Lawsagna

Mind on a Diet

"If we want to simplify and deepen our lives, we must simplify and deepen our minds. When we become more centered, clear, spacious, caring, and open, there is suddenly much more room in our frenetic lives for both others and ourselves."
—Lama Surya Das

This is the season when many people talk about losing a few pounds here and there.  As you decide what to feed your body, take time to think about what you feed your mind.  Here are a few things to consider.

1. Avoid empty information calories.  Just like junk food is harmful to our bodies, junk information dulls our minds.  (Here's the link to the post about my "Information Impact Quotient" approach).
2. Look for fresh ideas that forge new pathways in the brain.  Try new approached to old problems.  Evaluate situations from different perspectives.
3. Appreciate diversity.  Develop a curious mind that wants to wander and explore.
4. Make healthy thought choices.  Ban toxic thoughts.  Cherish positive, invigorating ideas.
5. Look beyond the packaging to discover the essence of things.
6. Don't feed on spoiled leftovers.  Let go of the notions that don't work for you anymore.  Release the attachments.
7. Be mindful as you consume information.  Slow down.  Take time to reflect on the meaning and usefulness of what you read and hear and integrate it into your existing knowledge base.

Shorten your learning curve!

   

What’s your theme?

I am trying something new this year.  I actually have a theme for 2008.  My theme is learning to get out of my comfort zone.  Here are my reasons for creating a new year’s theme:

Focus.  Maintaining just one theme throughout the year will help me stay focused and hopefully, make better progress.

Layered goal structure.  I’ve found that I accomplish more if I have just one goal in front of me.  At the same time, I want to have a big picture to know where I am heading and a clear set of actions to follow.  My optimal structure has three layers:  the theme, the goals to support my theme, and the steps to accomplish my goals.   

Momentum.  Working under a unifying theme builds momentum for growth and development, which is more difficult to achieve if you try to work on a list of unrelated things. 

Process.  My theme is process-oriented.  It is about how I do things, as opposed to what I do.  It allows me to apply my theme across the board, to a variety of projects.  No matter what I do, I can ask myself how I can get out of my comfort zone to build a new mindset and new skills.

Am I missing any important component in my approach?  Do you have a theme for 2008?

 Claim your best life now!

   

How to maintain a positive outlook when you are stressed

Is the stress of approaching finals getting to you?  If so, Law School Academic Support Blog has some advice on how to maintain a positive outlook in this challenging time and help others do the same. 

Are you too busy to even consider any positive changes?  In his article “Let Your Subconscious Mind Go to Work for You,” David J. Pollay describes an exercise you can do every morning to harness the power of your subconscious.  It won’t take a lot of time, and the results may be well worth it.

What do you do to manage your stress?

Tip Bit #29: Run away from panic

As the date of the July bar exam approaches, many of you may experience sudden panic from time to time.  Here’s a quick trick to quiet those worries.  Do some high energy exercises for just a few minutes.  It has to be something vigorous enough to distract your mind from negative thoughts, so do a set of push-ups, sit-ups, some kickboxing moves or just run up and down stairs.  It will release the tension build-up in your body and ease your anxiety.  And it’s a good way to spend your study break, so give it a try.

What do you do to lower your stress level?   

Let’s begin! (Part II)

“There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other.”
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

You’ve probably heard the saying “to begin is half the work.”  It is also the hard part of the work.  Have you had trouble starting a thing or two?  What is a good way to begin something?   In Let’s begin (Part I), I gave some tips on how to get yourself ready to cross the start line.  Today, I want to talk about the importance of finding common ground as the first step in many initiatives.  What we have in common with one another can be used as glue to make all the pieces of our project stick together.  How so?  Let’s look at some of the contexts where you can use common ground as your beginning point.    

1. Whenever you need to make a speech or a presentation, it’s a good idea to begin by sharing something that your audience can agree with.  If you establish a point of agreement with your audience from the start, your listeners are going to be more willing to accept what you have to say later.   To learn how to do that, listen to The Engaging Brand podcast Powerful Presenting Pt 1 and Pt 2.   
2. When we meet a person for the first time, it’s only natural that we look for commonalities in our backgrounds or interests to establish rapport.  Remember that next time you are at a networking function.  You conversations will be more fulfilling if you take a genuine interest in the other person.   
3. When mediators work to resolve a conflict between parties, they often try to have them agree on something as the first step of the mediation process.  Even if the point of agreement is really small, its psychological benefit can be great.  Sometimes, a small object that has sentimental value for both parties, such as the kids’ pictures, can do the trick.  Next time you see a conflict brewing, try to agree before you disagree. 
4. When you work as a team, you need to start with a common agenda and common goals.  It applies to meetings, collaborative projects, study groups.  It ensures that all the members of your team are moving in the same direction. 
5. When you write to persuade, inform or entertain, it’s a good idea to consider what characteristics your readers share and what you can do as a writer to address their concerns, interests and desires.  You can apply the same principle when you launch a new product or service. 
6. Whenever we encounter a new situation, we look for a familiar pattern in it.  That’s how our brain processes the information.  To understand the new piece, we need to find a link or an association to something we already know.  If you train yourself to be better at pattern recognition, you will learn more and remember longer.  So next time you need to learn something new, compare it first to what you already know and see how you can transfer your existing knowledge or skill set to the new context.

