The Private Practice Success Podcast

79. The Static Diary: The Secret Sauce to my Personal Private Practice Success

• Gerda Muller • Episode 79

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In Episode 79, Gerda shares one of her biggest “behind-the-scenes” success tools. A tool she’s relied on since 2012 and credits as a major contributor to her personal and business growth: The Static Diary.

If you've ever finished a day wondering where the time went, constantly feel like you're reacting instead of leading, or can't seem to find time to work on your practice, this episode is your invitation to stop guessing what you should be doing each day and start creating the space to actually work ON your practice, not just IN it.

In this episode, Gerda explains the difference between a static diary and a dynamic diary and why both are essential for a successful practice. She walks you through the exact process she uses to map business functions, allocate realistic time pockets, and turn priorities into scheduled actions, so goals don’t just live on paper, they actually get implemented.

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

  • What a static diary is, and why Gerda believes every practice owner (or practice leader) needs one.
  • The difference between a static diary vs a dynamic diary, and why both are essential in allied health.
  • The step by step process of creating a static diary that aligns with your business goals, priorities, and how you work best.

Who this episode is for:

  • Practice owners who feel overwhelmed by the endless list of things they need to get done.
  • Business owners who want more structure and consistency in their week.
  • Leaders who want to create a sustainable way of running and growing their practice.

Tune in for a practical and empowering episode that will help you step off the hamster wheel, stop chasing your never-ending to-do list, and create the structure you need to lead your practice with more clarity, focus, and intention.

Here to help you build a practice you can’t stop smiling about 😍



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 79. 

Today, I want to talk to you about your Static Diary, and if you don't have one, then boy oh boy, today I am going to convince you that you freaking need one. Because I have been swearing by my static diary for the last probably 15 years. What is 2026 minus 2012? Well, since 2012. That is when I started using my static diary, and it has been one of my secret ingredients to my personal business success. So needless to say, I'm super excited to share this with you.  In the days that I used to run my two-day masterclasses over a weekend, this was one of the best sessions that I ran with people that attended my masterclasses, so you are getting this secret ingredient for private practice success for free today because you are a listener of the Private Practice Success Podcast. 

So why have I decided to share this with you? You might not know this because I've not told you this, but I actually have a reason for sharing and talking about each and every topic. So when I come to the podcast, it is because something has popped up in a discussion with somebody else, generally another practice owner that has this problem, or it is as a result of something that I'm doing within my own private practice, and that is the beauty of me still having my own private practice.  In this specific scenario, it was the latter that prompted this. 

Long story short, a couple of weeks back now, I actually spent almost a full week in Brisbane. I almost never visit my practices, but I had purchased a brand-new practice, and I wanted to go and check it out, so I thought lets you know, what's the saying? Kill two birds with one stone. I'm going to go and check out this new practice that I had purchased like a month and a half before, and it was June, so it's the end of the financial year, and I wanted to spend some time with Ash, who is my Director of Strategy and Operations at the practice, which basically means she's the big chief, she runs everything on the ground for me. And I really wanted to spend some time with her reviewing the financial year that we just had in the business, but also planning out the year ahead. 

So we had four days together, and during that time, we did a number of things. Probably the most important things we did was to do our annual wage and salary reviews, and we also set up the budget for the new financial year, and we really looked at what is our financial goals for the business, and how does that translate into other practical goals that we need to achieve in order to achieve the financial goals. So obviously, at the start of every year in January, we set what I would refer to as non-financial goals, and then this time of year, we actually sit down and do our financial goals. And then, of course, come January, we still know what the financial goals are when we consider our non-financial goals at the practice. So that was a really, really great process. So, once we've gone through all of that stuff, and we really talked a lot about strategy ... because the thing is this, you can have your financial goals, but if you don't know how the hell are you going to make that happen, you're not going to achieve it, right? 

So we went through day one, two, and three, and then on the morning of day four, we sat down and I said, "You know what? We've done really, really well. This has been such a productive three days. We've just flown through everything that we had to do. We had so much clarity on what needs to happen, what needs attention, where are those leaks that need plugging, where do we need to push harder, where don't we need to push as hard as we have in the last 12 months.

