Lawsagna

How to maximize brain power

"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

How do you start your work day?  Do you jump right into your email inbox and get lost in the sea of unread messages calling for your attention?  If so, before you know it, your mind is probably racing from one thought to another, to another.  Unless your primary job function is to respond to email messages, email is a good example of how we give away the control of our schedule in response to other people's agendas and invite overwhelm into our day right from the start.  We also lose precious moments when we can maximize brain power.  How so?

When too much noise and input enters our brain, we become fuzzy thinkers.  In addition, overwhelm and information overload add to our stress levels.  Prolonged stress elevates cortisol, a stress hormone that appears to shrink the hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with memory and other cognitive functions. 

The point is that if we want to be efficient, productive and creative at work, we need to put more thought into how we start our days.  Much like we are better off taking the earliest flight if we want to leave on time because flight delays tend to snowball, we should spend our early work hours on some deep thinking because distractions snowball too. 

You can come up with your own empowering morning routine that can help you maximize brain power for your most important projects: 

• Set your morning agenda the day before.
• Think of a brain-friendly ritual that will signal the transition into the work routine.  You can choose to mediate, take a morning walk, listen to music or something inspirational that can put you in a good mood.  We think better when we feel good.  According to the research conducted by neuro-psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, positive emotions tend to broaden our focus, enabling us to discover more tools and solutions to life's challenges and making us more resourceful.    
• Limit the noise and distractions and spend your precious morning hours reflecting, writing, creating, strategizing, or trying out unconventional problem-solving approaches. 

What's your favorite mourning routine to maximize brain power?

Integrative Productivity Teleclass

Are you familiar with the term "situational awareness"? It is often used in the industries in which information flows fast and decisions lead to serious consequences, for example, in the military or air traffic control.  In the marital arts, this concept is loosely translated as the "reserved mind" or "combat awareness."  It is a state of heightened perception and sharpened awareness that enables people to take the relevant clues from their immediate environment and make optimal decisions in a dynamic context because they understand how information, events, and their own actions impact their goals. 

If you want to learn more about the use of this state of awareness in the daily life  and my integrative productivity system, join me tomorrow, Wednesday, October 22, 2008, at 1:00pm ET for a 1-hour free teleclass "Opening the VALVE of Integrative Productivity: How to Accomplish More with Less Effort".  I'll send the link to the recording later to those who register but cannot attend the live call.  Just enter your name and email address to receive the teleclass details.

You can learn more at http://www.selfhelpbookmuse.com/teleclasses--events.html

Personal productivity and mind body connection

In our fast-paced world, maintaining focused energy is one of the biggest personal productivity challenges.  Much of the energy drain happens due to the sense of mental overwhelm and frequent information overload.  This sense of overwhelm and inability to cope effectively with the daily flow of information, interactions, and distractions is a significant cause of stress and decrease in productivity for many people.

What stops you from having focused mental energy right now?  Here's a list of common energy drainers and stressors.  Do you see anything that applies to you? 

•    Lack of focus
•    Mental clutter;
•    Mindless distractions;
•    Fear of uncertainty;
•    Pessimistic attitude;
•    Self-criticism;
•    Unrealistic expectations or beliefs;
•    Information overload;
•    Perfectionism;
•    Low self-esteem;
•    Procrastination;
•    Negative self-talk;
•    Overwhelming negative emotions;
•    Resistance;
•    Misalignment between your life purpose and everyday actions;
•    Poor diet;
•    Insufficient physical activity;
•    Lack of sleep;
•    Toxic home or work environment;
•    Lack of social support.

Now, picture the power of the focused energy and how it could transform your life.  Imagine what it feels like to be so absorbed by the task that nothing else matters.  Certain practices enable us to maintain clear focus and add more energy to our days.  Here’s what you can do to boost your energy and personal productivity. 

