Most healthcare providers have hectic schedules. You get to clinic and run from room to room to see patients all day, typing notes, writing prescriptions or answering questions in between visits. Surgeons finish each case, go see the next patient in preoperative holding, talk to the family of the last patient, and dictate the operative note. We go home, get kids to sports practices, make dinner, and get the kids bathed and ready for bed. No wonder we’re exhausted.

In the middle of all of that activity, how can we possibly write blog posts or record videos to educate the public?

Here is a strategy that I learned from Darren Hardy, the publisher of SUCCESS Magazine.

Pick your most important goal for the day and tackle it first.

Set aside 30 minutes early in the morning – before the kids wake up, before you head to the office – and do real work. You’ll be amazed how much you can get done without the distractions of your practice or your family.

I have used this strategy for over a year, and I can promise you it works. I actually block off 90 minutes for my most valuable priority every day except on surgery days (I have to be there around 6:30 AM, after all, so I only do 30 minutes those days). I decide what my biggest, most important step for some goal is before I go to bed the night before. I wake up early the next day and complete that task.

Also read:
Small breaks of time
Try batching your content and tasks
Make the time

In the case of a social media strategy, your tasks for that early block of time could include writing a blog post, researching information for a podcast, outlining questions for a tweetchat or even planning the design of your new site.

Don’t use that critical time to check email, surf the Internet, watch the news, read the newspaper, or check Twitter or Facebook.

Get your most important task done first thing in the morning. Then, even if you spend the rest of your day putting out fires, you will have taken a significant step toward one of your long-term goals.