listings of all the tasks that a therapist currently knows need to be done in their practice on a regular basis (daily, weekly, quarterly, etc.) You can better determine exactly what systems or routines would best support you in following through with these tasks once you have them broken down into lists in front of you.
Some tasks may feel automatic and with others you may benefit from reminders (such as; checklists, adding them to your to do list, calendar reminders, using features of your electronic health records system).
Some tasks you will always make time for (I never forget to check my mail or water my plant!). You will need to reserve space on your calendar for other tasks because they require more time or you tend to avoid them.
You may be able to automate some tasks and others require that you personally take action or delegate them to another individual in order for them to get done.
As you look at your series of brain dumps; you can note which tasks you may be able to automate as well which tasks need reminders and/or dedicated time on your calendar and develop systems and routines accordingly.
Examples of Routine Tasks for Therapists
Below are a series of lists which are a sampling (I’m sure I’ve forgotten to include some!) of the tasks that I perform regularly in my practice. For context, I am a solo therapist in private practice in Minnesota. I have a combination of insurance and private pay clients. I automate some tasks through my electronic health records system (such as sending appointment reminders), so they are not noted below. I outsource my billing to a billing service.
Daily Tasks:
- Session notes and other clinical documentation associated with that day’s work.
- Submit billing and/or record payments for each session (done when I sign notes in my electronic health records system).
- Respond to phone calls. (I generally attempt to return calls within 24 hours)
- Respond to emails. (I generally attempt to return emails within 24 hours)
- Clean up my work space at the end of the day. Properly store all protected health information.
- Jot down notes to myself regarding items for follow up when I am back in the office.
Weekly Tasks:
- Write diagnostic assessments and make sure new client files are set up properly (if I saw a new client that week)
- Work on marketing tasks. (Note: What this looks like each week varies based on my current practice goals).
- Water my plant at the office 2 times per week.
- Check my mail (this is usually done more often as it gets me up and moving between sessions, but weekly would be a bare minimum for this task).
- Wrap up any outstanding session notes before the end of the week.
- Catch up on any outstanding emails and voicemails before the end of the week.
- Quick review of business financials (income/expenses, automatic payments, etc) to ensure accuracy of my records. This also includes a quick review of client accounts to determine if there are any unusual billing matters that I want to request my billing service check into prior to our monthly call.
- Enter data I am tracking into my spreadsheet. (Currently this data includes things such as; number of sessions held, number of intakes, number of cancellations, etc.)
- Turn on my “Out of office” email response on Thursday afternoon.
Monthly Tasks:
- Review the data I collected about the previous month. Celebrate successes & progress. Reflect on areas of struggle.
- Plan for the upcoming month. Identify areas of focus for the months and block off time to work on these areas.
- Scheduled call with my billing service. Follow up as needed.
- Pay my office rent (most other payments are automated).
- Close old files
Quarterly Tasks:
- Pay estimated taxes.
- Review and plan for continuing education.
- Review progress towards annual goals and adjust accordingly
- Update treatment plans (monitored through my EHR and updated in session with clients)
Annual Tasks:
Note: Most of these are on my Google calendar as they only occur once a year
- Reflect on and plan for annual goals
- Renew my license (+ provide attestation to continuing education hours every two years)
- Annual tax return
- File annual renewal for my PLLC with the Secretary of State and my board
- Renew my lease
- Renew professional association memberships
- Renew my liability insurance
There are definitely a lot of routine tasks for therapists to manage in running their practices. I’d be happy to take a closer look at your brain dumps and help you identify where you can streamline your processes to run your practice with more ease. Access my calendar here to claim a complimentary 20-minute Vibrant Therapist Clarity Call.