The Private Practice Success Podcast

37. 5 Time-Management Hacks for Busy Practice Owners

• Gerda Muller • Episode 37

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In episode 37, Gerda shares her five best time management hacks designed specifically for busy practice owners. 

Drawing from her own experience as a group practice owner, allied health business consultant, and mum to three kids, Gerda goes beyond the basics to deliver practical, behavioural strategies that can help you reclaim your time, reduce overwhelm, and create more space for the things you love - both in and out of your business.

With her trademark relatable anecdotes, Gerda reveals how these hacks have helped her achieve greater balance and impact, while still leaving time for Netflix, beach days, and family fun. 

Whether you’re struggling to keep up with daily demands or looking for ways to work smarter (not harder), this episode is packed with actionable advice you can implement straight away.

In this Episode, you will learn (among others):

  • How to build momentum and tackle big projects without procrastination or overwhelm.
  • Powerful strategies for creating calm clarity even on your busiest days.
  • The secret to sustained productivity and how to avoid staying trapped on the hamster wheel.
  • The importance of creating structure and scheduling priorities, so what matters most actually gets done.
  • How to find (and fiercely protect) your own cheer squad for accountability, support, and motivation.

Who This Episode Is For:

  • Private practice owners feeling stretched thin and needing practical ways to get more done.
  • Allied health professionals who want to prevent burnout and enjoy more work-life harmony.
  • Anyone ready to shift from reactive to proactive time management.

Tune in now and discover which of Gerda’s five hacks you’ll focus on first, because even one small change can and will make a world of difference.

Want more info on The Ultimate Admin Course?

Email Gerda at gerdam@private-practice-success.com and she’ll send you all the details. 

Want Gerda's Help with your Business?

Gerda helps allied health group practice owners go from overwhelmed, overworked, and underpaid to fully empowered and financially thriving. If this is you, then make today the day you reach out. Complete this super short Triage Form here bit.ly/triageformpps and Gerda will personally reach out to you. 

Here to help you build a practice you can't stop smiling about :)

Connect with Private Practice Success & Gerda here:

 Well, hello there brilliant private practice owner. My name is Gerda Muller and you are listening to the Private Practice Success Podcast, and this is episode number 37. 

Today I'm talking about a really exciting topic, and that is time management. More specifically, I'm going to be sharing with you five time management hacks than every practice owner needs to know about. Absolutely, you need to be aware of each and every one of these five.

And yes, I am a bit of a nerd by thinking that this is a super exciting topic. But you know why? It's because I know that when I use my time optimally, what happens is that I get to still have the impact that I want to have in this world, whilst still having more time to go and lie on the beach - not sunburning, but lying on the beach in the shade, reading a book. 

More time to watch some Netflix - yes, I love binging on Netflix - or spend some time annoying my family or should I say my husband, by coming up with new projects around the house. I love doing that stuff. I love my work as a psychologist, as a mental health advocate, and as an allied health business consultant, but I also love having the time to just do that other stuff - the normal day-to-day things like spending time with your family, like pottering around the house. And these hacks that I'm going to share with you today has helped me to achieve the balance and the harmony that works for me, and I want you to be able to achieve the same for you.

What I'm going to be sharing today, is five really practical, next level hacks that are tried and tested - and have been tried and tested in the trenches of being a group practice owner whilst still having to juggle all the other responsibilities of raising a family and running a household as a Mum and a wife. So these things work. 

To be clear, this is not hygiene time management. You know, when you help people with sleep management, there's the sleep hygiene - which is the basic stuff like the temperature, the time and the lighting - so we are not talking about hygiene stuff. Today we are going to be talking about behavioural interventions. Just like with sleep management, there are behavioural interventions that need to happen in order for you to optimize your sleep. The same holds true for our time.

I think I know what I'm talking about because I've actually previously delivered a live - I think it was a six or eight-week training on time management in private practice. That course focused both on the business side of it as well as the clinical side of it, because I know that for me as a business owner, but also for my clinical team, time management - and hacking and optimizing your time management is the thing. The thing that prevents burnout in us as practice owners and within our team. So I love this topic.  As I said previously, this is my jam and I'm going to dive right in now and share it with you. 