And then I went, I'm looking at this Ash and like, "You've got a shit ton of work ahead of you." She looked at me, she said, "I sure do." And I said, "Okay, I want to make sure that this happens. I am here today to support you in making sure that you have the capacity within your day, your week, your month, and your year to make these things happen in a way that doesn't burn you out, in a way that gives you a sense of achievement, in a way that doesn't lead to overwhelm for you, in a way that you are running this practice, this business, in a way that gives you joy." You know that practice you can't stop smiling about? I want that practice as the business owner, but I also want the person that runs it for me to be able to smile about what it is that we're doing, to have that sense of achievement. 

So I said, "Okay, how do you feel about getting all of this done?" And she went, "This is a big task, and I'm not going to lie, Gerda, it feels a bit overwhelming getting all of this done." I said, "Great stuff. That means that I know exactly what we need to do next, and that is we need to determine your static diary for the year ahead."  Now, I say the year ahead, but we review this every quarter. Every quarter. Now, if you're wondering what a static diary is, I'm going to explain it to you.

Static VS Dynamic Diary 

The first thing we need to note is that in the business of allied health, there are two types of diaries. You have a static diary, and then you have a dynamic diary, and both of these diaries are of equal importance. Why? Because they serve different purposes. 

Now, the static diary, which is our topic of discussion today, this is your diary, the diary for you as the practice owner. And in this instance that I'm talking about today, this was Ash's diary. So I have replaced myself with Ash, she's my Director of Strategy and Operations. She runs the practice for me. If you don't have a person like this, this will be you. So the leader, the person that runs the show needs a static diary. And I will tell you why, because there's a lot of benefits to having a static diary for you as the person leading, managing, running the practice. 

The dynamic diary, this is your practice's diary This is the diary that would be within your practice software, whether that is Xanda, Cliniko, Halaxy, Splose, Nookal, insert whatever practice management software you use. Now, yes, you know, we want our practice diary to be as static as possible, but the truth of it is it's not, because we've got human beings that we are seeing. Our service is delivered to humans. People get sick, things happen, people have to cancel, or reschedule their appointments, and that diary is therefore dynamic. We need to accept that there is change that occurs within that diary. And when we look at your practice diary through the dynamic filter, it also means that your admin team needs to be on the ball and quick to refill those appointments because it's this living, breathing organism within your business. It is dynamic, and your whole team needs to function within the dynamic context that is your practice diary. But that's a discussion for another day. 

So that one is dynamic because it changes. We need to accept it does, and we need to roll with it, and we still need to fill it to the brim, right? But now we're going to talk about the static diary, which is a diary that is static, meaning it stays the same. You make a decision, you book it in, it's locked in, it stays there. Now, obviously, in case of emergency, you know, there's always going to be extenuating circumstances. If you are sick today, you can't do the things that's in your static diary. If there's some other crisis, you need to deal with it. Now, I will also say this, if you have a crisis a week, that is a humongous red flag that you need to do something. Something different. Because what it is that you've been doing is not working. 

And I will add, if you've got the same crisis popping up time and time again, that's an even bigger red flag. Not a little red flag, a humongous red flag that you need to do something about it. Please do not do what a lot of people do and what I did once upon a freaking time, where I would just go, "No, I'll just deal with it and, and get through it." And then two weeks later, it's the same thing. It's like, "Okay, I'll just deal with it." And even though you get frustrated, and even resentful, it’s like I've got so much shit going on, I'm just going to deal with it and get going. So again, those are all red flags. 

Now, your static diary isn't going to stop crises from occurring. Let me just say that. That's not the purpose of the static diary. But the static diary will help you get shit done that leads to crises, okay. But the doing, is still important, right. So there's going to be other strategies that you need to implement to stop the crisis from occurring. But the static diary is going to give you the space in your day, your week, your month, and your year, to actually sit in a space where I can now think about problem-solving. Where can I think about what I need to do to stop this from happening time and time again? Is this the right strategy for this problem? Is this the right solution? Maybe I don't know what the solution is. Where can I find the solution? Who do I need to consult with? What do I need to research? What questions do I need to ask in order to solve this? Because unless I sit and solve this freaking issue, it's going to keep on popping up, and then I only have myself to blame for not having made the time to deal with it. 

