My kingdom for a system

March 28, 2018 by
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I have a system for doing the dishes.

First, I survey the kitchen to make sure I’ve got everything either in or next to the sink. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’re finished and finding you forgot a glass or two.

Next, I put the silverware in a pile in the sink. I get it out of the way so I can rinse the plates and glasses and load them in the dishwasher, which I do next.

Then, I rinse the silverware and put it in the dishwasher and add soap. Now I have room in the sink to do the big stuff (pots, platters, etc.), which I leave to dry in the washboard or in the sink.

Finally, I clean the countertop and stove.

This may sound obsessive to you but I think it’s logical. It allows me to get everything done as quickly as possible, or at least believe that it does.

Anyway, it works for me.

I have systems for a lot of things. I’m told that productive people do. But I don’t have (or don’t follow) systems for everything.

I check email much more frequently than experts say I should. I don’t always follow the “2-minute rule,” e.g., processing emails that take 2 minutes or less on the spot. Inbox zero: often but not always. Weekly review? Don’t ask.

I’m also inconsistent with writing projects. Sometimes I start with an outline, sometimes I just start. Sometimes I finish quickly, sometimes projects linger for months.

I believe in systems (or “routines” if you prefer). I know they save time, reduce effort, and help you focus on what’s important. And, when I follow a system, I like the hit of dopamine I get each time I (mentally) check off the next box.

So why don’t I have systems for more things? And for the systems I do have, why don’t I follow them consistently?

I don’t know. Because I’m a flawed human being? Or maybe because not everything is as simple as washing dishes.

Here’s my system for getting more referrals

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2 easy-peasy techniques to stop procrastination

March 16, 2018 by
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You’ve got something you need to do but you’ve been putting it off. Maybe it’s unpleasant. Maybe you’re not ready. Maybe you’re not sure you can do a good job.

It doesn’t matter why you’re procrastinating. All that matters is that you’re not doing something you know you need to do.

There are many techniques for dealing with procrastination but one is about as simple as it gets. It’s called the ‘5 Second Rule’ and it goes like this:

As soon as you have an urge to do something or the recognition that you need to do it, start doing it within the next 5 seconds.

It’s like pulling off a bandage. Don’t think about it, do it and get it over with.

Since this is a habit you’re trying to develop, you might need a little help. Try a “five-second countdown”. As a kid, when I was tired and didn’t want to get out of a warm bed on a cold morning, I would do a countdown–5, 4, 3, 2, 1-and then spring out of bed.

What can I say, it worked.

Another technique for dealing with procrastination goes by a similar name. It’s the ‘5-minute rule’. Here, you commit to doing the task for just 5 minutes.

You can do just about anything for 5 minutes. Then you can turn your attention to something else. “I’m just going to work on this file for 5 minutes; then I’ll watch that new cat video”.

What frequently happens, of course, is that once you begin (and see that it’s not as bad as you thought and it feels good to make some progress), you’ll want to continue. 5 minutes turns into 15 or 30.

Use the 5-second rule and 5-minute rule together and you might be amazed at what you get done.

How to use your website to make your phone ring

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

A simple way to get more done in less time

March 6, 2018 by
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You’ve heard that multitasking is less efficient than doing one thing at a time. But do you know why?

The answer is that we’re not really multitasking. That’s a misnomer. The term implies that we’re doing two (or more) tasks at the same time. In truth, our brains won’t allow this. What we’re really doing is “task switching”.

We may switch rapidly from one task to the next but according to research, the simple act of constantly switching tasks can cost us up to 40 percent more time.

Apparently, when we stop one task and start another, in order to help us focus, our brains go through a process of shutting down the rules it is following for the first task and opening up a different set of rules for the task we are about to switch to.

Minimize task switching, and you might be able to get the same amount of work done in five hours that would otherwise take eight.

To minimize task switching, we should do whatever we can to finish one task before starting another. That means giving ourselves a big enough block of time to complete a project, or take it as far as we can, in one sitting.

Researching and writing a brief for a solid two hours is better than doing it 30 minutes at a time.

If you have smaller tasks, do them in batches. For example, do all of your research or make all of your calls during the same block of time.

And, minimize distractions and interruptions. Turn off your phone when you’re working on a writing project. Make sure your staff knows not to disturb you. Because according to other research, every time we get interrupted or distracted, it takes an average of twenty minutes to get back to where we left off.

Step-by-step: How to get more referrals

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Are you a perfectionist?

March 1, 2018 by
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I’m told that perfectionists tend to achieve less and have more stress than other folks.

The struggle is real.

In addition, perfectionists are more prone to procrastination. Because they worry about not doing things right, they delay starting or finishing. They often do nothing at all.

If this sounds familiar, take heart. Most (all?) accomplished people like you and me struggle with these issues, at least some of the time.

But there’s hope.

Sometimes, when I find myself procrastinating, I tackle some of the easy parts first. As you check off items on the punch list, you build confidence and momentum. Continuing is easier than a cold start.

I might review my notes, make a list of ideas, or gather up my research. I might draft some language or brainstorm some of my options.