I need to give you some context - or let's call it setting the scene - because I'm going to use a couple of analogies here. Now depending on how long you have known me, you may or may not know that I like to go on my walks. When I was younger, starting in high school, I did a lot of cross country running, and even after I left school, running was my thing. You know, when I feel stressed, when I feel overwhelmed - if I go for a run, I feel instantly better. So running is part of my DNA. However, now that I am on the wrong side of 50, I don't do a lot of running as such, but I do a lot of fast walking.

But the principles that I'm going to share with you still apply, but it comes from my running days and there are so many correlations that I can make between running and life it's just not true. But we are going to use it today as we talk about time management, and I hope that even if you are not a runner and maybe you're not even a walker, that this will still make sense to you.

Alright, let's get stuck into this.

Time-Management Hack #1: Build Momentum 

Don't wait for the hill. If you are a runner, the easy part is just when you are running on the straight road, right? It's just straight. There's no ups and no downs. And then you have ups and downs, and then you have hills - and sometimes you have really big hills. And the secret with getting up that hill is to not stop, look at the hill, and then want to start running. It's actually harder. 

You want to see the hill in the distance, and you want to already start pacing yourself ready for that hill. You want to have momentum as you get started on the hill. It makes it so much easier. When you start with your strides before the hill, and you just continue with it as you go up it, you get to the top so much easier and so much sooner. 

This is what we want to do when it comes to our time management within our business and within our lives in general. We want to build momentum. Because momentum is a powerful force that helps you to overcome inaction. So when you start - and you start early, and you start even with small steps - you are less likely to get overwhelmed, to get tired, and to ultimately procrastinate.

The act of actually beginning whilst you are on the straight, and you're seeing the hill in the distance - by beginning - that creates psychological investment and belief in the mindset that I'm going to get to the top of that, and it's not going to be that hard. I'm just going to keep going. I'm going to keep going even when things get tough, because I can see the end is in sight. And because I have this momentum, it's going to be a smoother process 

In terms of really wanting to make this practical for you - if I think of some examples of what is a really big hill in our world as a practice owner - I recently spoke to some of my mentoring and coaching clients that are going through their NDIS audit. You know, like once every 12 to 18 months, people need to go through an NDIS audit and there's all the stuff that they need to prepare for.It's very stressful for them because they're concerned that they're not going to have everything that they need. So it's like this - not only a hill - it probably feels like this big mountain in front of them. 

Or maybe for you, it's not an NDIS audit. It could be like - you know what I really need is to update my operating policies, because I haven't done it in the last four to five years, and it feels again like this big mountain in front of you. The thing is that if you just wait and wait - and let's say in the case of an NDIS audit, there's this deadline that looms - and the longer you wait to start taking action and therefore gain momentum, the more anxiety it creates.  Not a helpful feeling, right? 

But if you can start by just drafting that first policy, and you go, I'm just going to review or draft a new policy - one a week - and do one every week, that momentum will see you get to the top of that mountain before you know it. You are not going to feel it on that day, or in that week even. But over time, you're going to look back, and your momentum would've shifted you up that hill, to the top of the mountain and then even over the mountain. And that's where the good feeling comes in - that feeling of, yes, I did it. I got through it, it's done. I am feeling really good about all of this.

The moral of the story here is that by the time you start on the hill – ie., when that deadline arrives - you would already have built up speed, as well as confidence, that will see you complete that hill much easier than if you didn't have that momentum.

So if gaining momentum is something that you need to work on, then I would recommend that you look at what is your next big project. Take that project and break it into smaller actionable steps, and schedule the first step for today. Even if it is just making a checklist, or planning a time in your diary that you can schedule in to write or review that first policy. That is how you eat that frog.  By breaking things into small actionable steps and then doing one step at a time, and that people, that's what we call momentum.

Time-Management Hack #2: Breathe

I know it sounds so simple and it sounds like - of course! But we so very often forget about the importance of the breath.

