Murder your darlings

June 16, 2022 by
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Relax, it’s a literary metaphor, suggesting that when you edit your writing you cut out some of your best passages, your ‘darlings,‘ to leave room for the even better ones.

Make your writing lean by removing the fat.

That’s good advice for everything we do. A romantic version of the Pareto Principle (aka, The 80/20 Rule)—prioritizing the “precious few” over the “trivial many”.

If you’re like me, things often take longer than they need to. Projects that might be completed in a weekend are still in the planning stages weeks or months down the road.

Sometimes, it is our inner perfectionist bedeviling us. Yeah, we should murder him, too.

But it might simply be we have too much on our plate.

The simple solution—do less.

When doing research, focus on the key cases and arguments. Give yourself two hours to distill the essentials, not two weeks to categorize the entire library.

With tasks and projects, choose a few (at a time) and put the rest on the back burner.

Use fewer tools or systems to do the job and don’t get seduced by productivity porn.

When we have fewer options, fewer things going on in our life, we can focus on the precious few and do them well.

We can accomplish more and have plenty of time to attend our darlings’ funeral.

If you only use one marketing strategy, make it this

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Filed Under: Productivity, Writing Tagged With: ,

Focus on what you can control

June 2, 2022 by
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With marketing, or anything else, there are things you can control and things you can’t. Do your sanity a favor. Don’t focus on, measure, or worry about things you can’t control.

You can’t control how many prospective clients will book an appointment after they see your presentation or read your email. But you can control how many presentations you do and how many emails you send.

You can’t control how much traffic you’ll get to your blog or how many visitors will share your content. But you can control how many posts you write.

You can’t control how many bloggers will say yes to your offer to write a guest post. But you can control how many you ask.

I know, you want to sign up more clients, get more followers or subscribers, and put more butts in seats. You want to get more referral sources, bring in more six- and seven-figure clients or cases, and live the freak’in dream.

But you can’t control any of that. You can only control what you do, not what you want to happen as a result.

You can ALSO set a results-based goal—to sign up 5 new clients this month, for example—but keep that in the back of your mind.

In the front of your mind, and in your daily or weekly planner, focus on how many ads you’ll run, how many emails you’ll write, or how many people you’ll talk to.

Here are lots of things you can do

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Filed Under: Marketing Plan, Personal development, Productivity

Thinking is working

May 25, 2022 by
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Writers say this a lot because they think a lot. They think about what they’re working on and how to improve it and they think about new ideas they might want to use. This is their process.

So when someone accuses them of goofing off, they might take offense. They know they are working—because they’re always working, even if they’re not putting more words on the page.

Hey lawyers, why can’t we do the same? Thinking is part of our process, too.

We don’t have to always do things people recognize as productive. We don’t have to get off our duff and call someone, write something, or review something.

We can stay on our duffs and think.

We can go for a walk or a drive, take a long bath, meditate, listen to music, or go outside and get some sun on our face, and let our brain do its thing.

No guilt. No justifying. No agenda. Just thinking.

Because thinking is working.

One suggestion, though. Make sure you have something with you to record your thoughts. You’ll want to see them again, to see what you thought and note what you thought about what you thought.

Throughout his life, Jim Rohn kept a journal. He said it wasn’t a diary, just “a place to record ideas”.

If you’ve ever had trouble keeping a journal, maybe you were asking too much of it. Maybe it would be easier and more valuable to you if you thought of it as simply a place to record ideas.

Because we both know you have a lot of them.

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Filed Under: Productivity, success

When good habits go bad

May 10, 2022 by
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You’ve got a morning routine to start your day and another for shutting down in the evening. A routine for opening new files and a routine for closing them. A routine for interviewing new clients, writing articles, and posting on social. 

You do them the same way every day, and those routines serve you well. They save you time because you don’t have to think about what to do or how to do it.  

You just do it. 

And because you do it over and over again, you get better at it. 

But the strength of your routines and habits is also their weakness. 

When we do things repeatedly, without thinking, we typically don’t look for ways to improve what we’re doing. If what we’re doing is working, why should we? 

We should because the world changes. There are new tools and processes that can help us do things faster or better. 

And because we change—we’re not the same person we were when we started the routine or acquired the habit. 

Which is why we should periodically review our habits and routines and look for ways to improve them. 

I did that recently when I started my day re-writing my digital task list on paper, in order to be more mindful about what I was doing. I only did it for a few days before realizing I didn’t like it or need it, but I learned something about what I was putting on my list and changed it. 

I realized I was trying to fill my day with too many tasks and was often left scrambling to finish them or disappointed that I hadn’t. I put fewer tasks on my list now and have more time and energy to do important things. 

