Time Management

How to work smarter, better, and get things done faster

Time is a non-renewable resource, and as such, one of the most precious ones we have.

As a lawyer, executive, and a professional, you’re probably wearing multiple hats in your effort to get everything done.  However, wearing all those hats makes it incredibly easy to get distracted, lose focus, and waste valuable time on things that are not mission-critical. Here are ten tips to help you stay on track.

1. 80% is good enough and still better than most.  Remember this key phrase from Sheryl Sandberg: Done is better than perfect.  As a driven leader, you’re likely a perfectionist, which means that you might be getting in your own way. Remember that not every activity carries the same value or weight.  Focus on turning out results by giving yourself deadlines according to the value of the activity and sticking to them.

2.  Live by High Value Activities.  Resolve to never have another day that ends with you saying, “I didn’t get anything done today.”  Plan the three most important things you can do each day to make the biggest impact on your business, and then be willing to make changes in your schedule to ensure you do those three things first or as early as possible in the day.  Once those three things are done, you can give attention to the other items on your to-do list, handle the interruptions, and attend meetings– and you will still leave the day knowing you accomplished something.  

3. Schedule ALL Action Items into Your Calendar.  Don’t wait until you “have time” to complete important things. You will never have that “time” you are waiting for.  If you have empty or “free” spaces in your calendar, people will fill them (either you or someone else). Just like water, unimportant activities will expand to fill the available space.  Block off time in your calendar for research, preparation, working out, and travel time– and then just follow your day.

4. Don’t Multitask.  Many studies show that multitasking is ineffective. (Take my word for that–you don’t have time to go look it up!) You will be more efficient and productive if you focus on one thing at a time.  Give your tasks a measurement of time, quantity or dollars. Then tackle that one item for the measure you assigned. Be sure to communicate through your calendar, a sign on your door, an auto email message, or the do not disturb button on your phone to let people know when you are (and are not) available so they too can self-manage and know what to expect.

5. Delegate everything that is outside your Strength Areas.  Focus your time and energy on profitable activities.   Surround yourself with people who are smarter, better, faster, and more experienced than you, and then delegate to them!  You’ll be glad you did.

6. Block out your schedule in chunks or by the day.  Monday is my admin and business-building day–it makes it easy for me to know where I need to focus and what is most critical for me to do that day. I don’t have to think about it, or wonder when I’ll get other things done. Those other things all have their places in my business and in my week. You can easily do the same by “chunking out” your schedule.

7. Save time-draining activities for the end of the day.  You know your personal time-drains: social media, email, etc. Whatever wastes your time the most (but still needs to be done) should be done at the end of the day. This way, you’re not wasting valuable, productive time on things that are not profitable, important, or need your full brain power.  

8. If you’re really stuck on something, take action.  When you’re not making progress, take action by moving on, letting the stubborn item rest, or getting help.  Stop banging your head against the wall. Giving yourself some space often provides a much-needed different perspective.  If possible, let it sit and do something else – ideally something physical or in nature (i.e., a walk outside). If a new perspective doesn’t arrive, seek the guidance of a valued advisor.  

9. Hire a coach or mentor to keep you accountable.  A good coach or mentor will keep you accountable, provide support where you need it, and help you see when and how you’re sabotaging yourself. We all need help, and none of us can evaluate ourselves with perfect objectivity. Hire someone you trust who will hold your hand AND give you tough advice when you need it. Both are necessary.

10. Establish a regular schedule for yourself based on your body’s natural rhythms.  You have to take care of yourself physically as well as emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. If you don’t, you won’t be nearly as good at everything else you do.  Establish and adhere to regular exercise, meditation and fun times that feel right for you and your schedule – your productivity and happiness will soar.

To get started, just pick one or two tips above to incorporate into your routine.  Once a habit is formed that is working to save you time, come back to this list to see if there is anything else you can incorporate to save you time, work smarter and get things done faster.

Time Management

How to work smarter, better, and get things done faster

Time is a non-renewable resource, and as such, one of the most precious ones we have.

