In this episode, Steve Fretzin discusses:
Key Takeaways:
"Be okay letting things go. Be okay moving on and looking on to other elements of things that you can do." — Steve Fretzin
In Episode References:
David Allen – Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
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Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie
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Steve Fretzin 0:00
So I'm working with a client whose biggest challenge is time management. It's the balance family, billable hours, all the pressures that go with, you know, being a lawyer. And we had a great talk about time management and started putting some processes in place and I think was really helpful for her.
Narrator 0:22
You're listening to be that lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Each episode, your host, author and lawyer coach Steve Fretzin will take a deeper dive, helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results. Now, here's your host, Steve Fretzin.
Steve Fretzin 0:44
Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to my show, be that lawyer, I am Steve Fretzin. And if you're a first time listener, I am a business development coach for attorneys focusing on helping them to plan and execute and follow through and drive long term sustainable growth with their legal practices. I have a number of books out there on the subject, all available on Amazon, three books, and regularly write a monthly column for the Chicago daily mobile attend. Today, we're going to do something a little bit different. Instead of a traditional interview, I'm going to do a segment called teachable moments. And in this segment, what I'm going to do is just share with you some of the things I teach my clients and work with my attorney, you know, clients on a regular basis. And the hope is, is that you can think about the topics, and maybe even get a couple of takeaways. There's something that you can do, that's going to help you to be effective with your business development efforts, save time and money and energy, then it's definitely worthwhile. The subject for today for this segment is time management. One of the areas that attorneys struggle with, with the billable hour balanced with your family, trying to go out and develop new clients, if that's your thing, hopefully it is. And so there's a number of different thoughts that I have on this subject things that I teach, one of the best resources for me personally, in my life, I'm giving this dude some credit, is a gentleman named David Allen, he has a book out there called Getting Things Done. It's been out for many, many years. In fact, I went through the book, I want to say 15 years ago, and while we did it change my perspective and really changed my life. And when I look around my office, as I'm sitting here, there's no clutter, there's no mess, there's no disorganization. And if I'm being honest with myself, I've always been a bit of a feather on the wind being blown this way, in that way. And I had, you know, stacks of business cards, and I had brochures mixed in with proposals mixed in with, you know, different things that I had to do. And if somebody asked me for something, or I had to go do something, it would take me, you know, sometimes minutes or hours to figure out, you know, where that piece of paper was. And my whole sort of life was run that way. And while I don't believe in in everything that David Allen says, from a standpoint of, of organization and and how I'm going to run my life, and again, so many great things from his book, and it's available on audio, and there's a number of ways to take in that content. What I'd like to do is just give you some abbreviated ideas about his concept so that you can think about either buying the book or just taking what I'm giving you and changing a couple things that might be beneficial to you in your life. As you find yourself being bombarded with messages, and paper and work and everything that comes your way. The first thing that I needed to do in order to be effective with my time, and in order for me to teach time management, I had to do this, you know myself, I don't want to be a hypocrite. So the first thing I did was, I don't know if he calls it this, or I call it this, but it's called the purge. And essentially, this is where you take everything that's out of order in your office. And that could be a home office, that could be your office and you know, in your physical office business office, and put it all in one pile. And for me, it was probably, I'm not going to exaggerate, I would say probably two and a half to three feet high. And about, you know, two feet wide of essentially papers, folders, just everything that I basically had on my desk or in my file cabinet that was disorganized. And I put it in one big pile. And I brought in my assistant at the time. And it took us you know, six hours, it was not an easy task to get through. But essentially what we did was we started at the top piece of paper and worked our way down. I didn't look at something half the way down and go oh, I need this. No, I started at the top and this is all David Allen's you know, baby? And I looked at the piece of paper and I said What is this? And from that point on I had to make you know, a decision about what it was and what I'm going to do with it is this Trash. If so, boom, goes in the trash. I probably had two lawn bags of paper that I needed to then figure out how to recycle. And I did. But first thing is, is this trash and I ever going to need this? Or look at this again? If the answer is no, it goes in the trash. And you feel good when you get rid of things. It's like when you give away clothing that you haven't worn in years, it just feels good. Alright, so number one is is this trash? The number two thing is, is this something that I may actually want to use or look at again in the future, and if so, I would then file it away. And the thing that was key for me, and I still use it to this very day. And it's the same one, by the way. So it did last is my label maker, I love my label maker. So I've got that sitting over here in my office and every thing that I need to label goes on a folder and then into alphabetically into a file cabinet. Okay? The third option was, is this something that I'm going to need to take action on today or tomorrow or soon, if that's the case, I put it in my to do pile. And that went in, in a folder and I you know, on my desk, and it was something that I said, I've got to schedule time to do this, it's not going to be right now. It's going to be later and I need an hour for it. And I'm going to schedule time to do that. And so I put it in a stack on my desk. And then once I got done with the purge, I was able to then take all those files and schedule time for those individually. And then the last thing is is this to do and Is this something that I need to take action on right now. And again, in the middle of doing this purge, there was nothing that vital that