Category Archives: communication

Deadlines and Daily Habits, Minnesota CLE, Ethics Fundamentals – Safekeeping Property, Collecting Fees, Acting with Diligence, March 24

Posted on March 2, 2021 | Comments Off on Deadlines and Daily Habits, Minnesota CLE, Ethics Fundamentals – Safekeeping Property, Collecting Fees, Acting with Diligence, March 24

On March 24, Minnesota CLE will host Ethics Fundamentals – Safekeeping Property, Collecting Fees, Acting with Diligence via live webcast. This is a 3.0 ethics credits event that runs from 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. 

There are three separate 1-hour sessions in this special credit CLE, including my presentation on The Ethics of Deadlines and Daily Habits – Discovering the Essence of Diligence. 

Below is the description: 

An attorney’s ethical duties of diligence, competence and communication are paramount in client relations. Yet we often struggle to fulfill these obligations. Deadlines are often associated with heightened stress, time crunches, and external pressures beyond your control. But by using external deadlines to your benefit and setting self-imposed ones effectively, you help fuel productive action. Deadlines – in combination with daily habits that enable you to pick, prioritize, and perform your big tasks – are the essence of diligence.

Click HERE to learn more and to register for this event. 

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Dyan Williams is a solo lawyer who practices U.S. immigration law and legal ethics at Dyan Williams Law PLLC. She is also a productivity coach who helps working parents, lawyers, small business owners and other busy people turn their ideas into action, reduce overwhelm, and focus on what truly matters. She is the author of The Incrementalist: A Simple Productivity System to Create Big Results in Small Steps. 

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Posted in communication, competence, diligence, The Productive Lawyer - Productivity + Lawyer Wellbeing Blog

Time Blocking and Time Boxing to Get the Rights Things Done

Posted on February 24, 2021 | Comments Off on Time Blocking and Time Boxing to Get the Rights Things Done

How do you make time for important projects or tasks that need attention now?

How do you stop working on a project once it meets the required standard, rather than waste time perfecting it?

Time Blocking and Time Boxing are two planning techniques that you can use separately, but complement each other. Time Blocking is making time for a project. It hones your focus to meet the highest quality standards. Time Boxing is limiting the amount of time you spend on a project. It pushes you to complete a project that meets acceptable standards.

Time Blocking helps you to get unstuck, stop procrastinating, and move forward on a project. It makes time and space for tasks that need attention. It’s a way to chunk projects into smaller parts so it’s easier to start and make steady progress. 

You set time blocks with a start time and end time to work on a specific activity. You could single focus on one difficult, high-leverage project like a strategic marketing plan, or batch process similar, low-level tasks like responding to emails and returning telephone calls. You can move around time blocks if true emergencies and unexpected delays come up. You can schedule new time blocks if you need more to finish the task.

Scheduling a time block goes beyond making a to-do list. It tells you when exactly you will do a task, in what context and under what circumstances, and for how long. It encourages you to take deliberate action steps and to block out distractions and interruptions.

Time Boxing helps you to stay within scope, avoid perfectionism, and finish and deliver a project on time. It puts time constraints on projects that tend to take too long to complete. It takes advantage of Parkinson’s law, which states that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. Having a cut-off time to stop working on a task makes you more mindful of the value you bring, rather than the hours you put in.

A timebox can be as short as 15 minutes to several months, depending on the activity or project. One project might take one or two steps, while another requires hundreds of steps. A timebox has project milestones, deadlines and deliverables. 

In episode 7 of The Incrementalist podcast, I cover:

  • The Pomodoro Technique, a popular method for time blocking
  • How time blocks help you do deep work, improve your ability to focus, and make progress on the right things at the right pace for the relevant deadlines
  • The core problem with the billable hour model
  • How time boxes help you to be more efficient, intentional and results-oriented

Resources Cited: 

  • Francesco Cirillo, The Pomodoro Technique: The Acclaimed Time-Management System That Has Transformed How We Work
  • Cal Newport, Deep Work (Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World)

To listen to Episode 7, Time Blocking and Time Boxing to Get the Rights Things Done, click HERE.

Cheers,
Dyan Williams

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Dyan Williams is a solo lawyer who practices U.S. immigration law and legal ethics at Dyan Williams Law PLLC. She is also a productivity coach who helps working parents, lawyers, small business owners and other busy people turn their ideas into action, reduce overwhelm, and focus on what truly matters. She is the author of The Incrementalist: A Simple Productivity System to Create Big Results in Small Steps. 

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How to Prioritize What Matters: Listen to The Incrementalist, Episode 4

Posted on January 28, 2021 | Comments Off on How to Prioritize What Matters: Listen to The Incrementalist, Episode 4

If you feel overwhelmed or you’re constantly rescheduling tasks, you are probably overestimating what you can do each day.

Practice Essentialism: do less, but better, so you will have the highest-quality results, with less stress and less friction. And figure out the One Thing you must do now and do that.

With incremental progress daily and weekly, you can create big results with small and consistent actions. Laser-like focus on your core work add up to make a massive difference in all areas of your life.

When we look at a clock – digital or analog – we see the seconds, minutes and hours passing. The day starts and end, regardless of what we do. The clock tells us we have 24 hours in a day.

Of that, we need about 7 to 8 hours of sleep, 1 hour for a lunch break, and a few more hours for daily routines, errands and so on. We have distractions and interruptions. Also, we’re human: our energy and focus ebb and flow throughout the day. 

