Time is fluid.  An hour of your time can hold as little as three email messages and a discussion with a colleague or it can provide the space for writing an entire 800 word article from start to finish.  There are work days where we get epic amounts done and others where we spin our wheels.

This morning I came across The Time LordManifesto by the Dennis Mortensen, Founder and CEO of X.AI.  I immediately knew I wanted to share it with you.  Mortensen says that “properly deployed, technology can help us live as Time Lords.” In truth the principles he sets out are less about technology and more about working in ways that maximize the power of our minds and energy, with technological tools providing assistance.

The first step is to take ownership of your precious time and to not let others squander it.  And to understand that rejuvenation time is as important as work time, as Mortensen writes: “spending every waking moment working leads to diminishing returns, so they [Time Lords] balance their work time with ample moments for contemplation and relaxation.

Have a read, and consider.  Where can you embrace the practices of a Time Lord?

The practice this week is simple, and really comes down to one question:

“Am I struggling with something right now that I could use help with?”

Help can mean a lot of things.

It can mean advice on a file. I have had conversations with numerous lawyers over the years who have made the mistake of trying to problem solve their way through a legal question that is out of their area of experience only to realize a little late in the game that turning to another lawyer for guidance would be the best course of action. This happens with lawyers in big firms – where help is around the corner, and with solo lawyers who are trying to do it all on their own.

Help can mean forming a relationship with a senior lawyer in your practice area for support and guidance. I recently connected a junior lawyer seeking to develop a new practice area with a senior lawyer from a small firm. They are writing articles together now and the senior lawyer is providing some valuable mentorship.

Help can mean getting some coaching support on a practice challenge.  It might be that you want to improve work efficiency, or you want to get better at business development, or you are wondering if it is time to make a transition to a different firm or practice. Whatever the challenge, getting confidential support can help you to actually progress vs. getting mired down in just thinking about it.

Here’s something most people don’t know. The best coaches have coaches. Why? Because good coaches know that coaching accelerates progress.

And on that note, I am currently working with a money coach, Sheila Walkington, who writes for this blog. This year I identified some challenges and decided to invest in some coaching to help me get a plan together and make some changes. Sheila is helping with that.

And throughout North America the various Lawyers Assistance Programs are there to offer confidential support to the profession on a wide variety of challenges. Derek LaCroix, QC, who contributes to this blog, has served as Executive Director LAPBC since 1996. Prior to that he was a trial lawyer for almost 20 years. Derek knows most everyone in the LAP community across North America and so can serve as a first point of contact for any lawyer seeking to access LAP resources in their region. Derek’s contact information can be found in the contributor section of the site.

Don’t go it alone. Whether it is simple advice on how to get your dog to stop chewing the furniture, or a complex legal practice challenge, don’t take too long to get assistance. I frequently hear – I wish I had contacted you sooner – and I never hear I wish I hadn’t asked for help.

Photo credit: torbakhopper / Creative Commons

Reposted from February 15, 2016

As we head into summer I wanted to share with a list of my favorite practice habits for productivity, stress-reduction, and working efficiently. Enjoy!

Morning Ritual

Open the day with a quick planning session. Review priorities and upcoming deadlines. Choose your top three priorities for the day (see the “Top Three” habit below).

Big Rocks

This habit comes from Steven Covey’s work. At the beginning of each week, identify one, two or three big and important things you want to move forward in the coming week – your “big rocks”. Our days are filled with email, phone calls and fighting fires, and it is easy for those “important but not urgent” projects to be pushed aside. There will always be emergencies to take care of, but this habit helps you to remain focused on priorities. Know your big rocks.

Top Three

On a daily basis identify one to three of the most important tasks to complete during the day. Write them on a slip of paper and keep it visible on your desk. Aim to get one or more of these tasks accomplished by noon. Your top three might include a big rock (see above) as well as other urgent matters that have come up.

