The simplest way to get things done when you have too much to do

November 9, 2012 by
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In yesterday’s post, I told you how I was able to organize my work flow and do a better job of following up with prospective clients. Today I want to talk about what to do when you find yourself not following up on your tasks and projects.

Actually, there are a lot of things you could do to improve your “completion ratio.” The simplest strategy, however, is to take on only one thing at a time.

One goal. One project. One task.

Start. Finish. Next.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when there are too many things on your plate. It’s a lot easier when you only have one.

When you focus on just “one thing,” you aren’t distracted by everything else. You’re better able to complete that task or achieve the goal when it’s the only one in front of you.

Of course you will still have many tasks and projects on your list and many will need to be done today or this week. That will never change. You’ve got five files you need to work up, two hearings to prepare for, and three documents to draft. But while they all need to get done, they don’t need to get done simultaneously.

Do one thing at a time. Finish it. Or take it as far as you can right now and then move it out of the way. Now, what’s next?

I remember a time when I got way behind in my work. I had several stacks of files on my desk and I wasn’t working on any of them. There must have been 40 files and I didn’t know where to start. I had put off working on them for so long I think I was afraid of what I might find. Deadlines missed, responses long overdue, problems I had ignored and made worse.

I was overwhelmed and feeling sorry for myself. If I had a blanket in the office, I probably would have crawled under it.

My wife was in the office that day and offered to help. Not with work itself but to help me get through it. She sat across the desk from me and asked me what I needed to do with the file on the top of one of the stacks. I opened it and could quickly see what to do. It wasn’t so bad. I either did it on the spot or made notes for myself or my secretary.

“Great, what about the next file?” my wife asked.

And so it went. In about two hours, I had gone through all of the files on my desk. My wife sat with me the entire time. My Consigliori.
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When I was done, I still had files I needed to work on but I had a handle on it. I had notes about what to do, I knew which ones I needed to work on first, and I was able to move forward. There weren’t any major problems.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you get more work done? One file at a time.

If you don’t know what to do next, I suggest you read The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development, Productivity

Poor follow-up: another symptom of underearning attorneys

November 8, 2012 by
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Yesterday’s post was about the price you pay for under-valuing and under-pricing your services. It is one of the 12 “Symptoms of underearning” on the Underearners Antonymous web site.

Today’s post is about another symptom of underearning common to attorneys. It’s number 11 on the list, “Not Following Up”. This includes failing to follow up on “opportunities, leads, or jobs” or beginning many projects and tasks and not completing them.

“Not following up” may be caused by psychological issues (i.e., low self-esteem, fear of failure), but it’s often just a matter of poor organization.

There was a period in my career when I had a large number of people I needed to follow up with every day. These were prospective clients I had spoken to but who weren’t ready to sign up. I needed to follow-up with them in 30 to 90 days. If they still weren’t ready, I would schedule another follow-up.

Every day, I spoke to prospects at various stages of readiness. Some I’d spoken to once, others I’d spoken to several times. Every day, new prospects were added to the list and before long, I started to fall behind. Out of necessity, I developed a system for tracking follow-ups. It allowed me to efficiently manage hundreds of prospects who were in my “funnel” at any given time.

You may not call prospects like I was doing, but the concepts behind this system may help you stay on top of other follow-ups you need to do.

The first thing I did was make a prospect tracking form. It was a single page with space for their contact information, notes of our discussions, and a place to record the next follow-up date. Everything I needed was in one place. (I do everything electronically today, but the principles are the same.)

Next, I developed a set of rules for when follow-ups would take place. As I recall, I had criteria for two week follow-ups, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days, depending on their level of interest and stated reasons for not going forward.

The key to making this work was to decide when to follow-up, and record it, before moving onto the next prospect. There were four choices for follow-up and all I had to do was choose one. Prior to this, I would put the day’s tracking forms in a pile and go through them at the end of the day, deciding when to follow up. This wasted time and was unnecessary. With my new rule, I looked at the page just once and not again until the follow-up date arrived.

What did I do with the tracking form? I filed it in a manual “Tickler” file, a metal file box with hanging folders. I used a variation of the system described at 43 folders–twelve monthly folders and 31 daily folders. As I scheduled follow-ups, I filed them in the appropriate folder (well, on the closest weekday).