When I don’t feel like going on my walk, putting on my walking shorts takes me a step closer to getting out the door.

Sometimes, I do the hard things first. I eat those frogs. Once I get something difficult or intimidating out of the way, the rest is much easier.

While starting is the hardest part, finishing is the most important.

How do you finish things you’re having trouble finishing? I don’t know, I’m still working on that.

Joking aside, one thing I do is try not to “break the chain”. I have an app for tracking my daily walking. It gives me visible feedback about my progress (and a little fanfare when I hit the daily goal). What can I say, it helps.

Another thing I do to finish is to focus on the process, not the outcome. With writing, for example, I don’t dwell on word count, I just make sure I do the work every day.

I also bribe myself. I promise to reward myself as soon as I finish things. For example, when I finish this, I’m going to play around with a new app I just downloaded.

Okay, as soon as I get back from my walk.

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Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity

Getting clarity on a project or goal

February 22, 2018 by
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Whenever you have a big project, decision, or goal, and you’re not sure what to do or do next, here’s something that might help. It’s something I did when I was studying for the Bar exam.

I took all of my outlines and reams of notes and reduced them down to a single page. On one page (of paper), I had a summary of the entire subject. Notes, keywords, lists, definitions, examples.

Most of it was greatly abbreviated, of course, but I knew the material well enough that a single keyword was all I needed to remember a concept or case. By putting everything on one page, drawing arrows to indicate relationships or causality, and underscoring and highlighting for emphasis, I had a clear picture of what I needed to know and remember.

The process of distilling everything down to a single page helped me to understand the essence of the subject. I discovered what was most important and how everything related to everything else.

Try this for your next trial or big project. Try it when need to decide what to do next. Gather up all of your notes, ideas, resources, and research. Write down your questions, doubts, obstacles, and opportunities. Put everything in one big pile. Then, work your way through that pile and reduce it down to one page.

If you start with 100 pages, go through those pages and consolidate notes, eliminate marginal ideas, and re-write your words. Sift and sort and distill those 100 pages down to 20 or 30. Go through those pages and reduce it to 10. From 10 pages, you might get it down to three. Then, from three pages to one.

That one page summary of your project or idea may not tell you everything you need to know. But the process of creating it will.

How to get your website to bring you new clients

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Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity

How do you handle this calendar issue?

February 8, 2018 by
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An executive secretary to the CEO of a fortune 50 company handles his calendar. When he has something due, a paper or a project, she enters the due date on his calendar. Then, she asks the executive how much time he needs to complete the project once he begins. If he says, “two weeks,” she records a date on his calendar two weeks before the due date, reminding him to begin the project.

Okay, due dates and start dates. Nothing new here.

She takes it a step further. She asks her boss how much prep time he estimates he will need before he begins the project—to do research, talk to people, gather his notes, and so on. If he says he needs a week to do that, she calendars a date one week before the start date, reminding him to do the prep.

One project, three dates in his calendar.

I like this. It allows the executive to do other work without having to think about the project until his calendar tells him to. In the past, I’ve calendared start dates and due dates but never a “prep” date.

Maybe I should try this?

Then I remembered that I’m not very good at estimating how long many projects will take. I also remembered what has happened to me in the past when I’ve scheduled start dates and due dates. Too often, they don’t stick and I wind up moving the dates, sometimes repeatedly, and my calendar becomes a mess of unfinished (and unstarted) projects. It makes me feel out of control, which is the opposite of what was intended.

No bueno.

I use a more fluid system now. Unless there is a fixed due date for a project, I start when I’m ready to start and finish when I’m done. I think a little more structure might benefit me, however, but I’m not sure what to do.

Should I calendar prep, start, and due dates for projects that are amenable to this but eschew it for others? Should I try to force myself to get better at estimating how much time I will need, and better at sticking to those estimates?

How about you? What do you do about calendaring projects that don’t have a due date assigned by the court or someone else? What do you about estimating how long a project will take? Do you use a different system?

I welcome your thoughts.

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Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With:

Cleaning up your email inbox

February 5, 2018 by
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How much of your day is spent writing and responding to email?

Yeah, a lot.

When you don’t get through it, not only can bad things happen (mistakes, missed opportunities, unresolved problems, broken promises, etc.), these “open loops” weigh on your subconscious mind and bedevil you. (The Zeigarnik effect is the psychological tendency to remember uncompleted tasks.)

So, if you don’t have your email inbox under control, here’s a reminder to make it so and a checklist of what to do, courtesy of David Allen (Getting Things Done):

  1. Take out the trash. Go through the inbox and delete everything you don’t need or want. Just do it, already. (Or, archive them if you’re not sure.)
  2. Use the “two-minute rule”. Any actionable emails that you can read and reply to (or complete the required action) in two minutes or less, do it.
  3. Tag/file/label “waiting for” items. If you ordered something and you’re waiting for it arrive, if you tasked someone to do something and you’re waiting for them to complete it, move the corresponding emails to a folder or label them accordingly. (I forward them to Evernote.) Tip: when you confirm by email that someone will do something, cc or bcc yourself and label that email “waiting”.
  4. File/tag “action” items. Anything you need to do that will take longer than two minutes should be filed in an “action” folder or tagged or labeled accordingly. (If forward these to Evernote, too).
  5. File reference material. For emails that don’t require action but you want to keep, move them to their own folder or tag or label them. (Once again, I forward these to Evernote.)

