How to overcome procrastination: find your sense of purpose

December 5, 2007 by
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STEP BACK AND SEE THE BIG PICTURE

Don Shula, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, once said, “If you stacked [the mediocre] teams up against one of the perennial contenders, the talent gap might not be as great as you’d expect. It’s the philosophy gap that separates them. The losers lack something vital: a sense of purpose.” Often people fail to start or complete a task because they don’t see any connection between what they’re doing and what they really want to accomplish. If you sense that what you’re doing is not blazing a trail towards a desired result, it’s probably time to rethink your pursuits. If you know that your work will move you closer to your goals, you will be more inclined to see the task through.

Used by permission from Dr. John C., Maxwell’s free monthly en-newsletter, Leadership Wired, available at www.injoy.com

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

Diary of an absent minded attorney marketer

November 8, 2007 by
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When I write a post for this blog, I often reference what I’ve said in previous posts, but it’s getting harder to remember what I’ve said, let alone where I said it. I can’t even remember what I wrote yesterday without looking.

I can scroll through the blog, of course, and read what I wrote, but how far back do you go? I’ve only been writing the blog for a couple of months, what am I going to do after a couple of years?

I can use the "categories" and "search" functions to bring up posts on a given topic, but that only works if I use the same categories or key words to describe something, and I don’t always do that.

So, today I created a marketing diary for the blog. (Hmm, that’s a diary for a diary.) Anyway, it’s a simple list, updated with each post or page, describing the topics and resources mentioned. Nothing fancy, just a few lines that tell me what I’ve done. The first entry will be about this article.

It’s digital, not on paper, so it’s simple to copy and paste the headline, which automatically copies the permalink. Add a few descriptive lines and key words, and I’m done. Because it’s digital, I can easily search the diary and find everything I’ve said on a given subject. (I’m using Info Select, which I wrote about here). But I can also see, by scrolling through the list, exactly what I’ve been doing day to day and week to week.

A marketing diary isn’t just for blogs, however, it’s a good idea for all marketing activities. Recording your activities in a daily diary specifically for that purpose is not only a valuable reference tool ("Did I send that thank you note?" "How many calls did I make last week?") it’s also a way to remind yourself to do something every day.

Marketing isn’t about giant leaps, it’s about simple daily activities, done repeatedly, over time. That’s why I recommend 15 minutes a day, every day. Everyone can find 15 minutes a day; that’s easy. But, "what’s easy to do is also easy to not do," Jim Rohn says, and so calendaring the time to do it, in advance, and recording it in a diary afterwards, will help keep you on track.

If your phone isn’t ringing as much as you would like and I was your marketing coach, the first thing I would do is ask to see your calendar. The second thing I would do is ask to see is your diary.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Productivity

What is your highest and best use?

November 5, 2007 by
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As a lawyer, you do a lot of activities throughout the week, but what do you do best?

Take the time to answer this question because if you want to have the maximum success of which you are capable, what you do best is what you should do most of the time.

You may be good at a lot of things but you will achieve
more by becoming BRILLIANT at just a few.

Society pays top dollar for mastery. Your strategy should be to focus on your strengths and make them even stronger. Too often, we focus on improving our weaknesses. We realize that we don’t know how to build a web site, for example, and so we set out to learn. But learning how to build a web site is not going to make us more valuable to our clients. It is not the “highest and best use” of our time.

The 80/20 princple says that the majority of our results, probably in the neighborhood of 80%, come from a minority of our efforts (probably 20%). Conversely, only 20% of our results are derived from 80% of our activities. We can multiply our effectiveness, therefore, by spending more time on those high payoff, 20% activities that bring 80% of our results.

What are your 20% activities? What do you do best? What is it that if you could only do more of, it would add tremendous value to your practice? What brings you more income? What makes you more valuable to your clients? More attractive to referral sources?

When I set out to answer this question myself, I did an exercise that was a real eye-opener.The idea is to track all of your activities for a full week (in a spiral notebook or legal pad), noting everything you do, minute by minute, from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. (If you want, you can limit this exercise to just your work hours, but if you’re like me, the line between work time and personal time is usually blurry.) Record everything you do, even if it takes just a minute or two, and how much time you spend doing it.

When you’re done, you should have a list of at least 50 activities you do throughout the week and the amount of time spent on each. Now, go through the list and put a star next to those things you believe are high payoff activities. They produce work product, generate revenue, or otherwise have a material role in your job description.

Now comes the hard part. Look again at the starred list and identify the THREE most important activities you do, the ones that give you the very highest payoff. What three things constitue "20% activities that produce 80% of results"? What if you come up with five things, or seven, or ten? Keep looking. Most of the time, you will be able to zero in on three things that contribute 80% of your results. You may have to combine items or describe them differently, but keep looking until you find those three.