The maximum time you have for your Most Important Tasks is around 8 hours per day. Your MIT is your core work or your high-value, high-leverage activity. This contributes directly to your success. It helps you create the most important, desired results. 

In this episode, I discuss how to set your priorities, which starts with the Brain Dump, continues with the Priority Matrix (Eisenhower Complex), and ends with blocking time and matching your tasks with your energy and focus levels, your environment, and your circumstances. 

I cover Essentialism, which involves distinguishing the vital few from the trivial many, and making the necessary trade-offs to tackle what truly matters.

I explain why you need to align your actions with your One Thing, which is what you can do, such that by doing it, makes everything else easier or unnecessary. 

Resources Cited: 

  • Greg McKeown – Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less 
  • Gary Keller and Jay Papasan – The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results 

Cheers,
Dyan Williams

P.S. If you like the show and want to help keep it going, please give it a 5-star rating and positive review on Apple Podcasts (from ITunes) or other app! Thank you to all who have expressed their appreciation since the launch. And special shout-out to Graham for the first posted review!

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Dyan Williams is a solo lawyer who practices U.S. immigration law and legal ethics at Dyan Williams Law PLLC. She is also a productivity coach who helps working parents, lawyers, small business owners and other busy people turn their ideas into action, reduce overwhelm, and focus on what truly matters. She is the author of The Incrementalist: A Simple Productivity System to Create Big Results in Small Steps. 

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Breaking Bad Habits: Listen to The Incrementalist, Episode 3

Posted on January 21, 2021 | Comments Off on Breaking Bad Habits: Listen to The Incrementalist, Episode 3

Building good habits is essential to make a change and sustain a healthy and productive life. Sometimes we also need to break bad habits. They tend to serve you in the moment; the immediate outcome feels good. But over the long run, bad habits hurt you or benefit you very little.

Like good habits, bad habits also give you a dopamine hit. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is often called the feel-good hormone. Dopamine fires when you get the thing you crave, and when you anticipate getting that thing. 

A dopamine hit is not the same as true happiness, say Dr. Jud Brewer, director of research and innovation at Brown University Mindfulness Center, a psychiatrist and an expert in mindfulness training for treating addictions. To break everyday addictions and bad habits, he recommends you step out of the reactive pattern and just be present with whatever comes up. Use your natural curiosity to learn about the habit loop while you’re in it and become aware of the results of your actions. 

There are 4 laws of behavior change, says author, speaker and entrepreneur James Clear. If you want to build a habit, you make it Visible, Attractive, Easy and Satisfying. If you want to stop a habit, you invert the laws. You make it Invisible, Unattractive, Difficult and Unsatisfying. 

You might think you have to replace the habit with another to break it. But this is really a last resort. You can untangle the bad habit when you stay mindful, get curious, and invert the 4 laws of behavior change. 

“Learn how your mind works, so you can work with it.” – Dr. Jud Brewer

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” – James Clear

 Resources Cited:

  • Jud Brewer – The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits
  • James Clear – Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Here’s to breaking bad habits,

Dyan Williams

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Dyan Williams is a solo lawyer who practices U.S. immigration law and legal ethics at Dyan Williams Law PLLC. She is also a productivity coach who helps working parents, lawyers, small business owners and other busy people turn their ideas into action, reduce overwhelm, and focus on what truly matters. She is the author of The Incrementalist: A Simple Productivity System to Create Big Results in Small Steps. 

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Listen to The Incrementalist: Episode 2, Building Good Habits

Posted on January 14, 2021 | Comments Off on Listen to The Incrementalist: Episode 2, Building Good Habits

Whenever we want to make a change, we tend to think in terms of goals and outcomes, hopes and dreams. It’s good to know the results we want. But how do we get there? It starts with building good habits that add up over time to create success as you define it.

A habit starts with a conscious decision and becomes automatic through a 3-step loop (cue, behavior, reward). Building good habits allows you to make changes without relying on willpower and motivation. 

In this episode of The Incrementalist podcast, I discuss how motivation, ability and prompts drive behavior, using Professor BJ Fogg’s B=MAP formula. I also cover the ABC (Anchor, Behavior, Celebration) method to create new habits and sustain momentum.  Make the new behavior tiny with the starter step and by scaling back.

Excellence comes from the actions you do habitually, consistently, repeatedly – not from once-in-a-while acts.  Being the best version of yourself and having self-mastery stem from your habits. 

Resources Cited:

  • Charles Duhigg – The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
  • BJ Fogg – Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything
  • David T. Neal, Wendy Wood, and Jeffrey M. Quinn, Duke University, Habits – A Repeat Performance, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Volume 15, Issue 4, August 1, 2006
  • Magic Weighted Blanket

Music by:

  • Sebastian Brian Mehr


Happy habit-building,

Dyan Williams

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Dyan Williams is a solo lawyer who practices U.S. immigration law and legal ethics at Dyan Williams Law PLLC. She is also a productivity coach who helps working parents, lawyers, small business owners and other busy people turn their ideas into action, reduce overwhelm, and focus on what truly matters. She is the author of The Incrementalist: A Simple Productivity System to Create Big Results in Small Steps. 

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Posted in communication, competence, diligence, The Productive Lawyer - Productivity + Lawyer Wellbeing Blog