I needed to take action on right now or, you know, the world was going to explode. So that also went into the to do pile. And it got a higher priority than the stuff that I can schedule later. Okay, so that's the purge. And I've had a number of my clients go through that process. And the amount of weight that goes off your shoulders is tremendous. I felt just as light as I had felt in years, because everything was organized, everything was laid out in such a way. And there was no clutter on my desk, no paper on my desk, not a scrap. And so if you've got an office, as you look around right now, or if you, you know, recall from your office, all the disorganization, how long it takes you find things and you know that, you know, you may have to get other people involved, it's a great, great way to go. And it's a great way to start the David Allen getting things done process is to just get organized. Okay. The second thing that I'm really doing is following David Allen's four DS, this is sort of the heart and soul of his book. And there is also a graphic in his book of what his flow chart is. But breaking it down into 40s is really very simple and easy way to think about when something comes into your life into your brain down from the sky, an email, a voicemail, a piece of paper, something a lawyer knocks on your desk and says, Hey, Steve, I need something from you, whatever the case might be, you need to put it into these four DS. So instead of acting like you're just acting as time is just, you know, something that needs to be handled as it happens with no process. This is where he puts process into something that, you know, typically doesn't exist. So the four DS are starting with, you know, the main one is do it. That's it, do it. If it's something that comes into your world, and it's under two minutes, and you can just knock it out, do it, just do it, get it done, knock it off, check it off the list, and you're golden, you're good to go. That's number one. The caveat to this is that if for some reason you're in the middle of what he or I call brain work, meaning that you're in the middle of a brief, you're in the middle of, you know, getting something really important together, that you shouldn't take two minutes to do things in the middle of that brain work because he his research showed that you're losing 15 minutes of productivity every time you interrupt yourself to do something quickly, because you think you could just knock it out. But you're multitasking. And then he believes it's a misnomer that you can multitask. Really, what ends up happening is that you get your focus taken away from the main project, and then you end up in a bad place trying to get back to it. So the first thing is the do it. Okay, I tend to get that type of stuff done at the beginning of the day, or at the end of the day or during lunchtime, as opposed to doing it throughout the entire day. The second D is different. If something doesn't come into the two minutes or less, or five minutes or less, or however you want to define it for yourself. That is something that's going to take you some real time and thought to do that you shouldn't just break up your day and just just keep doing things as they hit your desk, that you may want to prioritize them, and then come up and actually schedule time in your calendar to get that done. So that would be a difference not procrastination. It's organization. And the idea that you're putting it aside is fine. If it's obviously the most important thing that could ever happen to you. It's a client emergency, for example, then yeah, you may have to take something that you were doing that had been deferred and that you're now in the process. Doing and you may have to move it and maybe move it to later that day or the next day to handle this emergency that comes up, that happens, I get it. But overall, with things that are deferred, they're things that you need to schedule time for, and treat it as importantly as if you're treating an appointment with somebody, okay, but it's just an appointment with yourself. So that's the second D, the third D is delegate. And I have found that this is really where many lawyers fail, they just would rather do it themselves and knock it out. And they're not really recognizing how that time adds up. To prove this point, I have had a number of my clients track their day. And that's certainly something you can do. But start at 7am. And in 15 minute increments, you guys know how to do this right? As you track your your billing hours, but actually track your entire day, and find out what you're wasting time on, find out what you're doing that maybe you shouldn't be doing. One of the best examples of this was with an estate planner I worked with a number of years ago, he did this thing. And he and I sat down. And we could not believe what we found. He was spending two hours a day a day making copies, printing out materials and printing out of state plans. And if you do the math on that, it does add up to 40 hours a month. And that means that he could actually add an entire week on to his month by not doing copies and delegating that to his assistant. Okay, the other thing you want to consider if you're solo or if you have an assistant, or don't have an assistant, I should say that your time is billable at 200 400 600 an hour, whatever the case might be. And you're doing work that can be done at 20 3040 $60 an hour that is below your pay grade, it's not a good use of your time, you could be out doing business development. So it really is important for you to figure out who and how to delegate anything and everything you can to get it done. And the other argument I get on this particular point is well, I don't want to delegate it to an associate because you know, he or she will screw it up. And then I've got to go back and fix it, it just takes me more time. Well, I think that's a real cop out. So either you need to get better help. Or maybe you haven't properly trained your associate or your paralegal to do the work the way that you want it. And maybe in two or three hours of training, you could get that, you know, done. And then that saves you 10 hours a week, 20 hours a week, whatever it might be of doing the work that is maybe again below your pay grade as far as things you have to be engaged in and involved in. So that is the delegate piece. And the last piece is drop it. And again, you know, there's so many things pulling our attention away from the billable hour and also the business development that you should be doing. If you want to develop your own book of business and have your own client base, or grow what you currently have. And that is drop it. Okay, the idea that there's things that you're doing during the day and we're all guilty of this even even I get pulled in sucked into the LinkedIn vortex, you know, where I find myself endorsing people or I find myself just kind of scrolling through names, that's fine to do, if you have a lunch break, if that's what you want to do, or over your