How to beat procrastination without really trying

May 21, 2015 by
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There are hundreds of tips and strategies on how to beat procrastination floating around. That’s too many, if you ask me.

Instead of giving you a laundry list of ideas I want to share with you just three.

(1) DON’T DO IT

Not everything on your task list needs to be done. Many tasks aren’t that important, at least in comparison to other things on your list. After all, being productive isn’t about getting everything done it’s about getting the most important things done.

So ask yourself, “Do I really need to do this?” and if the answer is anything but an unqualified yes, either cross it off the list or put it on a “someday/maybe” list and look at it at some future date.

If a task does need to be done, ask yourself, “Who else could do this?” If you can delegate the task to someone else, you should.

(2) CREATE A DEADLINE

If something needs to be done (by you), and you don’t already have a deadline, give yourself one. Pick a date when the task will be done, or when a significant portion of the project will be done, and put this on your calendar.

You may be inclined to give yourself ample time but it’s usually better to do just the opposite. Shorter deadlines make it more likely that you will complete the task.

If you give yourself three weeks to complete something, you might not get started until a few days before the deadline. Or, as you see the deadline approaching you will extend it. So instead of three weeks, give yourself three days to complete the task, or even three hours.

Once you have a deadline, tell someone about it–your client, spouse, partner, or a workout buddy–and ask them to hold you accountable. When I tell my wife I will have the first draft of something done by a certain date, I am much more likely to do it.

(3) START

The most important part of any task is getting started. The first step in doing anything puts you one step closer to the second step.

Start with something small and easy. Make a list of everything you need to do, for example, or re-write the list you already wrote.

Tell yourself you’ll work on it for just five minutes. No matter how unpleasant the task might be you can do it for five minutes. The odds are that once you get started, you’ll feel compelled to continue.

These three strategies should help you beat procrastination most of the time. If you still find yourself procrastinating, however, ask yourself why you are resisting doing things you know you need to do.

The solution might be simple. If you don’t know how to do something, for example, schedule time to learn. If you’re afraid of doing a poor job, get some advice or ask someone with more experience to help you.

There is always a reason why you are procrastinating. Instead of ignoring that reason, embrace it. Your subconscious mind knows what you need and if you listen carefully, you will hear the solution.

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Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: ,

Delegate and grow rich

May 20, 2015 by
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Okay, you (finally) agree that you can’t do it all and that if you want to earn more and not work yourself to death you need to delegate (more).

Where do you start?

You start with the philosophy that you should delegate everything, except “that which only you can do”.

That’s not as much as you might think.

If you have attorneys working for you, start there. Give them as much work as possible.This is clearly a “20% activity that yields 80% of your results”. It’s why the big firms are the big firms. It’s where you can take giant leaps in increasing your income.

If you have business clients, you can still be the “account representative”. You meet with the clients, hold their hands, take them to lunch, and keep them happy. Let your staff attorneys do the grunt work. Okay, you can show up for trial, but only if you must.

If you have a consumer oriented practice, you can meet with the clients on their first appointment and at their last appointment. Let your attorneys and other staff do the rest.

So, job one: if you don’t have attorneys working for you, get some.

If you don’t have enough work to justify that, set this as a goal. Get enough new business coming in to justify hiring your first attorney.

If you don’t want the hassle of hiring and supervising attorneys, set another goal–to bring in enough new business to justify hiring attorneys AND someone to hire and supervise them.

If you have other staff (secretaries, assistants, office managers, HR, IT, bookkeeper, etc.), they’re next. Make sure they are tasked with all other tasks, except two:

(1) Signing checks.

Call me paranoid, or call me a lawyer, but I always made sure that I saw and signed every check issued in my office. Today, with everything digital, you have to be even more careful.

(2) Marketing.

Marketing professionals services is about building relationships and you can’t delegate that. You’ve got to talk to people. Don’t relinquish responsibility for this. It’s the most important thing you do in building a practice, even more important than the legal work.

However. . .

There are many aspects of marketing that can be delegated. Too many to mention here. So get as much help as possible but make sure you have a hand in all of it.

If you don’t have any staff, or enough staff, hire people or outsource. Immediately, if not sooner.

Don’t let the absence of delegatees stop you from delegating.