The next step is to add up the amount of time you spent on these three activities. Based on the number of hours you work each week, what percentage of your time was spent on these three activities?

If you’re like most people, you probably spend less than 30% of your time on high payoff activities. Imagine what would happen if you could double the time you spend on those activities.

YOUR RESULTS WOULD GO UP 160%!

That’s because you would be investing two blocks of time on activities that now produce 80% of your results, so you would get two blocks of 80% results. A corollary is that by spending more time on high payoff activities, you would get more accomplished in less time. If you are satisfied with the results you are getting but want to cut your work hours, this is the way.

Where do you find the time to do more high payoff activities? By eliminating as much of your low payoff activities as possible. Look at your list. What can you eliminate completely? Be ruthless. Remember, every hour of time you reclaim will be worth much more than an hour to you when you reinvest it in high payoff activities.

Next, for anything on the list that cannot be eliminated completely, look for ways to delegate or outsource them.

Your objective is to do only what you do best and delegate the rest.

You will find a number of activities that aren’t high payoff (your list of three) but cannot be eliminated or delegated. You are the one who must do them. First ask, "Is that really true?" We often fool ourselves into believing that nobody can do what we do, when in fact, there are many who can do it as well, or almost as well, and sometimes, better! Again, if it’s not one of your high payoff activities, find someone else to do it.

For those things that you and only you can do do, look for ways to do them less often. Do you really have to do them every week? And, what can you do more quickly? Are their any tools you could use? Can you get some training on how to do it more efficiently?

Finally, give yourself permission to relinquish perfectionism. Some things just aren’t as important as others, and while we still need to do them, "good enough" might just be good enough.

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Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With:

Building a law practice from the inside out

October 29, 2007 by
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Last week, I talked about personal development and how it affects every aspect of our personal and professional lives. One of the hallmarks of personal development and building a balanced life, is good health. Of course a key component of good health is getting enough sleep, and if you’re like me, you usually don’t get enough. Lack of sleep not only affects our physical health, but also our mental well-being. It is a factor in how we handle stress, how well we perform, and our overall quality of life. To our rescue comes Steve Pavlina, who just wrote a comprehensive article, How to wake up feeling totally alert.

Pavlina’s blog is one of the most popular on the web, and it’s easy to see why. It is a treasure trove of information and advice on personal development, well documented, interesting to read, and always right to the point. Some of his material may appear to be out in left field, but there’s no doubt Pavlina is an intelligent observer and leading edge thinker. You’d almost have to be when your "slogan" is "Personal Development For Smart People".

By the way, if his home page looks vaguely familiar, it’s because I modeled mine on it.

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Filed Under: Dealing with stress, Personal development, Productivity

Marketing legal services in 15 minutes a day

October 15, 2007 by
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Marketing your law practice is like exercising–it works best when you do a little bit every day.

I started walking recently, about thirty minutes, five days a week. In the couple of months since I started, I’ve lost weight, cut my appetite, and gained energy. I feel better, too. I’m exercising a few minutes every day and I’m getting results. And because it’s only a few minutes a day (and because I’m getting results) I can and will continue.

The results didn’t happen overnight, however. I didn’t see any changes the first day or the second or third. It took weeks of continued effort before I saw appreciable improvements. Marketing is like that, too. You do a little bit every day, and over time, the compounding effect of your efforts kicks in.

Lawyers often feel about marketing like they do about getting in shape: there’s too much to do, no time to do it, and it will take too long before you see results. And so, like an exercise program, they never start. Or they start, but because they are trying to do too much, too quickly, they don’t stick with it. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can be successful in marketing your practice in as little as 15 minutes a day. Here are a few "rules":

  • Do something every day. 15 minutes a day is better than an hour, once a week. Consistency, over time (persistency) is key.
  • Do it yourself. You can delegate some aspects of your marketing, but it’s important that you are involved in the process, learning, making mistakes, taking responsibility, and developing your marketing muscles. And don’t even think of delegating relationship building.
  • Don’t trust your memory–calendar it. Block out 15 minutes a day or 30 minutes a day, five days a week on your calendar, like an appointment, and KEEP THAT APPOINTMENT! Don’t schedule clients during that time, don’t take calls during that time, and don’t re-schedule that time. Trust me, if you don’t do this, in a week, you’ll be completely off schedule. (C’mon, you know I’m right!)
  • Focus on the activity, not the results. Marketing professional services takes time, especially since so much of it is relationship building. If you look at the results you’re getting, you can get frustrated and miss the big picuture. If you focus on doing the activities consistently, every day is a success. In time, the results will come, but only if you do enough activity over a long enough period of time.

