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Do you want to immediately give yourself a productivity boost?
The best way to do this is to remove the trivial administrative tasks that bog you down. I call these things ADMINISTRIVIA.
All of us tend to make things more difficult than they need to be. We use 200 words when 20 will do. We spend too much time analyzing minor issues. We work on mundane tasks that we can/should delegate to others. The administrivia in our firms is the biggest example of time wasted (or at least underutilized).
Here are three things you can do today to dramatically increase your productivity by eliminating administrivia:
One: Never Answer a Ringing Phone
This simple rule has quadrupled my personal productivity and it has (at least) doubled the productivity of my clients immediately upon implementation. In my firm we have a system for handling phone calls.
Here’s how it works:
My main phone number rings directly into voice mail. The voice mail is transcribed and automatically sent to my assistant. She reads the message and either handles it immediately or calls the party back for clarification. If she cannot resolve or dispose of the issue, she schedules a telephone appointment for the caller directly with me. The appointment has a start time and an end time (usually 15 minutes in length) and it has a mini-agenda. Once we resolve the issue, I’m off the phone.
Now you’re probably thinking that your clients have different expectations of you. That’s because you have conditioned them to think you are going to take their calls right away. You can change that perception by having a simple conversation.
It starts like this:
“Mr. Client, you are very important to me. In order to maximize our time together I want to make sure I prepare for every interaction I have with you. From now on, when you call me, I’m going to set aside some dedicated time for us to discuss your issue. Since we are both busy it may take a day or so to get this scheduled but we will both be more productive as a result.”
Second: Stop Checking Email
You really don’t need email. Business was conducted just fine for centuries without it. You especially don’t need to check email constantly. Your productivity will skyrocket when you begin ignoring that stupid inbox on your computer (or Blackberry, PDA, iPhone, etc.).
Here’s how you can conquer this seemingly impossible issue:
Keep your current email address but set up an out of office auto response that states you are no longer checking email. Tell everyone you work with that you are no longer accepting email. Tell them to email your assistant with important documents. Have your assistant schedule a call to review the document with the client/prospective client/opposing attorney. Have your assistant check your email once a day for anything important.
I’ll be the first to admit that I had a tough time with this initially. I used a step down method to get off email. I checked it three times a day at first. Then I moved to once a day, which was almost worse because stuff piled up. After that I went to once a week (at that point I just deleted everything because it was too much to keep up with). Now with my assistant keeping an eye out for important items, I never log into email unless she tells me there is something I need to handle.
Third: Have Someone Manage Your Calendar
There is nothing I do worse than schedule my own appointments. Honestly, I think I have a disability that prevents me from keeping an orderly calendar.
Having someone manage your schedule will make you more efficient and you will be much, much happier. This also helps alleviate the guilt you feel when you have to say NO to an unproductive meeting or event. Someone else says NO for you. It’s beautiful!
Time to Decide
There are about a million reasons not to implement these three changes. After all, no NORMAL person does this, right? Well what does NORMAL mean anyway? Doesn’t NORMAL mean ‘just like everyone else’?
And what do the law firms run by EVERYONE ELSE look like? Most of them are mediocre. If you want to be just like everyone else and have a mediocre firm, ignore this article.
But your productivity will suffer if you don’t take charge of your interpersonal interaction.
If you think you can’t do this because you can’t trust your assistant, you need to get a new one (or go into therapy for your trust issues). If you can’t afford an assistant I’m afraid I can’t help you. Virtual assistants are available for $10/hr. and they can handle these tasks in about 10 hours a week. That’s $100. Give me a break.
This article is your call to action. Take control of your productivity immediately.