How to prioritize your daily tasks

October 10, 2013 by
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I use my own version of GTD (Getting Things Done) as the backbone of my productivity system. Every day, when I sit down to prioritize my lists and choose what to work on for the day, I choose three “MIT’s” (Most Important Tasks). If I get my MITs done, I call it a good day.

Some people recommend the 1-3-5 system: 1 big thing for the day, 3 medium things, and 5 small things. Others use the 3-2 method: three big things, two small things. And then there’s the ABC/123 method.

For me, “three things” is about right.

Many days, it’s just one or two MITs. The number really doesn’t matter. What matters is that I am effective because I’m getting important things done.

But how do you decide what’s important? How do you look at a long list of tasks and projects and select three Most Important Tasks?

I don’t know. I just do it.

Sure, there’s a certain amount of logic in the process. I look at deadlines and appointments and reminders. But more often than not, it’s my gut that tells me what to do.

In “The 4-Hour Work Week,” Tim Ferriss offers a suggestion for deciding what’s important. He says, “Imagine you’ve just suffered a heart attack and are allowed to work only two hours a day. What would you do during those two hours? And if you had another heart attack and were allowed a maximum of two hours of work per week, what would you do?”

Ferriss also says, “. . .requiring a lot of time does not make a task important,” and I agree. He is also a proponent of making a “don’t do list,” ignoring things that aren’t important so you can focus on what is, which I wrote about recently.

I like learning about new productivity systems. But most of them are too complicated and time consuming to learn and use. I like the simplicity of focusing on just “three things”.

If you want to know how to prioritize your daily tasks, start by acknowledging that some things are much more important than others. Think 80/20. A minority of tasks, perhaps 20%, will contribute to the majority of your results.

You’ll never get everything on your list done, and trying to categorize and prioritize hundreds of things that aren’t important, or as important, as your three things, isn’t efficient or effective.

This post is one of my MITs for today. Next for me is to finish another writing project. I’ll get to that right after I check my calendar.

I explain my productivity system in my Evernote for Lawyers ebook.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Increase Productivity with a Don’t Do List

September 23, 2013 by
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Most people say they don’t like meetings. They’re boring. Nothing gets accomplished. The same information could have been delivered by memo.

The leaders say, “We’ve got to make our meetings better.” They read books and attend seminars. They hire consultants. They buy better equipment.

The meetings improve. They pat themselves on the back. Success.

Or not.

Instead of trying to improve their meetings, maybe they should have eliminated them.

One of my favorite Peter Drucker quotes is, “Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.”

Go through your calendar. What meetings or conference calls could you safely eliminate?

Go through your tasks and project lists. What are you planning to do that should not be done at all?

Observe your daily work flow. Which steps could be eliminated? Which parts could be delegated?

Efficiency means doing things better. Effectiveness means doing the right things. It matters not how well you do things if they should not be done at all.

So try this: for the next seven days, compile a “don’t do” list. Write down everything you do that isn’t necessary or doesn’t contribute to your most important goals.

Take stock of whatever is left, whatever should be done. Look for ways to do them quicker, better, or more efficiently.

Make sure your partners and employees do the same. At your next office meeting…wait, never mind. Just send a memo.

Earn more and work less. Click here.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , , ,

How to do what you want (but can’t)

September 10, 2013 by
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Years ago, I was at a men’s store buying suits and got to talking with the sales person. He was very good at his job and I told him so. He thanked me and said that what he really wanted to do was be a writer. The problem is, he’s tried to write but can’t.

He’s got an idea for a novel, he’s got his characters, he’s worked out the story in his head, but when he sits down to write, nothing comes.

I made several suggestions, but he’s tried them all. No dice.

He’s tried dictating. He’s tried freewriting (writing whatever comes out without stopping to think or edit). He’s tried every technique for overcoming procrastination and writer’s block but nothing has worked. I got the feeling he was convinced that nothing will.

So he sells men’s clothing.

Today, I would probably say, “Well then, I guess you’re not a writer.”

Don’t hate on me. He needs some tough love. Fight back (and write) or admit that you are not a writer and go do something else. Living in the middle ground, “I want to, but can’t,” is hell. It will kill your soul and leave you, on your death bed, filled with regret.

Frankly, I think the guy needed therapy.

And yet, wanting but not doing is common. We all have things we want to do but don’t. We never start, because we don’t have the time. Or we start, but three weeks later, we’re off the wagon.

If you’ve ever started a diet, you know what I mean.