So, what do you do in that 15 minutes? Plenty. Here are some ideas to get you started:

  1. Read this blog and others, like this, this, or this, and write down marketing ideas
  2. Call a client and say hello (Yes, that’s marketing and you will be amazed at how well it works)
  3. Invite a referral source or client to lunch
  4. Send a client an article you clipped from a trade journal
  5. Send a note: thank you, congratulations, happy birthday, thinking of you (also amazingly powerful)
  6. Brainstorm ideas/chapters for a speech, article, report, book, ebook, etc.
  7. Research local organizations that might need speakers
  8. Call a client and ask him to introduce you to his CPA or insurance agent
  9. Write a brief "needs" survey to send to old clients
  10. Call or surf for information about joining your local chamber of commerce, Rotary, or BNI
  11. Register to take a public speaking class at community college or Toastmasters
  12. Write an article: "The top ten things everyone needs to know about [your practice area]"
  13. Browse through amazon.com to find (a) books for you to read, (b) gifts for clients, (c) ideas for books/articles you can write, (d) books you have read and can comment on (and link to your web site)
  14. Look at a competitor’s web site for ideas for yours
  15. Send an email to "friends of the firm" updating them on new hires, successful cases, additions to your web site
  16. Research services for hosting your online newsletter or website
  17. Research blog platforms to see which one is best for your new blog
  18. Read an article from a magazine read by decision makers in your target market
  19. Send an article to someone in your target market
  20. Research venues, costs, dates for a seminar
  21. Email and recommend online resources to some of your clients
  22. Research professionals with whom you might co-market or network
  23. Write or revise your "elevator speech"
  24. Read books, web pages, ebooks, blogs, on marketing, advertising, publicity, search engines
  25. Buy a domain name for your future web site and branded email
  26. Brainstorm questions to ask fellow professionals you can interview for your newsletter
  27. Post comments on a blog, link to your web site/blog
  28. Post on your blog, or brainstorm ideas for subjects for future articles
  29. Browse www.infousa.com for ideas for target markets, possible referral sources
  30. Update your lists: contacts, clients, prospects, newsletter, etc.
  31. Create a postcard you can mail to inexpensively "clean" your mailing list
  32. Research online/offline publications where you can submit articles
  33. Read other lawyers’ blawgs for ideas, information, networking opportunities
  34. Read about and implement legal technology to "find" more time for marketing
  35. Find a "work out" partner, to share marketing ideas, accountability
  36. Research networking groups in your area and forums where you can network online
  37. Create a marketing calendar and list projects to undertake throughout the year
  38. Start a marketing "journal" where you record ideas, resources, questions, progress
  39. Go to classmates.com or martindale.com to find old friends you can contact
  40. Brainstorm possible niche markets, their problems/needs, publications, groups, advisors
  41. Write a press release to announce your new report, web site, offer, award, verdict, etc.
  42. Research online press release distribution services
  43. Set up an account with Google Adwords and experiment with  pay per click advertising
  44. Find online marketing gurus and subscribe to their mailing lists
  45. Set up Google Analytics to track traffic to your web site
  46. Go through your local yellow pages to find professionals you can contact
  47. Draft a "phone survey" for contacting professionals (publish the results in your newsletter)
  48. Draft questions someone should ask when they interview you
  49. Write or re-write your bio
  50. Examine your brochure or other marketing piece for revision
  51. Investigate "music on hold" advertising messages for your phone system

Where do you start? It doesn’t matter. Just start.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: ,

Free advice that can make you millions

October 10, 2007 by
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One of the best ways to get from where you are to where you want to go is getting help from someone who has done what you want to do. Make a list of areas you would like help with or areas where you would like to grow. Three key areas for lawyers in private practice would be

  • Substantive practice areas
  • Marketing
  • Administration/management

Specific areas you might want to key on might be

  • Technology/internet
  • Employee relations
  • Taxes/record keeping
  • Risk management/insurance
  • Retirement planning/investments

And so on.

Of course you can always hire experts to consult and advise you in these areas, and you might. But why not find lawyers (or other professionals) who have had success in these areas and ask them to be your mentor?

Mentors help you see what’s possible by serving as a role model. They can keep you from going off course by providing feedback about your ideas. And they can open doors for you to opportunities, introductions to vendors, prospective clients and referral sources. The right mentors can spare you years of hardship and, literally, make you rich.

Once you have identified a list of areas you would like to be mentored in, start asking everyone you know for recommendations and referrals to experts in those areas. “Who do you know who is a great networker?” “Do you know any lawyers who know a lot about web sites?” “Who is the best construction litigation attorney you know?”

