Legal Ease Blog

On Balance Podcast on Productivity

I was privileged to join my How to Do More in Less Time: The Complete Guide to Increasing Your Productivity and Improving Your Bottom Line co-author Daniel J. Siegel on the On Balance Podcast for the State Bar of Michigan.

You can listen to the complete episode here. Make sure you listen soon, because there's a limited-time 20% discount available just for listeners!

We talked about:

• How the book came about
• What the biggest productivity challenges are that face lawyers today
• How to conduct effective virtual meetings
• How lawyers can deal with the changing tech landscape while maximizing the technology they already have
• How new technologies, including AI, will affect lawyers and their productivity and
• Some of our favorite tips from the book.

💡Want more tips? Subscribe to my newsletter. 🎥Or check out my YouTube productivity playlist.

Time Management Tip #5: Create a "Don't Do" List

If you’re one of those people with a never-ending to-do list, this tip is for you.

No matter how hard you try to list what you need to accomplish, instead of getting shorter, your list gets longer – new things crop up, unanticipated client problems arise, or a last minute emergency that “must” be handled today gets in the way. It’s frustrating, exhausting and ultimately, completely unproductive.

The answer may be a ‘don’t do’ list.

What’s a ‘don’t do’ list? It’s a list of the things you shouldn't be doing, tasks that could be delegated to someone else or outsourced, and all of the items that can be eliminated entirely (or eliminated for a specified time period).

Law school education trains lawyers to spot issues, but this issue spotting behavior isn’t the most efficient way to run a law practice. Issue spotting can lead to “analysis paralysis” by creating the feeling that every issue must be at least considered, if not addressed. This creates additional distractions.

Narrow Your Options

The ‘don’t do’ list counteracts this by narrowing your options so that you’re not overwhelmed by so many choices every time something new arises.

Having a ‘don’t do’ list lets you identify tasks you don’t want to do or that you shouldn’t be doing because they distract you and prevent you from accomplishing more important tasks; if it’s already on the ‘don’t do’ list, it’s easy to immediately recognize it and move on to more productive endeavors.

Make Your Own Don't Do List

How do you decide what goes on the ‘don’t do’ list? Anything that distracts you from the main goals that you want to accomplish belongs on the list. The ‘don’t do’ list can include day to day activities, specific types of clients or matters or behaviors that don’t serve you.

Think about your strengths and weaknesses when making your ‘don’t do’ list. Are you a great speaker but a poor writer? Maybe writing articles, motions, briefs, etc. should go on your ‘don’t do’ list. You can use a ghostwriter, hire a contract lawyer to do the writing for you, or give the task to someone else in the firm with excellent writing skills. Then you can focus your energies on trying cases, giving seminars or presentations, or other activities where you can showcase your speaking skills.

Which marketing activities belong on your ‘don’t do’ list? Marketing and practice building are very high value activities, but they’re only valuable if they are strategic - if they’re putting you in front of potential clients or leads, or if the groups or events are ones which you’re passionate about.

Prioritize: evaluate which groups or activities will be the most beneficial to you (or to the people or causes you’re supporting). Limit your participation to the most valuable events or organizations. You can get more value for less time, energy and stress. If the things already on the ‘to do’ list are more important or more valuable, these ‘invitations’ belong on the ‘don’t do’ list.

Although you need to be responsive and accessible to your clients and colleagues, a good ‘don’t do’ list might include particular days or times when you’re ‘off limits.’ Allowing constant interruptions of family or leisure time not only robs you of much-needed recharging and rest, but is a disservice to clients who are only getting part of your attention. The same goes for interruptions of important business or client-related activities. It’s rare that clients have a real emergency that can’t wait an hour or two for you to finish preparing your motion in limine or complete a meal with your family (and don’t try to do both at once – remember Tip #3: Give Up Multi-Tasking).

Practice areas can also be items to add to your ‘don’t do’ list; sometimes turning down work is the best decision you can make. If you aren’t well-versed in the particular area of the law, don’t have the time or resources to learn or don’t have someone to help you, you may be asking for more trouble than the case is worth.

Identifying the ‘don’t dos’ can be an effective tool for managing your time and reducing your stress. Knowing in advance what things you won’t do lets you move on quickly, without wasting additional time analyzing everything that comes to your attention.

The ‘don’t do’ list also reminds you to ask for help in the areas that aren’t your strengths, so you can focus our efforts on what you do best and what brings the most value to your clients and to your life. It allows you to let go of the idea that you can do everything and be everything to everyone. It’s a shorthand way of cutting through all of the clutter of what needs to be done so you can get back to providing great service to your clients.

Check out my other time management tips: 

Time Management Tip #1: Don't Try to Manage Time; Manage Your Activities

Time Management Tip #2: Get Everything Out of Your Head

Time Management Tip #3: Give Up Multi-Tasking

Time Management Tip #4: Prioritize

Time Management Tip #6: Use the Power of Three

Time Management Tip #7: Next Actions

Time Management Tip #8: Cure "I Need to See It" Syndrome

Time Management Tip #9: Do the Worst First

Time Management Tip #11: Create External Deadlines

Time Management Tip #12: The Two-Minute Rule

Time Management Tip #13: Schedule Time to Complete Work

Time Management Tip #14: Create a Daily Plan and Weekly Review

Time Management Tip #15: Eliminate Bad Clients

(This post was originally published on August 23, 2012 and was updated in January 2022. Versions of this post previously appeared on this blog, in Sue magazine, and in Law Practice Today).

Do Something! Inject Some Calm Into 2019 - Try Meditation

This might seem like an odd post for this blog, but it really isn't. I'm all about preventing Lawyer Meltdown, being more productive, increasing your bottom line and making the practice of law more enjoyable. Believe it or not, meditation can help you with all of those things.

I wrote about meditation and mindfulness before in this post, in which I reviewed the book The Anxious Lawyer.  And lawyer health and well-being have been getting a lot of press lately. A post in yesterday's "Your Voice" column of the ABA Journal online, 4 Strategies for Building the Habit of Lasting Resilience in the Legal Profession, highlights the growing importance of resilience and mindfulness for lawyers, referencing the ABA's Working Group to Advance Well Being's pledge for law firms to acknowledge that more needs to be done to improve the health and well-being of lawyers.

The article poses the question, "What are the most effective and efficient strategies for achieving this important goal?" and outlines four essential principles for implementing an effective well-being strategy. One of those principles is to form habits around well-being.

One of the well-being habits attorneys can begin to cultivate is meditation. While I've long been skeptical of meditation (or at least skeptical my own ability to meditate), the increasing deluge of information in today's world has made it incredibly difficult to turn off and 'tune in' to what makes us human and what connects us to other human beings on a deeper level than just scrolling through photos on our social media channels. For other reasons that I will explore in a future post, I think the ability to connect on a human level and to use our intuition will become increasingly important, particularly for lawyers, as technology continues to advance and artificial intelligence becomes more mainstream in the legal world.

Over the past several months, I've been working on meditating more frequently. It certainly isn't always easy and I admit that I  completely got away from my meditation practice (and it does take practice) over the holidays. Part of that was because my usual routine was to meditate immediately after working out. But I was hit with not one but two nasty colds and threw my back out all during the holidays, so, working out wasn't even on the radar.

None of that should have kept me from meditating.  Thinking about the power of habit and developing habits around well-being makes me realize that when the habit of working out went away, the habit of meditating did also because the two were linked. Perhaps that is something to keep in mind when developing habits - linking them is great for reinforcement, but the loss of one habit could create a domino effect with unintended consequences.

But I digress, so I'll do what I do when my thoughts start taking over in meditation - simply recognize it and return to the practice. Back to meditation.

As we begin this new year of 2019, I'm re-committing to make meditation a part of my regular routine, if not daily, then at least several times a week. I find that by giving myself permission to slow down and let go of everything - even for a few minutes - I can be more productive with the rest of my day. And ironically, the days in which I have the most to do or the most pressure are the days when meditation seems to help the most - if I make the decision to carve out the time to do it. It helps me clarify my thinking and makes it easier to let go of things that aren't important or that create unnecessary stress.

As a beginner at meditation, I'm not yet comfortable just meditating on my own, so I've tried out a few meditation apps. The one I like best at the moment is Insight Timer - a free app available on iOS and Android. Insight Timer categorizes meditations into 7 categories: Mindfulness, Visualization, Gentle Repetition, Movement, Sound, Concentration, and Self-Observation. There are literally thousands of meditations available from all over the world - some guided, others just with music, ambient sounds or bells, or you can just use the app to set a timer for your desired length of meditation. 

One of the things I like about the app is that it keeps track of your meditation time and the milestones you reach when meditating, which helps you keep the momentum going once you start meditating. Habits require reinforcement, after all. And apparently I'm not the only one who enjoys using Insight Timer - according to this article, 63% of those who use meditation apps in the U.S. are using Insight Timer - that's three times more than any other meditation app.

If Insight Timer isn't for you, there are many other meditation apps available. For a calmer and more productive 2019, why not give one a try? Even 5 or 10 minutes can make a big difference. Just don't give up too soon - the more you practice, the better you'll get at it, and doing it "badly" or letting your thoughts intrude on your meditation practice is just part of the process.

Let me know in the comments if you already meditate and why, or if you decide to give it a try, let me know and tell me what you experience as a result of employing this new well-being habit.

 

 

How to Run a More Efficient & Profitable Small or Solo Law Practice with Virtual Receptionists

Guest post by Maddy Martin of Smith.ai.

 

When you’re running a law firm on your own or with just a couple partners, you’re shouldering more than just lawyering work. Responsibilities for administrative, marketing, and operational tasks fall on your shoulders, and there’s only so much time in a day. Finding ways to take work off your plate that don’t require your unique skill set as a lawyer means more time for profitable (read: billable) work.

Virtual receptionists have been a popular choice for small-firm and solo lawyers for over a decade, to help them minimize distractions and gain efficiency. But many attorneys are still reluctant to take the leap and hand-off tasks that take up precious time. The most common reasons related to a lack of comfort, trust, attention to detail, comprehensiveness of services, and personal touch.

To be sure, not every virtual receptionist service delivers enough value to warrant their payment, setup, and coordination. An answering service that only answers calls and takes messages will provide limited value. But, having a remote receptionist service that does that, plus schedule appointments, qualify leads, intake new clients, return calls, and other significant and valuable tasks is wholly worthwhile.

If you’re not yet using a virtual receptionist service, here are 5 major ways it can help you streamline your law firm’s operations to maximize efficiency and profit.

 1. Lead Capture & Qualification (Plus, Monetize “Bad” Leads)

 New leads come from referrals, Facebook, Google, Avvo, and many other sources. You might even be paying for ads or premium placements on these sites. When a potential client sees your law practice and calls with a need for services, if you don’t pick up, they’re off to call the next firm. Chances are, it doesn’t matter whether or not they left a voicemail; they’re not waiting for a call back. If they completed a form on your website, then it’s just a matter of how quickly you respond. A receptionist service that offers lead qualification can ensure you’re capturing and assessing new leads as soon as they come in, whether they’re reaching you by phone or email.

How do these services qualify your leads? They do it based on your custom criteria. Do their needs align with your practice area? Are they in the right county? Are they willing to pay your fees? These are just a few of the questions your receptionists can use to filter out the great leads from those that won’t convert to real clients. Provide the essential questions you need your receptionists to ask leads, and they’ll capture the “good” ones.

As for the “bad” leads, a receptionist service can also help you monetize those, so the call isn’t a wash. Many attorneys earn referral fees by passing clients to attorneys in other practice areas, in other counties, and with lower fees. Just provide the list of your referrals and any instructions for the correct types of clients to pass to each one, and your receptionists can refer “bad” leads to them. If they end up working with that recommended attorney, you’ll earn your referral fee.

 2. New Client Intake

For the good leads, the process doesn’t stop at qualification. Remote receptionists can also complete new client intake. Just provide your public intake form link that you created in your CRM to your receptionists, and they’ll complete it on the new lead’s behalf during their first call. Contact information, as well as basic details of their need for an attorney, will be captured and passed directly into your CRM, taking away the need for a follow-up call or the work of taking notes from the call and copying and pasting it into your CRM.

3. Appointment Scheduling & Reminders

Once the new client intake is complete, the next step in the process is often to schedule a call-back or in-person new client appointment with you or another attorney at your firm. Your receptionist service can handle this for you, too. All you need to do it is provide access to your calendar so the receptionist can see when you’re available. They won’t be able to change or edit existing events -- they’ll only create new ones -- so there’s no risk of them changing anything on your agenda. (Note: If you use Google Calendar, Outlook, Office 365, or iCloud Calendar, a free service like Calendly makes securely sharing your calendar with a receptionist service easy.)

Before a new lead’s or existing client’s appointment, you can also request that your receptionists call leads and clients to remind them, which prevents no-shows and cancellations that waste precious time.

4. Follow-Up: Case Updates & Payments

 Hunting down clients to provide case updates and capture payment is a royal pain and can be time-consuming. Maybe a court date was changed, another document needs to be signed, or a payment installment is past due. Whatever follow-up is needed, your receptionists can take care of it for you.

You can even go the extra mile and have your receptionists reach out proactively to clients who haven’t heard an update on their case in a while or who have recently completed work with you. For example, a receptionist can call recent clients and capture information on their satisfaction with the work you completed for them. If they express positive sentiments, the receptionist can use the call as an opportunity to request a positive review on one of those sites that generate leads for your business, which builds your online reputation.

 5. Automated Workflows

Tasking your receptionist with the duties mentioned above needn’t require ongoing, hands-on maintenance and oversight. When you first get started with a receptionist service, they can capture all the required FAQs, lead-qualification criteria, new client intake questions, appointment scheduling directions, and payment processes, so calls are handled seamlessly without the need for your receptionists to bother you with “How do I…” questions. Your receptionists follow your unique workflow, so administrative and operational tasks that they’re handling on your behalf become automatic.

You can even set up certain processes to gain even greater efficiency. For example, if you have a lead form on your website that captures information from potential clients looking to hire you, every time someone completes that form, you probably receive an email with the same “New Lead” subject line. In your email settings, you can auto-forward these emails to your receptionist service and they’ll call them back quickly, increasing the chance you reach them before they’ve contacted another attorney.

Whether you’re busy or just looking to reduce interruptions in your day, these automatic call-backs by your receptionists can increase efficiency and result in more leads converting to clients, both of which improve your bottom line.

Choosing the Right Virtual Receptionist Service

It’s important to note that not every live, remote receptionist service offers lead qualification, new client intake, and outbound calls. Make sure you ask about these features when shopping around.

 Maddy Martin is the head of marketing for Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists, which offers all of the above services and more. If you’d like to sign up for Smith.ai or simply test it out with a 30-day/10-call free trial, you may do so online at https://smith.ai, by phone at (650) 727-6484, or by email at [email protected].  

Legal Ease Blog readers get $50 off your first month with code LEGALEASE. This code can be used in combination with your free trial, for a total savings of $110. I may receive a small commission if you use this link, but it's a huge savings for you!

 If you have questions about virtual receptionists and how they can help your firm be more efficient and profitable, Smith.ai support is available Monday through Friday between 6 AM and 6 PM PST at (650) 727-6484 or [email protected].

Time Management Tip #15: Eliminate Bad Clients

Remember the "Don't Do" list from tip #5?Some clients may belong on your “don’t do” list. Every lawyer has horror stories about bad clients, clients they never should have agreed to represent, matters they should not have agreed to take on or that got out of control and caused a financial loss. 

In order to keep your best clients coming back and referring additional work to you, you must ensure that lower value clients are not taking the place of higher value clients. One way to keep focusing on the highest value clients in your practice is to get rid of the bottom tier of your clients.

The 80-20 Rule

You may be familiar with the 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, in which 80% of your work comes from 20% of your clients. Twenty percent of your clients will cause 80% of your problems.

Focusing on your best clients, rather than on your worst clients, brings a big return. Unfortunately, in reality, the bad clients tend to get more of a lawyer’s time and attention than the good clients.

Consider firing your “nightmare” clients, clients who don't pay on time or aren't the proper fit for your practice - your practice will benefit, and so will you.

Don't Be Afraid to Fire Bad Clients

While the idea of firing clients might be a scary one, allowing bad clients to pull your focus from your highest value clients can be even more detrimental to your practice.

Bad clients drive out good clients. If your practice is filled with lower value clients that don’t value your work, that are price sensitive, or whose work you just don’t feel like doing, you won’t have room in your practice to take on the higher value clients. And you’ll shortchange your existing high value clients because you’ll be focusing on the problem clients.

You might be afraid that turning away the client isn’t a prudent financial move. But not all clients are profitable. Consider the damage that bad clients do to your bottom line, your stress level, your focus and ability provide quality work not only for the bad client, but for other clients as well.

Bad clients and/or low value matters (or matters that are a bad fit for you):

• Drain your energy
• Make it more difficult to concentrate on the matters you’re handling for your best clients
• Prevent you from seeking additional work from your good clients
• Cause you to turn away business from a potentially good client because you’re too busy working on lower value matters or with bad clients
• Sabotage your productivity
• Increase stress and anxiety

Is it time for you to get rid of some clients? Perhaps there’s another lawyer in your area who needs additional work, or that is a better fit for your “bad” client’s personality or the type of work that client wants or needs. Now is the time to pull out your “go to” list.

Being busy isn’t the same as being successful or profitable. Getting rid of bad clients makes room for you to take on additional, higher value clients – and chances are that your higher value clients will be less price sensitive. Often, you can make more money with less high value clients than you can with high volume practice filled with lower value clients.

Getting rid of less desirable clients is only part of the solution. Once your practice is free of bad clients, you’ll want to keep it that way by not taking on those problem clients in the first place. You’ll need to put some systems in place to help you determine at the outset which clients are good clients and which are bad ones so you can send the bad ones packing before they cause trouble for your practice. 

This post is excerpted from the upcoming book, How to Do More in Less Time: The Complete Guide to Increasing your Productivity and Improving Your Bottom Line, which I co-authored with Dan Siegel, due for publication later this year by the ABA Law Practice Division. 

 

 

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Resolutions for Client Service

Excellent Client Service Commands Higher Fees

Time Management Tip #14: Create a Daily Plan and Weekly Review

Do you have a plan for the day, or do you constantly just react to what comes up – emails, telephone calls, or other interruptions? If you’re just reacting, you aren’t getting the most important things done, and it isn’t likely that you’ll have much focus.

Before every day, week or month begins, you should know what you plan to accomplish. When you have a plan, it’s much easier to say “no” to interruptions. If those interruptions aren’t actually urgent AND more important than what you already have planned, don’t let them distract you. 

Create a Daily Plan

Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed or paralyzed by the amount of work you need to accomplish. Instead, use your prioritizing skills to determine every day which actions or tasks are the most important and make sure those take center stage in your day. Don’t let smaller, “urgent but not important” activities get in the way. If you’re a perfectionist, don’t let your obsession with getting everything ‘right’ overwhelm you or prevent you from accomplishing your goals.

Next, estimate the amount of time each activity will take to accomplish. Don’t be stingy with your estimate; estimating too little time will add stress and confusion to your schedule.

Finally, decide on a specific time when you will perform that activity and physically schedule it on your calendar. Make sure you leave some empty space or ‘downtime’ on your calendar in addition to the personal and family time that you schedule. And leave room for the ‘chaos factor.’

Be flexible: recognize that the schedule is not entirely set in stone. It is likely that there will be last minute emergencies, unforeseen circumstances or client crises that must be addressed. That’s further evidence that what doesn’t get scheduled and isn’t urgent, isn’t likely to get done.

More often than not, you probably react to whatever is in front of you, rather than determining in advance what you want to accomplish. If scheduling time on your calendar for important tasks allows you to complete them even half of the time, it’s probably a lot more than you’re doing right now.

The advantage to setting specific times to accomplish important tasks is that as soon as the crisis or emergency has passed, you can return to your schedule without missing a beat. Leaving your schedule to chance is much more likely to deteriorate.

Do a weekly review

Choose a time each week to review the work you need to accomplish and create a plan for the upcoming week. Many of my clients have more success doing their weekly planning on Thursday, rather than on Friday, when they are trying to get out the door for the weekend. Mondays work for some, but waiting until the week has already begun is not the best strategy for most. It's easier to enjoy the weekend when you know you can hit the ground running on Monday morning with a pre-set plan so that you can get right to work.

Use your calendar to plan not only deadlines, but time to complete work. When unforeseen circumstances arise, revise the plan as necessary, moving your appointments to complete work the same way you would reschedule any other appointment.

As part of your weekly review, ensure that your plans cover all aspects of your practice, including marketing, management, administration, business development and client work.

Related articles

Time Management Tip #11: Create External Deadlines

Time Management Tip #6: Use the Power of Three

Time Management Tip #4: Prioritize

Time Management Tip #13: Schedule Time to Complete Work

Your calendar most likely contains court dates, closings, client meetings and other appointments that occur on a specific date or at a specific time. It also probably includes deadlines, such as the last day to file a motion or brief, the day you promised the client you would provide them with a draft of  a document, etc.

In Time Management Tip #11, I talked about creating external deadlines - deadlines that you share with others for completion of tasks that don't have a built in deadline - in order to ensure that those tasks get done. 

But creating and documenting deadlines is only the first step. Next, you've got to actually do the work - you need to write the brief, prepare for the client meeting, draft the documents, write the marketing copy, etc. Some of my earlier tips, including prioritizing and using the Power of Three can help you decide which projects or tasks to tackle first and keep your to-do list from becoming overwhelming, but your calendar can be an important tool as well.

Instead of just entering a deadline into your calendar and adding the task or project to your to-do list, schedule time on your calendar to do the work necessary to complete it. Some people call this "time-blocking;" you block a specific period of time on your calendar to work on the task. You don't necessarily need to block all of the time necessary to complete the task at once; try simply blocking time to complete the next action necessary to move the project forward.

Treat each time block as you would an appointment with a client, with only slightly more flexibility; if something more pressing arises that you must do during the time scheduled to complete the task, instead of simply not doing the work you'd planned, move the appointment to another place on your calendar.

Using this method will help you to cure "I need to see it" syndrome, because the task or project will be on your calendar as a reminder, which means you won't need to keep the file, paperwork or other reminder in your office or on your desk to remind you to complete it. But it will also help you to better track your progress on open items, more accurately estimate the time it will take to complete them, and reduce the likelihood that you will be completing tasks at the last minute.

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danmoyle/11178388835/

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Time Management Tip #10: Delegate

Time Management Tip #11: Create External Deadlines

Time Management Tip #12: The Two Minute Rule

Time Management Tip #12: The Two Minute Rule

In the U. S., tomorrow is Independence Day, the celebration of our nation's freedom, celebrated on July 4. And since the Fourth of July falls on a Thursday this year, that means many offices will be closed on Friday for a long holiday weekend. So lots of you are probably in 'clean up' mode, trying to get your desk cleaned off and some tasks completed so you can have a clear conscience and enjoy the holiday. In other words, it's a great time to employ David Allen's Two Minute rule from Getting Things Done.

