I often refer to the “Focusing Question,” posited in the book, The One Thing: ‘Ask yourself, “What is the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary”.’ My usual advice for lawyers, of course, is to improve your marketing. 

And I’m not going to change my mind about that today. 

There’s nothing more important or remunerative than getting better at bringing in new business and keeping it. 

But there is something that is a close second.  

If you’ve read me for a while, you won’t be surprised to hear me say it is, “improve your writing”. 

Yes, many lawyers have brilliant practices or careers without being talented writers. Trial lawyers might be good orators, for example, business lawyers, good negotiators or networkers, and those skills can more than make up for any deficiency they might have with a pen or keyboard. 

But any lawyer can be even more successful if they are also good writers. 

But you know this. You’ve heard me talk about it enough. About how improving my writing helped me build my practice and several successful businesses. 

For one thing, writing is a key component of marketing. Yes, you can delegate or outsource much of your writing, and many successful lawyers do, but for instructing those writers (and/or ai) about what you want done, and making sure you get it, there is no substitute for having some writing chops yourself. 

Besides, the most effective writing you do will come from you. And only you. 

Improving your writing will help you create better content, achieve greater engagement with your clients,  your social media crowd, and your professional contacts. You’ll get more repeat business and referrals and build your professional reputation, all with the power of your words. 

Improving your writing will also help you create better content and better work product, and do it faster. If it now takes you two hours to write an article, but you can get to where you can do it in 30 minutes, would that be valuable to you? 

Writing is also a competent in thinking, planning, and strategizing. The more you write, the better you become at formulating ideas and plans. 

So, how do you get better (and faster) at writing? By writing. You can benefit from reading books and taking courses, but there is no substitute for putting your butt in the chair and pounding out words. 

Hold on. I know you already do a lot of writing. It’s a big part of what lawyers do.

Do more. 

Write something other than your regular work and do it every day, even for 5 minutes. “Free write” to limber up your writing muscles and let your words pour out onto a page. Don’t worry about how good it is. Nobody will see it until you show it to them, and for now, you don’t have to do that. 

Write a journal, scribble a half page of ideas, or re-write your notes about something. The idea is to move your hand and spit out words and do that as often as possible. 

When I started, I did it first thing after I rolled out of bed, yes, before coffee. With my brain half awake, I was less critical and learned to write freely and naturally. 

Was it any good? No. That came later. But it came, and if you keep at it, it will come for you. 

Yesterday, I said you have all the time you need to market your practice. I used the example of creating content, which might seem to be problematic for a lawyer who has a lot to say and feels they have to say it all.

Fear not. You really can write an article or blog post in 30 minutes, if you do these three things:

(1) SCHEDULE IT

If you write “when you have the time,” you’re unlikely to do much writing. When you commit to a writing schedule, however, put the days and times on your calendar, tell your subscribers when to expect your next post, and tell your staff not to book any appointments for you during those times, you’ll be much more likely to keep your schedule. And because it is a commitment, when the deadline is approaching, you’ll work quickly to get the work done.

(2) TOPIC

Despite committing to a schedule, it’s human nature to find excuses for not sticking to it. One of the most common is “not knowing what to write about”. The simplest way to overcome this is to maintain a running list or file of topics you can choose, and continually add to it.

• Keep a list of ideas in a file or in your second brain. Collect ideas, articles by others, notes from books or videos, and copies of content you’ve created before because you can create new content by updating it.
• Read a lot. You can write what other lawyers write about, for example, agree with it or disagree, or write from a different angle.
• Write a lot. You’ll get better at finding topics and angles and ideas related to them, and get better and quicker at writing.
• Choose your topic the day before so can get right to it. Your idea might be a single sentence or you might note your lead or intro, bullet points, examples or stories, or your conclusion. 

(3) WRITE LESS

By “less,” I mean shorter articles or posts. When you know you only need to write a few paragraphs or a few hundred words, you’re less likely to resist starting and more likely to finish.

Give yourself 10 to 20 minutes to write a first draft and 10 minutes to edit. 

Yes, that means you have to write fast. And that’s the point. 

An article doesn’t have to be lengthy or scholarly. You don’t need to include every argument or example or write perfect prose. 

Good enough is good enough and you can get good enough done in 30 minutes. 

For more ways to write quickly, see this

Some clients and prospects don’t want to know how you make your sausages. They just want you to deliver the meal. 

Some clients and prospects want to know everything. 

They want the details. What you do, how you do it, why you do it this way instead of that.

Many lawyers don’t provide a lot of details. Probably because they think their clients aren’t interested. But maybe they don’t want to go to the bother of explaining.

But they should explain.

Providing details, the step-by-step procedure, the method behind the madness, gives a client confidence in a lawyer and the legal system. And shows them why that lawyer earns more in an hour than they earn all week. 

Give people the details about what you do and how things work. If a client doesn’t want to know everything, they don’t have to read everything. But I guarantee they will like knowing that you know all the details. 

This goes for your services, your operations (how you run your office), and your content. Err on the side of telling them too much rather than too little. 

When you describe your services, for example, explain the steps you take and the reasons you take them. Don’t just tell them the what and when, tell them the how and why. 

You’re good at explaining things. Explain things. And show your readers where they can learn more. 

Because people want to know.

I don’t have anything planned to write today, so I’m going to do an experiment. I’m going to write whatever comes into my mind, to prove that in a pinch, I can write something cogent and useful. 

I ordinarily have an idea set aside about what I want to write the following day. Nothing elaborate, just a few notes or bullet points. Yesterday, all I had was a one-sentence quote from author Ryan Holiday about deciding what you want to get out of something you’re about to read before you read it. That one sentence was enough to get me started and it turned into 300 publishable words. 

A simple writing prompt, in this case that quotation, can be enough to start with because it taps into the subconscious mind, which is filled with information, memories, ideas, questions, and answers we’ve stored. We think about them or remember them and spit them out onto the page.

Sometimes, more often than you might think, this is all we need to write a workable first draft.  

But it takes practice. Writing every day strengthens your writing muscles and makes you a better (and faster) writer.

And that makes you better at everything else you do in your practice.

To develop your writing skills, I suggest you schedule time for daily writing practice. Even 15 minutes helps. You can write about anything. Or nothing. Jot down something you saw or heard or thought about or want to know.

And do it again tomorrow.

Sometimes, you’ll turn a good phrase and want to share it. Sometimes, you’ll write something you want to bury in the backyard. It’s all good. It’s just practice.

Eventually, with enough practice, you’ll be able to quickly write a decent first draft. Even when you have no idea what to write about. 

Like (I hope) I did today.