Next, make a list of specific points you’d like to cover in your first conversation, such as why you’d like them to mentor you and what kind of help you might be looking for.

Successful people like to share what they have learned. Properly approached, you’ll find any number of individuals willing to share a few minutes of their time with you each month.

Here’s an approach you can take:

“Hello, Mr. Jones, my name is Robert Lawyer. We haven’t met and I know you’re a busy man, so I’ll be brief. I’m a sole practictioner in the area of estate planning. I know you’ve built a very successful estate practice over the last twenty-five years. I’ve been practicing for four years now and I’m ready to take things to a higher level and I would appreciate it if you would consider being my mentor. All that would mean is spending ten minutes with me on the phone once a month, so I could ask you a few questions. I’d really appreciate it. Would you be open to that?”

Be prepared to give your mentors something in return. At the very least, give them feedback on how their advice has worked out for you. Look for information and resources that can benefit them and share it with them.

Eventually, find others whom you can mentor. There’s no better way to pay tribute to your mentors than to follow in their footsteps.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Mentors & Coaches, Networking, Productivity, Referral sources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do only what you do best; delegate the rest

October 1, 2007 by
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You can’t do everything, nor should you try. You should do only what you do best and delegate everything else.

Consultant and trainer, Brian Tracy, advises to find out what you love to do and design your career around it. "If you could only perform one task all day long, from morning to night, what one activity at work would you select?" ["Create Your Own Future", 2002, p.86]

Leadership expert John Maxwell Maxwell agrees. "I strive for excellence in a few things rather than a good performance in many."

When he delegates tasks, Maxwell uses the 10-80-10 principle: "I help with the first 10 percent by casting vision, laying down parameters, providing resources, and giving encouragement. Then, once they’ve done the middle 80 percent, I come alongside them again and help them take whatever it is the rest of the way, if I can. I call it putting the cherry on top." ["Thinking for a change," 2003, page 91.]

What do you do best? THAT’S what you should do. Let others do the rest.

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Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: ,

Before you set any goals. . .

August 27, 2007 by
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Goal setting is a critical component to success in anything, and that includes a successful life. Life is a journey and without a destination, all you’re doing is wandering.

Before you set goals–big, lifetime goals, and small, “here’s what I want to accomplish tomorrow” goals–before you get specific about what and how much and when and who, I want to encourage you to spend some time doing something else.

I want you to dream.

I’ll bet it’s been a long time since you did any dreaming. You’re so busy making a living you don’t have time to do anything else. But what if, in your zeal to climb the ladder of success you overlooked the fact that it was leaning against the wrong wall?

It’s not too late. You can dream again–and you should.

Mark Twain said, “Twenty years from now you will more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Dream. Discover.”

Too often, people plan their lives logically. They assess where they are and look forward and the path they see before them is the one they take.

“Well, I have these skills and that degree and these are my assets, and it makes perfect sense for me to. . . blah blah blah.” Before you know it, twenty years have gone by and while they may be successful, too often, they aren’t happy.

And happiness, my friend, is why you were put here on Earth.

Put logic aside for a moment and get in touch with your emotions. What makes your heart sing? What did you once want so much it makes you cry thinking about it? What would you be doing right now if you had all the money you could possibly spend, perfect health, and unlimited time?

When you have answered these questions–truthfully–come back and we’ll talk.

Harold Thurman Whitman said, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

I like the way an unknown writer put it: “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting, ‘Holy sh**… what a ride!'”

David Ward
“Be a mentor with a servant’s heart!”

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Filed Under: Goal Setting, Productivity Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How I (finally) got organized

August 27, 2007 by
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I‘m in love!

Well, okay, when you’re talking about a piece of software, that might be a bit strong. But, I can’t help it…

I really am IN LOVE!

The software I’m talking about is Info Select. It’s been around for twenty years and I can’t believe I just found out about it.

Info Select is an information management system that allows you to organize EVERYTHING: notes, contact info, ideas, emails, phone logs, client data, calendars, presentations, research…

EVERYTHING!

I don’t use Outlook anymore. I use Word only occasionally. I’m getting rid of mounds of loose scraps, notes, reminders, post-its that have adorned my office for years. I can see my desk again!

I can now find anything I’m looking for by using Info Select’s robust search capability.

Here’s what one lawyer says about a previous version:
http://www.stepup.com.au/product/isw6/lawyer.htm

More info:
http://www.innovationtools.com/Tools/SoftwareDetails.asp?a=68

Here’s the company web site: http://miclog.com. They offer a thirty-day free trial. Careful, it’s addicting!

If you use Info Select, please share your experiences. If you haven’t, check it out!

David Ward
“Be a mentor with a servant’s heart!”

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