But unless you have a static diary giving you thinking time as well as doing time, you're going to stay stuck on the hamster wheel. And that's why a lot of people become so frustrated. It's why a lot of people get to that place of where they go, "Gerda, I don't know if this is worth it anymore." Do you know how many people have told me that over the last six months? The exact words of, "Gerda, I don't know whether this is worth it"? And I get that feeling. I've had that feeling. But I also know 100% for sure that this is worth it. But only, only if you take the steps required to make it worth it. And by doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, it's not going to get you there. It just makes you feel more like a failure, and I don't want that for you. So I want you to implement a static diary. 

So this is what I did with Ash. I said, "Okay, Ash," and we got out a big piece of butcher's paper, we got out some markers, and I said, " Let's brainstorm all the business functions that you are currently engaging in, have been engaging in over the last 12 months, or maybe you haven't, but you know you should actually be engaging in those business functions." And the type of stuff that we came up with was, obviously marketing, that's normally the first thing that would come to mind, marketing. Sales. Now you might think, "Surely there's no sales in allied health." Well, there is. Sales is a completely different business function than marketing, and in our world, in private practice success, sales for us is conversion. How do we convert enquiries into bookings? How do we get people from going, "I think I might need help," or, "I think I might need to talk to someone," or, "I think I need to get help for my child," or, "I need to have my child assessed." From thinking to actually taking that action, because people only get better and only get the help they need when they are in session or when they get that assessment or when they get that counselling, right? And we as an allied health business have a job to help people make those decisions. So sales and having those conversion conversations, and we like to refer to it as compassionate conversion conversations, in a really ethical, respectful manner is important. 

So marketing, sales. Of course, operations, the day-to-day running of the business. So, operations is a business function. We also looked at products. Yes, we are a service-based business, but what products do we want to develop? What products do we have? What services can we turn into products? So, products are important. Also, systems. That's policies, processes, procedures. Then we have HR, human resources. Then we've got finance, right, all the numbers stuff. And then we've got business development. You might go, oh, business development is part of marketing. We actually look at that separately for us at the practice because we like to place a very clear emphasis on the marketing that we do and always do, which is consistent, and then what is the new business development that we are doing. And it has a bit of a different emphasis. It's a lot of new business. Yeah, it's different. I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole right now.  And then lastly, we have consulting. So consulting isn't really a business function, but it is something that takes Ash's time out of her, her week. 

So we went, "Okay, these are all the business functions." Then we went, "Alright let's just go through them again." So this is the big picture, marketing, sales, ops, product systems, HR, finance, business development, and consulting. Alright, do some of those need to be broken up? For example, ops. What are operations? That's, like, such a big word, such a big business function. What type of stuff do you do as part of ops? What type of stuff do you do as part of HR? And, we really tried to put those into buckets. And then I asked her, "Okay, so tell me, how much time are you currently spending, let's say, in marketing right now? And how much time do you think you should be spending in marketing over the next six to 12 months in order for us to achieve these financial goals that we have just set, and linking back to the goals that we set at the start of the year when we did our blueprint planning for the year ahead. 

And then we attached a time allocation to marketing, and we did the same with sales, with ops, with products, okay. So that we can go, "What does that look like?" And we went per week, and then I said, "Okay, let's calculate this. How many hours do you have in a week, Ash? How many hours do you work? You're meant to be working 38 hours. Looks to me like you're going to be working 60-hour weeks. No, it wasn't that bad, I promise. And then we were really able to deep dive in terms of, okay, let's be realistic here. How do we now start to amend this? Where did we overestimate, just because we think it's really, really important? So if you need four hours a week in marketing, what are you going to do in those four hours? What are those essential things? Does it really take four hours? Is that your job? Is that actually somebody else's job that you should delegate this to? And then you are really able to go down this bit of a rabbit hole in terms of really thinking through delegation and all of that type of stuff.  