lunch break, to not use your brain or to just take a break, you want to shop on Amazon, you want to go get a haircut, all fine during a break, if that's what you want to do. But if you're doing that for an hour, two hours, three hours a day during the work day, you know, obviously that's not a great use of your time. So there's things that you could identify that you need to drop during the day. That also could be by the way, a networking group that you're engaged in, where you're not getting any real value out of it. You've you've made efforts to improve how you network within that group, and it's just not right for you anymore. Drop it be okay, letting things go be Okay, moving on and looking on to other, you know, elements of things that you can do. Or maybe it's telling your partner know, that while he keeps feeding you this work that's unproductive for you and growing your book or that is not beneficial to how you want to drive your career, you know, and you're not going to get fired over it. Obviously, I don't want to give that advice. But you know, if you can say no to somebody that's giving you things that aren't productive for you, then say no, that's another case of drop it. So at the end of the day, David Allen is giving you really good ideas about how to clear the clutter, how to then process the things that are coming into your brain, the things that are hitting you and bombarding you all day into 40s. And that's really helpful as it relates to how you're going to start putting a process around time management versus just winging it throughout the day. A couple other tips that I'm going to give you that are on top of David Allen's tips. It's really looking at at your time again and and how you're managing it. For Business Development. For example, I typically recommend that if you're going to do calls or emails that you try to do it early in the week and do it early in the day. And I don't know that Monday, eight o'clock maybe is the best time. But it could be a Wednesday morning, it could be a Tuesday morning, if you're sending out emails, I don't think it really matters, you can send them out at two in the morning people get them the next day and can respond to them. Obviously, you're not going to, you know, make calls at two in the morning. However, the reason that I say this is because if you schedule time to do business development Thursday afternoon, and then the week hits you, and then you just you just push it off, say well, I'll do it next week, you know, and then the next week, you say the same thing, it's really not a useful way to go. And what I found is that when people put off things that they know they need to do, it actually hurts you on a subconscious level, the idea that if I was to set up lunch with a friend, and then just not show up for the lunch, just blow it off, okay, that friend is going to be pretty pissed at me. And I'm going to feel pretty bad about it, especially if I didn't have a damn good reason to do it. However, isn't it interesting that when we schedule time to do business development or something for ourselves, cleaning the garage, or a project around the home, okay, and you don't do it, you say you're going to do it and you don't do it. What you may not realize on a subconscious level that is that it's actually breaking down your attitude and your belief in yourself. Okay, and you don't recognize it, but it is hurting you because you're committing and then you're breaking in, you're committing and you're breaking. And you have to treat yourself just as positively as you do other people. And that actually that positive behavior will drive your attitude being positive and the belief in yourself that you can do things. So getting business development done early in the day early in the week, then you're going to feel light and happy the rest of the week that you got it done, you did what you needed to do. And then as things come back to you during the week, you're scheduling appointments and things like that. And you're really in really good shape. So I'm really saying that it's important for you guys, to make that a part of your day, make that a part of your week, do it early in the day, use your calendar, it's a really important tool for you to get things done. And to hold yourself accountable. Maybe after you do 30 minutes of sending out emails, that's when you have your second cup of coffee, or that's when you give yourself a nice Danish or something to treat yourself and say, Hey, you know what, good job, I had to do it this week, it was 30 minutes. I hated doing it. But I did it, I'm going to treat myself nice. Okay. So these are some elements of time management that I'm teaching on a regular basis. And, you know, I work with my clients to track their activity to track their time and really make sure that, you know if time is money, which it is, for all lawyers and time is money, that you're not just taking it for granted that you're going to have a day or have a week. And the reality is, you know, you didn't have a day the day had you or the week had you. And that's not a great situation. So hopefully this was helpful for you to get a couple of tips and takeaways on time management that you can execute on. Again, I highly recommend picking up the time management book getting things done. As an alternative, there is a new app that I just put on my phone about a week ago. And it's free for seven days. And then I think you pay I know six or eight bucks a month after that, but it's called blinkist. And that is a that is an app that allows you to listen to books or read books as a summary. So instead of me sitting and spending, you know, six, eight hours reading a book, it's you know, four or 500 pages, where it's just difficult to get through and in time is you know, money. So what this does is it takes it and gives it a summary of of that. So if you want to hear a summary of David Allen's book, or if you want to hear a summary of you know, some of the best books on business, sales, marketing, you know how to eat healthy, whatever it is this this app seems to have it all. And so I'm you know, listening to it in my car and everything else. So free plug for David Allen, free plug for blankest. But there's a number of time saving tools that are you know, that are out there, and there's a few that I use. That's all I have for you for this segment called teachable moments. Hopefully there was some moment that you picked up something that you can use. And again, my name is Steve Frandsen Welcome to be that lawyer. Hope you enjoyed the show. And again, it be the lawyer, you know, it's important for you to think about your practice as the business of law. And you know, that's what we're talking about. Thanks again, have a great one.
Narrator 19:26
Thanks for listening to be that lawyer. Life Changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve's website Fretzin.com. For additional information, and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today's episode, check out today's show notes.