If you want to get better at delegating, get this

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Filed Under: Law office management, Productivity Tagged With: ,

If your mom managed your law practice

May 11, 2015 by
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If your mom managed your law practice I have no doubt she would make you eat a good breakfast before you show up for work. She would tell you that you can’t watch TV until you do get all your work done and cleaned up your desk.

No work, no play. That’s how mom rolls.

If your mom managed your law practice, she would also tell you that if you won your case, she would take you out for ice cream or make you your favorite dinner.

Reward and punishment. Carrot and stick.

Mom would offer the employees extra incentives for getting their work done on time. She would put a little extra spending money in their pay envelopes when they come up with a money-saving idea. And make them employee of the month when a client gives them a five star review.

You could take a lesson from mom. Figure out what you want your staff to do and offer them bribes for doing it.

While you’re at it, do the same thing for yourself.

Look at your list of tasks and goals–for the day, for the month, for the year–and promise yourself a reward for getting them done. Empty your email inbox today and you get to take off at noon on Friday. Bring in a new client this week and you get to buy the tablet you’ve had your eye on.

Isn’t this kind of bribery cheap and manipulative? Sure. But mom knew it worked and who are we to argue?

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Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development, Productivity, Time Management

Quieting my inner monster

May 1, 2015 by
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I have a little monster living inside my head. He talks to me from time to time. Mostly, I ignore him and go about my day. But sometimes, he just won’t shut up.

I’ll start writing, for example, and a few minutes later, there he is. He has something to say that has nothing to do with what I’m working on, but he wants me to listen. Or he tells me he’s bored and wants me to play with him.

I tell him not to bother me, but by then, I’ve lost my concentration. I go check email or get up and take a break. Sometimes it takes me 15 minutes before I’m able to get back to work.

I start working again, but ten minutes later it happens again. Stop, start, stop start. Before I know it, the day is over and I haven’t gotten much done.

Does this ever happen to you? Perhaps you have a little monster, too.

Good news. I’ve found a way to keep the little devil quiet. It sounds simple, but it works remarkably well.

All I do is put on my headphones and listen to music while I work. The music drowns out my monster’s monkey chatter so I can continue to work without interruption.

I listen to music without words: classical, new age, Celtic, and various forms of so-called ambient music.

I also listen to ambient sounds, like recordings made in a coffee shop, restaurant, or library. The sound of clinking glasses, whispered voices, pages turning, and the occasional cough take me to a different place.

I listen to recordings of people typing. The clickity clack sound and rhythm is a perfect background for writing.

I listen to birds chirping and rainstorms. I listen to the ambient rumble of Star Trek TNG ship’s engines idling in space.

I even tried something called ASMR. (It’s weird. Search for it on YouTube.)

They all work because I don’t consciously listen to the music or the sounds. They play in the background, a form of white noise, that allows my little monster to take a nap.

I’ve even set up a play list and have everything on autoplay. I’m able to put in an hour or more before I need a break.

How about you? What do you listen to when you work?

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Filed Under: Productivity, Writing Tagged With:

Begin with the end in mind (and work backwards)

April 28, 2015 by
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Most people choose a goal and then start working towards it. They put one foot in front of the other and keep walking until they get to their destination.

If they choose the wrong step, however, they may get sidetracked and lose sight of their goal. If they do the steps in the wrong order, they may waste time and resources.

A better way, some say, is to begin with the end in mind and work backwards.

Let me give you an example of how it works.

Let’s say you have a goal of getting one additional referral each week.

Nice goal, yes?

Okay, now you have to ask yourself this question: Can I do this tomorrow? Can I get one additional referral per week starting tomorrow?

The odds are the answer is no. So you ask another question: What would have to have happen first?

Putting aside the idea of getting more referrals from your clients and existing contacts, let’s say the answer is, “I’d have to have twenty new professional contacts who know, like, and trust me. If each one of these twenty contacts sends me just one referral every five months, I would achieve my goal of getting one additional referral per week.”

That sounds doable. But can you do it tomorrow?

No.

What would have to happen first?

First (let’s say) you would need to connect with 100 new contacts (professionals, business owners, community leaders, centers of influence, etc.), in order to find twenty who are willing and able to send you one referral every five months.