Can you think of any other situations when finding common ground is a good way to begin? 

How to deal with difficult people

Most of your interactions, I am sure, are cordial, pleasant and productive.  But for those rare occasions when you come face-to-face with a difficult, negative, or annoying person, here’s a blueprint for your actions and reactions. 

First of all, how do you spot trouble?  Chuck Newton warns of the “Six Personality Types You Should Avoid.”  Meet The Loafer, The Weasel, The Bridegroom, The Psycho Killer, The Replicant, and The Future CEO.

What assumptions do you harbor when you develop your relationships with people?  Here’s a list of principles that will help you build better relationships from the Lifehack article “Other people are not broken…” by Adrian Savage.

How do you deal with negative people in a positive way?  Catherine Pratt offers some tips on “How To Deal With Negative People” at Life With Confidence.   Do you know the type who always criticizes everything?  I’ve heard of a good neutralizing phrase when you talk to those people.  Ask them:  “Do you have a better idea?”   While you are at Life With Confidence, also check out “How to Kill Fear When Dealing with Aggressive People” by Peter Murphy. 

Here’s a secret about annoying people.  They are annoying only so long as you let them annoy you.  Take that power away from them!  The Chief Happiness Officer Alexander Kjerulf tells you  “How not to let annoying people annoy you.”

How do you keep your cool?

How to turn boring into fun

Let’s admit, sometimes we just have to do the boring stuff and there is no way around it.  Is there a way to sweeten the pill?  Try the following strategies to add excitement to your boring tasks.

1. Use fun tools, gadgets and accessories to do the task.  A nice pen, a sleek black Moleskine, a shiny techno-gadget can have surprising soul-soothing qualities and help to move you along.
2. Schedule some fun to reward yourself for completing the boring project and instead of focusing on how bored you are, visualize the fun part.  The anticipation of the reward is a great mood-booster in itself. 
3. Use the boring task as a procrastination method for something even less exciting.  When do you feel the urge to clean your house?  When you need to study for an exam or write a paper.  What is fun and what is boring is relative. 
4. Approach the boring with the beginner’s mind.  You don’t know that it’s boring.  Is there anything new to learn from this task?  Do it and pay attention as if you were doing it for the first time.  Question how you do things and why.  Have you noticed how kids can be fascinated with most ordinary things?  How they really study an object, poke and prod and test it?  Unleash your own curiosity.
5. Explain what you are doing to a child.  Their questions may force you to look at the situation from a different perspective.  They will make you wonder.
6. Talk to a person who enjoys doing what you consider boring.  Their passion and commitment can make the most ordinary thing look extraordinary.  Enthusiasm is infectious.
7. Role-play and pretend to be somebody who is really good at the task you are about to do.  What makes them so good at it?  Get into their mindset. 
8. Capture the contrast.  Pair up your boring task with an activity that you enjoy.  Brew some good coffee, turn on your favorite CD.  You will feel better.
9. Change the process.  Speed it up or slow it down.  Add a challenge.  Exaggerate or eliminate.  Do things differently. 
10. Fuel your competitive spirit.  Find somebody how has to do the same thing and turn the task into a competition. 
11. Change your physical environment.   If you task is portable, take it to a park, beach, coffee shop.   If you have to stay in the office or at home, change the lighting, turn on a water fountain, buy some flowers, put up a nice painting or poster on the wall.  Look for things that stimulate your senses:  smell good aromas, listen to soothing sounds, divert your eyes to take in beauty.
12. Create a story around your project.  Define your goal.  Find your direction.  Are you a struggling hero in conflict?  Are you bracing yourself for a big obstacle to overcome?  Write the script and make it exciting.
    
    How do you fight boredom?

Tip Bit #20: On learning portfolios

In the summer time, many students pursue internship opportunities, study abroad programs and other activities outside the traditional law school curriculum.  It’s a good time for self-directed learning.  You can read about the characteristics of self-directed learners in the article “Learner, Direct Thyself” by Gerry Sexton, M.D. at LiNE Zine.

One of the tools for more effective learning is a personal learning portfolio.  When you hear the word “portfolio,” you may think of artists or designers creating a representative sample of their works.  A learning portfolio, however, is a record of your personal learning experience, and it can be created by anybody.  What are the benefits of a learning portfolio?

• It makes your learning more purposeful.
• It’s a place to record your learning goals.
• It allows you to track your own progress.
• It will keep you motivated because it is also a record of your personal victories.
• It focuses your attention.
• It teaches you to be a reflective learner. 
• It can be a springboard for your job-search and career development strategies.