Every day, I would empty that day’s folder and move the empty folder to the back of the group. At the end of the month, I would do the same thing with that month’s folder. This way, “today’s” folder was always in the front of the box.

Every day, I knew exactly who to call. When I was done with those calls, if they still weren’t ready to sign up, I put the prospect form back in the tickler box at the appropriate future date.

Why not use the calendar? Because the calendar should be reserved for tasks that are due on a given day, like an appointment. If you want to follow up with someone in 30 days, this is approximate. If you don’t call them on that day, they won’t know it. So if you aren’t able to do some of your follow-up calls on a given day, you can move them to the following day.

There were times when I scheduled a follow-up for a specific day and I did put those on the calendar. If the prospect and I had a phone appointment (which I encouraged), the date and time were scheduled on my calendar. If the time was not specified but I was asked to call on a certain date, I would calendar it for that day but not at a specific time.

This system made me a champion at follow-up. I signed up many new clients that I am sure would have otherwise fallen through the cracks.

You may be wondering how many times I followed-up with a prospect. Well, some of my prospects didn’t sign up until I had followed-up six or seven times. Some, after ten or more. So, I my rule for how many follow-ups: Follow-up until they “buy or die”.

It kept things simple. And profitable.

Want to earn more even if you’re NOT good at follow-up? Download The Attorney Marketing Formula and find out how.

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Filed Under: Closing the sale, Productivity, Salesmanship Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Yes, you do have time for marketing

November 6, 2012 by
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One of the most common reasons lawyers give for not marketing (or not marketing enough) is that they don’t have the time. Of course I don’t agree with that. There’s always time. You can make substantial progress in marketing your practice in as little as 15 minutes a day. I don’t care how busy you are, you can “find” 15 minutes a day.

You know this is true. And you also know that marketing is important to your success. So if you ever find yourself saying, “I don’t have the time,” you know that’s just an excuse. The real real reason is that you don’t know what to do, or, you don’t want to do it. So you tell yourself you don’t have the time.

If this sounds at all familiar to you, I have a suggestion. A place to begin.

Put 15 minutes on your calendar each work day. Call it “marketing time”. Make it an appointment, with yourself. Tell your secretary that you are busy at that time and not to book anything else for you. If a client calls and wants to talk to you during that time or come in to see you, you have to say no. You’ll talk to them 15 minutes later. You already have an appointment at that time. It’s your most important appointment of the day, and you can’t miss it.

Will you do that? Will you commit to a 15 minute appointment every day? Good. You’re on your way.

Now, what do you do during that time? If you don’t know, I suggest you start out by reading this and other marketing blogs. Just read. Take some notes. Write down ideas.

You will probably find a lot of things you don’t want to do. But you will also find some things you do want to do. Do this for a couple of weeks and you will have plenty of ideas you’ll be itching to try.

Once you try them, and once you see some results coming in, you won’t have to “force” yourself to keep your 15 minute appointment. In fact, marketing time may become your favorite appointment of the day.

One of the six key strategies in The Attorney Marketing Formula is leveraging time to get more results from less effort. You can read all about it on this page.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Productivity, Time Management

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

November 2, 2012 by
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In 1988, Don’t Worry, Be Happy reached number one on the Billboard music charts, a position it held for two weeks. Bobby McFerrin’s a cappella hit had us singing (or whistling) along, buoyed by it’s upbeat message. Right now, there’s a whole lot of worrying going on in the world and it might do us all some good to listen once again.

“In every life we have some trouble. When you worry you make it double. Don’t worry, be happy……” (lyrics)

A long time ago, I eliminated the word “worry” from my lexicon. Worry is not a helpful word, or emotion. All it does is make you anxious. Today, I might be “concerned” about something, but never worried. I find I can deal more clearly with things when I’m not caught up in the emotions surrounding them.

Worrying about a problem will never fix it. Creative thinking, asking for help, taking action–these can fix a problem, but not worry. So stop it. Stop worrying about your problems. Get yourself a big box and put all your worries in it. Set that box on fire. Burn it up. You don’t need what’s in it, so get rid of it. (At least put it in storage. You can come back later if you really miss your problems.)

“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” –Mark Twain

While you’re at it, throw into your box all of the things you worry about that aren’t problems. Stuff that never happened and probably never will. That includes all of the “missed opportunities” that nag at you. All of the shoulda’s, coulda’s, and woulda’s.

