It’s always nice to hear patients being complementary about my work or manner or the practice as a whole. Yesterday I had a lady really genuinely enthusing that I was the best dentist she had ever found. It really made my morning.


All I did was a checkup but I guess the key is that I did a “proper checkup”, which for me means:

In March 2017 I happened to spot a book in my local library and thought "that might be interesting". That choice was in hindsight probably the most influential book related decision I made last year. How to be a productivity ninja resulted in a paradigm shift for how I approach my time and attention management. It culminated in me adopting the second-brain concept which I still refer to multiple times every day and I really cannot foresee any way I will ever want to give these methods up.

Those that read my content regularly will know that I spend a lot of time and energy trying to improve patient communication methods in a variety of ways. Whether that involves using technology to make photography more powerful and efficient or using standardised Oral Hygiene postcards so that delivering better OHI is quicker and easier.


Today I will be revisiting a document I use regularly for complex cases as I have reworked it recently and it has been a long time since I last discussed it so some people may not have seen it. I call it my "Treatment considerations" document.

A fascinating thought that ties together threads from so many books, blogs and discussions.
Productivity ninja, getting things done, deep work, the organized mind, finding flow, the critical thinking lectures, zen to done, peak performance, black box thinking. Only now do I realise that in their own way, all of them are tackling this question.

The next line in The art of learning is:
“I believe the answers to this question are the gateway to the most esoteric levels of elite performance.”

It’s not what you know but what you are able to do with that knowledge.