It’s up to you to decide how you want to structure your learning portfolio, but here is a simple format to get your started:

1. Identify the content of your learning.  What is it that you want to know?  For example, as a summer associate, you may want to choose your favorite areas of practice, decide whether you like the firm’s culture, learn how to write good memos and how to network, etc. 
2. Write down the reasons why you want to learn those things.  How does your learning fit into the larger context of your personal development, career objectives, social life?  You are more likely to achieve your goal if you have a reminder of why it is important.   
3. Determine how you are going to accomplish your learning objectives.  What experiences do you need to have?  How do you develop the skills you need?  Who can be your teacher / role model / mentor?  Create your own learning curriculum filled with the activities that can boost your professional and personal development.
4. Figure out how you can measure you progress.  How do you know that you have reached your goal?  What are your milestones?  Record your successes and challenges.
5. Reflect on your learning process.  Write down your observations of what works and what doesn’t work for you.  How could you learn more effectively? 
6. Find the ways to use and apply your new knowledge and skills.  How can you learn more by doing? 
7. Have a section where you can record random comments and observations, clip images that appeal to you, write down quotations, ask yourself questions and just let your thoughts flow onto the paper without reservations. 

Have you ever used learning portfolios?  How did they work for you?  Let me know.

Let’s begin! (Part I)

"Too many of us wait to do the perfect thing, with the result we do nothing. The way to get ahead is to start now. While many of us are waiting until conditions are "just right" before we go ahead, others are stumbling along, fortunately ignorant of the dangers that beset them. By the time we are, in our superior wisdom, decided to make a start, we discover that those who have gone fearlessly on before, have, in their blundering way, traveled a considerable distance. If you start now, you will know a lot next year that you don't know now, and that you will not know next year, if you wait. "
The William Feather Magazine

You’ve probably heard the saying “to begin is half the work.”  It is also the hard part of the work.  Have you had trouble starting a thing or two?  Why is it so difficult to begin?  I think, it boils down to anxiety, uncertainty, lack of commitment, risk-avoidance and maybe, a few other things.  What is a good way to begin something?   Here are a few tips to get you ready to cross the start line. 

Start at the end.  That’s right.  Begin by imagining the end result of whatever you want to do.  George Bernard Shaw said: “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” If the outcome is compelling enough, the vision will propel you to action. If you can’t see the positive result, it may be a sign that you should not start. 

Take the bate.  Is there a part of the project that looks more appealing to you? Start there if possible.  Find the most exciting thing about the project and go after it.  The energy generated from such beginning will carry over to other less enticing tasks.  If you can’t find anything exciting, once again, it maybe a sign that the thing is not worth doing.  If you really have to do it, pair it up with some unrelated fun.  Make a deal with yourself that you will do the fun part first for a limited amount of time and then, you must do the boring part.  For example, you can watch one movie, but then you must start writing, reading, outlining, or whatever you need to.  That’s the reward upfront approach. The idea here is to put you in a good mood right away and mentally prepare you for other things to come.  This approach may help you if the promise of a future reward doesn’t do the trick.

Transform procrastination into the beginning.  Use your procrastination time to organize your thoughts, create a time-management system for your project, motivate yourself, rehearse ideas.  In other words, procrastinate with purpose.

Set a deadline to begin.  You have to set deadlines to get anything done.  Share your deadline with people.   If you make a public commitment, you are more likely to keep it.

Take small bites.  What exactly qualifies as the beginning?  If you need to write a paper, do you have to write a sentence, a paragraph, or a chapter to begin?  Subdividing your project into small easily manageable parts is a great way to conquer your fears and resistance. 

Enlist the help and support of others.  There is nothing like sharing your misery with somebody else (I am being sarcastic here).   Do you think runners would feel differently when they approached the start line if there were no cheering crowd around?  Surround yourself with energetic, caring and motivating people, and feel a sudden urge to begin. 

How would you begin whatever you need to do right now? 

Today’s tips are general and applicable to a variety of contexts.  It’s just the beginning (pardon the pun).  In Part II, I plan to address some specific situations, for example:

• How do you begin writing a paper?
• How do you being a job interview?
• How do you being a presentation?
• How do you introduce yourself to people?
• How do you begin a cold call?

If you have any advice or a topic to suggest, I’d love to hear from you!
 

Tip Bit #14: How to ACE your online reading

Internet is the repository of a wealth of information and a great time-waster as well.  What I am realizing is that the source of information overload is not so much the sheer quantity of information, but rather the inability or unwillingness to choose what is worth the reading effort.  I am guilty of spending hours jumping from one article to another to satisfy my curiosity.  Did all this reading make me more productive, inspired, creative?  I am not so sure.  That’s why I decided to give my ACE system a try.  It makes me more aware and accountable for what I read, why I read it, and what the results are.   “ACE” stands for “Accumulate,” “Choose,” “Eliminate.”  This is how it works:

Accumulate.  I schedule time to skim my feeds, perform searches, follow interesting links and do other things to collect potential reading material.  I bookmark the things I may want to read.  I set up several folders according to my projects and interests so that I could sort the links into their corresponding folders.  The challenge here is to fight the temptation to start reading.  The upside is that I don’t need to be selective at this stage.  Anything that catches my eye goes to one of my folders. 