Capture

Neuroscience has revealed that the mind’s executive centre – our prefrontal cortex- is sensitive, drains energy, and can only hold a small amount of information at one time. When we overload the cortex with our to-do lists and reminders we lose valuable cognitive capacity and experience a physical stress response in the body. This habit is about capturing all your to-do items in one spot. Carry around a notebook such as a moleskin, or use your phone to record all to do’s as they come up during the day. Take it with you to meetings, and home at the end of the day. When you are back at your office review the captured items and add to your to-do list. This practical and valuable habit prevents dropped balls, keeps your mind clear, and reduces stress.

Weekly Meeting with Yourself

Put it in your calendar and don’t book over it. Treat it with the respect you would give to a client meeting. Go somewhere where you can be undisturbed. If you stay in your office turn off your email and phone. Work on your big rocks (see “Big Rock” habit above) and to-do list, and schedule blocks of time for focused work.

If you want to get better at delegation, this habit will help. The weekly meeting is a chance to take a big picture look at what is coming up and to answer the question “what can I delegate?”

The weekly meeting is also useful for business development. Decide which clients/contacts you would like to see for lunch or coffee in the coming weeks and after the meeting shoot off a quick email to get those face-to-face meetings scheduled.

Prioritize by Complexity and Energy

This habit has three steps. First create a list of your tasks for the week. Next, divide the tasks into three categories, level one, level 2, and level 3 according to complexity. Then, consider your energy levels during the day and perform each task based on the appropriate fit of complexity to energy level. For instance, if you do your best work in the morning then that is the time for working on the most highly complex tasks.

Checklists

Develop checklists to guide you through managing complex projects such as transactions or litigation files. Save old checklists as precedents and at the beginning of a new project select a precedent checklist and update it with the relevant information. Complex legal work has too many moving pieces to carry in your brain. Checklists are one way to put the important information in one place and to then be able to work on the matter piece by piece.

Turtle Steps

This habit is for when you find yourself spinning your wheels or outright procrastinating on a big project. It is related to the checklist habit above. At times when a project or task is highly complex we can’t get a handle on how to start. We also might tell ourselves that we need a BIG block of time for it and until that comes available we put it off. The Turtle Steps habit recognises that every big complicated project can be broken down into smaller pieces. Sometimes the key is to open the file and start with a next steps review. Or just start to work on it for thirty minutes and when you have to put it aside take some notes to remind you of where you left off and what you were planning on doing next. The main thing is that as soon as you feel yourself stalling, stop, think again, and take the next small step.

Time Keeping

Cotemporaneous time keeping – that is, entering time as the work is done – is the best way to handle time keeping when you consider just how much cognitive resources are required to reconstruct time at the end of the day, or worse, days later.

Tips for developing a contemporaneous time keeping habit include:

• Work in blocks of time and start and stop your timer at the beginning and end of each block.
• Do email in blocks, for instance at the top of the hour, so that you can more easily capture your time on email.
• Recognise the “I will remember this later” for the thinking trap it represents and get the time down immediately.

(See my article with further tips for establishing a contemporaneous time keeping habit.)

One Thing at a Time

Our brains are built for focused attention and intellectual performance drops radically when multi-tasking.

Create zones for intense and focused work during the day. Choose a time during the work day when you are most productive. Turn off the email. Close the door. Focus on one project for up to ninety minutes. Notice the impact this practice has on the quality of your intellectual output. To help protect this time – which one of my clients calls “the vortex” – get your assistant involved. Let your assistant know this is your time for intensely focused work and ask them to help prevent interruptions.

Two Minute List

Start keeping a two minute action list. Here you will list all your short and snappy to do’s. During the day work in one or two 15 minute time blocks for clearing items off this list (see “Batch” habit below). This habit recognises that short two minute tasks are best dealt with in batches during the day in order to support our focus on bigger and more important tasks.