Can you do this tomorrow? I’m guessing not.

What would have to happen first?

First you would have to identify (a) places where these people congregate, so you can go there and meet them, and/or (b) people you know who can introduce you to these people.

Can you do that tomorrow?

Yes you can. You can start anyway. You can do some research and find organizations comprised of people who fit the description of the people you want to meet who meet locally.

You can also comb through your current list of contacts to identify people who are likely to know these people. They have clients or colleagues or business contacts who fit the description. You know them well enough to ask for an introduction.

Finally, you have something you can do tomorrow. Now you can take the first steps towards your goal.

But if you do all of that, can you reach your goal tomorrow? No. What has to happen first?

You need to meet them and get to know them. You need to find out what they are looking for that you might be able to help them with. You need to show them what you do and how you can help their clients or contacts. And you have to build a relationship with them, earn their trust ,and eventually, their referrals.

Can you do this tomorrow? No. What would you have to do first?

You’d have to talk to them, get their contact information, and begin a dialog with them.

Can you do that tomorrow (if you meet them tomorrow)? Yes you can.

And now you have a plan.

You can’t “do” a goal, you can only do activities. Begin with the end in mind and work backwards. Identify the activities you need to do, and do them, and keep doing them until you reach your goal.

Marketing is easier when you know The Attorney Marketing Formula

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Filed Under: Goal Setting, Productivity, success, Time Management Tagged With:

There is no virtue in working hard

April 27, 2015 by
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There is no virtue in working hard. Not when you can get the same or better results with less effort.

Robert A. Heinlein said, “Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.”

In fact, that’s a pretty good definition of the word productivity. Getting more results with less effort.

To do that first requires an appreciation of the difference between effectiveness and efficiency.

Effectiveness means “doing the right things”. It means doing things that are consistent with your long term vision and short term goals. It means doing what’s important, primarily, and finding ways to minimize or eliminate everything else.

If growing your practice and advancing your career is important to you, you are effective when you focus on delivering value to your clients, building relationships with key people, and getting better at marketing.

Eighty percent of your results come from twenty percent of your effort. To be more effective, identify those twenty percent activities and do more of them.

Efficiency, on the other hand, means “doing things right”. It means getting things done faster or better.

You become more efficient by using forms, checklists, and templates to streamline your work. You become more efficient by hiring better quality employees who deliver better results. You become more efficient by improving your skills through study and practice and dedication to personal development.

These are some of the things that allowed me to quadruple the income in my law practice while reducing my work week to just three days.

But while there’s no virtue in working hard, there’s nothing wrong with it.

When you are effective and efficient, you might increase your effort-to-results ratio from one-to-one to one-to-ten. If you are effective and efficient and ALSO work hard, you might increase that ratio from one-to-one to one-to-100.

Earn more and work less through leverage

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Leverage, Personal development, Productivity, success

Is working on weekends counterproductive?

April 20, 2015 by
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It’s Saturday morning (or Sunday) and you’re the only one in the office. You’ve wearing shorts and a teeshirt and haven’t shaved. That’s okay. You’re not going to see any clients today.

You put on a pot of coffee. It’s quiet. No phones ringing, no voices down the hall, and you can think. Maybe it’s too quiet, so you turn on the radio and get a background buzz of music or talk radio.

You’ve got a blizzard of files and papers on your desk. It’s been a busy week and you’re behind on a bunch of things. You push everything into one or two piles to clear some work space on the desk, and you dig in.

In a few hours, you’ve gone through most of the backlog. You’ve dictated letters and instructions to your secretary. You’ve dictated a declaration for a motion that needs to be filed next week. You’ve reviewed some older files and made notes about what needs to be done. You’ve reviewed and signed invoices that are ready to go out. You’ve signed checks to pay bills.

Finally, you filled your briefcase with files you need for court on Monday, turned off the coffee pot and radio, turned off the lights and went home.

Nicely done. It feels good. You’re looking forward to dinner and a relaxing evening with the family.

I remember this scenario well. I went through it often. Once every month or two I went to the office and got caught up and organized. I’d get a week’s worth of work done in a few hours.