When you’re done, your inbox should be empty. I did this several years ago, over a period of several days, and it felt great to get it done. Everything was out of sight and in the place it needed to be and I knew where to find it. Nothing screaming at me for attention. No open loops.

Try it and let me know what you think. (I already know what I’ll do with your email.)

Evernote for Lawyers

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Filed Under: Email, Productivity Tagged With: , ,

The objective of every productivity system or methodology

January 24, 2018 by
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If you’re like me, you read a lot of article and books, watch a lot of videos, and try out a lot of apps, looking for the Holy Grail of productivity.

Even when things are working smoothly, you continue looking for ways to improve.

I think that’s fine. Wherever you are in life, you always want to do better. As long as you don’t spend more time searching and tinkering with your system than using it and getting things done, continually seeking improvement is a good thing.

But have you ever asked yourself how you can tell when you’ve found the right tool or method?

As I see it, there are two ways to tell.

The first way is quantitative. You track your results and establish a baseline. Then, you change something and compare those results. Are you getting more done with the second method? Is the other tool helping you to accomplish more important goals? Are you able save time or money or energy using one method versus the other?

Unfortunately, these questions are often difficult to answer.

You may not be able to measure accurately. Outside factors or timing may affect results. The new system may help you in some areas but hurt performance in others.

Like relationships, it’s complicated. Which leads to the other way to know you’ve found the right method.

You’re probably thinking I’m going to say something like “trust your gut” and you’re right. But I won’t leave you hanging. I’ll offer you some words of guidance I heard David Allen use to describe the objective of every productivity system or method.

He said that no matter what you use, the objective is to help you feel “relaxed, focused, and in control”. So ask yourself if your current method or system does that.

If it does, don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Keep doing what you’re doing but be open to incremental improvements.

If your current method doesn’t help you to consistently feel “relaxed, focused, and in control,” however, your next project should probably be to find something that does.

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Filed Under: Productivity

Barf happens

January 11, 2018 by
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The cat threw up last night. At 3 am. By the time I fell back to sleep it was an hour later and I got up late.

I started writing (my first time block) about an hour later than scheduled. I just got back from my walk. I’ll get this post done and out to you, so that’s good, but I am behind schedule. I can absorb this into my admittedly not very busy day but if this happened to you, would you be able to do the same?

There will always be interruptions, delays, emergencies, illnesses and other things that throw you off schedule. The question is, what to do about it?

A few thoughts.

First, you have to understand that this is a normal part of life and you have to be okay with that. Don’t panic. Roll with the punches and carry on.

If you miss doing something completely, do it later in the day, double up tomorrow, or stay late and get it done. The occasional weekend make-up session is okay, too. If none of this is possible, don’t fret about it. And don’t get rid of the cat.

Second, build dams between your blocks. Don’t schedule blocks of time immediately following other blocks (or other appointments), give yourself a buffer. Ten or fifteen minutes between appointments or scheduled tasks should be enough to cover you most of the time.

Third, do what you can to minimize or eliminate interruptions, distractions, and delays, before they occur. Tell your staff when you won’t be available and not to interrupt you. Turn off your phone. Close unnecessary tabs on your browser. And keep track of the interruptions and delays that do occur and make notes about how to handle those situations when they happen again.

Because all you can do is all you can do. And because barf happens.

When was the last time you conducted a referral blitz?

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Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management

Taking a look at ‘time blocking’

January 10, 2018 by
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Not long ago, I mentioned my horror at the idea of using your calendar to schedule your entire day (in 15-minute increments). Apparently, some folks do that. More power to them. It’s not for me.

On the other hand (when you’re a lawyer, it’s good to have more than one hand), I’ve recently been reading about how some people use their calendar to manage their day and what they do makes sense to me. Instead of breaking up the day into bite-sized segments of time, they schedule blocks of time that are dedicated to important projects or groups of tasks. Because it’s on their calendar, an appointment with themselves, they do them.

When I first heard about this, I balked because, being invested in GTD, I see the calendar as a place to record appointments and other must-do time-oriented tasks.

Once I saw how other people use time blocking, however, I realized that it’s not inconsistent with GTD, as long as you are committed to keeping those appointments with yourself.

Anyway, here’s what I’m doing right now.

I scheduled a one-hour block for writing. I do that first thing.

I scheduled a second block for my walk. I was already walking every day so this was just a matter of putting it on the calendar.

And I scheduled a third block for writing my blog post/email and doing other tasks associated with the business such as answering email.

By 11 am, I’m accomplished my MIT’s (Most Important Tasks) for the day. I’ve got the rest of the day to do other tasks, do more writing, read, work on small projects, take a nap, run errands, or whatever.

So far, so good. I like getting my MIT’s done early. If that’s all I do on a given day, it’s a good day.

Do you use time blocking? GTD? How do you use your calendar to manage your day?

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