Bite-sized dental wisdom in under 2 minutes.

I have a confession.

I just became one of those people who DoorDashes coffee.

I know. I already judged myself, so you don't have to.

But today was one of those days where I had back-to-back calls, a lot of work to get through, and I really wanted that second cup.

Could I have survived without it? Yes.

Would driving to Starbucks and back have taken about thirty minutes? Also yes.

And normally I would try to justify that somehow. I could listen to a podcast. I could make a phone call. I could pretend sitting in a drive-thru was actually productive.

But I did not need to be in my car. I needed to be at my computer.

So I ordered the coffee.

Thirty minutes later, it showed up, still hot, and I kept working.

And honestly, that is kind of the point of delegation.

It is not about whether you can do something yourself.

The question is whether I was the person who needed to spend thirty minutes doing it.

And in that moment, I was not.

Someone else could get the coffee. They could not sit on my calls, make decisions, or do the work I actually needed to do.

That is where I think practice owners get stuck.

We do so many things just because we can.

We answer the question, fix the schedule, look for the misplaced cement, track down the report that never got printed, call the person, solve the tiny issue, and jump in because it feels faster than explaining it.

And sometimes it is faster.

Once.

But if you keep doing every task because it is technically easier to do it yourself, you eventually become the most expensive errand runner in the office.

Some things actually need you, but a lot of things just need to be clearly handed off.

That means someone knows what to do, when to do it, what done looks like, and how you are going to know it happened.

Not exciting stuff, but neither is driving thirty minutes for coffee when someone else can bring it to your door.

So yes, I ordered DoorDash for a coffee.

Was it worth it? Absolutely.

And remember, just because you can do something yourself does not mean it is the best use of your time.

-Dr. Alex

P.S. Delegation does not work when the instruction is just, “Can you handle this?”

Someone needs to know the steps, when it needs to happen, and what done looks like.

That is what Milo is for. Create the checklist, assign it to the right person, and see that it actually gets completed.