Category Archives: lawyer well-being

How to Accomplish More in 12 Weeks Than in 12 Months

Posted on July 15, 2021 | Comments Off on How to Accomplish More in 12 Weeks Than in 12 Months

Do you often fail to follow thorough and take action on your goals?   

Have you been tracking your progress on big projects?

Are you in annual mode where you measure success at the end of the year? 

Do you wait until December to set new goals?

If you’re resisting what you need to accomplish, you might have given yourself too much time to execute your plans. New Year’s Resolutions and annual goals rarely get you to where you need to be and create the life you want.   

Move out of annual thinking and adopt the 12 Week Year. With this planning technique, a year is no longer 12 months; it’s 12 weeks. 1 year = 12 weeks, 1 month = 1 week, and 1 week = 1 day. You are no longer focusing on distant annual goals broken into 4 periods or quarters.

In episode 27 of The Incrementalist podcast, you will learn:

1) The advantages of a 12-week planning system to set and implement big goals

2) How your thinking affects the results

3) The key ingredients of a weekly plan and ways to make it work for you

4) The steps to creating and recreating a 12-week action plan

5) How shorter time frames prompt you to take action and avoid procrastination 

6) The importance of having a clear vision and defining specific tactics to get you where you want to be

7) Time blocking helps you control your day and carve out time to execute your plan

Resources cited: 

To listen to episode 27, How to Accomplish More in 12 Weeks Than in 12 Months, click here. Subscribe to The Incrementalist at Apple Podcasts or other apps.

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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 competence, diligence, lawyer well-being, The Productive Lawyer - Productivity + Lawyer Wellbeing Blog

Get Stressed the Right Way

Posted on July 7, 2021 | Comments Off on Get Stressed the Right Way

Do you think of stress as just a negative thing to avoid?

Do you know how to create good and constructive stress?

Are you merely managing stress, or are you leveraging it to sharpen your focus and perform at your peak?

Are you able to use stress to grow to the next level?

Stress is not always bad. It comes with having big goals and pushing beyond your comfort zone. Going off to college, starting a new job, traveling to a foreign country, or launching a business trigger stress. And they also bring feelings of excitement, confidence and achievement.

Stress is positive when it stimulates growth, adaptation and expansion. It’s the chronic, persistent, negative stress that you need to watch out for.   

Stress can be good and productive or it can be toxic and destructive. That’s why it’s important to get stressed the right way. 

Stress is a stimulus that challenges your body and mind to adapt, moves you out of homeostasis, and shift you away from your baseline.

Too much stress and not enough rest lead to injury, illness and burnout. Too little stress and too much rest result in complacency, stagnation and dissatisfaction. 

In episode 26 of The Incrementalist podcast, you will learn:

1) A simple growth equation: Stress + Rest = Growth

  • how to alternate between stress and rest
  • how to get the right dose of stress

2) Why you need to set a just manageable challenge for your current abilities and skills

  • Ideal challenge-skills ratio is – 
  • 7 out of 10, where you succeed most of the time, but need to pay attention to the challenge
  • 4%, where the challenge level is 4% greater than your present skill level

3) What happens to your state of flow when the challenge is too high or too low

4) The difference between the anabolic state and the exhaustion state and how stress affects each

5) Why you need to know your limits and be realistic when setting a challenge

6) The significance of the ultradian rhythm (work-rest cycle in a 24-hour day) 

  • How to use it to your benefit when switching between cycles of work and cycles of rest
  • 90 minutes of deep work followed by 20 minutes of deep rest generally synchs with the ultradian rhythm
  • Why some breaks (e.g. taking a nap or a walk) are better than others (e.g. scrolling social media)

7) The optimal work-rest split depends on your own focus muscle, energy level, the type of task, the time of day, your work schedule and other factors

8) Vacations and extended breaks are critical, and must be accompanied by regular breaks between work sessions each day

9) Whether you view stress as a challenge or as a threat affects your response

  • challenge response triggers DHEA, which boosts testosterone levels and lowers anxiety, worry and neuro degeneration 
  • threat response increases cortisol and inflammatory proteins, which cause inflammation, contribute to depression and impair the immune system. 

10) Two ways to prime yourself for peak performance

  • Customize routines and rituals, which condition your mind and body for focused work
  • Block distractions and interruptions, which stop adaptation to stress

11) The 5 Principles in the Incrementalist approach to make big changes without going too far outside your comfort zone.

Resources cited: 

To listen to episode 26,  Get Stressed the Right Way, click here. Subscribe to The Incrementalist at Apple Podcasts or other apps.

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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 competence, diligence, lawyer well-being, The Productive Lawyer - Productivity + Lawyer Wellbeing Blog

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Make Better Decisions Even When You’re Uncertain

Posted on July 1, 2021 | Comments Off on Make Better Decisions Even When You’re Uncertain

Do you know how to make a decision when you have limited information and are pressed for time?

Are you curious to learn information that conflicts with existing beliefs?

Do you focus on the results when determining whether a decision was good or bad?

Are you willing to bet on the decisions you make?

When you’re making a decision on tough problems, you are always missing key information. Every decision is biased because it’s based on limited beliefs, assumptions and data points. You can never be sure of the outcome. 

A bet is a decision about an uncertain future. And decisions are bets in uncertain environments. 

