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Operation Wind Tamer

As you start your week, are you feeling overwhelmed with the mountain of work in front of you? Does any of this resonate with you?

• You’re convinced that there are lots of angry (or at least annoyed) people on the other side of that mountain of tasks, because you’ve missed deadlines or didn’t set clear expectations about timing.
• You’re anxious about how much there is to do, but not entirely clear about what is on the list.
• You’re struggling to prioritize, because everything feels urgent, important, overdue, and unconquerable.
• You’re certain that everything on your list HAS to be done, but also that there isn’t enough time in the day (or week or month) to actually GET it done.

The whirlwind of your everyday work is a fact of life – but the feeling of overwhelm doesn’t have to be.

When it all feels like too much, and you’re frozen in place from the overwhelm, here’s a tried-and-true rescue approach you can use to tame the whirlwind and get back on healthy, productive footing. I’ll call it “Operation Wind Tamer”:

1) Chin up, Buttercup!

• Remember you’re awesome. Really – if you’ve made it through law school, the Bar, and into a law practice with clients who pay you for your expertise, you’re smarter than the average bear. You’re probably pretty resilient, too. The fact that you have so much to do is likely because lots of people trust you with issues that are important to them – they believe in you, and want you to succeed, too. Take a minute for a deep breath, and send yourself some positive energy. 
• Remember you’re human (and so are your clients). Yes, you’re an above-average human – but you’re still a human. Lawyer humans are definitely prone to overcommit, and also tend to be irrationally hard on ourselves when we don’t hit the remarkably high bar we’ve set for ourselves. Like all other humans, we also require rest, play, fuel, and all sorts of other non-work things in our lives in order to be at our best. Your clients are also human, and in all likelihood, they’ll understand when you need to reset expectations or otherwise adjust, or when your work has boundaries that protect your ability to be your whole self.
• Make it fun. This rescue operation doesn’t need to feel like a punishment. In fact, you should do whatever you can to make it feel fun! Turn up the music, sit outside, make yourself a particularly delicious coffee, use your favorite pens, whatever strikes you.   

2) Make the list.

• List it ALL.  Around here, we often talk about how important it is to have a single source of truth – one place where all of your to-do items are captured (client work, marketing work, administrative items, even the personal / family to-dos). As you dive into this process, give yourself 15 minutes to get all of your to-do items (or at least all the ones occupying your mental energy, inbox space, notes, post-its, etc.) in one place. Ideally, this is your existing project / task / matter management system – but if you don’t have one in place or it’s too daunting to mess with that while you’re in rescue mode, just use a Word doc or a notepad. No particular order needed.
• Make it bite-sized. Look at your list, and for anything that requires multiple steps, or anything that gives you the “I don’t even know where to start” feeling, write down the next action needed to make progress. This could be something as simple as “read email from client & figure out what they’re asking”. Even if you won’t end up taking action on every item this week, just knowing that you have a sense of the next action needed for the items on your list (and that it’s written down so you don’t have to try to remember it) should be remarkably anxiety-reducing.

3) Categorize the list.

• Identify the urgent, important, and “stinky fish”.  Review your list, and identify the urgent items – typically, anything that has a hard deadline in the next few days / week. Next, identify the items that are really important, even though they might not be urgent. Finally, identify the “stinky fish” – those projects or tasks that have been contributing to your anxiety in a disproportionate way because they’ve been sitting around too long.  (Feel free to color code each of these categories – no reason you can’t have a little fun and make the whole exercise a little more visually appealing!)
• Group the Pings and Quick Hits. You likely have several items on your list that just require a check-in with someone (such as an email to opposing counsel asking about the status of an item, or a note to the client to ask if they had any changes to the document you drafted for them) – these are “Pings”. You probably also have a handful of items that will each take less than 5 minutes to complete – these are “Quick Hits”. Group your Pings and your Quick Hits – color coding is great here, too. (And if you have Quick Hits that will take less than a minute or two to complete, go ahead and do them now. You can cross them off your list and congratulate yourself on building some early momentum!)

4) Commit with your calendar.

• Get your calendar ready. Now that you’ve done some quick categorizing in your to-do list, it’s time to tell yourself when they are going to happen. Before we can schedule the work, though, we need to be sure your calendar reflects any meetings, events, personal and family commitments you have made, as well as your personal boundaries about when you are and are not available for work. 
• Put your calendar to work. Now, looking at the items you’ve highlighted as urgent, important, and stinky, ballpark the time you’ll need for each, and put it on your calendar. You’ll want to be sure you are mindful of the deadlines associated with the urgent items. Also place a calendar block for “Pings” and one for “Quick Hits”. All of these calendar blocks should be labeled with a name that reminds you what each one is for, and they should show up as “busy” on your calendar, so no one can book over them inadvertently (and so you’re messaging to yourself that this is a real commitment).
• Schedule your regroup. Acknowledging that we’re doing this work in “rescue mode”, it’s a great idea to set aside some time at the end of the week to regroup and replan, so you don’t end up needing to rescue yourself again next Monday! Go ahead and calendar that time now.

5) Get yourself in motion.

• Communicate – For any projects where you find that you need to reset a deadline or expected delivery date, or where you have the sense that the client or other party might be frustrated about timing (or just antsy because they don’t know what to expect), now is a great time to send a quick note to let them know when you’re planning to work on items. This doesn’t mean you have to commit to a delivery date – it can be as simple as a note saying “I have set aside time on my calendar to work on your project on Wednesday – I’ll have a better sense of delivery date then”. The point here is that you’re (a) removing the friction that arises when someone doesn’t know what to expect or thinks you’ve forgotten about their work, and (b) putting yourself back in the driver’s seat with respect to your work.
• Start checking boxes! Now that you’ve done the hard work of marshalling your to-dos, it’s time to start checking boxes and collecting gold stars. If your calendar allows, set a timer for 15 minutes, and knock out a few of your Quick Hits or Pings. There’s huge value in giving yourself the benefit of “checked box” dopamine rush as you move out of rescue mode and into work mode. 
• Let the calendar be your guide – but don’t be afraid to adjust. All you need to do now is dive in to the work. You’ve already made the decisions about prioritizing and when to do what. So, it’s time to let that big, beautiful brain of yours get down to business. Follow your calendar and make it happen – but when surprises arise (and they will, for sure!), just remember to stay flexible. If you need to move a calendar block for a particular project from one day to the next, do it – just remember to communicate about the changes if you need to reset expectations. 

Overwhelm is too often a default state for lawyers – especially solos and small firm owners. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Our “Operation Wind Tamer” approach can be a great way to rescue yourself from overwhelm, and to help keep you on solid ground going forward.

Reaching out to a community of like-minded lawyers, who face the same challenges and can offer their own insights (as well as some camaraderie and commiseration) can also be a great help. In fact, we’ve seen it happen with many of the lawyers in the ADVOSphere (our free, private community for lawyers and law firm owners). This community is great at offering the benefit of their own experiences (good and bad) to help each other!

If you’re a lawyer who could use a bit more of that kind of community in your practice,  just click here to join us in the ADVOSphere! (And we’d love to hear your thoughts on Operation Wind Tamer, and what other strategies you use to battle overwhelm in your practice – just drop a comment on this post in the ADVOSphere.)

To taming the whirlwind on the way to your #PROmance!

Whitney