I may not have realized what I was doing had I not experimented with re-writing my list. 

I regularly try different apps, tools, and websites. I get lots of ideas that way. Sometimes, I find a better tool than the one I’ve been using and replace it.

Trying new things can also be fun. We are curious creatures and enjoy novelty. It makes the world a more interesting place. 

Yes, trying new things can also be a distraction from doing our work. But who says all distractions are bad?

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Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: , , ,

You need all 3

April 29, 2022 by
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You’ve got a new case, project, business, or idea and you want it to be successful.

You create a plan—what you want to accomplish, the resources you’ll need, research to do, the first step and the steps after that. Your plan might be a simple list of tasks or ideas, but but the process of thinking it through and writing it down helps you clarify what you want and what you need to do to get it.

“Doing” is obviously the most important part. The actions you take and how well you do them are the mechanism that delivers your results.

Most of us do the first two well enough. We plan and we do. Where most people drop the ball, myself included, is with what we do after that.

Once we have some results, we need to review what happened.

Reviewing means:

  • Noting the size and scope of the outcome. How many leads or subscribers, how many new clients, how much revenue? Did you hit the goal? Make a profit? Get what you expected?
  • Thinking about the process. What did you do well, what could you have done better, what will you change?
  • (Optional): Getting feedback from others. Talk to your client, staff, partners, and other stakeholders. What do they think about the process and the results? What suggestions do they have for the future?
  • Using what you’ve learned to create a better plan or decide to kill the idea and try something else.

The review process might only take a few minutes, but it’s key to achieving sustained growth.

Plan, do, review. You need all 3.

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Filed Under: Productivity, success

Pen and paper

April 27, 2022 by
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I’m trying an experiment today. I’m taking my task list and calendar entries, which ordinarily reside in digital form, and rewriting them on a single piece of paper.

I’m going to keep that page in front of me throughout the day and when I complete something, important task or routine, that’s where I’ll check it off.

I’m not doing this to achieve an esthetic look. Nothing fancy. Just scratch paper and the first pen I grab.

I’m doing this to see how it affects my planning and execution.

By rewriting my list, my theory goes, I’ll be more likely to think about each task and ask myself questions such as, “Do I really want to do this today? Is it necessary that I do this at all? Is it aligned with my current goals? Is there anything I need to do first? Do I have all the resources I need to do a good job with this?“

The idea here is to be more thoughtful and intentional about what I do, and to consider things I should do but aren’t. It’s too easy to do things out of habit, which may not be the highest and best use of our time.

I’m also thinking that having everyone on one page that I look at throughout the day will help me focus and get everything done. That’s how we did things in the pre-digital age. We didn’t have to open an app to see what was next, just look at our calendar or the legal pad on our desk.

At the top of the page, I wrote “Today” and the date. Then I wrote “P1“ and listed my “must do’s” for today. There are two—this post and working on my latest book.

Under that, I wrote “P2”. These are other things I’d like to do but don’t have to do today. I listed some things I want to research and a phone call.

Finally, I wrote 4 routine tasks, the kinds of things I do pretty much every day.

No appointments or errands today, so that’s it.

As soon as I post this on my blog and send it out via email, I’ll check off the first “Must do” task on my list for today.

Tomorrow, I’ll write a new list and we’ll see how this goes.

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Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With:

Just make sure you copy the right cat

April 22, 2022 by
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“Don’t be a copycat,” our parents told us. But we didn’t listen, did we? We copied our friends, our siblings, our parents and teachers, and people we saw on TV.

If someone did something we thought was cool, we wanted to do it. If they didn’t die riding their bike down that steep hill that scared the beans out of us, we knew we wouldn’t die either.

I’m still here, aren’t I?

We wanted to be like others. Do what they do. So we copied them.

And we still do that today.

There’s nothing wrong with that. We learn by copying. Seeing what others do, how they do it, and how it turns out.

I did it again the other day.

I watched a video about GTD and the narrator said he does his daily planning every afternoon at 4 pm. He has a ten-minute appointment with himself posted on his calendar. I’ve always done my planning at the end of my workday, whenever that might occur, but hearing how this guy does it, I had to try it.

So now, don’t try to contact me at 4 pm. I’m busy.

He mentioned something else I liked. He schedules his weekly review on Fridays at 3 pm.

Why not, I thought?

I’ve been experimenting with different days for my weekly review. For a long time, it was every Sunday morning. I recently tried Saturday, but something about doing it Friday to close out the week (and keep my weekends open) appealed to me, so I’m doing that now.

It’s okay to be a copycat. But don’t copy blindly. Do what makes sense to you and for you.