Choose.  I schedule separate time when I actually read the materials that I bookmarked earlier.  Before I read though, I make a choice of what I am going to read about today.  The benefit is that my reading is more focused on what I am doing at the moment.  Instead of reading five articles on memory on various days, I read them all in the same session when I want to tackle this topic.  Another plus is that great sources accumulate over time without much effort on my part, and when there are enough of them, it is a signal for me to pay attention.  I find that I get more ideas and inspiration out of such sessions.

Eliminate.  I also take time to go over and clean up my folders.  I delete the links that are no longer relevant for some reason.  Again, I want to keep the things that I may read one day.

Do you have a system in place that helps you curb your appetite for online reading?  I’d love it if you shared your approach in the comments.   

Strike a pose to remember

The works of memory fascinate me.  I’ve already talked about how smells, associations,  images, sounds, and emotions can bring memories back.  Now I can add body postures to the list.  Cognitive Daily describes a new study suggesting that “just holding your body in the right position means you'll have faster, more accurate access to certain memories.”  The subjects were able to remember certain events in their lives faster when they assumed the same positions that their bodies were in when those memories occurred. 

I personally don’t like to sit still for a long period of time.  Now I have a legitimate excuse to move around.  So, next time you need to learn res ipsa loquitur, stand on your head, imagine an ER unit, and reinforce the image with a smell of ether and the sound of ambulance.  Later, when you need to recall the "scalpel left behind," just assume the head-stand position again.      

Holistic learning

In his thought-provoking post How to Ace Finals Without Studying and the follow-up, Scott Young describes holistic learning and its benefits:

Learning holistically is not done by trying to remember information by using repetition and force. Holistic learners instead organize their minds like spider webs. Every piece of information is a single point. That point is then consciously related to tons of other points on the web. There are no boxes with this form of learning. Science becomes literature which becomes economics. Subject distinctions may help when going to class, but a holistic learner never sees things in a box.

The interconnectedness of ideas, concepts, experiences, disciplines is at the heart of holistic learning.  Whether or not you practice holistic learning regularly, I think you are likely to experience the “magic” of holistic learning when you research and write a paper, work on a case in a clinic, or work on a project as an intern.  You don’t try to memorize the material, but the engagement and thinking involved in the process will cause you to remember it even years later.   

Holistic learning is synthesis on steroids.  You establish connections not only between the legal concepts you study, but also link to other disciplines and areas of life in general.  Law is fertile ground for this as it permeates almost everything around us.  In addition, law is constantly evolving, so to understand where a legal standard stands in relation to other rules and doctrines on the grand scheme of things is more important than to know its current interpretation (that doesn’t apply to the bar exam).  It is like star gazing when you identify the stars by their relative positions in the constellation.  Issue-spotting is another context where the holistic approach will serve you well because you have to take the characteristics of the familiar pattern and extend it to a new situation.   

So how do you approach the study of law holistically?  Next time when you struggle to understand a legal concept, consider the following questions:

• What is this concept like?  Think of any association that comes to mind.  Go further and analyze the essential characteristics that make this association work.  Is there a point where the association breaks down? 
• What does this concept remind you of?  Think of what you already know and how it can help you understand this concept better.  Does it involve a process similar to “X”?   Can it be applied just like “Y”?  Does it produce outcomes much like “Z”?   
• How does this concept relate to the previous material?  Here you engage in synthesis. 
• How do you think the doctrine will develop from this point on?  Make some predictions about what’s to come. 
• Do you know of any concrete, real-life scenarios where you can practice applying the theory?  When you encounter or read about various controversies, think of what you know and how it applies to the situation in question. 
• What other disciplines influence the evolution of this concept?  For example, technological developments affect patent law.  Ethics come into play in the regulation of biomedical research.  As you read papers and listen to the news, think of the ways the law may change in the future.
• What areas of life are affected by this concept?  Think of the results and consequences.  Do you like them? 

Mind-mapping can be a great tool to visualize these multiple levels of connections. 

What do you think of holistic learning?  Is it worth the time and effort?  Does it really eliminate the need for the traditional cramming right before the exam?  Have you experienced those "Aha! moments" when
things just "clicked" for you?  How did you get there?

Capture the contrast

Life is full of contrast.  We don’t always like it, but the contrast keeps the  current of life flowing, forcing us to change, adapt, move forward.  There is no “hot” without “cold."  The balance of sweet and sour gives flavor to our food.  We can’t feel joy unless we know sadness.   Sometimes, the only way to discover what makes us happy is to experience what makes us unhappy.  How can we harness this power of contrast and bring more momentum and clarity to our everyday routines?  Here are a few things to consider:

• If you have to do something that you don’t like doing, pair it up with an activity that you enjoy.  Maybe, a cup of good coffee will help you through a boring part of the textbook, just like a good CD makes a long drive more bearable. 
• Reward yourself after you have accomplished a project that felt more like punishment. Come up with a reward before you begin the unpleasant task.  That way you have something to look forward to and keep you motivated.   
• Play Devil’s Advocate.  When you prepare an argument, always consider the opposing points of view.  You will discover the weaknesses of your position before your opponents have a change to point them out. 
• Stretch yourself by experimenting with the ways you do things.  If you read slowly, try speed-reading.  If you are used to typing up your notes, leave your computer at home and take notes by hand.  If you are usually quiet in class, force yourself to ask more questions.  Reflect on how it feels to do the opposite and how it affects the process and the outcomes. 
• When you read a text in legalese, translate it into plain English to aid comprehension and practice effective writing.      
• If you are quick to jump to conclusions, stop and ask how one could reach the opposite conclusion. 
• When you evaluate a legal opinion, ask yourself what would have happened if the court had decided differently.  Think in terms of precedent, policy, outcomes. 
• When you consider career paths or job offers, visualize yourself doing the opposite of what your initial choice would be.  Notice how it feels and how your body reacts.  Do the same exercise with the other options.    
• If you have failed at something, ask yourself:  “What can I learn from this experience that will help me succeed in the future?”
• Counteract the negative self-talk with positive affirmations. 
• If you are angry, think of kindness.  If you are frustrated because you didn’t get what you wanted, express gratitude for what you have.  Start giving in order to receive. 

How else can you use contrast to your benefit? 

10 factors to consider when designing a home office

Is the physical environment important to you when you work or study?  I find that my energy, motivation, creativity and productivity are affected by the physical space.  That’s why I am on a mission to turn my home office into a beautiful, light, uncluttered and comfortable place.  A couple of years ago I bought the office furniture that I really wanted: a big desk in a distressed white color and a couple of matching file cabinets.  I have a comfortable swivel chair and the office equipment that I need to do my work.  But I still have a long way to go.  I need additional storage and bookshelves for the piles of books sitting in the corner since our move almost a year ago (the old house had built-in bookshelves).  And it’s a constant battle to keep the white space on my desk visible as my papers have a propensity to close on me. 

As part of my designing efforts, I’ve decided to look more into the criteria for effective office spaces suggested by the environmental psychology and ergonomics.  Here's what I found:

1. A good space gives you a freedom of choice of what to do and how to do it by satisfying multiple purposes.  You want to be able to use space flexibly.  For example, I like having a choice where to read in my office:  I can sit at the desk or I can sit on a couch. 
2. The ability to personalize the space is important.  You want an office that reflects who you are.  Choosing a color theme that you like and decorating with items that you enjoy looking at can help you create a unique and exciting place. 
3. A good space offers privacy as well as opportunities for social interaction when you want it.  I have to admit that with a 14-month old, I don't have a lot of privacy.
4. It’s good to have transitions in visual stimuli because it helps to process information.  For example, after looking at a document or a leaning board on the wall, you may want to look out of the window or simply stare at the blank wall to give yourself time to think.  Similarly, taking a break from your computer screen to look at a favorite painting may re-energize you.
5. Physical comfort is important.  Invest in a good-quality chair.  Your level of energy and concentration depends on a good posture. 
6. Pay attention to esthetics.  People are happier, more energized and creative whey they are in beautiful spaces.  On the opposite, they get bored and distracted easily in unattractive spaces.  Need some inspiration?  Check out 10 innovative workplaces shared by Chief Happiness Officer.
7. Air quality is another factor that affects your performance.   Our brains use up about 20% of all the oxygen that our bodies absorb.  Plants are your friends when it comes to improving the air quality in your office.
8. Maintain consistent temperature and humidity levels in the room.  The optimum is the temperature of 70-73F and 60-70% humidity.
9. Control the noise.  While music may help you learn better, a beeping fax machine won’t. 
10. Exposure to natural light has a positive effect on health and well-being while prolonged work under the narrow spectrum artificial light with its constant pulsing can add to fatigue.  Pull up those shades!   If you work at your computer a lot, learn about 22 Ways to Reduce Eye Strain at Your Computer from The Lighting Blog.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with home office design.  What works for you and what doesn’t? 

What can you learn from people?

Some things we learn from books, by going to classes, watching presentations, listening to lectures.  Other things we learn from people by observing, analyzing, imitating, practicing.  For example, we can learn from people:

• how to communicate well,
• how to engage your audience,
• how to appear professional,
• how to explain complex things in a simple way,
• how to ask good questions,
• how to network,
• how to make people feel valued and respected,
• how to motivate others,
• how to make a joke and when it is appropriate,
• how to defuse intense emotions.

So how do you learn from people?  Here are a few questions and suggestions to guide you:

• What skills do you want to learn? What results do you want to achieve?
• Who will be your model?  Do you know a person who is good at what you are trying to learn?  If you personally know them, enlist their support, ask them questions.  But don't forget that you can also learn from public figures by observing their actions, listening to their speeches, reading their works.
• In what situations do you need to observe that person?  In other words, what is the context that triggers the desired behavior?
• While observing your model in action, decide what the important differences are that make the behavior effective.  What does this person do that others don’t?  In contrast, is there anything that the person you are modeling avoids doing that others tend to do?  What clues should you pay attention to?
• Can you recognize any patterns in the desired behavior?
• Are there specific steps or procedures that the person is following?
• Is there anything unique about the way that person interacts with others?
• Can you tell anything about the person’s assumptions, values, attitudes from his or her behavior?
• Now it is time to create your model of the effective performance.  Can you come up with a strategic list of behaviors that you can imitate?
• Try out your model in the relevant situations to see if you can achieve the desired result.  If not, how can you revise your model?
• Keep trying it out, fine-tune your strategy as necessary.