1. Stop multitasking to avoid the "sprinkler effect."
   If you are easily distracted by thoughts buzzing in your head as you are trying to concentrate on a project, you are not alone.  Mental noise and distractions create energy leaks.  I call it the "sprinkler effect."  Just like the sprinkler cuts through the stream of water dispersing it, distractions dissipate our energy.  Our focus and perception diminish when it happens.  Think of all the distractions throughout your typical day:  a phone rings, an urgent email pops up, somebody interrupts your train of thought, etc.  A common response is to multitask, but multitasking doesn't work.  Our brains cannot do parallel processing if it requires conscious awareness. Multitasking is really a rapid task switching.  The more complex and unfamiliar the tasks are, the longer it is going to take to switch between them.  Multitasking causes the sprinkler effect. 
2. Pay attention:  awareness = mental "White Space."
   We can experience more focused energy if we practice mindfulness and give our full attention to the present moment.  As we cultivate awareness, we gain the state of clarity, or the mental "white space."  In art and design, the concept of "white space" refers to the absence, or nothingness, that makes the content stand out.  White space creates balance.  Similarly, when we are truly present and aware, our perception is heightened.  We notice things we wouldn't otherwise.  We experience more insights.  We respond to situations as they arise without stress or worry generated by mental clutter.
3. Chop up your projects and your work days into chunks.
   Create a sequence of specific, measurable steps to complete your current project.  Set milestones and deadlines to keep track of your progress.  Then, divide your work day into chunks of uninterrupted time when you can focus on your scheduled tasks and eliminate distractions.       
4. Verbalize distractions:  pour your disruptive thoughts onto paper.
   When you feel bogged down by persistent, negative thoughts, write them all down and set the time when you will review the list.  Writing thoughts down decreases their negative influence on the mind.  When your scheduled time comes, review the list and determine which thoughts actually deserve your time and energy.  Develop a habit of verbalizing your fears, doubts, and concerns.
5. Practice WOW: "Witness Ordinary Wonders."
   Present is the only thing that we ever experience, but how much time do we spend projecting our present fears and beliefs into the future or holding on to the constructs from the past that don't serve us well?
   
   It takes practice to be present, but it can be done with any activity, no matter what it is and how small it may seem.  This is about your mental attitude, and not the attribute of the activity itself.  Here's what you do:
   
   Each day, take time to choose an ordinary thing from your surroundings or a simple activity that you normally do almost on auto-pilot.  Approach it as if you have never seen or done it before – with the beginner's mind.  Think of a child who has not learned a label of your chosen item or action and is trying to figure it out.  What new aspects of this familiar object or activity do you notice?  What piques your curiosity?
6. Befriend your emotions, even the negative ones.
   It's natural and human to experience the whole range of emotions.  What's important is how we process those emotions in our minds and our bodies.  There are constructive ways to deal with negative emotions.  You don't want to bottle them up because you will end up with emotional and energetic imbalances.  Instead, you want to let yourself experience the emotion, just be with it for some time and observe.  Recognizing negative emotions, labeling them, and paying attention to the physiological responses these emotions produce in your body may help to counteract their effect.
7. Don't resist, accept:  stewing is worse than doing.
   Do you ever feel so overwhelmed and exhausted by all of the things you need to do that you can only complain and procrastinate instead of taking action?  All this time, you are building resistance.  Many people can relate to this experience.  Resisting and complaining sap your energy.  Whenever you feel the build-up of resistance, you want to stop and think about how you can move from resistance to acceptance.  My earlier post on 5 ways to procrastinate with purpose can help you prepare for action. 
8. Get excited!
   Don't wait for the next holiday to start a celebration.  Make a list of five things that you are excited about today.  What brings you joy when you just think about it?  We all should have something to celebrate each day.  This is a good exercise to do in the morning to begin your day on a positive note.
   
   Next, list five things that you are grateful for or people you would like to thank.  Notice any shifts in your emotional state once you have competed the exercise. Expressing gratitude for things that go well is a sure way to cultivate positive emotions.  Positive psychology studies have linked feelings of gratitude to emotional well-being.
9. Have a clear vision.
   When Michelangelo was asked how he created the sculpture of David out of the block of marble, he said:  "I simply chipped away everything that wasn't David."  You can chip away at marble, but you won't create David unless you have a clear vision. Know what your "David" is. 
10. Eliminate inconsistent goals:  don't try to be in two places at the same time.
    Prioritize and eliminate inconsistent goals.  The goals we set often compete for our time, effort, and resources.  It’s important to know the priority of your goals and check for conflicting objectives.  You may be as passionate about visiting Italy as you are about visiting Brazil, but you can't be in two places at the same time.  You must choose.
11. Use the three "Energize-Rs" to supercharge your days:  rhythms, rituals, and routines.
    Paying attention to the changes in your energy patterns throughout the day is a first step towards bringing more energy into your life.  You can do it with the help of the three "Energize-Rs":  Rhythms, Rituals, and Routines.  Here's the link to my post on these three powerful "Energize-Rs."
    
12. Embrace uncertainty, just like you would do in a casino.
    How comfortable are you with uncertainty?  What stops some people from pursuing their dreams and their mission is fear of the unknown.  Interestingly, uncertainty can actually add to our motivation.
    
    Do you ever wonder how people can spend hours pulling a lever of a slot machine?  It is the uncertainty of the reward that keeps them interested.  The anticipation of uncertain rewards has been linked to the increased production of the neuromodulator dopamine, which is responsible for a focused attention and more pleasurable experience.  Imagine what would happen if you were to get a regular salary for pulling the same lever but no chance of a random win. You’d be bored to death very soon.  The uncertainty of the reward keeps the excitement alive.
13. Practice bodily awareness: think on your feet.
    We all have bodily-kinesthetic intelligence that enables us to learn through movement.  Our body can also guide us in making decisions if we are attuned to our physiological responses.  When you are evaluating your options, listen to your body.  If your breathing is full and open, your muscles are relaxed, and you sense pleasant spaciousness in the chest or head, you may be moving in the right direction.  On the other hand, if your muscles become tense, especially in the shoulder and neck area, you have a "pit" in the stomach, or your attention is scattered, your body may be telling you that something is amiss. 
14. Don't let toxic words poison your body.
    Avoid negative conversations as you eat because the chemicals your brain sends through your body in response to the negative emotions or stress affect your digestion, and you need nutrients for sustainable physical energy.  Don't let toxic words poison your body and block your energy flow. 
15. Open an account at the Bliss Bank.
    Start feeding healthy, energizing images to your mind and you will feel more energized yourself.  Consider opening an account at the "Bliss Bank."  The Bliss Bank is a collection of small things that can cheer you up quickly.  It can be pictures of your kids or your pets, a souvenir from your favorite place, a song or an image.  Your Bliss Bank should be easily accessible at home, in your office, and your car so that you could draw from it whenever you felt sad, stressed out, or simply needed to recharge.
16. Use the power of visualizations: if you don't like what your eyeballs see, use your mind's eye to create whatever you want.
    The images we create in our mind's eye can be as real to our brain as the ones we see with our eyeballs.  Athletes use the power of visualizations and mental rehearsal to train, and so can we to boost our energy.  What could you imagine right now that would help you feel energized?
17. Tune up:  listen to music and healing sounds.
    Music elevates dopamine levels, those "feel good" molecules.  If you think of it, music delivers many of the benefits that people often try to get from food:  stress relief, comfort, energy, pleasure, etc.  So, let's start using music and movement to bring more energy, joy, and vibrance into our lives.
    
    Ayurveda, a system of medical knowledge that originated in India more than 5,000 years ago, explains healing sounds as rhythms and vibrations found in nature that resonate with our bodies.  Spending more time outdoors and listening to natural sounds of wind, waves, leaves, and birds can have a harmonizing effect on your body and mind.
18. Embrace your "wild" side: spend more time in nature.
    We’ve all probably experienced the peace and clarity that nature can bring about.  We don’t need to go far to have the benefits.  Take your pressing problem for a walk in the park.  If you enjoy gardening, remind yourself of the need to love and nurture yourself as you water and nurture your plants. 
19. Hang out with people who can lighten up the room.
    Sometimes, all we need to do to get energized is to talk to certain people. 

• Who are those people with vibrant, positive energy in your life?
• How can you limit your interactions with people who drain you? 
• How can you strengthen your support system?
  
  Taking personal responsibility for your energy also has an effect of attracting more people with positive energy into your life.  Do you know people who can lighten up the room with their presence?  Everybody wants to be around them.  With little practice and conscious choices, you can be that person.

What are your best personal energy management practices?

Personal Energy Management Teleclass

You are motivated, ambitious, hardworking, and at the same time, you often feel overworked, overscheduled, overwhelmed.  If this rings true, join me on August 5, 9:00pm ET for my free 1-hour tele-coaching class on mind/body approaches to personal energy management.  Just fill out the form below and you will receive the details of the call.  The recording will be available to those who register but can’t attend the live call.  Bring your questions.  To learn more, visit http://www.selfhelpbookmuse.com/events--teleseminars.html

TimeLeft for time management

TimeLeft is a multipurpose time-management tool that can notify you of an upcoming event, count down till your next scheduled study or work break, measure time interval and signal its end, even track online auctions.  The program can can also replace Windows' built-in system-tray clock.

"TimeLeft is a versatile desktop utility, which may be used as a countdown clock, reminder, clock, alarm clock, tray clock, stopwatch, timer, sticker, auction watch and time synchronization utility. TimeLeft uses Winamp skins to show digits and text.

The main feature of TimeLeft is a powerful customizable reminder, which can show a message, play music (any formats including mp3) or open a link, document, execute an application, turn off your monitor or shutdown your PC."

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 18:  Establishing rhythms, rituals, and routines

As you set a direction for your learning with the help of learning goals, you also want to consider establishing rhythms, rituals, and routines to support your learning process. 