Now, I'm not going to lie, it took us a couple of hours, because we wanted to do this right. You're not going to get this done in an hour. But if you're willing to actually sit and do this exercise, it's going to make all the difference.  It's big-picture functions. Then you just break it down to get clarity in terms of how much time it might take you. Then you allocate a time that you think you're going to need. Then you want to go, "Can I actually do this in my week?" Now, if you've got a lot of business functions like us, you might also want to ask, "Okay, , do I do consulting every week?" No, I don't. So consulting for Ash might be very ad hoc, but maybe that's not a good example. Let's say products, for example. Ash might not work on product development every week. She might want to delegate product development to a clinical team leader, for example, but check in with that person once every. So then you really go, "Is this a weekly or fortnightly function?" But I would not go more than two weeks without touching every business function, and certain business functions like finance must happen weekly. Marketing must happen weekly. Operations must happen weekly.  So certain things must occur on a weekly basis. 

Then we went into her Google Calendar, and we went, " Where is the best place for us to fit this in?" What works best for you? You know, marketing, like believe it or not, she loves to do marketing on a Friday afternoon. You could not pay me money to do marketing on a Friday afternoon. When I was running the practice, my marketing time in my static diary was Monday mornings. I was like, "I want to get this done. I want to feel like, yes, it's marketing Monday, I can do this. I'm nice and fresh." Like Ash's personality is different to me, she likes to do all the people stuff early in the week, all the numbers, and then she's able to step into this creative space on a Friday where she can really think creatively in terms of doing the marketing and I just go, "No, kill me now." But you know, and that's the thing, you need to look at what's going to work best for you. Are you a morning person? Are you an afternoon person? When are you at your most creative? What is your personality like? How do you like to structure your week? 

But the point of it is you then find the spot in your diary where you book in. This is marketing, this is ops. With ops, you can most certainly divide that up. For example, we've got, and the way that we do the entries in the calendar is ops, like in little brackets [OPS] and then Fill-In-Bull huddle. So we do a Fill-In-Bull huddle every day. I know that might sound excessive. If you're in my Private Practice Success Academy, you will know that we recommend the Fill-In-Bull huddle for a Monday and a Friday. But we actually have a brand new admin person at one of our locations, so currently we are doing a Fill-In-Bill huddle on a daily basis. We are really embedding the behaviours and the tasks and responsibilities around that function now that we've got a new person, and we're probably going to do that for at least the next six weeks. 

Also, because we've got a brand new location and we want to fill up that practice, so we're really zoning in on that, and this you can most certainly adjust and review your static diary based on the needs of your business, based on the goals of your business, but you don't do this on a week-to-week basis, the review happens quarterly. So when I meet with Ash again in about three months’ time, we are going to review her static diary. Also, let's say with marketing every week she's got like this four-hour marketing slot on a Friday afternoon, and then what we do is we actually have little reminder prompts in that entry to go, this is the type of marketing that needs to happen regularly. That is that consistent marketing which will look different to business development, for example. So yes, then you have that in your Static Diary and now the most important thing is you need to stick to it.  If you have gone down the rabbit hole, if you've invested the time of going, whilst I'm in a space of thinking, of working on my business, I've actually gone through this process and I've decided that this is the best way to set this up.  All I need to do now is show up on a Monday and do what my diary tells me. Show up on a Tuesday, do what my diary tells me, and so on and so forth.

I do want to take a moment to just emphasize that your static diary is most probably going to look way different to Ash's or to mine or to any other practice owner out there, and it's going to be dependent on a lot of variables. But a really important variable is going to be your practice size, or as I like to refer to as your Level of Private Practice Development. You might be a Level One practice owner, which means you're a solo practice owner. You might be Level Two, where you've taken on board that one or two clinicians, and you're slowly starting to grow, or you might have 20-plus clinicians and therefore your roles, your responsibilities are going to be different, so you want to do this for yourself. 

If you are in the Private Practice Success Academy and you're going, "Oh, I think it's time to revisit my static diary," please know that there is a recorded video training in there for you. You can go to the SCALE framework, and it is in the CEO Mindset Growth Accelerator section because this is a CEO mindset activity. A static diary is the secret source to practice owner success. And I can tell you this, because I've experienced myself. Whenever I feel overwhelmed in my business, even in what I do in Private Practice Success because, yes, I also get overwhelmed, I'm human. I ask myself, "Have I been sticking to my static diary?" Ooh, if I'm overwhelmed, 9 out of 10 times I haven't. 

