Stop Responding to Fake Urgencies: How to Actually Protect Your Strategic Time, Pt 2, EP 212
Overview: In this episode of Thriving Practice, Tracy Cherpeski tackles one of the biggest challenges healthcare practice owners face: protecting strategic thinking time in an environment where everything feels urgent. Through the compelling story of Dr. David—an ER physician who opened a regenerative medicine practice—you'll discover why your blocked strategic planning time keeps getting hijacked, and learn the exact framework for distinguishing between genuine urgency and habitual urgency. This is part two of the time leadership series, and it's essential listening for any practice owner who's ever wondered why their "do not disturb" time never actually happens.
Download the Time Leadership Workbook
Episode Highlights:
Why healthcare practice owners are uniquely vulnerable to losing strategic thinking time
The difference between urgency in clinical care versus practice operations
Dr. David's breakthrough: discovering 15 hours per week of delegable tasks through time tracking
The three questions that help you triage your time like an ER triages patients
The ABCD prioritization framework for categorizing tasks and interruptions
How to create decision-making frameworks that eliminate recurring interruptions
Why tracking your time for just three days can reveal patterns you can't unsee
Memorable Quotes:
"Your strategic thinking time doesn't disappear because healthcare is unpredictable. It disappears because you haven't distinguished between what's genuinely urgent and what just feels urgent."
"In clinical settings, urgency often correlates with importance. But here's the trap: you've imported that same urgency response pattern into every aspect of your practice. And in the business side of healthcare, urgency rarely equals importance."
"You cannot fix what you cannot see."
"The question isn't 'is this urgent?' The question is 'is this urgent and only I can handle it right now?' That's a very different standard."
Ready to reclaim your strategic thinking time? This episode gives you the audit framework and prioritization system to start making immediate changes. Download the Time Leadership Delegation workbook and complete your three-day time audit—then join us for part three, where Tracy shows you how to turn that data into freed-up time.
Is your practice growth-ready? See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment
Tracy’s Bio:
Tracy Cherpeski, MBA, MA, CPSC (she/her/hers) is the Founder of Tracy Cherpeski International and Thriving Practice Community. As a Business Consultant and Executive Coach, Tracy helps healthcare practice owners scale their businesses without sacrificing wellbeing. Through strategic planning, leadership development, and mindset mastery, she empowers clients to reclaim their time and reach their potential. Based in Chapel Hill, NC, Tracy serves clients worldwide and is the Executive Producer and Host of the Thriving Practice podcast. Her guiding philosophy: Survival is not enough; life is meant to be celebrated.
Connect With Us:
Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy