Service versus boundaries

   

  Life is busy. A report bubbled up last week about the ineffectiveness of multitasking, which seems to—hold on, let me finish this over here—be a semi-recurrent theme in the media on occasion. My response to the comment that multi-tasking is inefficient: “Okay, tell me how to avoid it.” It feels darn near impossible, doesn’t it? (Hold on for a second, I have to take this call!)         Okay, I’m back. What was I saying? Oh right, life is busy. I am now a slave to my calendar and Things. It has to be on my calendar, and if I need to do it, I need to put it on my Things to-do list. Email is the front door to my life, and my inbox is the foyer.   I’ve referenced this before: my to-do list includes “work on strategic planning,” “call Dad,” “complete the mailing,” “give heartworm medicine to the dogs,” and “write blog post” (check).   Is this the pace of your life, too? How about your clients’ lives?   Has the number of cancellations in your practice increased in the past few years? Have you updated your cancellation policy? Do you have a cancellation policy?   What’s the best way to handle a no-show or last-minute cancellation? Can you get away with charging someone when you don’t provide them service? How do you balance a commitment to serve and establish respect for your boundaries and policies?   There is a business maxim that states, “Policies cost money, customers make money.”   The bad news? There is no tidy answer at the end of this blog. I’d like to hear your thoughts about no-shows, cancellations, policies, time management, and heartworm pills. Okay, I gotta run to a meeting—