As a runner, one of the first things your coach will work on with you is breathing. Have you ever looked at people that do like these marathons and stuff - I’ve never done a marathon. I love running, but I don't love it that much. I'm more like a 4, 5, 6 maximum kind of girl. But when you get tired whilst running, all you need to do is focus on your breathing.

I would even count as I breathe in, and count as I breathe out. Before you know it, you’re in this breathing rhythm, and then all of a sudden you are in this stride rhythm. It's almost as if the breathing and the strides that you are taking is just happening automatically. You don't even have to think.

Imagine if doing what you need to do at work and in life could be that easy. Yes, you need to be fit or you can't do it. But even people that are fit get tired. So even marathon runners get tired - they even get exhausted. But unless they focus on their breathing, they won't be able to do what they do. The breath enhances your performance significantly. 

And similarly, your breath can enhance your performance right where you are - sitting at your desk, in the therapy chair, in the car after having dropped the kids off at school, driving to the practice and being concerned about a difficult discussion you need to have today or a really big thing that you need to do. Your breath is your secret freaking weapon, and you want to use it well.  

Your breathing has a direct impact on your brain. By engaging in deep diaphragmatic breaths, you are able to communicate to the survival centres within your brain. It is your way of saying, Hey, I'm actually okay. I'm going to get through this. Hey, you don't have to be worried about my survival - please do not release the adrenaline, I'm all good. 

Breathing is the way that you communicate this to your brain. And then when that primitive part of the brain goes, Okay, I get it, you are going to be fine, then it allows the problem solving and creative centres - the frontal cortex of your brain - to come up with solutions, to make decisions, and to do it so much more efficiently.  Whereas panic is going to trigger your flight or flight response, messing with your focus and making it harder to prioritize or think clearly. We don't want that. So we want to focus on our breathing. 

Imagine you arrive at the practice on a Monday; you've got a full freaking inbox. You've got staff members already popping their heads into your office with questions. Maybe you've got a waiting room full of clients if you're still doing clinical work. If you were to take a moment to just pause, to breathe and remind yourself that you can only do one thing at a time, you'll respond thoughtfully rather than reacting out of stress. 

Learning to park things is a really important skill. We want to go, Yes, maybe I've got all this stuff that needs my attention. Okay, but I can only do one thing right now. And what is that? As you go through that thinking, you want to do your deep breathing. You want to consciously and actively take a calm approach to making this decision - a calm approach to starting your day, every day. 

It might be to start your day, and again doing it after lunch because maybe you got a bit frazzled during the course of the morning due to other stuff happening and popping up and people and things demanding your attention. You might need to do it again. You might need to do it three, four times initially during the course of the day. 

If you feel like you're stuck or you're feeling like you want to procrastinate - whether it's consciously or unconsciously - you need to pause, you need to breathe, and you need to ask yourself: What is the one thing I need to do next?

By having this calm approach, it will help you personally, but it will also help you to model this to your team. Because there's nothing worse than a practice owner that's running around the practice like a headless chook. That's not good for you, and it's not good for anybody else in the business. So you have to remember to breathe.

Time-Management Hack #3: Pacing

Pacing allows you to work smarter and not harder. Pacing is about efficiency and energy management. Imagine, again being a runner - by taking longer, more deliberate strides instead of frantic tiny ones - you are able to conserve your energy and make consistent progress. You want to do the same thing in business. 

It's all about finding the most effective way of doing things rather than just doing more of it - and that is a very common pitfall for people that are highly productive. Because the thing is this, the more productive you are and - and I know this is going to sound counterintuitive - but the more productive you are, the busier you get. 

When you are really productive, you do things faster than other people, which means you have more time in your day. And what do we do then, huh? We fill it up with other shit. We think of other things to do, instead of going, Ah, maybe I can go for a walk now that I finished early, or maybe I can have a nap. Maybe I can rest, maybe I can recharge. No, we fill it up with other shit, and then we stay on that freaking hamster wheel.  Yes, we want to be productive, and pacing allows us to be productive without burning ourselves out and without also filling any additional time that we are creating with new things to do. 