What good is it to worry about your web site and all of the search engine traffic you’re NOT getting, for example? Let it go. Stop thinking about it. In fact, what if you never had to think about SEO again? How would that feel? You wouldn’t have to think about it or read about it or spend money on it.

Release it. Let it go.

There are other ways to get traffic (and clients) that have nothing to do with search engines. Sure, it’s nice when you get them through search but wouldn’t it be nice to know you don’t have to depend on it?

Relax. Everything will be fine. Don’t worry. Be happy.

“Here is a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don’t worry be happy

Now that you’re feeling better and you have more free time, you can explore SEO if you want to. But only if you want to, not because you have to. No worries, no “have to’s,” just an opportunity. Do it or don’t do it.

Make a list of things you’re thinking about right now. Projects, ideas, things you have to do. Make sure you add anything that you’re worried about. Get them off your desk and out of your head. That alone feels good, doesn’t it?

Then ask yourself, “How many of these things could I cross off my list?” If you can’t cross them off, label or tag them with “someday/maybe” and file them away, out of sight.

Spend your time thinking about things that are important, and things that feel good when you think about them. No, you can’t ignore your responsibilities or pretend you don’t have any problems. But you don’t have to worry about them, either.

Need clients? Don’t worry. Get The Attorney Marketing Formula and be happy.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Dealing with stress, Inspiration, Personal development, Productivity Tagged With:

How to write something when you don’t know where to start

November 1, 2012 by
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It’s November and you know what that means? NaNoWriMo!

What’s that? You don’t know about National Novel Writing Month? I wrote about it last November when I shared some thoughts about “Writers’ Block”.

You may not aspire to be the next John Grisham, but if you’ve ever struggled to write something you’ve never written before, and you don’t know where to start, I have a possible solution.

When I was in high school, my parents had a friend who created several TV shows, wrote screenplays, non-fiction, and music. He also did some acting. Anyway, he didn’t have a musical background, but he wrote some very clever songs. One day, my father asked him how he did it.

He said he took an existing song he liked and used it’s structure as a template. He changed it, note by note, until he had an original piece that was nothing like the one he started with, except maybe in length, key, and tempo. (Since he couldn’t read music, he recorded himself humming his new tune and had someone transcribe it.)

For the lyrics, he took the original words and changed those word by word, or he found another song he liked and changed those words to create a new song to go with his new music. He used the same technique for creating screenplays.

Instead of writing from scratch, he re-wrote something that was already written. He didn’t plagiarize or steal ideas. He took the original, pared it down to it’s skeleton, and added new flesh and sinew to give life to a completely new creation.

Now don’t get me wrong, the guy had talent. Lots of it. He simply used his note/word-changing technique as a starting point. If I ever write a novel, that’s exactly how I will start.

After all, isn’t “getting started” the hardest part of doing something new? Once you have a first draft, you can make it better. But so many aspiring writers never get started so they never have a first draft they can improve.

If you wanted to use this technique to write the first draft of a novel, find one you like (in the appropriate genre and voice, i.e., “first person detective”) and create a “step outline”–a sequential list of the plot points. Note the number of major characters, when they are introduced, and their role (i.e., friend who encourages, villain, love interest, and so on). How many chapters are there? How long are they? When does the crime take place? When do we meet the hero?

Now you have a story skeleton, but of course it’s for someone else’s story. Your job is to change things, point by point, element by element, to write your own.

Your setting will be different. San Antonio instead of San Clemente. Your characters will be different. If the victim in the original was an insurance investigator who is murdered to cover up a fraudulent claim, your victim might be an accountant who knew too much about his crooked client’s business activities.

You write your own novel, using the structure of the original, but nothing else.

Now I didn’t say yours would be a good novel. That’s easier said than done. But your novel will at least be the right length, number of characters, and have the requisite elements in it. You’ll have a workable first draft.

You can use the same technique to write something much less ambitious, like an article or report. Decide on a topic you want to write about and find a model. How many paragraphs? How many main points? How many bullet points? Use this as a template.

Doing something new is much easier when you have a place to start. Fortunately, you don’t have to invent the place the start. You can follow someone who already finished.