Want to know how to do what you want to do but can’t? Whatever it is–getting in shape, learning a new language, writing a book, or marketing your law practice, if you want to do it, but don’t, here’s my suggestion:

Do it today for two minutes.

Want to get in shape? Go walking for two minutes today.

Want to write? Get typing or scribbling and don’t stop for two minutes.

Want to bring in new clients? Take two minutes and send a “Hey, how are you these days?” email to someone you haven’t talked to in a long time.

It’s just two minutes. You can do two minutes.

Now you’re not going to write a book or get into shape in two minutes. But if you can do two minutes today, you can do two minutes tomorrow. Maybe in a couple of weeks you’ll be up to five minutes. Eventually, the thing you had trouble starting or sticking to will become a habit. What was once hard will be easy.

By starting small, you program your brain that writing or exercising or marketing isn’t hard. It’s something you can do. So you keep doing it.

Most people join the gym on January 1st and push themselves so hard and get so sore that by January 15th, they’re done. Don’t do that. Start small. Develop the habit.

I heard about a guy who has been going to the gym for ten years and is in fabulous shape. Like most people, he had trouble getting started. So, for the first three months, he went to the gym every day, sat on a bench and drank coffee. He said he wanted to develop the habit of going to the gym.

Start slowly. Do something every day. Eventually, you will become an unconscious competent (doing it without thinking about it) and your life will never be the same.

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

Bullet Journal: A paper based system for recording and managing tasks

August 21, 2013 by
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I was browsing the “What’s Popular” category on Youtube and saw a video about Bullet Journal, an analog journaling and note taking system. Basically, it’s a way to use pen and paper (or a Moleskine notebook) to record and manage your tasks, notes, and events.

What I like:

  • Pen and paper and Moleskine notebooks
  • The idea of having everything with me in one book
  • Writing on paper makes you think about what you’re writing
  • Low cost, always on, no batteries needed
  • The website. Great way to show you what it is and how it works
  • The title: Bullet Journal

What I don’t like:

  • Too much writing
  • Too much re-writing
  • Not good for projects (without a lot of re-writing)
  • Not good for recurring tasks (without a lot of re-writing)
  • You can’t move anything (without re-writing)
  • Writing on paper makes you think about what you’re writing (and maybe I just want to get it out of my head and not think about it)
  • I’ve already got a calendar

You probably know that I use Evernote to record my notes, tasks and projects. One place for everything and everything with me everywhere. If I wanted to go analog, however, the concepts behind Bullet Journal are appealing. But watching the video of what it takes to write and re-write tasks makes me glad I don’t use a paper-based system.

How about you? Do you use a paper based system? What do you think of Bullet Journal?

If you use Evernote, get my Evernote for Lawyers ebook.

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

The Productive Life Show interviews me about productivity, Evernote, and GTD

July 8, 2013 by
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I was interviewed recently for The Productive Life Show, a podcast hosted by Andy Traub and Daniel Gold. We talked about productivity, Evernote, and GTD (Getting Things Done).

You can listen to the podcast, download the audio, and read a transcript here.

During the show, I mentioned that I also use Workflowy, primarily for outlining. I said I hoped it would someday allow links to be clickable so that it would integrate better with Evernote (and other apps). I was just notified that this is possible, although I’m not sure when it became so.

What this means is that you can use Worflowy as the front end of your productivity system, managing lists of tasks and projects, and link therefrom to notes in Evernote where you have stored more detailed information such as webclips, articles, and documents (i.e., Word, Excel, images, etc.)

Of course you can also link to websites or other cloud based apps. This opens up all kinds of possibilities.

I’ll do a in depth post about Workflowy at a later date.

I had a lot of fun on the podcast and want to thank Andy and Dan for inviting me. I’d love to get your feedback about the podcast or any questions you might have about the subjects discussed.

The ebook: Evernote for Lawyers: A Guide to Getting Organized & Increasing Productivity

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

How do I get more referrals from other professionals?

June 11, 2013 by
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Attorneys often ask me, “How do I get more referrals from other professionals?”

Their clients may be willing to refer but not know many people who need their services. Their professional contacts, on the other hand, know lots of prospective clients but may not (yet) be willing to refer.

Here’s what I suggest.

Make a list of every professional you know who has referred at least one client to you in the last three years or has said they are willing to do so.

Let’s say you’ve got 30 names on the first list. Nine professionals sent you one or two clients. One sent you eight clients.

You know from yesterday’s post about how to get more referrals that one of the keys to getting more referrals is to give first. Give them referrals or find other ways to help them. But you have only so many referrals to give and only so much time you can spend helping others.

What do you do?

Do you focus on the 20 who said they would send business but haven’t? If you can get each one to send you just one client, that would be a nice bump.

Do you focus on the nine who sent you one or two clients, to see if you can encourage them to send you more?

What about the one professional who sent you eight referrals? It seems like they don’t need much encouragement. They are a proven source of business and you should probably spend your time finding more like them, right?

The answer is to spend MOST of your time with (and send most of your referrals to) the professional who sent you eight referrals.

When you find a spark, pour gasoline on it and build it into a raging bonfire. Pay attention to this individual. Give them your time and attention. Give them every referral you can.

When someone has demonstrated their willingness and ability to send you business, that’s who you want to focus on. You want to keep their referrals flowing. You want them to introduce you to their counterparts. You want them to promote your seminars and send traffic to your website.

Build your practice by helping them build theirs.

Next, turn your attention to the nine who sent you one or two clients. They have also proven their willingness to refer. Give them some love and see if you can increase their numbers.

How about the 20 who didn’t send you any? Well, don’t ignore them. Stay in touch with them. See what you can do to help them. They may waiting to see if you are serious about helping them before they “spend” their referrals on you. A referral or two from you may turn on the spigot.

Many professionals are able to refer but don’t because they already have another lawyer they are committed to. Others don’t because you have not yet earned their trust. But over time, things change. Nurture this crop of potential referral sources. One day, they may bear fruit.

Allocate your time as follows:

Spend 80% of your time with the professionals who have already sent you business, and twenty percent of your time with the ones who have not. Spend 80% of that 80% on the professional who sent you eight referrals, and twenty percent on the other nine.

If you want to get more referrals, give first. Give more to the ones who give back.

Ask me how I can help you get more referrals. 

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Referral sources, Referrals, Relationship marketing, Time Management Tagged With: , ,

Holy shitakes, Evernote adds reminders!

May 23, 2013 by
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Evernote announced today the addition of reminders on Mac, iOS, and their webapp, and promises to soon roll out the feature to Windows, Android, and other platforms.

This is big!

This long awaited feature is the missing piece of the puzzle for those of us who use Evernote for tracking our tasks and projects. We can now add a reminder to any note, include a date and time, and receive notifications via the app and email. For the first time, we can schedule future due dates (or “start dates”), without having to use a funky workaround.

If you have a document due in 60 days but don’t want to work on it right now, for example, you can set a reminder for, say, 45 days and forget about it. On the 45th day, you will be notified that it’s time to work on that document.

Which means you won’t have to put a reminder on your calendar or in any other reminder applications.

We are told they are working on many more features. I hope that includes multiple reminders. If so, then you can schedule the due date for 60 days hence, and a start date for 45 days. Recurring reminders would also be welcome.

I’ve just started using this feature but I can already say this is a very exciting addition to my number one productivity app. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Want to see my Evernote set up? Get my Evernote for Lawyers ebook.

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

I’m sorry, I don’t have time for time management

April 19, 2013 by
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So you’ve got a big list of things you need to do. You need to decide what to do first and how much time to give it. That way, you can better manage your time.

It’s called prioritizing: figuring out what’s most valuable and important and doing that first (or most).

Got it.

But how do you decide what is most important? Do you “gut feel” it? Or do you use some kind of system where you examine each task, one by one, and give it a grade of some sort, where A is more important than B, which is more important than C?

Harvard Business Review (via Lifehack) recommends the latter:

Break down activities you do into three categories: invest, neutral, or optimize. “Investment” pursuits are areas where more time and a higher quality of work lead to an exponential payoff, such as strategic planning. Aim for A-level work here. In “neutral” activities, more time spent doesn’t necessarily mean a significantly higher return. Attending project meetings is a good example. You don’t need to excel; a B is fine. “Optimize” duties are those where additional time leads to no added value and keeps you from doing other, more valuable activities. The faster you get these tasks done, the better.

Okay, let’s try it.

Today, I have two “most important tasks” (“MITs”) to get done. One is this blog post. The other is to finish writing the last section of the new course I’m working on.

If I follow the Harvard approach, today’s blog post would probably be in the category of Neutral, meaning it’s probably not worth putting in (a lot) more time to make it even better than it already is.

Finishing the course would probably fall into the Investment category because a paid product is judged at a higher standard and because there is a much higher payoff to me than a single blog post.