The essential premise is this: if, while you're cleaning off your desk, sorting through the piles of mail or paperwork that has accumulated in your office, you come across something for which the next action you need to take will take 2 minutes or less to accomplish (like making a quick phone call or entering something on your calendar) you should do it right away. 

Of course, this means that you'll need to get in the habit of thinking about what the next action is on anything you come across (see Time Management Tip #7 for more on next actions).

In other words, don't put that piece of paper in another pile or stop and take the time to write yourself a note or add the task to your 'to do' list - those things will take just as long as simply accomplishing the task then and there.

This can be especially helpful when dealing with email - as you go through your email inbox, think about whether you can dispose of an email entirely by taking action right away, rather than reading through all of your email messages and then expecting to go back and address each one later.

Start using the two minute rule today - chances are you'll have a much smaller pile to come back to after the holiday weekend. 

Related articles

Time Management Tip #8: Cure "I Need to See It" Syndrome

Time Management Tip #7: Next Actions

Time Management Tip #3: Give Up Multitasking

Time Management Tip #1: Don't Try to Manage Time, Manage Your Activities

Time Management Tip #11: Create External Deadlines

Some tasks and activities get done and goals get met, even if they get done at the last minute after late nights at the office. Usually, those goals, tasks, or activities get done because they have built in deadlines.

Deadlines create urgency. When we discussed prioritizing in tip #4, we talked about the fact that “urgent” tasks tend to get done. For example, when you have a scheduled meeting with a client or a hearing date for a motion, somehow the preparation work gets done on time. Those deadlines create urgency and provide a framework within which to structure your activities.

But what about those activities that Steven Covey calls “important but not urgent?” Those are the tasks that often get carried on a never-ending to do list because they do not have built in deadlines even though they are the activities that will make the biggest difference to your practice – they’ll save you time and money or generate more revenue in the long run.

One way to actually get these “important but not urgent” tasks done is by creating external deadlines. Even concrete goals are useless without external deadlines. Without a ‘drop dead’ date for accomplishing a particular task or activity within your practice, chances are you’ll never manage to get around to accomplishing your goal. This is particularly true when the goal or activity doesn’t immediately strike you as urgent or doesn’t directly affect a specific client engagement.

Steps to making external deadlines work for you

1. Decide what goals you’d like to accomplish.

Use the Power of Three from tip #6 for big goals - focus on just three. Or choose smaller, discrete tasks to work on (like getting through that pile of periodicals on your office floor, cleaning up your file room, creating a template for one specific document, etc.).

2. Choose an outside deadline for accomplishing each goal.

Choose a deadline that is a bit of a ‘stretch’ for you, or that will take a concerted effort on your part to reach, but that isn’t so unrealistic that you’ll blow it right away. In other words, don’t make the deadline too short so that it’s impossible, but don’t make it so long that you put the activity or goal right back on the back burner again.

3. List the steps you’ll need to accomplish to reach the goal, and set deadlines for each step (or at least for the first step).

For example, if one of your goals is to get a website up and running, steps could include things like choosing a web designer, deciding on a style, creating the content for the pages, choosing a web host, etc. Even those steps can be broken up into smaller steps. (Think Next Actions from tip #7). Choosing the deadline for the final outcome won't be as meaningful if you don't create interim deadlines for the smaller steps that need to be accomplished to reach that goal.

4. Make the deadline an external one.

One of the reasons that deadlines are effective is that there are consequences for your failure to meet them. If you don’t file your motion timely you may be precluded from making the argument; if you don’t complete the contract, the client’s deal might fall through, etc.

But “important, not urgent” tasks often have no consequences (or at least no immediate consequences) if you fail to complete them.

Setting your own deadlines – and even putting them on your calendar – may have failed in the past. That may be because those kinds of deadlines are internal – you’re the only one who knows about them, so they are easy to ignore.

These deadlines need to be external. That means they need to be shared and have consequences.