You need to be mindful and reflective when you learn from others.  It also takes discipline and patience to follow through with your plan.  The benefit is that you can improve your performance by being observant and willing to try something different.  I encourage you to keep your eyes open for other people’s talents.  Ask them questions, learn from them, and you might just add a few gifts to your own bag of tricks.   Who are the people you'd love to learn from?

A pragmatic approach to reading

I am trying to unlearn the long-time habit of reading books from cover to cover.  Don’t get me wrong, some books I still want to read leisurely. I want to linger over sentences and savor the dialogue.  Fiction books certainly fall into this category, and some non-fiction as well.   However, there are so many more books out there that I want to get to and read for information.  I need a more effective way of reading. 

I’ve found that the previewing method works well for me.  I start off  with the book cover, the author’s bio and the table of contents.   That gives me an idea what the book is about, who wrote it, and how it is structured.   I often do it before I actually buy the book.  The next step requires more discipline.  On my first read, I want to spend just a few seconds per page and go through the whole book quickly.  I will glance at the headings, subheadings and any visuals.  That’s where my efforts often derail because I dig into something sooner than I need to.  If I do the skimming properly, I usually get a pretty good picture of the main ideas and arguments.  I also know where to find the information I need to focus on.   Then, I can go back to the pages I want to read more carefully. 

Sometimes, I feel guilty rushing through the book.  After all, somebody took time to write it.  I am concerned that I may miss some gems of wisdom.   I also like to be surprised by an idea.  At the same time, I realize that I gain more from a book if I read it with a purpose in mind.  If I know what I am looking for, I have a better chance of capturing it in my memory.  The truth is that even if I read the whole book page by page and pay attention to every idea or example, I will eventually forget the stuff that is not relevant to what I am doing.  I need to be more pragmatic about reading books:  “What’s in it for me?” 

What do you think?  How do you read books?

Can we create the ‘Aha’ moments on demand?

Do you know the feeling when you have been struggling with a problem for a while and then suddenly all the pieces of the puzzle come together and you have the answer you have been looking for?  Do you remember what you did right before that ‘Aha’ moment?    I’ve recently read an article titled “The Eureka Moment” by Guenther Knoblich and Michael Oellinger in Scientific American Mind (need subscription).  They report on a number of experiments conducted by cognitive neuroscientists that suggest the right brain takes the leading role in generating the insights.  While we don’t know yet how to create those eureka moments on demand, there are some practical steps we can take to increase the likelihood of their occurrence.

1. First, you need to know your stuff.  You need sufficient knowledge and understanding of the issues to solve the problem.
2. Second, much like athletes train before a competition, you need to condition your brain by giving the problem your full effort and attention.  You are likely to get stuck at some point, and that’s OK.  There is a trick to overcome this phase. 
3. The trick it to get away from the problem for a while.  The downside of the knowledge and expertise is that we become too rigid in our approaches.  The brain needs some quiet time to restructure the problem and allow us to look at it from a different angle.  That’s when the insight is more likely to occur. Scientists believe that sleep helps to absorb and reorganize information, so naps often lead to the ‘Aha’ moments.  Here is an interesting account of the breakthrough moments experienced by famous musicians, artists and scientists.   It turns out that many of those moments happened in a somnambulistic state.  A positive attitude helps too, so take a break from the problem and do something fun.  The solution may come to you when you least expect it. 

Too often we associate gain with pain, and while some pain is inevitable, your brain does not want you to suffer continuously.  Treat your brain well, reward its hard work with sleep and pleasure, and it will do wonders for you.

The art of course selection

How do you decide which courses to take each semester? The approaches and results can be as varied as students themselves.  For Shelley’s Case, the choice is between London and Bahamas.  I see course selection as akin to the art of mixing drinks.  The process contains the elements of fun and danger at the same time.  It’s fun because it sets you up for a new experience, but it’s like playing with danger because you are not quite sure how it will end.  Your taste and preferences are important.  Do you like it strong or with just a hint of alcohol? You better follow the proportions and add the ingredients in a certain order.  Finally, it’s good to know how well you can hold your liquor.  Below is my guide to the art of course selection.  It’s a framework that some of you may find helpful in thinking about the matter. 