For example, let's say you are a practice owner and you need to onboard a new clinician.  Maybe you are still manually sending out everything that they need as part of the onboarding. Maybe you're doing an email that says, Welcome to the practice. Maybe there's a second email that says, Hey, this is how you need to apply for a Medicare provider number. Here's all our banking details to set that up. This is where you go, blah, blah. Maybe you do another email to arrange for their first day, and what time do they want their appointments? 

Maybe you do another email about, this is our diary software and this is where you can access all that stuff. Maybe you do another email with a link to where they can find all the policies. Maybe they come in for onboarding and you spend two days talking them through all the things that they need to know in order to do their job.

That's a lot of manual time investment. And if you have a group private practice, over the long run, if you do that with every new clinician you onboard, you will be spending - not hours and hours, not weeks - but potentially if you've been in business as long as I have, months onboarding new people. Total waste of your time.

I mean, it's not a waste of your time onboarding someone. But it's a waste of your time doing it in such a manual way. Because think about it - you could create a digital onboarding pack. You could have automated emails and automated reminders go out. There's a lot of ways that we have right now in 2025 to optimize, systemise and automate what it is that we are doing. 

But you need to take a step back and instead of just rushing - Oh my goodness, I'm just going to send all of this stuff out right now because I'm behind and I just need to get it out - instead of rushing, we want to pace. We want to steadily work on setting up this system.

We want to work on optimizing, systemise, and then automate. But we can't do that if we are not pacing ourselves as we execute this project - and sometimes we need to go a bit slower in order to go faster in the future. And this is what trips a lot of people up. They want to go fast because they left things to the last minute, and therefore they keep on being the one having to do it - because they've never made the time to delegate it properly to somebody else that can help them do it. 

We are our own worst enemy. But it starts with you. You need to pace yourself. You need to see the mountain - remember hack number one - you need to see the mountain is coming. You need to know where the deadline is. You need to breathe and go, What is my next priority?

If you do these things, pacing becomes easier - because I've now not left things at the last minute, okay? Because I still need to deal with any other fires that might pop up. But I need opportunities to pace so that I can delegate appropriately.

So next time you start a repetitive task - a task that you've done a hundred times before, and you know you're probably going to do it another hundred times, at least into the future - you want to ask yourself, Is there a better way? Is there somebody else that should be doing this instead of me? And then what you do is you miss a little time now to streamline and automate and delegate that process or that task. You will thank yourself, and me, in the long run.

Time-Management Hack #4: Create Structure 

You have to create structure within your time management. If we relate this back to running - if you want to be good at running, there's a very important thing that you need to do - and that is you have to strengthen your core. Because your core in running - AKA, the structure in your time management - is what provides stability.

If you think about it, your core muscles in your body, it keeps you upright. You can't stay upright without it. And as you are running by strengthening your core, you improve your efficiency in your running. The whole body now works together in order to move you forward. Just like a strong core keeps a runner balanced - and therefore injury free - a solid time management structure keeps your practice running smoothly, and it prevents you from getting “injured”.

So, what do I mean when I say structure your time management? It means that you need to plan ahead. You need to know your priorities. And then you need to put your priorities, whether that is your tasks, actual doing things, or maybe it is just time to think and make decisions, AKA creative time - you need to put those things in your diary. You need to schedule it.

I'm not sure who said this - I think it might have been Tony Robbins - he said that what gets scheduled, gets done. Your schedule is what creates that structure within your time management. And that's why I said earlier that these are behavioural interventions, because yes, you need to schedule it, but then you need to show up, right?

You need to show up at that time. For example, if I've popped in my diary that I need to record a podcast episode on Tuesday at 10:00 AM. What do you think I should be doing Tuesday at 10:00 AM Checking emails? No. Checking my bank account. No. Should I be writing a presentation? No. What should I be doing? I need to do what's in my freaking diary. Okay. The decision has already been made. So I need to show up, record a podcast, and get it done. 

So all you need to do is make the decision now. Pop it in your diary, schedule it in and not decide again. Just go, The decision has already been made, whether I feel like it or not, I'm going to show up and I'm going to get this done. To be clear, I don't want you to push through when you are feeling sick or unwell. But what I want you to do is to instil the structure, and then to stick to it as much as possible.

