You Already Have the Skill Set: Choosing Systems Like a Clinician

Every therapist I know — OT, speechy, physio, dietitian — knows how to prescribe from a lens that's functional, practical, actionable, digestible. And I very much doubt you'd make recommendations without the assessment piece first. So tell me why you're doing exactly that with your systems you use to hold your your clinical work?

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Transcript

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Welcome to Cognitive Capacity Chat. This is the podcast for the therapist ready to think beyond the therapy room. I talk about our cognition as our foundation, not just for our clients, but for ourselves. Because the way we think, organize, and live directly shapes our clinical work, our capacity, and longevity in this profession. I'm Imogen, an OT, here to bring you practical conversations that fit into real life. This podcast is for the therapist who wants more depth, more clarity, and more life. Welcome. Hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of the Cognitive Capacity Chat. Now, today I wanted to talk all about how you as a clinician already have the skill set to enable you to optimize your cognitive capacity Because what I keep coming back to is that every therapist I know knows how to prescribe something, and they know how to prescribe it from a lens that's really functional, practical, actionable, digestible. Something that your client will actually be able to grab hold of and take away with them, that they're actually able to do and complete to get the outcome that you want. And every therapist I know, whether you're an OT, speechy, physio, dietician, whatever you are, you, for your own profession, are able to functionally analyze what this person needs and how to implement it. And I very much doubt you would make recommendations without the assessment piece first. So tell me why you are doing this with applications throughout your clinical work. Maybe you are following someone who... And you're feeling really unorganized, and they pop up, and they've decided to download a new app, or they're getting paid advertisement. Social media and advertisement is just so in your face all the time, and four minutes later, you've downloaded it, started the free trial, and you get the hit of relief that you are now organized. Three months later, you realize that the subscription charge is coming out, and you're not even using that app. You still have a to-do list that sits in your head or maybe have two notebe- pads and an inbox that's really messy. And I have no judgment. I have done this plenty of times. No one taught me how to actually get organized. I definitely felt organized when I would decide to deep dive into a new app or a new spreadsheet, or I'd sit with my client list and say, "I'm gonna get everything done. I'm just gonna work overtime, and I'm just gonna get everything done." But this pattern does not help you at all. It actually just causes a continuation of feeling like you're carrying everything in your head and then reinforces the behavior that you can't actually get organized. And so the real problem is, one, understanding the functionality of the system. And so you need to actually do what you do as a therapist, and you need to think about how you're going to assess, analyze, and intervene with the system So here are the questions that I want you to think. So stop, start The best way to think about systems and implementing something, you wanna think about how they are going to reduce the amount of thinking you need to do. Can they reduce the amount of steps, or can they reduce the amount of live information? How are we reducing your cognitive load? And we're gonna implement a system whenever we have a consistent routine or a procedure in place. And you likely already have systems operating throughout your entirety of your business, but you just need to neaten them up. Like an example of a system is putting your appointments into your case manager, which equates to a billable and their pay- payable. You just believe the outcome of getting the billable is stronger than the outcome of you feeling organized and your brain being able to freely think, because it's not got a lot going on in your head. I'm here to tell you that's probably actually the downfall is y- that you think it is. You actually really need to have space in your head in order to find those billables and in order to be efficient and have financial benefits, which, that is why we work. As well as helping people, we also need to pay the bills That motivation for billing is actually higher than helping your brain keep its head above water. So whenever we think about the system, I want you to think about not just the shiny object syndrome, just, not just investing in something because someone else is, but what is actually best for ourselves. And this is where AI is really good. You can utilize AI to help you get to the decision, but you first need to sit with a pen and paper and think about everything that you want to utilize within your system. So let's focus on task-based management systems here. So things that would ho-hold our client tasks, our business tasks, any projects, any admin processes. And we need to think about what would work best for us from a functional lens, just like we would when we were prescribing equipment or we're creating a meal plan in the health professional world. We wouldn't just give someone a cookie cutter approach. We would actually understand their needs first. So what are your needs from a task-based management system? What do you actually want it to do? What are the goals? What are the main priorities? What are you currently using? Where does it fall down? Why does it actually fall down? Is it more so creating momentum and rhythm in your working week, so you actually do the system, or is it the system that's actually not working? What does it need to integrate with? What is your CRM? Does it need to do Xero? Does it need to integrate somewhere else? What existing software do I have? Now, I have a real frustration with how many pieces of software out there are, and everyone just keeps adding $30 a month, adding $30 a month. It's not that expensive. It's just $30 a month. When you have five subscriptions at $30 a month, that's $240 a month. I'm just coming in here while I'm editing this, and $240 is not correct, and three times five is actually $150. So there's that And so what subscriptions do I or do you already have? Like for me, I had Microsoft Office, but I didn't realize how much it could do prior to investigating a little bit further. What am I willing to pay for something? Maybe you do need to pay for a subscription, but maybe it's condensing it down so you're not paying for five subscriptions over lots of different apps, but one subscription that does it all. Who needs to use it? The people... Is it gonna be internal, external? Do you want to keep it internal so it's safe? Do you want to be able to share external so you can get an admin assistant or a bookkeeper in? And what is the longevity of the system? Are you purchasing it now for the sole trader that you are, and you plan on staying the sole trader, or do you really want to have a, someone come in and be able to take over because you're planning for, to go on maternity leave and you need to, someone to be able to step in and take over your clients?. And then how do we want to implement this? We want rhythm and momentum. We want it to be functional. So how are we actually going to implement this new system in a way that works for us? It actually gets us from A to B. And nothing is gonna be perfect straight off the bat. You are going to need work- to work towards it being the new norm. Just like when you script a client a new wheelchair with a new sitting system that makes so much sense i- in terms of their positioning and their postural care a- and all of that jazz, but it isn't the norm for your client, so they might not sit in it so much, or they might struggle with driving it. They just need that support to implement what's gonna be the best for them. So it's And I'm still constantly working around my systems and being like, "Why doesn't that work?" Critically analyzing it and then saying, "Is it actual- actually a functional barrier, and we need to think about introducing new compensatory strategies, or is it just it's not working?" When you think about implementing a new system, you wanna think about things that you do frequently, regularly, tasks that need a set routine, or tasks that are taking up too much brain space. And having somewhere to hold your task-based management is so important because this is how we get to feel like we can fully clock off. When something else is holding our brain for us and all our client tasks for us, we're actually able to feel like we can step away from the computer without feeling like things are outstanding, we have a open loop, and we don't know how to close it or when we will close it. And so this is exactly what I went through in lots and lots more detail in my group call today in Overload to Overflow, and it's exactly what I love to do. Homework for my coaching clients and... is now to critically analyze their system and implement something for them. And what I find it really, really cool is I get to see so many systems, because everyone's a little bit different, and implementing what's best for them, and not just a cookie cutter approach. So if you are interested in joining that mentorship, I would love to hear from you. Just give me Overload to Overflow in the DMs, Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next time