As the world expands technologically, and we have more and more offerings to 'save time' or 'be more efficient' or 'live life better', we add technological solutions to the work that we do on a day-to-day basis, until all of a sudden, we're overwhelmed with technological solutions.
All of a sudden, the time it takes to navigate our technological solutions itself becomes overwhelming, and the things that we were supposed to have to make us less overwhelmed, completely overwhelm us.
One of the greatest ways you see this happening is people switching between apps or programmes, especially if the IT is not very good (think NHS IT). Slowing you down on your IT because you have to switch from programme to programme is defined as the 'switching tax', having to move to another programme breaks your attention span, and it takes ages to get back into the groove you were in to be productive again.
This is what happens in the legacy debt situation where we add a software in to help us become more efficient but we don't learn how to use it properly and we don't invest in it and 3 years down the line it's old and clunky, but we don't have the opportunity to replace it and therefore we have to work with it.
I get to watch Alison's legacy debt battle on her NHS laptop on a day-to-day basis, and I promise that sometimes it takes 50% of her working time away.
This is why strategy is so important if you run any sort of organisation or business. This is why focus is critical to success. This is why the ability to say no to something new is equally as important as the ability to say yes to something.
Only about a million times so far have people come to me and offered me the opportunity to have a different product from technology to make my life 'better'. Much of the time now, I seem very sceptical about this, because generally, and more often than not, it's much more for the advantage of the person who's giving it than it is for the advantage of the person who's taking it.
And so let's be clear on this.
- More apps are not necessarily better.
- Having to spend time to switch between platforms wrecks your brain.
- Don't buy anything technologically to improve your life if you're not prepared to continue to focus and invest in it to make yourself better and better, because otherwise it becomes a legacy debt anchor.
Using technology efficiently in your practice is just one of the elements we cover through our Dental Entrepreneurial Bootcamp & ITI Digital Dental Entrepreneurial Program. Have a look if you're interested!
Blog Post Number - 4219
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