The most important aspect of setting external deadlines is making those deadlines have meaning outside of your own personal wish list or calendar. The way to make deadlines external is by sharing them with someone else, and by asking them to hold you accountable for accomplishing your goals.

The nature of your goal will determine who to share it (and the deadline) with and what the consequences for failure to meet it will be. Sometimes it’s an attorney or staff member within your office. Other times, a consultant or colleague is more appropriate. Often, sharing your goals and deadlines with clients is the most effective way to accomplish your goal.

Why external deadlines work

External deadlines use the power of peer pressure. They work because they act like commitments to other people, even if the only one that really benefits is you. Nobody likes to break their word or fail to fulfill a promise to someone else. Nobody likes to look like a failure or give the impression that they can’t follow through.

External deadlines also work because they create a support system for your efforts where you wouldn’t normally have support. When you share your deadlines with others and ask them to keep you accountable, you’ve created a cheering section – and perhaps even an offer of help. At the very least, you’ll have moral support.

For example, if your goal is to go through the publications on your office floor, your assistant may be the most appropriate person to share the deadline with. Most likely, your assistant will be just as happy as you are to see the clutter disappear. And your assistant can help you, either by actively going through them with you or by helping to clear your schedule and reduce or eliminate interruptions.

Publicize your deadlines

To make your external deadlines truly effective, publicize them.

Plan to ramp up your business development efforts this summer? Devise a seminar topic and set an external deadline. Publicize the date on your website, do a press release, and/or send a mailing to your clients notifying them of the seminar. Short of canceling the event, there’s no way out.

Want to finally get that website up and running? Choose a launch date and send postcards to clients and strategic alliances letting them know when you’ll finally be on line. With this much build-up, you’re much more likely to get moving on the project.

If a task or activity is truly important to you and your practice but it doesn’t have a built in deadline, create one. Then, to be sure that you won’t wriggle out of it, make the deadline public by sharing it with someone else.

Try setting external deadlines for some of the “important, not urgent” items on your list and let me know how it works for you by leaving your comments!

Time Management Tip #9: Do the Worst First

When I was a kid and I had to eat something I didn't like (like broccoli, spinach or mushrooms), I learned that if I ate that item first, it was much easier; I had the rest of my dinner (the parts I liked) to look forward to (and to drown out the taste of the awful stuff).

If I saved the offending item until last, it would take forever to finish my meal (and my parents wouldn't let me get up until I was done). Not only that, but I didn't enjoy the good parts of my meal because I kept thinking about the pile of yuck I still had left on the plate.

The same thing is probably happening to you in your law practice. Let's face it - not everything you do as a lawyer is enjoyable; not every case is interesting and not every client is a joy to work with. But the more you avoid the tasks, clients and cases that you dislike, the less productive you're likely to be - even in other areas.

One of my favorite "time management" tips is, "Do the Worst First." Do you have a "dog" of a file that has been sitting around because no one wants to deal with it? Or an important project that you know will be time consuming or uncomfortable? (They may even be cluttering up a corner of your office gathering dust if you're a victim of "I Need to See it Syndrome.")

These may be precisely the tasks you should prioritize as important but not urgent. Do those tasks first. Get them out of the way and keep them from cluttering up your thinking and pulling focus from the other things you’re working on. 

Often, the offending task isn't as bad as you thought it would be, but even if it's awful, you'll feel better when it has been completed. You'll be free to focus on everything else that needs to be done -and you'll find it is much easier to do so when your mind is clear of thoughts about that nasty task or file.

Then again, perhaps the task is one you are avoiding, but not one that MUST be accomplished by you. Perhaps you can employ the strategy my friend used when she fed her vegetables to her dog when her parents weren't looking - in other words, find someone who actually likes performing that particular task (or someone who is lower on the totem pole than you, but can still get the job done) and delegate* it to them.

*More on delegation to come in a future post.

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Time Management Tip #8: Cure "I Need to See It" Syndrome