Productivity Archives - The Attorney Marketing Center

Separate the planning from the doing

December 10, 2024 by David M. Ward

I used to call it a “weekly review” but now I call it “weekly planning” because I don’t just want to look at what I’ve done, I want to figure out what I need to do next.

Whatever we call it, why do we do it once a week instead of more often? Because we need some quiet time to step back from our busy week to reflect on the big picture. During the week, we need to focus on getting the actual work done.

Planning requires a different state of mind from doing.

When we’re planning, we’re relaxed and thinking about the future. When we’re doing the work, we’re focused on making the calls, drafting the documents, and negotiating the cases.

It’s better to break up the planning and the doing into two separate tasks, and do them at different times. It’s more efficient that way and produces better results.

If you’re writing an article, for example, choose the topic a few days or a week before you do the actual writing. This allows your subconscious mind to “think” about the article ahead of time and find better arguments and examples that make your article easier to write and more effective.

Whether writing an article, planning your week, or starting a new project, give yourself some space between the planning and the doing.

Filed Under: Productivity, Writing

How was your day? No, really?

September 19, 2024 by David M. Ward

When it comes to productivity, I usually finish a task, tick the box or cross it off the list and move on to the next one.

Busy, busy, busy.

Sure, I take notes and update the file, but I do this as quickly as possible because there’s so much more to do.

It makes sense to spend a moment or two reflecting on what we’ve done, thinking about how we might do it better.

But I usually don’t.

I just saw a video that is making me reconsider.

Besides a “to do” list, the presenter suggests we keep a “did do” list. Write down what we did, our results, and our thoughts about how we can improve.

Most of us take on too much work each day, are often overwhelmed (and exhausted), and wind up doing our work mechanically and quickly so we can get it done. We focus on quantity rather than quality. We get a lot done, but the more we do, the less satisfied and productive we are.

Maybe it’s better to do fewer tasks, get better results, and feel better about ourselves.

Keeping a “did do” list, reflecting and not just doing, might be a way to accomplish that.

Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity

It’s okay to break the chain

June 28, 2024 by David M. Ward

Don’t break the chain is a mantra about building habits by steadfastly refusing to miss a day or week or whatever schedule you commit to. It was popularized by Jerry Seinfeld who, at the beginning of his career, committed to writing at least one new joke every day, followed by making a big X for his wall calendar. Those check marks formed a chain, giving rise to the statement, “Don’t break the chain”.

Good advice. We build habits by what we repeatedly do and being accountable to doing them makes it more likely we will.

The problem is, Seinfeld has denied saying this or even doing it. No matter, it’s still good advice. When we’re tired or busy and don’t feel like doing the task, reminding yourself to not break the chain can help you maintain the habit.

I do it with my writing. Every week day, I write and post an article. I’ve been doing that now for several years and I’m glad I do.

But I’ve also broken the chain.

When I do, sometimes, I re-post something I wrote and published in the past. Sometimes, I don’t. Because I know that if I miss a day (and break the chain), I can just start again (and I do).

You can, too.

If you miss a day or week of writing, hitting the gym, calling a prospect or client, or depositing money in your precious metals saving account, it’s not the end of the world.

Just start again.

What’s important isn’t having a perfect record. It’s that if you miss, you care enough to start again.

Your intention counts. If you regret missing a day, the habit still exists. If you don’t at least think about missing the day, you weren’t serious about making it a habit.

Don’t beat yourself up when you miss. Just start again.

New day, new chain.

Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity Tagged With: habits

The key to managing your time

April 30, 2024 by David M. Ward

You have a lot of tasks on your list. You know what to do, how, and why, but do you know “when”?

“When” you will do a task is the key to effectively managing your time.

If you know when, and schedule the day (and time), you’re more likely to do it. If you don’t know when, you may not do it at all.

Our days are full. Once we complete our scheduled tasks (appointments, meetings, calls), we might not have enough time or energy to do other things.

Which means we often won’t do them.

I’m not advocating time-blocking our entire day or giving everything a due date. But maybe we should give everything a “do” date.

When you schedule when to do something, you’ve decided it’s important. If you don’t know, everything becomes “someday/maybe” and that often means “never”.

Decide “when” you will do the task and schedule it. Mark the day and time on your calendar or tag it on your list. If you’re not sure of the time, at least schedule the day. If you’re not sure of the day, at least schedule the week.

You can always change the day or week. But to do that, you’ll need to reconsider the importance of the task, and then renew your commitment to doing it or remove it from your list.