But here’s the thing. I already knew this. I already knew the relative importance of these two tasks, without spending any time thinking about it or assigning a label. How did I know? I just did.

But here’s the other thing. I need to do both of them today, albeit for different reasons. The blog post needs to get done because I have committed to doing a blog post every week day. The other project needs to get done because, well, I want to get it done and I decided that today would be the day.

I chose my MITs for the day by instinct or whatever you want to call it, and I didn’t have to spend time analyzing and labeling.

The third category is “Optimize,” which basically means “not very important so get them done quickly”. Sure, I’ve got a bunch of those, too. I probably won’t do most of them today and that’s okay. They’re not that important. But when I’m done with this post and done with the course (or done for the day in case I don’t finish), I may do one or two of these less important tasks. Or I may not. Hey, it’s Friday.

My point is that sometimes, the things we do in the name of time management take up more time than they’re worth. Analyzing, labeling, sorting, deciding–sometimes, we spend so much time working the system (and playing with apps), we don’t have time to get anything done.

If what you’re doing now isn’t working, you should explore and tinker and find something that does. But if your system is working, don’t change it.

Even if that system is nothing more than trusting your gut.

I use Evernote to manage my tasks and projects. See my Evernote for Lawyers ebook here.

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

Pick two: Good. Cheap. Fast.

April 12, 2013 by
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With any task or project, you have to consider the results you want, how long it will take to produce those results, and any costs. You almost always wind up with good outcomes with two of these three factors and not so good with the third.

You can vacation in Italy (good) this weekend (fast) but it won’t be cheap. You can lose weight quickly and cheaply by fasting for a week but it won’t be good (healthy).

If you have a document to prepare you can do it yourself (good, cheap), but if you’re busy, it probably won’t get done quickly. You can hire someone to do it and they might do a good job and do it quickly but it could be expensive. Or, you could hire someone that’s fast and cheap but not very good.

It’s all about choices. Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick two.

So, let’s see how this works with marketing professional services:

  • Blogging: Good, Cheap, (but not Fast)
  • Advertising: Good, Fast, (but not Cheap)
  • Networking: Good, Cheap, (but not Fast)
  • Speaking: Good, Cheap, (but not Fast)
  • Articles: Good, Cheap, (but not Fast)
  • Social media: Good, Cheap, (but not Fast)
  • Cold calling: Good, Cheap, Fast (but not a good idea)

Conclusions? Advertising can produce good results quickly so if you have more time than money and advertising is appropriate for your practice, you might include it in your marketing mix. Everything else is relatively inexpensive but good results usually take time.

Of course if you do it yourself (i.e., networking) you have to consider your time as an expense. It might not cost a lot of dollars, but if it takes up too much time relative to the results, it’s expensive.

Also, “good” is a relative term. You might get good clients from a given activity, but not a lot of them. Or, you might get a lot of clients but if they can’t or won’t pay what you charge, that’s probably not a good result.

It’s funny, the one thing lawyers don’t (can’t, won’t) do, cold calling, can actually produce good results quickly and cheaply. Fortunately, there’s something similar that you can do and it works even better: warm calling.

Call your clients and former clients and say hello. Fast, cheap, good results, almost guaranteed.

Marketing is everything you do to get and keep good clients. Click here for the formula.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Productivity, Time Management

Don’t let your reason why become your excuse not to

April 11, 2013 by
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You say that one of the reasons you want to increase your income is to have more free time. Time for family, hobbies, travel, fun.

Those things are important to you but you’re always working and don’t have enough time.

More free time is the “reason why” you want to earn more.

But then I hear you say you don’t have time for marketing. You’re too busy.

Do you see the problem here? You want time (your why) because you don’t have time (always working) so you use the fact that you don’t have time as your excuse for not marketing, even though marketing is what will eventually give you more free time.

It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

You’re letting your reason why become your excuse not to.

“But I have to do the work,” you say. You can’t slow down. It’s a Catch 22.

You could hire someone to do some of the work.

“I can’t afford to hire anyone,” you say.

Okay, now you’re being difficult.

You hire someone so you can work less so you can have more time for marketing so you can earn more so you can have more free time.

Try saying that ten times really fast.

It’s called leverage. Working smart. Treating your practice like a business.

You can’t wait for more free time to appear before you start marketing. You must start marketing to create more free time.

You can make money or you can make excuses, but you can’t make both.

I can teach you how to leverage your time. Click here.

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