As you seek to learn more, you start to peel back the layers. You become more skilled at finding different pathways and generating creative solutions to complex problems. When a problem cannot be solved with a simple technique or known procedure, being certain will block out conflicting and vital information. The more certain you are, the more-close minded you become. 

Being uncertain can be a key to success because it opens you up to new ideas, insights and information to create the best possible future. Thinking in bets improves your decision-making. You can embrace the power of saying “I am not sure” or “I don’t know.” 

In episode 25 of The Incrementalist podcast, you will learn: 

  • Life is like poker and decisions are bets in uncertain environments
  • Why uncertainty has benefits and how to embrace it
  • Some questions to ask when thinking in bets
  • The reasons you need to separate the outcome quality from the decision quality. (Hint: A good outcome can follow a bad decision and a bad outcome can result from a good decision.) 
  • The role of cognitive dissonance and motivated reasoning in decision-making
  • The advantages of getting out of your echo chambers and considering alternative viewpoints
  • Dr. Robert K. Merton’s ethos of science, or CUDOS approach, for group decision-making and dissenting to win
  • The 10-10-10 approach for your present self to make decisions for your future self
  • Why you need to break big stuff into small action steps to minimize high-pressure, high-stakes decision-making

Resources cited: 

To listen to episode 25, Make Better Decisions Even When You’re Uncertain, click here. Subscribe to The Incrementalist at Apple Podcasts or other apps.

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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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Time Affluence: Create Time to Be Happier

Posted on June 24, 2021 | Comments Off on Time Affluence: Create Time to Be Happier

Do you wish you had more time to slow down, relax, and just be happier?

Are you always rushed and overwhelmed?  

Do you feel like you don’t have enough time to do it all?

Are you working longer hours as a way to make more money?

If you want to have a happier, more satisfying life, it’s better to value time over money. It doesn’t matter whether you’re financially secure or financially struggling.  Even when you control for income level, the more time affluence you have, the happier you are. 

Time affluence is feeling that you have enough time to pursue meaningful activities and enjoy leisure. You can exercise, move, relax, travel, volunteer, or engage in social relationships more.

Time poverty is feeling rushed, overwhelmed, stressed and overworked. It’s having too many things to do and not enough time to do them. You can be time poor even if you have loads of money.

In episode 24 of The Incrementalist podcast, you will learn:

1) How to create time affluence by avoiding time traps and staying out of time poverty

2) Why it helps to prioritize time over money

  • The benefits of having a time-focused mindset
  • The difference between a Taylor (who values time more than money) and a Morgan (who values money more than time)

3) How to find time by –

  • Time Auditing and Time Tracking
  • Doing pro time intervention 
  • Setting an Implementation Intention
  • Having a must-win activity
  • Reversing idleness aversion
  • Saying no more often

4) How to fund time by – 

  • Outsourcing disliked chores and tasks
  • Investing in time-saving products and tools

5) How to reframe time by –

  • Tying tedious tasks to broader goals
  • Pairing hard tasks with fun activities

6) The importance of having a long view, planning your leisure time and taking deliberate rest

Resources cited: 

To listen to episode 24, Time Affluence: Create Time to Be Happier, click here. Subscribe to The Incrementalist at Apple Podcasts or other apps.

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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, lawyer well-being, The Productive Lawyer - Productivity + Lawyer Wellbeing Blog

Do, Ship, Repeat

Posted on June 16, 2021 | Comments Off on Do, Ship, Repeat

Are you scared of uncertain or unpredictable outcomes?

Do you feel like an imposter when you’re tasked with a new and challenging project?

Are you constantly seeking reassurance that it will all be okay? 

Do you hold off on shipping your creative work? 

We often believe we need credentials to do useful or valuable work. Whether it’s having a college degree, a training certificate, or a professional license, credentials help us seem less like an imposter. But we’re all imposters on some level when we work on hard problems with no easy answers.

You might ask yourself: Why did I get picked? Why am I being charged to solve this issue? Why am I stepping up and choosing to lead or choosing to follow?

Don’t wait for reassurance or validation. Instead, hone the ability to trust yourself. You will never get enough assurance of a favorable outcome. You will never get enough approval for what you did. If you’re creating useful work, there’s no way to please everyone. Worrying about what others think is a quest for guarantees, but there are no guarantees when it comes to creative work.

Do, ship and repeat if you want to make things better with creative work. You don’t always need credentials to start.

In episode 23 of The Incrementalist podcast, you will learn:

1) What creative work is

2) You have a choice to be creative or to become a hack, a hustler, or a cog

3) The power of showing up, even when you don’t feel like it or when you have Imposter Syndrome

4) Creativity is not a talent or a gift, but is a deliberate practice that allows you build the skills to be creative

5) Why focusing on the process is more important than striving for a favorable outcome

6) Why you need to set a schedule and time block when you will take your action steps

7) Why you must set constraints and upper limits to generate better ideas and execute more quickly

8) How perfectionism holds you back and why you need to ship your work when it’s good enough for the intended audience

The Incrementalist ebook is on sale for $4.99, until June 20. After that, the regular minimum price of $9.99 will apply. You can find it at leanpub.com/incrementalist. 

Resources cited: 

To listen to episode 23, Do, Ship, Repeat, click here. Subscribe to The Incrementalist at Apple Podcasts or other apps.

# # #

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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