You need some medical advice or some procedure done, and would like to know how long before you can get an appointment with the best in the field.
A regularly updated web page listing the best doctors in each field of practice, based on location. For each one, you can see how much you’ll probably need to wait before you could see them. These are based on factual data provided by the practitioners, or if that is not available then based on past experiences reported by patients.
When you decide to go to the doctor, most of the time it means you are worried about something. You become even more anxious when you leave home and arrive at the doctor’s office of your appointment. It might be useful to both patient and doctor to relieve at least some of this anxiety.
You probably had this experience already: you had the appointment with your doctor, he prescribed some treatment, you leave, and you already feel better. You’re still sick, and nothing is “fixed” yet. You might even have to go to some further tests etc., but even your symptoms are not as acute. There is a psychological effect making you feel like this. It might be useful if you had some of this effect happen even before your visit. By calling your doctor, talking for a few minutes, you telling him why you are coming to see him shortly, and him listening and then assuring you in an authoritative way he’ll see you shortly, and you’ll continue from here, might have a similar effect – all before the visit.
You have picked up a couple of new daily habits. These are already habits, so you don’t need to remind yourself to do them. Now you are on vacation, and everything falls apart – you forget to do them.
Before going on your vacation make an appointment in your calendar to remind yourself to do what is usually a habit. Look at your itinerary and for each day decide in advance when you are going to perform a given habit, and block it in tour calendar. This is only tentative, as you are on vacation, and things flow differently than at home, but at least you’ll get a reminder. If you used a habit tracking app, you could also start using it again.
You go to a store (a book store for instance), and you are interested in a particular subject. You find the shelf you’re looking for, but there are so many options, that unless you already have some knowledge, it’s hard to decide what books to buy and in what order to read them.
Make an appointment with a specialist and specify what you are interested in (for instance books about the history of science, or productivity, etc.) You’ll meet at an agreed upon time at a big store, and he will do a whole tour of the subject with you, and give you an independent advice on what to buy.
No-shows are bad in many ways. Emotional (disappointment, anger, resentment, etc.), behavioral (what shall I do now), and of course financial.
A book that explains all the proven strategies and tactics you can use to reduce no-shows. All the theory and psychology at work, and give practical advice with examples for many different situations (dentist, restaurant, etc.)