As a lawyer, executive, and a professional, you’re probably wearing multiple hats in your effort to get everything done.  However, wearing all those hats makes it incredibly easy to get distracted, lose focus, and waste valuable time on things that are not mission-critical. Here are ten tips to help you stay on track.

1. 80% is good enough and still better than most.  Remember this key phrase from Sheryl Sandberg: Done is better than perfect.  As a driven leader, you’re likely a perfectionist, which means that you might be getting in your own way. Remember that not every activity carries the same value or weight.  Focus on turning out results by giving yourself deadlines according to the value of the activity and sticking to them.

2.  Live by High Value Activities.  Resolve to never have another day that ends with you saying, “I didn’t get anything done today.”  Plan the 3 most important things you can do each day to make the biggest impact on your business, and then be willing to make changes in your schedule to ensure you do those 3 things first or as early as possible in the day.  Once those 3 things are done, you can give attention to the other items on your to-do list, handle the interruptions, and attend meetings– and you will still leave the day knowing you accomplished something.  

3. Schedule ALL Action Items into Your Calendar.  Don’t wait until you “have time” to complete important things. You will never have that “time” you are waiting for.  If you have empty or “free” spaces in your calendar, people will fill them (either you or someone else). Just like water, unimportant activities will expand to fill the available space.  Block off time in your calendar for research, preparation, working out, and travel time– and then just follow your day.

4. Don’t Multitask.  Many studies show that multitasking is ineffective. (Take my word for that–you don’t have time to go look it up!) You will be more efficient and productive if you focus on one thing at a time.  Give your tasks a measurement of time, quantity or dollars. Then tackle that one item for the measure you assigned. Be sure to communicate through your calendar, a sign on your door, an auto email message, or the do not disturb button on your phone to let people know when you are (and are not) available so they too can self-manage and know what to expect.

5. Delegate everything that is outside your Strength Areas.  Focus your time and energy on profitable activities.   Surround yourself with people who are smarter, better, faster, and more experienced than you, and then delegate to them!  You’ll be glad you did.

6. Block out your schedule in chunks or by the day.  Monday is my admin and business-building day–it makes it easy for me to know where I need to focus and what is most critical for me to do that day. I don’t have to think about it, or wonder when I’ll get other things done. Those other things all have their places in my business and in my week. You can easily do the same by “chunking out” your schedule.

7. Save time-draining activities for the end of the day.  You know your personal time-drains: social media, email, etc. Whatever wastes your time the most (but still needs to be done) should be done at the end of the day. This way, you’re not wasting valuable, productive time on things that are not profitable, important, or need your full brain power.  

8. If you’re really stuck on something, take action.  When you’re not making progress, take action by moving on, letting the stubborn item rest, or getting help.  Stop banging your head against the wall. Giving yourself some space often provides a much-needed different perspective.  If possible, let it sit and do something else – ideally something physical or in nature (i.e., a walk outside). If a new perspective doesn’t arrive, seek the guidance of a valued advisor.  

9. Hire a coach or mentor to keep you accountable.  A good coach or mentor will keep you accountable, provide support where you need it, and help you see when and how you’re sabotaging yourself. We all need help, and none of us can evaluate ourselves with perfect objectivity. Hire someone you trust who will hold your hand AND give you tough advice when you need it. Both are necessary.

10. Establish a regular schedule for yourself based on your body’s natural rhythms.  You have to take care of yourself physically as well as emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. If you don’t, you won’t be nearly as good at everything else you do.  Establish and adhere to regular exercise, meditation and fun times that feel right for you and your schedule – your productivity and happiness will soar.

To get started, just pick one or two tips above to incorporate into your routine.  Once a habit is formed that is working to save you time, come back to this list to see if there is anything else you can incorporate to save you time, work smarter and get things done faster.

Today’s Most Critical Workplace Challenges

Employee commitment, productivity, and retention are emerging as the most critical workplace challenges of the immediate future. For many organizations, “surprise” employee departures can significantly affect the execution of business plans and may eventually cause an unexpected decline in productivity. This is especially true during times of economic uncertainty and related organizational downsizing when the impact of losing key talent increases exponentially. 

