Category Archives: diligence

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

# # #

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. 

SUBSCRIBE           CONTACT

Comments Off on Time Blocking and Time Boxing to Get the Rights Things Done

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

Tagged ,

Stop Procrastinating and Just Start: The Incrementalist, Episode 6

Posted on February 8, 2021 | Comments Off on Stop Procrastinating and Just Start: The Incrementalist, Episode 6

When you think of the word “procrastination,” what comes to mind? Is it putting things off? Waiting until tomorrow?

Choosing priorities, exercising patience, and planning involve delay. These are smart skills to have.

What’s so bad about procrastinating? Well, it’s not just any delay. It’s really an irrational behavior. It’s when you postpone an important task even though you know you’ll be worse off for doing so.

So how do you stop procrastinating and just start?

It’s a common belief that perfectionism is one of the main causes of procrastination. Does having high standards make it harder to start?  Many of my colleagues in the legal profession, for example, have perfectionist tendencies. Procrastination can get lawyers into trouble. It creates high stress and anxiety, and often leads to subpar work and serious errors.

Rule 1.3 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct states, “A lawyer shall act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client.” Comment 3 adds, “Perhaps no professional shortcoming is more widely resented than procrastination.”

But as it turns out, there’s no strong link between perfectionism and procrastination, says Dr. Piers Steel. He’s a professor and leading researcher on the science of motivation and procrastination. He’s the author of the book, The Procrastination Equation.

Dr. Steel has a mathematical formula that accounts for motivation and procrastination. It is [Expectancy (E) x Value (V)] divided by [Impulsiveness (I) x Delay (D)] = Motivation

The formula is based on 30 years of research and hundreds of studies. To have more motivation, and less procrastination, you want the numerators (E and V) to be high and the denominators (I & D) to be low. 

In episode 6 of The Incrementalist podcast, I describe 4 ways to stop procrastinating and just start: (1) create success spirals; (2) practice mental contrasting; (3) get super-focused; and (4) set clear goals. Success spirals increase expectancy, mental contrasting raises value, super-focus reduces impulsiveness, and clear goals minimize delay. 

I review Dr. Gabriele Oettingen’s WOOP method for incorporating If-Then statements into your plan for overcoming obstacles. WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. 

I also explain Dr. Tim Pychyl’s theory that procrastination is an emotion management problem, not a time management issue. We procrastinate because we’re thinking about all the things that might happen rather than just starting what we have to do. Procrastination is a coping strategy to deal with negative emotions like frustration and anxiety. It is based on assumptions that the task won’t feel good. 

When we procrastinate, we have less time to complete the project.  We sometimes tell ourselves we work better under pressure. But we just make more errors when we wait until the deadline is tomorrow. 

Whatever you have to do, just start now. 

Resources Cited: 

  • Pierce Steel, The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done
  • Gabriele Oettingen, Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation 
  • Timothy A Pychyl, Solving the Procrastination Puzzle: A Concise Guide to Strategies for Change

Cheers,

Dyan Williams

# # #

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. 

SUBSCRIBE           CONTACT

Comments Off on Stop Procrastinating and Just Start: The Incrementalist, Episode 6

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

Tagged ,

Finding and Sustaining Flow: Listen to The Incrementalist, Episode 5

Posted on February 4, 2021 | Comments Off on Finding and Sustaining Flow: Listen to The Incrementalist, Episode 5

How do you make the impossible possible? How do you tackle goals that seem impossible? When you get into the flow state, it’s much easier to learn, grow, create, turn your ideas into action, and bring your dreams into reality.

To move in the desired direction, you need more flow in your life, says Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, renowned psychologist and author of the groundbreaking book, Flow. He defines flow as the optimal experience in which you’re so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. You enjoy it for its own sake and will keep at it even with great cost. Flow is a key ingredient of a meaningful and happy life. 

But amped up flow doesn’t lead to ongoing success. While flow is necessary for peak performance, it’s not enough to sustain it, says Steven Kotler. He’s the author of many neuroscience books, including The Art of Impossible. He’s a peak performance expert and Executive Director of Flow Research Collective. 

In this episode, I review the 5 intrinsic motivators, the 3 tiers of goal-setting, and the 6 levels of grit, and how they all come together to trigger flow.  I also discuss the 9 elements of flow, which means your biology is working for you to perform at your peak. 

You will learn how the flow cycle leads to reliable and repeatable results. Through compound interest, the minutes, hours, days, months and years of focus and effort add up to make the impossible possible.

Resources cited: 

  • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
  • Steven Kotler, The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer 

Cheers,

Dyan Williams

# # #

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. 

SUBSCRIBE           CONTACT

Comments Off on Finding and Sustaining Flow: Listen to The Incrementalist, Episode 5

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

Tagged , ,

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!

# # #

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. 

SUBSCRIBE           CONTACT

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

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

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

# # #

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. 

SUBSCRIBE           CONTACT

Comments Off on Breaking Bad Habits: Listen to The Incrementalist, Episode 3

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

Tagged