Q: I've been feeling frustrated with my work
habits as a solo practitioner. I have so much to do, and I always
get to the urgent and crucial items for handling my cases, but on
administrative tasks, marketing (which is really important since
I'm just scraping by), and the like, I've been absolutely
inefficient. Several times I've told myself that I will get up at 6
a.m., get to the gym, and then hit the office running by 8:30 a.m.
and churn out the work, but for some reason I continue to stay up
late and these plans quickly fade. The day goes by and it often
seems as if I spent more time visiting distracting websites than
making inroads on the pile of work. What's the trick to
productivity?
A: The trick is that there's no trick. When it
comes to avoiding the "pile of work," the pile is probably too
large, and avoiding it is probably a huge relief. It would be
useful to devote some time to simply listing all the things in the
"to-do pile," and then (and this is important) breaking the large
elements into smaller and small bits, until they are so small that
you can choose to do them even when every fiber of your being wants
to do something else. Do one of those small bits, and then reward
yourself (for example, with a walk, a nap, or a brief visit to a
fun web site. You would withhold such rewards from yourself until
you've completed the designated piece of work. Fairly soon, you are
likely to be tackling larger chunks and getting more done per
sitting. Be sure to remind yourself how great it feels to have
fewer tasks still hanging over your head.
When you engage in more directly rewarding activities, like the fun
website, nap or other treat, do that - and all non-work-related
things - somewhere other than where you do your work. The idea is
to condition yourself so that being in that setting (that office,
or at least that desk) is linked with work and little else. Even
non-work-related phone conversations would best be relocated to a
different environment. Skipping to distracting websites would
require that you leave the office. That'll be tough, but worth
it.
Finally (for our purposes here, though this is of course not an
exhaustive list of things you might do), your idea that you're
going to start going to bed and getting up early in the morning may
not be realistic if you've always been a night owl. We support the
idea of including exercise in your day, but huge changes in routine
are unlikely to persist. Build in an awareness of your natural
daily rhythms and energy cycles; work with those, rather than
against them, toward incremental changes that you have a chance of
maintaining until they eventually become your "new normal." It may
help to review and monitor this project with someone else. For some
people, that could be a "coach" (and LCL or LOMAP may be able to
refer you to someone of that nature); for others, it may be a peer
with whom you share a mutual process of monitoring and support.
Persistence and building new routines one brick at a time are more
likely to pay off than expecting to implement a big change all at
once.
Questions quoted are either actual letters/e-mails or
paraphrased and disguised concerns expressed by individuals seeking
assistance from Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers. Questions for LCL
may be mailed to LCL, 31 Milk St., Suite 810, Boston, MA 02109 or called in to (617) 482-
9600. LCL's licensed clinicians will respond in confidence. Visit
LCL online at www.lclma.org.