Consider that: 

  • The most difficult time to retain and motivate employees is during organizational change.  
  • Highly engaged and motivated employees can increase the performance and productivity of an organization by as much as 400 percent.
  • Losing and replacing an employee may cost up to 2.4 times an annual salary. 
  • The largest factor in retaining and motivating employees is not money, but the relationship with their immediate supervisors. 

So, what can you do today to overcome or avoid these critical challenges and be the “employer of choice” for tomorrow? Wherever your organization is now, you can take steps to attract, inspire, and retain top talent. The organization must address five key performance elements: change, listening, traction, investing, and communicating.

Change. To paraphrase Franklin Roosevelt, “The only thing we have to fear is fear of change.” Change is constant; embrace it. Fear of change is no longer an excuse to avoid exercising strong leadership, making tough decisions, or implementing ideas. The members of your organization are counting on you to lead, direct, and manage effective change. Change today usually means transitioning to a new role, taking on greater responsibility, or leaving the organization. Support change with encouragement and reassurance. It is an opportunity to embrace individual growth and development while strengthening the team and the organization.

Listen. Listen to what you are not hearing—those quiet voices of the introverts, of the newer generations, of your most seasoned, of your diverse employees, of your staff, and of your clients. Are you hearing their ideas, questions, concerns, and solutions? They will tell you exactly where you are doing things right, what’s not working well, and what you need to do to keep them. Listening also strengthens your internal relationships with colleagues and teams. Identify the strengths your organization has and leverage your talent for individual development and strengthening client service. Now is the time to set up lunch-and-learns, roundtables, and team-building exercises. Creating a community within your firm begins with listening.

Traction. The strength of an organization is based on sharing a vision. Has your leadership taken the time to establish the organization’s purpose, values, and goals, and make them known to everyone in the firm, and to your clients? Are key business decisions being driven by them? Are you hiring, promoting, transitioning, and business developing according to the organization’s values, goals, and purpose? Loyalty, commitment, and accountability start with the building blocks of the organization—who and what you are now and where you are going. It is only with this foundation in place that you will attract, retain, and maximize the performance of top talent that is right for your organization.  

Invest. Are you offering training and development to your leaders, management, and staff?  The firm next door is. Most C-level executives have worked with a professional coach. The days of “figure it out on your own, I did” are gone. Organizations today cannot afford to wait for employees to figure it out on their own, and the new generations will not support this old model. They expect training, mentoring, and guidance from their leaders and they will not hesitate to go where their friends are finding exactly that. It is important to provide quality training beginning early in the career to grow and develop your new leaders. New hires are trained on interpersonal skills such as professional dress, presence, a successful handshake, and client communications. Emerging leaders are coached on business development, presentations, effective delivery of tough messages, and expectation setting. Highly effective professionals need to know much more than simply the tasks associated with their positions. Don’t rely on skill development programs to be the extent of your professional and leadership training. 

Communicate. Is your communication system clear, simple, and consistent? Do people know what is expected of them? Current research indicates that the supervisor most influences a person to depart from an organization. Other reasons, in order of frequency, are inability to use core skills, not being able to affect an organization’s goals, and inability to grow and develop within the organization. An effective communication system can bridge the gap between supervisor and employee. Enhanced communication helps supervisors better understand the motivational drives and interests of each individual, provides feedback on performance and style, and highlights development opportunities. Managing and measuring the needs of employees or teams helps them build productive relationships with their co-workers, supervisors, and clients. People who feel engaged will put in the extra effort to get a job done and do it well. Instead of catching the 5:00 bus, they won’t mind catching the 6:00 bus to support the team and the client.

Successful organizations realize retention and talent management are integral to sustaining leadership and growth in today’s marketplace. In fact, a stable workforce becomes a significant competitive advantage. An organization with unstable conditions is forced to invest thousands of dollars in recruiting, orientation, training, overtime, and supervision. Organizations without continuity don’t have ongoing close relationships with customers. Loyalty is fragile, stress is high, conflict is more likely, and efficiency is hampered. These challenges make it difficult for an organization to compete. 