Look at it this way: if a task isn’t important enough to schedule, maybe it’s not important at all.

What if you’re not sure when you will do it? Schedule a date and time to review the task and then decide.

Because “when” is the key to managing your time.

Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management

A few thoughts about GTD contexts

April 26, 2024 by David M. Ward

Getting Things Done (GTD) teaches us to identify our tasks by context—location, people, tools, and so on—so we can do things when and where we’re best equipped to do them.

I stopped using most contexts a long time ago, since I can do just about anything from just about anywhere.

Calls, emails, reading, writing—I can do from the office in my pocket.

I still use the @waiting and @errand contexts, but not much else.

I’m going to take another look at my use of contexts, however, based on a short video I saw which makes the case for contexts based on “time plus energy”.

GTD has long recommended contexts for time and energy, but I like the way the presenter combines them:

Short Dashes: Tasks that require more than 2 minutes but less than 15 minutes. Most calls and emails fit here, don’t they?
Full Focus: Tasks requiring maximum energy, no distractions, and longer periods of time; deep work.
Brain Dead: When you can’t do anything that requires a lot of thought.
Routines: Your weekly review, exercise, writing a blog post.
Hanging Around: Tasks that don’t require a lot of time or energy and don’t have a deadline, e.g., light research, organizing notes, buying something online.

What do you think? Do any of these appeal to you? Do you already use something similar?

I like “Brain Dead” or “Hanging Around,” especially for things I can do after I’ve shut down work for the night. I’ll give this some thought later today.

But first, I have some “Short Dashes” to take care of.

I’m travelling today; this is a (slightly edited) re-post from 2021.

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: Contexts, gtd

Not motivated? Try this…

April 23, 2024 by David M. Ward

You don’t want to do it. You might not want to do anything. You’re in a funk.

Action is the cure for what ails you.

The good news is it doesn’t need to have anything to do with the task you’re avoiding. Any meaningful action you take can reset your brain and get you back on track.

Grab a sheet of paper and write down one thing you would feel good about getting done today. It doesn’t matter what it is, or how big it is, only that it’s something you would like to get done.

It could be sending an email to someone who’s asked you a question, jotting down bullet points for an article or letter or brief you need to write, or reviewing a file and thinking about what’s next.

Once you choose something, do it. A small win is a win. Enjoy it. It might be all you need to snap out of it and get back to work.

If you’re still resisting, set a timer for 25 minutes (Pomodoro), or if you’re not up to that, set a timer for 5 minutes, and work on the task. When you’re done, you should feel a bit better. Energized, maybe. Feeling a hit of dopamine from completing a task on your list.

You can also reward yourself by doing something fun. Watch a short video or play your favorite game for a few minutes. More dopamine.

By now, you may feel ready to tackle the thing you’ve been avoiding. If not, do something else meaningful, continue doing that, building momentum, until you are ready.

If that doesn’t happen, if you’re still not up to it, take the rest of the day off and start over tomorrow. New day, new you.

Filed Under: Productivity

Who, not how

March 26, 2024 by David M. Ward

When you have a task to do, before you start, ask yourself ‘Who can do this for me?” Delegating or outsourcing work saves you time, leverages other peoples’ skills, and lets you focus on what you do best.

This philosophy and practice has been game changing for me.

In fact, in my practice, my motto was to “Only do what ONLY I can do (and delegate everything else).”

You might want to follow suit.

It’s not always easy to do. We resist delegating things because we believe we do them better, but that’s not always true. I’ve had employees who did things I could never do as quickly, efficiently, or as well.

We also resist because it’s risky to entrust certain tasks to other people. If they make a mistake, we pay the price or we have to spend more of our time fixing their mistake. But while that is generally true, crunch the numbers and you’ll see, in the long run, you come out ahead.

“It’s quicker and easier for me to do it myself.”

Also not true. Yes, we have to invest time training and supervising others; the question is, is that investment worth it? For me, it is almost always more than worth it.

So, that leaves our egos. We don’t like the idea of turning over our work, our important clients, to other people. But you get used to that. Especially when you see how much more profitable and satisfying your work is. And, did I mention how much more profitable it is?

Will it be as profitable for you?

Make a list of the things you do that ONLY you can do and imagine what it would be like if you could spend almost all your time doing just those things.

Yeah. . . it’s worth it.