I had a lovely client that I had the privilege of coaching and mentoring for quite a number of years - she was in my Founder's Club. What she used to do is she would have 30 minutes to an hour on a Sunday that she would sit down at her desk in her home office with a lovely glass of red wine, and she would plan her week ahead. She referred to this as the Sunday sessions. And if you're listening to this, you know who you are. 

I always loved it when she spoke to me about her Sunday sessions. It was the thing that helped her stay on track. And whenever we would meet and she was feeling overwhelmed and she felt that she's not staying on track, I would ask, Hey, have you been doing your Sunday sessions? And she would go, No, I haven't. I stopped doing that weeks ago. And I'll go, Okay, let's talk about what happened. What do we need to do to get back into it? Then I would help her get back on track, because it anchored her week. It wasn't pressured. She actually enjoyed doing it. It was nice and relaxed with the glass of red, and it was just her time because the kids were busy, chilling, doing their own thing - and it was a non-stressful time for her to plan out her week ahead. 

Now you might think, Oh, I don't want to work on a Sunday. That's perfectly fine. You don't have to do it on a Sunday. You might do it on a Monday morning, or maybe you want to do it on a Friday before you knock off for the day. But what I want you to do - and there's no right or wrong day or time - but just choose. Choose 30 minutes for you every week where you're going to be doing your planning. You might refer to it as the Monday sessions or the 4:00 PM sessions.

You can come up with your own term for what it is that you want to do. Pop it in your diary. Make it a recurring appointment and then fiercely protect the time. Fiercely protect the time in your diary. Do not give it up for anything else or for anybody else. That is your time - to plan out, to take a pause, do some breathing, and make a decision around what your business needs.

Time-Management Hack #5: Find Yourself a Cheer Squad

Don't try and do this alone.

Imagine being a marathon runner and you are running in an actual competition. What normally happens are there will be people stationed along the way and certain sections - because it's a long distance - there'll be maybe no people or little people, but then more populated areas where there will be a lot of people and they'll be cheering them on and giving them water and clapping and saying, Go, go, go! You're doing well! 

That uplifts, that marathon runner's spirit, right? I guess a lot of them probably tune out, but they can still see those people there. There are people that have showed up for them that's there, that's holding that space - should they need help, should they need a protein bar or water, or should something happen, there's somebody there to help. And you know what? We need that as well as humans- particularly as humans in business. Because I know how you guys are. You are so hard on yourself, right?

So sometimes we need- not sometimes, always - we need a cheer squad that is there to support us, yes, but also keep us accountable. It's much harder to give up when there's other people there cheering for you. When you have somebody checking in on you, you are also way more likely to follow through on your commitments. It makes this journey of building your practice less lonely and more enjoyable. Especially when you are doing those difficult conversations, making difficult decisions, stepping out of your comfort zone.  Having people there who you know, have your back, just makes it so much easier.  They might not be there in the practice with you, but it's like you know they are there, and you can reach out whenever you need to. 

As per usual, I've got firsthand experience of this. The first four years of running my group private practice, I went at it alone. And I say alone in the sense of - you know - I had my husband to talk to and I had an amazing clinical supervisor, and she also had her own solo private practice, but it wasn't real business coaching, mentoring and consulting.  It was more, more clinical supervision - talking a little bit about how to manage intakes and answering the phone and how to deal with all the voicemails back then in the day because there was no admin initially. So that type of stuff.

Then I started a group private practice, and I still didn't have a business coach, but I didn't know what I was missing out on. I just thought that this is how you do it. And I actually went out of my way to attend psychology events because I was new in the industry – I was new in the country actually - and I met a lot of fabulous peers and psychology colleagues. And I say colleagues - we didn't work together because I was in practice, but they had their own private practices and we would attend these networking events maybe once a month. 

I thought, you know, I'm doing the right things. I was reaching out, getting to know people, but there wasn't a lot of interaction beyond the actual network working events because I was busy. They were busy. It wasn't until I actually started working with my very, very first business coach back in 2012 that I went, Ah, okay. This is what I've been missing.