If you hear about a lawyer who built his practice by sending unsolicited email and cold calling 12 hours a day, that’s one cat I wouldn’t copy.

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Filed Under: Productivity, success

How long will it take to do it?

March 7, 2022 by
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“How long will it take to complete that project?“ I hate that question because I never know the answer. I estimate one hour and it takes three. I think I can get it done in a week and two months later I’m still working on it.

Turns out, humans aren’t good at estimating how long it takes to finish things. So I usually avoid estimating. I tell myself it will take as long as it takes and don’t think about it.

Unless there is a deadline. And then I think about it a lot and get the thing done, usually on time, thank you.

If I’m forced to estimate, and it’s not something I’ve done many times before, I usually pick a figure and then double or triple that number, to give myself extra time. But I’m still usually wrong.

Sometimes, I choose a target completion date and calendar it. But I usually ignore that date because I know it’s an artificial deadline and there is no penalty if I miss it.

It’s hard being me.

It’s better for me to schedule a “start date” and/or dates to work on the project. Short deadlines, even of my own making, work better for me. They allow me to make progress without worrying about missing a day because there’s always tomorrow.

We all have our own ways and means of working and we all seem to get things done. Sometimes because we have to, sometimes because we want to and we keep working at it until it’s done.

Instead of asking, “How long will it take?“ I think a better question is the one asked in GTD: “What’s the next action?“ We may or may not work on the project, but at least we know what to do next if we do.

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Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: ,

If you want to be prolific, you have to do this

March 3, 2022 by
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If you want to be prolific, build more relationships, deliver more presentations, write more books or blog posts or articles, more than anything, there’s one thing you have to do. You have to let go of the need to make things perfect.

Perfectionism has been my “issue” for as long as I can remember. When you’re wrapped up in it, you’re wrapped in a straightjacket of your own making and artificially limit your accomplishments.

More content, more relationships, more good habits, usually lead to more good things happening in your life. Even if the things you create aren’t perfect, but merely good.

Remind yourself that you don’t have time for perfect. You have deadlines and goals and people who depend on you.

Set a different standard for yourself. Instead of going for 90% allow yourself to do 70%. Because unless you’re performing surgery, 70% is usually good enough.

In fact, remind yourself that “good enough is good enough” — because it has to be if you want to get more done.

If you want to be prolific, develop the habit of launching things before you think they’re ready.

That’s what I do. I want quality, but I’m willing to exchange some of it for quantity.

But here’s the thing. When I re-read something I wrote and thought wasn’t up to snuff, I usually find that it’s a lot better than I thought.

Here’s the other thing. Most people aren’t as critical of your stuff as you are. They either don’t notice or don’t care. (They’re worried about their own stuff.)

Another strategy I use is to push things out the door (before I think they’re ready) telling myself I can fix it later. What I often find is that by the time I’m ready to fix it, it’s not as important to me because I’m busy with something else.

Look, at our funeral, nobody is going to say we led a good life and helped many people but could have done a few more rounds of editing. They’ll look at the big picture, and we should too.

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Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity

Planning your day

February 17, 2022 by
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Some people say they don’t need to write a to-do list, they can remember everything they need to do for the day.

Maybe they can. Maybe they have just 3 or 4 things they need to do and they do pretty much the same things every day.

But most people are busier than that.

Can you remember all of the calls you need to return tomorrow? Do you know what your email inbox will bring, which new cases or clients will show up, which issues you will have to deal with?

Every day may be basically the same, but every day is different. And if you don’t write things down, you won’t remember.

The value of a written list, however, isn’t just the list itself. The value is in the process of making the list.

Writing a to-do list forces you to think about your goals and obligations and choose your priorities for the day or week. Thinking and writing leads to clarity and clarity leads to commitment, and what good is a goal or obligation if you’re not committed?

Writing things down also decreases anxiety. You know what you will do that day, and what you won’t do. You know you won’t forget something important, or be overwhelmed with too many boxes to tick.

You’ve already thought things through and you can focus on execution.

When do you make this list? You make it before your day (or week) begins. When the current day is over and you are no longer “executing,” you plan the following day. Give yourself ten minutes each afternoon or evening to review your calendar and your other lists and decide what you want tomorrow to look like.

And write that down.

Now, here’s the million dollar secret to making your list work for you instead of the other way around.

When tomorrow begins and you’re working your way through your list and calls and emails and letters come in, when you remember other things you need to do, don’t do them.

Write them down on the list for tomorrow or later in the week or next week.

You have a list for today. Work on that list today.

If you finish today’s list and you have time, you can look at tomorrow’s list and start working on it. But only if you want to.

It’s your decision. Your list works for you, not the other way around.

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Filed Under: Productivity
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