The first step in the process is to decide what purposes you want your course selection to serve.  Here are some examples:

1. Specializing in your particular area of interest.  If you want to know everything about trusts and estates, you may want to take as many courses relevant to this area as you can find. 
2. Getting a better feel for different areas of practice.  Perhaps, you are trying to decide which area of law you like best.  If that’s your goal, you may take a variety of courses from different areas of law. 
3. Following your interests at the moment.  Maybe, you just want to enjoy every class as much as you can, so you will chose only those subjects that are interesting to you. 
4. Preparing for the bar exam.  Are you worried about the bar exam?  And who is not?  You may decide to take the subjects that will be tested on the bar exam to get yourself familiar with the issues. 
5. Developing special skills.  Perhaps, you want to develop special skills, such as client counseling or negotiation skills.  You may want to enroll in a law clinic for that.   
6. Taking courses from the best professors.  Maybe, you have such a great professor that you are going to take any class he or she teaches.
7. Increasing your chances for better grades.  Everybody wants better grades although not everybody will agree that they should be the driving force in your course selection.  If you are worried about your grades, don’t take four very difficult subjects in one semester.  If you know you do better on take-home exams, you may want to choose a class with a take-home test or a seminar with the final paper instead of the exam.
8. Making your resume and law school transcript appealing to a particular employer.  You may have asked a job interviewer or your mentor: “What classes should I take to prepare myself for this type of work?”  Well, you may take their advice and structure your curriculum accordingly. 
9. Making the best use of your time.  If you have kids, or need to work part-time, or have other demands on your time, creating a convenient schedule becomes very important for you.  Even if you have some flexibility, you can still prefer to have all classes one after another or just four days a week. 

After you have listed all of the goals that are important to you, assign weights to all of them.  If I have nine categories, I will rank them from “1” being the least important to “9” being the most important to me.

The final step is to look at your course options and see how many purposes each course is going to serve.  For each course, you then add all the weights of the relevant categories.  For example, if Corporate Finance satisfies purposes that I weighed as 4, 5 and 9, the score for this course is 4+5+9=18.  Each course will have a score, and the ones with the top scores win.   

Good luck with this exercise.  Then again, sometimes a house merlot is just what you need, so don’t overthink it, your gut may know best.

21 days to a new habit: can you handle it?

“I do think New Year's resolutions can't technically be expected to begin on New Year's Day, don't you?  Since, because it's an extension of New Year's Eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system.  Also dieting on New Year's Day isn't a good idea as you can't eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover.  I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second.” 
Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones's Diary

It is January 2, and it’s time to start doing something different.  As far as good  learning habits are concerned, what is one thing that you are going to do differently this year?  My focus area is organization – from home to head.  Since we are what we do consistently, it is important to make this new thing a habit.  Often times, I initiate some good change, do it for a couple of days, or even a week, and then life interferes and I stop.  Does this scenario happen to you?  Research shows that it takes around 21 days to form a new habit.  Can the “Better You” last that long?  Here are a few ways to improve your chances:

• Clearly identify the benefit of the new habit.  Come up with a word that expresses this benefit for you.  Repeat that word when you need some extra motivation. A word works better than a sentence.  For example, I can say to myself: “I will be organized, and I will have more time for important projects.  I will be more focused.  I will have a clear mind.”  It all sounds good, but my subconscious says: “No, you won’t, so why bother?”   On the other hand, if I just use brief “punch” words “focus and clarity,” I have a better chance of avoiding the subconscious sabotage.   
• Strengthen your commitment by writing it down and putting it up somewhere in a high-traffic area of your home or office.  You can also exhibit it on your calendar or learning board.
• Tell your family and friends about your plan.  We have a higher sense of obligation, when we publicly acknowledge our commitments.
• Schedule the time to do your new routine every day of the 21-day period.  When you have a specific time allocated to it, it’s more likely that you are going to do it.
• Find a buddy who is also developing a new habit to keep each other accountable and celebrate the progress.
• Once you complete the desired task, reward yourself.  Couple your new behavior with something pleasant that you do every day.  Make sure you perform your new routine first.   
• If you feel too much pressure, pretend that you are just temporarily (for 21 days) playing a role of that “new and improved” individual to see how it fits you.   Generally, people don’t like change.  They may try to persuade themselves that they do, but their subconscious blocks the efforts.  The role-play may be a way around it.  Find an actor inside you.  It can be fun to walk in somebody else’s shoes for a bit.
• If you have a person in mind whose good habits you want to emulate, enlist him or her in your support group. Ask how they do it. One way to learn to do something is through modeling the behavior of those who do it really well.  You watch them in action, break down their performance into a set of learnable steps and imitate them.  It’s not easy to identify all the pieces that form a successful habit because people can’t always explain how they do things.  Nevertheless, it may be worth exploring.

What are you doing differently this year?  Do you have any tips on how to stick with a new routine?  Please write a comment.            

Get excited!

You’ve probably heard the saying: if you don’t like the results, do something different.  Well… sometimes, things that you least expect to help you produce surprisingly positive outcomes.  I’ve recently read two posts that seem to support this phenomenon. 

Lifehack featured the post How to Get Started on Anything from Smart Graduate School Applications.   It discusses how sipping coffee motivates the author to begin a task that is not very appealing otherwise.  The positive emotion generated by the coffee spills over to the project at hand.  So, next time you need to start on something boring, trick your brain first by doing something that gets you excited. Your attitude towards the task may improve as a result.   

The second post deals with the effect of emotional words on memory.  According to ScienceBlogs,  If You Want Someone to Remember What You Said, Cuss.  Experiments show that we remember swear and taboo words better than neutral words.  More importantly, the emotional words enhance memory of the context in which they are used, so it appears that we remember the boring stuff better if it is sprinkled with words that trigger shock or surprise.  If there is any study group out there that decides to try this one out, let me know if it works. 