Batch It

Process email and two-minute tasks in batches. Schedule blocks of time for dealing with email or your two minute to do’s (see “Two Minute List” habit) periodically throughout the day. For complex emails with attachments print, read, and formulate a response at a later time.

Beat the Clock

When the priorities are piling up it is essential to move through the work as effectively as possible. Use a beat the clock habit to give each task the appropriate amount of effort and no more. Evaluate the task and assign a time deadline. Strive to complete the work within the set amount of time.

Run a Dash

There’s something you have been avoiding? Then set a timer and work on it for just 10 or 15 minutes. This works for everything from filing, to phone calls, or even the next step on a complex project. It is also great for business development – connecting with contacts over email, scheduling lunches, or sending a client a useful article.

Stress Buster

Follow the advice of Harvard cardiologist Dr. Bensen. When you feel your stress levels rising, pause for just one to two minutes. Place your hand on your heart and take a slow breath in, and then slowly exhale. Count off ten breaths. Your heart rate will slow and your stress level will decrease. This is a very simple and effective habit that sends a physical signal to your brain that you are relaxing and deactivates the stress response.

Listen First and More

The ability to focus and listen with full attention is a critical leadership, legal, and business skill. I had the opportunity recently to meet the CEO and founder of successful private equity firm who took listening very seriously. He had formerly been a partner at one of the top five accounting firms. He told me that when he started his firm he knew that listening would be vital to his success. To improve his skills he hired a psychologist to work with him and attend all his meetings. The psychologist observed the CEO in action and provided him with feedback on his listening skills.

The good news is you don’t have to go to the trouble of hiring a psychologist or coach to help you listen better. Start by setting the habit of always listening first. Listen first when you meet someone. Listen first in meetings. Listen first with your friends. To do this, you will need to also develop the skill of asking questions to get the other person talking. If someone beats you to an opening question, answer, and then ask them a question so that you can get back to listening. Challenge yourself to Listen First for a week and see what happens.

Closing Ritual

Set the timer on your cell phone to ring 15 minutes before your scheduled departure time. Tidy your desk. Prepare your list of priorities for the next day. Complete the daily time entry. End the day well for an optimal start to the next day.

Always chasing deadlines?

Feel like you are perpetually starting projects too late?

Want to get more productive?

If you answered yes to any of these questions you are in good company with the majority of your colleagues in the legal profession.

I have some good news for you.

One simple practice habit can have a big impact on productivity.  I call it the run a dash habit.

Here’s how it works.

To run a dash, set a timer and work on one or two blocks of 10 to 15 minutes to move a lot of small things forward on your To Do list. Or you can get a larger project started by actioning one small next step.

This works for everything from filing, to phone calls, or even the next step on a complex project. It is also great for business development – connecting with contacts over email, scheduling lunches, or sending a client a useful article.

To run a dash you break your projects down into the smallest actionable next steps and capture these on your To Do list.

Have lunch with the in-house counsel becomes send an email to schedule lunch with the in-house counsel.

Report back to the client on the result of the meeting and next steps becomes list key points to communicate to the client.

Waiting for the perfect moment to start is counterproductive. Instead, get started on big tasks early.

Our brains need time to process information and cognate. When we begin work on a difficult project and then set it aside, our powerful brain will continue to ponder it, silently, in the background.

Also, as our brain ponders in the background it is being exposed to a variety of other stimuli from our environment and this can help inspire new thoughts and promote creativity.

The result is that when we return to the task after a break of some minutes, hours, or days, we are likely to return with fresh ideas and insights.

The pace of legal practice is such that we are all likely to always be handling full plates of work. Leaving our big projects for the perfect moment is an exercise in futility and just means we will find ourselves in fire-fighting mode – again – when the deadline approaches.

I frequently employ the run-a-dash strategy with positive results. I always have a number of large projects sitting in my work cue. I now try and take an initial start on each of them well in advance of the deadline. What I find is that by getting started early, when it comes time for the big push I am already well on my way.

What can you take a run at today?