What do you think I did when I got back home after I spent that week with Ash? I spent Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday with her. Friday, I drove back up home. I had some time off over the weekend, and then on Monday morning, my first thing back, I sat my ass down and I did my own static diary. I got out butcher's paper here at home, and I took myself through this exact same process that I took Ash through. Because it was a really helpful process, even for myself, to facilitate that for Ash. And for me as the owner to go, "I've got so much confidence now in that Ash is going to achieve these goals that we've set together, and that she's going to be able to do it in a way that's not going to burn her out, and that's not going to be overwhelming." And I want that for my freaking self because I've got goals for Private Practice Success Australia, because when PPS does well, I get to help more practice owners build more amazing businesses, allowing them to help more people, that's my ripple effect. And yeah, I did it, and it's working like a charm. 

Static Diary - Why do you need it? It helps with the overwhelm. Trust me. Trust me when I say this, because you now get to show up to your day without having to decide, what am I doing today again? What's the number one priority? Because we all know how much stuff you have to do, now you just show up. You go, I decided when I wasn't overwhelmed, when I wasn't stressed, when there weren't crises and emergencies, I decided that on a Monday morning or on a Friday afternoon, I do marketing. Now I'm going to close down those freaking emails. I'm going to turn off my notifications. I'm going to put my phone freaking face down on my desk - notifications turned off, remember, and I'm just going to do marketing. That's all I'm going to do. When you have that type of focus, you will be amazed at how quickly your business grows, and how quickly you achieve the outcomes and the results that you want in your practice.

I can also tell you this because there was a time that I was chasing white space in my diary. White space meaning I've got nothing booked in. Look at me, I am the poster girl for freedom in business. I did that, and it felt good initially, but then it didn't feel that good anymore because it's like, okay, been there, done that. I've got freedom, but I'm not ready to freaking retire. I've got people to help. I've got practice owners to empower so they can help more people, and then it actually made me anxious. I would look at my diary and go, "What am I going to do with myself today?" Because I would look at my diary and I would get anxious that there's nothing to do, and I want to be doing something. I'm not done contributing. So for me, having stuff in my diary gives me purpose. Yes, I can still choose not to do it if I don't want to, but it's like, what's my purpose today? Oh, I'm going to do this marketing. What's my purpose this afternoon? What's my purpose tomorrow? 

So yes, white space is great, and I like to have white space on a Friday. I would also encourage you, if you're a business owner, to make sure you've got white space on a freaking Saturday and Sunday, because I know so many of you are still working Saturdays and Sundays. To some extent, I think a lot of people think, "Well, I'm the business owner, of course I have to." Yes, but also make sure that you've got white space to spend with your family, to be there for your kids because why are you doing this thing, running a business and building a business if it's not to have time to spend with your family?  So I'm just flagging that you need to know yourself. White space to you might be empowering, might feel great, or it might not, and it might change over time. 

To conclude, I want to encourage you to start your own static diary, even if it's just two or three slots that you've booked into your diary, and then I want you to freaking stick with it. Please stick with it. And if you are struggling to stick to your static diary, that is telling you that there's other stuff going on that you need to address. And if that is you, reach out to me. It's what I do. Very often we are just too close to our business to see what's happening. I can't tell you how many times I have that discussion with somebody where I go, "Oh, this is what's happening." They go, "What? That is so simple, Gerda. How did I not see it?" Well, it's because you're too close to your business. That's why I've got my own business coach and mentor, because there's certain things that I can't see that they can see with fresh eyes, with objective eyes. 

So please do reach out. Stop struggling. Stop staying on that hamster wheel. You deserve better. But start with the static diary. Test drive it. If it's your very first static diary, test drive it for a month, and review and adjust, and then do another month, review and adjust. If you have been doing a static diary, but you've dropped the freaking ball on it, revisit it, restart, and then you want to review at least quarterly. Don't go for longer than a quarter, because three months is actually a long time in business. It's also a short time in business, depending on where your business is at. So, if you're feeling overwhelmed, this is your invitation to do your very own static diary. 

Thank you so very much for listening. If you've enjoyed this episode and you found it of value, please go onto Apple or Spotify and give me a review. It doesn't have to be words, it's just a star. It can be one, two, three, four, ideally five stars. If you want to put some words to it, amazing. But otherwise, I'm happy just with a star review, because that tells the platform to show this to other practice owners. So do share the love. 

Thank you for tuning in, and as always, remember that 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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