Would you like a template for marketing your legal services? Use this

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Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting, Newsletters, Productivity, Writing Tagged With: , , ,

Why good attorneys achieve mediocre results

October 29, 2012 by
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An expert, addressing a group of lawyers starting their own practice, offered this advice:

“Your goal, if you expect to have lots of happy clients and turn a sweet profit, is efficiency. That means creating systems, for instance, that eliminate double and triple entry of information—client information, case information, conflicts information—and looking for systems that save you time and reduce paper and administrivia [sic].”

I agree that efficiency is important. You should use systems and tools that eliminate redundancy and waste and allow you to maximize your time and effort. I credit much of my success to developing these systems and using the right tools. But while efficiency is important, effectiveness is far more so.

Efficiency means “doing things right”. Effectiveness means “doing the right things”. The difference is crucial.

You can be inefficient (i.e., sloppy, slow, distracted, riddled with mistakes, etc.) and amazingly successful in your career, if you are doing the right things. I know people who waste a lot of time and money and don’t get a lot of things done but are at the top of their field because they get the important things done.

I know others who are very efficient but achieve no better than mediocre results in their careers because they are efficient at the wrong things.

It’s far more important to choose the right practice area, for example, than to have the latest software. You’ll earn more by focusing on marketing instead of accounting. Your amazing library isn’t nearly as valuable as your amazing client relations practices.

Many attorneys achieve mediocre results because they major in minor things. They master the details but forget the big picture. They’re climbing the ladder of success, only to find that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.

Yes, you want to be good at what you do. Just make sure that you’re doing the right things.

If you want to be effective AND efficient, get The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: ,

The myth of “finding time”

October 19, 2012 by
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Several readers caught my mistake in yesterday’s post. Instead of writing “meditate” I wrote “mediate”. Freudian slip? Subconscious lawyer mind echo? Nah, just a typo.

Coincidentally, I was reading an article today about meditation. It begins with the statement, “People say the hardest part about meditating is finding time to meditate.” The author points out that because meditation is seen as “doing nothing,” it’s hard for people to justify the time.

His point is that by understanding the benefits of meditation, which include making us more productive, we can then see the value of taking the time to do it.

This is true. It’s true of any activity. If there’s no perceived value in doing something, why bother?

So, when people say they don’t have the time to do something, or that they need to find the time to do it, aren’t they really saying they don’t see enough value relative to the time required for doing it?

Yes. (I like answering my own questions.)

In truth, we usually find time for the things that we value. We only say things like, “I don’t have the time,” when we are being asked to do something we don’t value, or don’t value enough.

True, we have obligations imposed upon us by work or family or school, but even then, you don’t have to “find the time” to do them. You do them because you see the value, i.e., the pleasure of doing something for someone you love, avoiding embarrassment, keeping your job, and so on.

So, if you find yourself saying or thinking you don’t have time to do something, before you try “to find the time” or feel guilty for not trying, ask yourself if what you are contemplating doing is really worth doing. Often, the answer will be no and you can let it go.

You don’t have to “find the time” to do things that are important to you. You just have to be honest enough with yourself so you know what is important.

If earning more is important to you, The Attorney Marketing Formula should be a priority.

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

Get into flow and get more done by grouping your activities

October 16, 2012 by
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A friend of mine was making follow-up sales calls to prospective clients he’d spoken to previously. He commented that the mindset for making follow-up calls is different from the mindset of first calls and the two activities should be done at different times.

I agree. Don’t edit when you write and don’t write when you edit. Two different activities, two different mindsets.

My friend cold calls. When he makes a first call, he is prospecting. He moves quickly through large lists. He is sorting, looking for someone who will take his call and agree to look at some information. His focus is on the mechanical act of dialing rather than the quality of any one conversation. He knows that if he makes a certain number of dials, he will get a certain number of leads.

Follow-up calls are different. When he calls someone who agreed to look at some information, my friend is in sales mode. He engages the prospect. He asks questions to find out their hot buttons. When he knows what they want, he can show them how his service can help them get it. My friend answers questions and responds to objections. He moves the prospect forward to the next step, using finesse and skill.

It is important to my friend that he separates first calls from follow-ups because the mindset, energy, and rhythm are so different. When he’s prospecting and banging out calls, the last thing he wants to do is slow down and change gears into sales mode. It’s better to keep dialing and racking up leads and make follow-up calls later, after a break.

This is good advice for any activity. Do your work in bunches. Finish one bunch before moving onto another.