But I knew guys who were in the office every weekend. They came in early and stayed late. Not just when they were prepping for trial–it was a regular work day for them. They would see clients and put in a full day.

That’s too much. You’ve got to recharge. You’ve got to have a life outside of work.

Apparently, what most of us intuitively understand has a scientific basis in fact. According to a study, “productivity per hour declines sharply when the workweek exceeds 50 hours, and productivity drops off so much after 55 hours that there’s no point in working any more.”

Working on weekends once in awhile is fine. If you’re working every weekend, however, you might want to consider whether it’s worth it because the odds are it’s not.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development, Productivity, success, Time Management

The one thing that made the difference

April 17, 2015 by
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In an interview yesterday I was asked what was the one thing that made the difference in my career. What was it that helped me become successful.

Back then, I said, meaning back when I was starting out and I was broke as a joke and just wanted to pay my bills, marketing made the difference.

When I learned how to bring in more clients, and better clients, everything changed.

Later, when I was making lots of money but had no time for anything but work, the key to my success as a sole practitioner was getting comfortable with delegating. This is difficult for many lawyers because we are very uncomfortable relinquishing control. But I did it and it allowed me to work only 3 days a week.

My income, went up, too, because I had more time for marketing and to improve my office’s systems.

In more recent years, the “one thing” that has made a difference for me has been passive income. When money comes in no matter what you do, even if you don’t do anything, well, it doesn’t get better than that. This allowed me to retire from the practice of law and do things I’ve always wanted to do.

So here’s my advice. If you need more money right now, study marketing. Get good at it. Make it your focus. Find something that works well for you and go “all in”.

If you have money but no time, hire more employees (or outsource) and learn how to delegate.

I know it’s hard but it gets easier. When I ran my practice, I resolved to do “only that which only I could do”. To my pleasant surprise, I found that there was very little that only I could do.

Delegate as much as possible and use the free time for more marketing, to improve your office’s work flow, and to have a life.

And if you have reached the point where you’ve got a handle on the money and the time, start thinking about what comes next. You might never want to retire or move onto to something else, and that’s okay. But knowing that you have enough cash and investments or passive income to do so, is a very good thing.

Marketing is easier when you have a plan

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Productivity, success Tagged With:

Getting addicted to getting things done

April 6, 2015 by
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I’m about to finish a book project and it feels good. Not just because I will have another tool I can use in my business, not just because it represents another source of passive income, but because it really does feel good to get things done.

You know this is true. When you wrap up a case or finish something you’re working on, you have a pleasurable sense of satisfaction. Finishing feels good.

It turns out that there is physiological explanation for this feeling. When we finish a task, our brains release Serotonin, the so-called pleasure drug. This motivates us to take on more tasks, and bigger tasks.

We can use this to condition ourselves to be more productive.

“What we want to do if we want to set ourselves up for increasing productivity is put minor or smaller challenges in front of us so we build up that ‘done’ moment,” psychologist Leslie Sherlin says.

One way to do this is to break down your tasks into smaller chunks. Instead of writing an entire 90-minute closing argument, for example, write just the outline. It feels good to finish this and you are motivated to take the next step.

You can also break up your work into smaller increments of time. Instead of planning to work two hours on something (and trying to find the time to do that), do it for ten minutes. (Consider the Pomodo Technique where you use a timer to work 25 minutes, followed by a five minute break.)

Smaller tasks and shorter time intervals gives you more opportunities to “finish”. The more you do, the more you want to do more. You are literally addicted to getting things done, and that’s probably a good thing.

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Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With:

What will you do next?

April 2, 2015 by
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I’m working on a project. I still have a fair amount left to do but I already know what I’m going to do next. In fact, I’m already working on it.

I’m collecting research, making notes, and creating an outline. When I finish project A, I’ll be ready to move immediately into project B.

It’s exciting to know I have a pipeline of things to do. It inspires me to finish my current project, and allows me to start the next project with some momentum. It’s even better because my next project is somewhat related to the current one.

I don’t know what I’m going to do after I finish project B, but I have lots of ideas and I will choose one long before I finish project B. Of course, while I’m working on that one, I’ll choose the next project.

How about you? What are you working on now? What will you do next?

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Filed Under: Productivity, success, Time Management
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