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

Your hobby can make you rich

March 12, 2024 by David M. Ward

We hear stories about the entrepreneur who turned their love for classic cars or cooking or tinkering with computers—their hobby—into a successful business. But that’s not the only way a hobby can make you rich.

The other way, the way most of us will do it, is to use our hobby or outside interest as something we do solely because we enjoy it. It’s fun. Interesting. A way to relax and get away from the pressures and demands of our work and responsibilities.

You work harder or smarter when you give your body and brain that break.

You like watching videos about your favorite sport or app or indulging in another so-called guilty pressure. When you’re stuck in traffic or a boring meeting, you want to take a mental vacation for a few minutes and think about something you’re looking forward to doing later.

Do it. Without guilt. For no other reason than you enjoy it.

If you don’t, if you continually deny yourself because you have more work to do, more responsibilities to take care of, you might eventually come to resent your work. A brief respite can help you recharge and take the next lap.

But don’t go in the other direction. You still have work to do.

Give yourself a few minutes at lunch or after work to read a chapter in your current novel or the sports page. Play a word game or shoot some bad guys after you’ve finished your research or made one more call.

Your hobbies may not literally make you rich, but if they make you happy, your life will be infinitely richer.

Filed Under: Dealing with stress, Productivity, Wealth

Do I really need to do this?

February 26, 2024 by David M. Ward

Lawyers use a lot of checklists, don’t we? We figure out the steps, the best order to do them, and get to work. When we tick all the boxes or complete all the steps, we know we have left nothing out. The next time we do that task or work on that type of project or case, we don’t have to think about the steps again, we just do them.

It’s efficient. Unless we wind up doing things we don’t need to do.

That’s why, instead of automatically following our list, we should routinely ask ourself, “Do I really need to do this?”

Ask yourself if you could eliminate that task or skip that step. Because if you can, you can use that time for something else.

More time to do other work you need to do. More time for marketing. More time to rest or have a little fun.

Over the course of a day or week, you might reclaim hours of time unnecessarily spent doing things you don’t need to do.

So, every day, ask yourself, “Do I really need to do this?”

Do you really need to attend that meeting every week? Would once a month be sufficient? Do you really need to go at all?

When you review a case or prepare a client for depo or arbitration, is every step necessary? Could you do any of them more quickly? Do you have to do everything yourself, or could you delegate any steps?

Any task you eliminate frees up valuable time. Any task you can do in 5 minutes instead of the usual 20 minutes does likewise. It might only be a few minutes here and there, but those minutes add up.

How often do you check your email? Could you safely do that twice a day instead of the 4 or 5 times you’re used to?

Look at your calendar. Is there an upcoming task or event you could eliminate? Is there anything scheduled for 45 minutes you could do reasonably well in 25?

Eliminate whatever you can. Cut wherever you can. Would something bad happen if I didn’t do this? Could I skip that step or do it in two minutes instead of ten?

Remember, every minute you save is a minute you can use doing something else.

Filed Under: Productivity

Flexible task planning

February 23, 2024 by David M. Ward

We all have good days and bad days. Busy days and days we don’t get a lot done. Days when we’re full of energy and days when we need a nap.

So, why do we plan our days assuming we’ll always be at our best?

We’re not always at our best. Sometimes, we’re tired or ill or overwhelmed. We don’t feel up to everything. Other days, we feel great and are ready to take on the world.

Instead of rigidly planning our days, assuming we’ll be able to work at full speed, what if we create two versions of our day’s schedule?

Bare minimum (to use when we’re tired, feeling sick, overwhelmed, feeling down, etc.)
Crushing it (when we have lots of energy and feel like doing everything)

When you’re tired or feeling bad, you do the bare minimum. You take care of deadlines, important obligations, things that can’t wait. You get through the day and live to see another.

And, when you’re full of energy, excited about the day ahead, you put on your Superman cape, look at your other list, and crush it.

In other words, you pay attention to how you feel instead of following a rigid schedule.

You don’t literally need to make two lists. Just put a star next to everything on the list that qualifies as “bare minimum”.

Most days, you probably feel somewhere in the middle. You do more than the minimum, but probably less than you might do when you’re fully charged. With two versions of your day’s list, you can ramp up or scale down, depending on how you feel.

Of course, there will be days when you feel good in the morning but poop out in the afternoon. Or high energy early in the week and low energy as you approach the week end. That’s another way to use your lists.

I know, we’re told consistency is our friend and we should make a schedule and stick to it no matter what.

But hey, Superman never gets sick or tired, but the rest of us need some options.

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: tasks