Support change, listen to your talent, know and share your organization’s vision and core values, and provide development opportunities so people are engaged and know they make a difference. You will then be an “employer of choice.”

The Emotionally Intelligent Lawyer

We live in a time of change. Among the most visible changes are globalization, technological advancement and multigenerational workplaces. Similarly, the nature of leadership is also changing. The best new leaders develop and implement the emotional intelligence characteristics of agility, creativity, community and contribution.

In the legal profession, specifically, change is also prevalent: firm mergers are commonplace, lateral movement is at a record high, the lock-step partnership track is being replaced by competency models, and more firms and companies rely on staff attorneys and project attorneys. In this time of change, a key predictor of a good lawyer is emotional intelligence (see, e.g., The Prediction of Professional Effectiveness, Schultz and Zedeck,) versus the GPA. A well-developed emotional intelligence allows a lawyer to more effectively serve clients and more easily adapt to this era’s changes.

The fact that studies have now proven success predictors are linked to emotional intelligence (EQ) versus intellectual intelligence (IQ) is exciting. EQ is something that can be improved and developed. Broadly defined,EQ addresses the emotional, personal, social and survival dimensions of intelligence. For daily functioning, EQ is as important, if not more important, than the traditional cognitive aspects of intelligence. Emotional intelligence is concerned with understanding oneself and others, relating to people and adapting to and coping with your immediate surroundings. Emotional Intelligence is an accurate predictor of success because it reflects how a person applies knowledge to the immediate situation. In a sense, measuring emotional intelligence is similar to measuring common sense– the ability to get along in the world. It is not that IQ is no longer important. Rather IQ with EQ can make you a better lawyer, a stronger leader, give you greater career satisfaction and provide better relationships throughout your life.

Specifically, how is EQ relevant to a lawyer? Knowledge is power. If you are tuned to the emotional, personal, and social ramifications of a situation, you can make better decisions and have greater influence. Similarly, a well-developed EQ improves one’s decision-making while under stress. As a general rule, high stress leads to less effective cognitive function and more irrational decisions. Conversely, a well-developed EQ allows a person to be aware of and tolerate increasing stress levels, and the effects of stress, both on themselves and others. An acute EQ under pressure will increase one’s ability to stay rational, improving access to one’s cognitive thinking (IQ), allowing for better decision making.

It is a certainty that your most successful colleagues rely on emotional intelligence to make decisions, problem solve and strengthen client relationships. Here is a practical three-step process to use EQ to increase your success in developing client relationships.

STEP 1. KNOW YOURSELF.

When asked, “What do you do?” most lawyers simply describe (sometimes in great detail) their practice area. But what the person asking this question (client, prospect, potential hire or board member) really wants to know is “Who are you?” However, you cannot tell people who you are if you haven’t answered this question for yourself first. Clarifying your response to this question is simple, but not easy. It takes understanding yourself, brainstorming, testing with others, practicing, honing the message and then perfecting the answer. You will know you have your answer when it is both genuine for you and the response of the listener will be a follow-up question to know more.

STEP 2. YOUR UNIQUENESS.

You must be able to describe yourself and your work clearly and concisely. One exercise that may help this process is to consider what three adjectives best describe you and the experience you give clients. The combination of these three adjectives is what makes you unique in the market. This combination of three adjectives also determines why people work with you and which people work best with you. In knowing how to describe yourself, you help people decide whether they want to engage you further and you help yourself determine how, with whom and where to spend your time. Keep in mind that most people don’t really want to hear about how you do what you do. People do want to know, “What can you do for me?” They want to hear about what you have done for others like them. So when asked “What do you do?” be ready to state how you solve problems, fix issues or save the client time or money.

STEP 3. PERSUADE THE CLIENT.

Potential clients, like all people, love a good story. If you want to effectively persuade a potential client to hire you, tell the potential client a good story that is relevant to their issues.

1) Explain how you effectively worked with a similar client.

2) Describe your past successes solving similar problems.

3) Briefly tell the potential client about how you solve those problems. And, above all, the potential client must know how you will make him or her sleep better at night.