See new clients during a two hour block of time rather than spaced out throughout the day. Make all your calls to adjusters back to back. Review three files in a row.

When you get into the rhythm and feel of an activity, stay in it as long as you can. When you’re in a groove, you’ll get more done. Time will pass more quickly. You’ll get better results.

Psychologists refer to this as “flow“. One of the hallmarks of being in a state of flow is joy. It comes from being fully immersed in an activity and focusing on that and nothing else.

Joy is the catalyst to growth. The more my friend is on the phone, the better he gets at what he does (he just reported going seven for seven on first calls), and the joy he feels makes him want to do more.

When you find the joy in what you’re doing, success is imminent. You don’t need a psychologist to explain it:

The more you do of something, the better you get. The better you get, the better your results. The better your results, the more you enjoy it. The more you enjoy it, the more you want to do it. And the more you do it, the better you get.

Get better at marketing. Get The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Personal development, Productivity

Should you upgrade or repair your law practice?

October 4, 2012 by
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The title of this post comes from an article I saw today, “Should you upgrade or repair your computer?” It had advice about how to repair software, how to repair hardware, and what and when you should upgrade.

I thought this was a good analogy for a law practice. Things slow down, they break, they need repairing and replacing. And, even if everything is working just fine, if you want to get to the next level, you need to continually upgrade what you’re doing.

Periodically examine the inner workings of your practice. What’s not working? What needs to be repaired or replaced? What can you upgrade?

Here’s an inspection list to get you started:

  • Broken relationships with clients and professional contacts
  • Sluggish client communications; “thank yous” and other initiatives that fail to show clients how much you value them; boring newsletters and blog posts
  • Malfunctioning processes that leave your clients vulnerable or in the dark
  • Out of date web pages, forms, form letters, templates, and checklists
  • Unnecessary or overly expensive overhead
  • Ineffective ads, social media, and networking
  • Offers that aren’t getting prospects to call
  • People who answer the phone but don’t get prospects into the office
  • Presentations that aren’t converting prospects into clients
  • Fees that don’t produce enough profit
  • Employees who aren’t worth what you’re paying them
  • Employees who are worth more than you pay them
  • Clients who leave; clients who don’t return; clients who don’t refer
  • Tasks that take too long to complete
  • Tasks that can be delegated, outsourced, or eliminated

Think of your practice as a machine. If you do regular inspections, maintenance and repairs, your machine will continue to function. If you don’t, it will slow down and ultimately cost you more when things break and have to be replaced.

And, every so often, upgrade your practice. Make things better and faster. Equip yourself and your staff with the latest tools. Stay ahead of the changing demands in the marketplace.

A brand new computer may be obsolete in six months. So can a law practice.

Does your marketing need an upgrade? Get The Attorney Marketing Formula and find out what to do.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity, Time Management

My one page productivity system

October 3, 2012 by
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When I was in high school I used a simple system for planning my day: a single piece of paper. I folded it three times so it would fit in my shirt pocket. On the page I would list the things I needed to do that day: tasks, errands, classes, homework. As I completed each one, I crossed it off the list. At the end of the day I would look at my list and feel good about what I had accomplished. I would then write a new list for the following day.

Putting everything on one page forced me to decide what was important for the day. There were many things I could have done each day but I wrote down only the things that I intended to do. Sometimes I numbered them so that I knew what to do first.

There was room on my page for ideas, things to do tomorrow or next week or someday, or to jot down random thoughts about life.

My one page productively system was all I needed for the day. It worked so well, I stopped using it.

I still plan my day and sometimes I put it on paper, but most of the time, my plan is in my calendar and in Evernote.

The last few days I’ve been playing around with an app called WorkFlowy. It is a list-making/outlining application that lets you put everything on a single “page”. You can use it for your task list(s) or to outline projects. You can create nested outlines to unlimited depth. I’m using it to outline a book.

I’m also using it to create my daily task list. I add a #Today tag to tasks I want to do today and filter the master list so that it only shows those tasks. On one page is my daily task list, just like I used to use in high school.

But I don’t have to print that page to put it in my pocket. WorkFlowy has a free iPhone app that syncs my lists. (There is an Android app, too.)

Nothing is simpler than a piece of paper. But this comes close.

Do you use Evernote? Check out my ebook, Evernote for Lawyers: A Guide for Getting Organized & Increasing Productivity.

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