Do you have similar tricks that enhance your learning?  I’d love to hear them.

Easy way to declutter your home and your head

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to maintain an organized home and office.  I believe there is a correlation between the clutter in my physical surroundings and the clutter in my head.  Another pressing reason is that my one-year-old daughter is about to start walking on her own, and she likes to throw everything she can grab onto the floor.  As a result, I am embarking on the GTD, or “Getting Things Done," which is a productivity system developed by David Allen and described in his book Getting Things Done:  the Art of Stress-Free Productivity.  Recently, I’ve come across a lot of GTD-related information on the internet, so I figured the Universe was telling me something.  For example, Legal Andrew wonders why law firms don’t teach GTD to their associates, he thinks it may have something to do with the billable hours.  This may change though as corporate clients become more sophisticated about cutting their costs. In addition, the legal outsourcing and unbundled legal services may speed up the process.

On a more personal level, I started applying the “two minute rule.”  The idea is to do any task that takes less than two minutes right then and there.  I use it with things like sorting out the junk mail, cleaning my coffee maker, filing papers, putting dirty plates into the sink or, better yet, the dishwasher, replying to emails. Speaking of emails, Eric Mack offered a unique interpretation of the two minute rule that may just help you to keep your inbox empty.   I find that if I put away those small pesky tasks, they accumulate to the point that they become distractions.  I spend more time thinking about doing them than it would actually take to finish those tasks.  Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project uses her version of the “one-minute rule” and thinks that consistent decluttering may make you happier.  I agree.

Have you had any experience with GTD?  How did it work for you?  I’d love to hear any advice you can give to the newbie GTD-adherent.    

A few notes on note-taking

I wish my office clutter would disappear with the same consistency as my post- it notes do.  Seriously, how often do you lose your notes?  Have you ever lost phone numbers, to-do lists, brainstormed ideas?   I sure have.  Even my grocery lists vanish in my purse with alarming frequency.  And what do you do with those passwords that some sites create for you to use and don’t let you change them?  So, I’ve decided to learn more about different ways to take notes and, hopefully, keep them.  Here are a few ideas and resources on the subject of note-taking:

3"x5" index cards.  I get them in different colors for various categories of notes.  I use them to create a bank of interesting ideas for my future projects.  I keep all my cards in a simple plastic card file.  If I need an idea to work on, I flip through the cards.   This system can also be used to create flashcards and mnemonics for studying.  It’s portable and easy to use.

Dream boards.  A dream board is really a collection of images that represent something you want to attain in your life.  You list your goals, create mind maps, clip motivational images from magazines, do your own sketches and attach them to a poster board.  Choose a spot for your dream board where you can see it often.  Look at it, internalize it and see your desires manifest.  You can use the same idea to create a learning board for the projects you work on or the most challenging concepts you need to memorize.  Make your learning board visually stimulating to boost your creativity and aid your memory.

Paper place mats.  Forget the napkins, they are not very good to write on anyways.  Use the paper place mats instead.  We adopted this method of note-taking when my husband and I were having a discussion while waiting for our food in a restaurant one day: he took his place mat, turned it over and started making a list.  How about organizing a brainstorming lunch session where people can write on a paper tablecloth while munching on something?  I think it’s more fun than writing on a legal pad.  Besides, new ways of doing things provide good stimulation for the brain.   

For a collection of web note-taking resources, check out Fifty Ways to Take Notes from Solution Watch.

You can design your own customized note-taking sheets at http://www.eleven21.com/notetaker/ or generate your post-it notes at http://www.signgenerator.org/parody/post-it-notes/.

By the way, I started using my cell phone to text message my grocery lists (this way I can send them to my husband for execution).

Lifehacks

Have you heard of lifehacks? Danny O’Brien coined the term to describe any hacks, tips and tricks that get things done quickly by automating, increase productivity and organizing. The www.lifehack.org weblog has an impressive collection of lifehacks. 

Need to hone your writing skills? Check out Fifty (50!) Tools which can help you in Writing  by Roy Peter Clark of Poynter Institute. I like the tip on how to turn procrastination into “rehearsal”: start writing in your head before you put anything on paper (there is more to it, so read the article). 

Do you wish you had more hours in the day?  Jon Bischke will tell you How to have a 36 Hour Day.  You can find out how many hours you can save by multitasking or by improving your reading speed, and what law student wouldn’t like that?  Just looking at the pile of law textbooks will keep you motivated.

Speaking of reading requirements, now you can give your eyes some rest and listen to the cases while taking a walk or working out at the gym, thanks to http://www.audiocasefiles.com   You can download their digital audio recordings of the legal opinions that you want for 0.99 cents a piece. 

For those of us who don’t have a lot of time to cook but still want to eat healthy, there are Over 100 Quick and Easy Healthy Foods.

Now, here is your homework.  Can you identify your personal lifehacks  - activities that you do that help you save time, be more efficient and productive?  If not, it may be beneficial to ponder how you can do things faster and better. Once you have come up with some hacks, use them with purpose.

Stay productive!