Finally, you must take the initiative to move the relationship with the potential client forward. Take action — suggest a next step at a particular time and place. Do not leave the next steps open ended and vague. Don’t wait for the potential client to take the next step. Giving someone direction with time and dates actually triggers a positive comfort response in the brain. Suggested action with a date and time indicates confidence, clarity and accountability. No one seeks out mediocrity. Clients seek solutions. People work with attorneys who instill confidence and trust. Whether you are in private practice or an in-house legal department, a key factor in success is the ability to develop and build effective relationships. Whether one is developing new business, presenting to a board, advancing a career, interviewing, or leading a productive team – one’s success in all of these activities boils down to effective communication, aka interpersonal skills, aka one’s emotional intelligence.

Are You Ready?

The 40-year service anniversary. The 8:00-5:00 daily grind. Climbing the corporate ladder. Are you living the American dream? Are you prepared for your opportunity to live the dream? Thanks to economic factors, technology, political unrest, and the changing attitudes of employers and workers, the employment landscape is evolving at a rapid speed. Organizations of all sizes commonly plan, prepare and adapt for strategic growth to positively impact their bottom line. Individual professionals, however, too often achieve a level of success and then mistakenly take a seat in the waiting room – waiting for their environment to change or someone to trigger their next step of continued growth.

Now is the time to drive your opportunity, your American dream, your destiny. In practical terms this might mean for you, keeping a client, securing a new client, delivering an effective presentation, conducting a successful interview, facilitating a meeting. The point is, all of the disruption happening around us right now is also creating tremendous opportunity. If you are sitting on your haunches, waiting for something to fall in your lap or tap your shoulder, you will be left sitting in the waiting room alone – not because opportunity doesn’t pass by you but because you won’t recognize it when it does.

Follow these simple action steps to create your next opportunity or at the very least recognize when it passes by.

Step 1. Know Thyself.

If you don’t know who you are or what you want, no one else will either. This is your job – not the boss/employer, not the client and not the interviewer. Regularly ask yourself who you are, what is important to you and what you want in your life/profession and then put your responses on paper. Whether it is using a vision board, a notebook, a napkin –your written answers will be your foundation and provide objectivity when you are making decisions such as next job selection, client fi t and association participation.

Practical Use: Increase your effectiveness by 2-5 minutes prior to a meeting. Take some quiet time and on a notepad write down your greatness, your strengths, who you want to be in the meeting. Write each thought three times. Then get up, stand up straight, toss the paper in the trash and go for it!

Step 2. Ask the “Right” Question.

The answers to Step 1 will allow you to identify what is worth asking for so you can then focus on asking the “right” questions. This refers both to the questions you ask yourself, (i.e. What outcome do you want? How are you going to get there? Who are you going to be in the conversation?), and the questions you ask of others. The simple act of asking can build a team, solve complex issues, direct your decision path, create collaboration, identify opportunity, secure new business and make new friends.

Practical Use: In any conversation (client, interview, employee, friend) notice when you are assuming. Assuming is the trigger to know there is another question to be asked. Clarity lies in the answer to the next question.

Step 3. Your Network.

Paul Revere is credited for traveling through the night, announcing the arrival of the British so the Colonies could assemble and defend itself. William Dawes, a second man, traveled further in the opposite direction of Paul and actually talked with a greater number of people. Yet it is Paul’s name we remember. It is said that Paul’s network was more diverse and made up of power players so Paul’s contacts were the start of several webs of people who all spread the word to more people. Paul didn’t do it on his own; he spoke with a few key players in his network who had their own individual networks. What does your network look like? Who is in it – does everyone look like you? How diverse is it? How big of a reach does it have? When you need something, where do you go? Who do you go to? Expand your network by building a variety of circles…work, community organizations, associations/non-profits within your interest areas (religious, sports, animals).

Practical Use: In your chosen circles, demonstrate who you are and what you can do by taking on the challenges or “dirty projects” within those groups. People will begin to know you, experience you and remember you.

We live in a world of opportunity. Living the American dream is still possible. Be on the offensive in your life and career. This is not a dress rehearsal. Be ready now and…

• State: Who you are

• Identify: What I am

• Ask: How can we help each other?