For me, work comes down to busy work versus productive work. Busy work does not move the needle. Busy work just keeps us standing in place. I believe this type of work has to be eliminated as much as possible. Productive work, on the other hand, advances us forward. Productive work, for me, directly results in greater job satisfaction, less stress and more money. Here are some things to consider that I believe can greatly increase personal productivity.
The 80/20 rule. This, to me, is the ultimate productivity game-changer. The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results come from 20% of the effort. This allows you to do more productive work, and less busy work. What is that particular work, for you, that is truly productive? What are the things you do that generate 80% of the results? Identify and focus on those tasks as much as possible, and literally delegate everything else that you possibly can.
Delegate. If someone else can do something 70% as well as you can, delegate it. As lawyers, we sometimes want to do everything ourselves, or else we feel it won’t get done the right way. For me, done beats perfect every single time. Look around your desk and start getting things off it by delegating. When you do delegate, you have to do it in a very deliberate way. Delegation, when done often and correctly, can provide an incredible boost to your productivity, while also lowering stress levels at the same time. Whenever delegating anything, be sure to be clear on the following: how the work should get done; what a successful outcome will look like; and the deadline on when the work needs to be completed.
Limit distractions. To me, the two primary distractions and impediments to peak productivity are the phone and email. With email, get out of your inbox as much as possible. Email activity, to me, is classic busy work, which is not a productive use of your time (80/20). I am a recovering email addict because I used to check it constantly. I noticed not only that reading and replying to email was making me less productive, but much more important, it was making me crazy and stressed out. Now, I only check email twice per day, and never on weekends. In fact, I am now looking to hire a freelancer who I can delegate my inbox to entirely. If you know someone good that you use for this purpose, I would love a referral.
The phone is a major time killer, and specifically, unplanned inbound calls. I now only take scheduled inbound calls. If anyone calls and the call is not already scheduled on my calendar, my receptionist simply schedules a callback for the following day. If I call someone and reach their voicemail and want that person to call me back without having to schedule a callback, I instruct the person to say “apples” when they call. If they say “apples” when they call, then my receptionist knows to patch that person directly to me without scheduling a callback. This codeword is the exception to the rule of no unscheduled inbound calls.
Scripting. For me, Sunday mornings are a great time to script my week. This ensures that the important, productive things I need to get done are time-blocked in advance on my calendar. Jim Rohn, the classic success writer and speaker, once said (and this really stuck with me), “Run the day, or the day runs you.” Plan out your week in advance as much as possible so that the productive work gets done.
Parkinson’s Law. This is a fascinating axiom that states that work will expand to fill the time you give it. For example, if you think an opposition to a motion for summary judgment will take three hours, then it will take at least that amount of time to complete. But if, instead, you give that task a two-hour window to complete, then it will likely take two hours. Give this a try and see what you find.
Be intentional. All of the above ideas are all about being intentional. Productivity does not happen by chance, but rather by intention. Think honestly about what you do each day. Are you busy too much, and productive too little? Be intentional as much as possible about doing productive work, and equally important, be intentional about doing as little busy work as possible.
I encourage you to consider these ideas so that your personal productivity can be maximized. If you have other productivity ideas, I would love to hear them. Please email me at cearley@chrisearley.com or call me at 617-338-7400.
©2023. Published in GPSolo eReport, March 2022, Volume 11 Number 8, by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association or the copyright holder.
Christopher D. Earley is a Boston personal injury attorney who enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, exercising and meditating, and he is a terrible drummer.