I did not know that this type of support is on offer for me. I must say my first business coach - his name was Nathan, - I wouldn't call Nathan a cheerleader. If you knew what he looks like - he's a bald guy and he has a black belt in martial arts - so he does not fit the image of a cheerleader. But you know what? He was my cheerleader. Not only that, he was a place where I could go and just burst into tears and just say, This isn't working. I don’t know what to do. He also was my sounding board that allowed me to make really difficult, but really important decisions. 

What a business coach does is totally different to what a clinical supervisor does. It’s totally different to what a peer can do for you, because a business coach is objectively holding you accountable and giving you amazing input into your business - and they're doing it from a place of not needing to protect your feelings. And that's the type of business coach that I always wanted. It's like, I don't want to pay you to make me feel good. I don't want to pay you money every month to try and look after my ego. I want you to give it to me straight, no fluff and no BS.

To get somebody that can do that but simultaneously believe in you – ie., cheerlead you – it was amazing. I could not have done it without him. I actually worked with him for four years, and it was the best thing that I have ever done. And I will keep on saying this - that he changed the trajectory of not only my business, but my entire life. Now, you might not want a business coach - that's perfectly fine, but what you definitely need is a cheer squad. 

Find yourself a cheer squad. It can be one person, it can be a couple of people, but it needs to be people that are like-minded to you - people that get business. That's what you want to find for yourself. So yes, for you it might be a peer - for me, that was my business coach. It really kept me honest, because if I said, This is what I want to do, I had to do it. It kept me honest about the goals that I have set for myself. It's like nobody else told me. My business coach didn't tell me what those goals were. I said, This is what I wanted. And when things got really tough and I wanted to give up, he reminded me, This is where we are going. This is why you said you wanted that - and that was really encouraging.  I'm very grateful for the Gerda of 2012 that said yes to having a cheer squad at that time of my business.

So I want you to reflect and think - who is that one person for you? Whether that is somebody inside your business or outside of your business, who can help you by acting as your cheer squad. By acting as your accountability buddy- and maybe agree to check in with that person at the start or at the end of each week.

The problem that I often find people tell me they experience with this is that informal arrangements like this often start off really exciting and strong… and then over time it phases out. And that's the difference versus doing it in an informal manner versus doing it in a more formal manner - where you might be part of a mastermind or a program, or you are working with a business coach. 

It’s the same like when going to the gym, right? You are more likely to pitch up when you are going for a PT session, because there's somebody else there waiting for you, and you've paid them for their time and you've paid them to be there and hold you accountable. They'll be freaking showing up, because that's their job.

But now you've got somebody to show up to, because you want to get value for money because you have paid for that appointment.  The same thing happens when you have a business coach or your part of a paid program who can act as your cheer squad. But the point I'm making is - every marathon runner needs a cheer squad. And every practice owner, I'm going to say every business owner out there - needs a cheer squad.

In Summary

So to recap, here are the five hacks. 

#1 - We want to build momentum. We don't want to wait for the start of the hill to get started.

#2 - We want to breathe so that we can approach everything we do with calm. 

#3 - You want to pace yourself so that you can work smarter, not harder.

#4 - You want to strengthen your core. And how do you do that with time management? By creating structure. 

#5 - You want to find your cheer squad.

There is absolutely no prize for doing this alone. And you know what? A cheer squad makes this so much more fun. So why wouldn't you want one? Take it from me. Each of these five-time management hacks work, because they address both the mindset and the mechanics of time management.

I truly hope that this episode was of value. I would strongly encourage you to choose at least one of these five hacks and go - this is the one that I'm going to be focusing on over the next couple of weeks. Even if you implement just the one, you will already be benefiting from having implemented it.

Thank you so very much for listening and spending this time with me. I would greatly appreciate it if you could share the availability of this podcast with any colleague or peer who is in private practice and that would find it of interest. 

Thank you again, and remember as always - I am here to help you build a practice, you can't stop smiling about.  😊

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Gerda Muller

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