Rhythms

Most things we do in life have a rhythm.  Our hearts pump blood through our bodies rhythmically.  We breathe, walk, talk in a rhythmic fashion.  Learning has its rhythm too.  If you were to design your ideal day, what kind of rhythm would it have?   The following questions may help you discover your natural rhythm:

• What kind of flow does your typical day have?  Do you feel rushed all the time?  Are you exhausted by the end of the day?  How often do you feel bored?  Does time fly by or does it drag?
• What times of the day are you at your best?  When is it easier for you to stay focused? 
• When is your energy at its lowest?  When do you usually feel like you need to take a nap?
• Do you first complete the easy tasks or the difficult ones?  Why?
• Do you like to work on one project for a long time period or do you switch between projects and tasks to get more variety into your day?
• How often do you take breaks when you work or study?  If you are not sure, try 50-minute work sessions with 10-minute breaks and see how it works for you. 

Rituals

A ritual is a set of actions that has a special symbolic meaning.  I am talking here mostly about personal rituals that you can devise and perform just for yourself.  Rituals may not be directly related to learning but they can help it by giving a signal to your brain to prepare for something, shift focus, or recharge, depending on the meaning and purpose of your ritual.  For instance, you may have a ritual to start your day on a good note.  Here are some examples of rituals and their possible purposes:

• Reading an inspirational story or listening to a motivational podcast in the morning to get yourself excited about the day.
• Meditating for 15 minutes to quiet your mind before a challenging task.
• Taking a brisk walk when you feel stuck and want to recharge.
• Doing a visualization exercise to calm your mind before an exam. 

Rituals can give you a sense of security and control in a challenging situation.  If you have a recurrent challenge in your day, try devising a ritual for it. 

Routines

It is not just kids and dogs who need routines.  Adults can benefit from them too.  Well thought out routines can give a healthy rhythm to your day, support its natural flow and give you enough energy for all the things you need to do and learn.  Once you determine your natural energy peaks and lows throughout the day, start grouping and ordering your tasks and activities around those time periods.  It may require some experimenting before you come up with your optimal day structure.  For example, my productivity increased when I stopped checking my email the first thing after I turned on my computer in the morning.  Instead, I now prefer to do some writing or research for a few hours before I open my inbox.   As you create your routines, consider the following questions:

• What tasks should you be doing when your energy is high? 
• Which activities do you reserve for your low points?
• If you like variety, how can you break up your projects to stay motivated and efficient at the same time?
• How should you order your learning activities to process information faster and remember and use it better?
• How can you ensure uninterrupted time for the tasks that require concentration?
• How well is your work or study schedule coordinated with the rest of your daily routines?
• How can you safeguard your well-being and meet the essential needs for a healthy diet, sleep, and exercise?  Too often, people sacrifice those needs only to discover too late that their immune system is compromised, they feel run down, or they are just simply unhappy.

Once you’ve planned your day, make sure you protect your routines.  It may require setting some boundaries with people and making a few unpopular decisions, but ultimately, you may discover that you are more productive, energized and enthusiastic about your life.  And learning to live well is no small accomplishment! 

What would your ideal day look like?

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11:  Managing your energy
Step 12:  Focusing on how you think
Step 13:  Mastering informal learning and professional development
Step 14:  Asking Good Questions
Step 15:  Condensing your knowledge
Step 16:  Memorizing
Step 17:  Becoming a reflective learner

 

Understanding your personal energy patterns

If you are like many overworked and overwhelmed people I know, you probably experience the lack of energy more often that you’d like.  I want to offer you an exercise to help you understand your energy flow better.  Here’s what you do:

1. Take a piece of paper and divide it into two columns.  In the left side column, write down ten things that drain you energy.  Think of tasks that leave you exhausted, people that seem to zap your energy, habits that add to your fatigue. 
2. Now, in the right side column, write down ten things that increase your energy.  Think about activities that energize you, people that inspire you and propel you to action, daily routines that help you maintain your health and sanity. 
3. Once you are done with your lists, draw a bucket that represents your typical 24-hour day.  Now fill your bucket with the things from your lists, estimating the percentage of the bucket those things tend to occupy.
4. Take a close look at your full bucket.  Are you happy with the distribution of energy-producing v. energy-draining activities?  If yes, congratulate yourself on the ability to balance your energy well.  If you see room for improvement, ask yourself what you would need to re-balance your bucket.

Gone Fishing

I am on vacation this week, so I won’t be able to post as frequently.   To make sure you  have enough to read (I know…couldn’t resist), here are a few links to various resources on learning skills.

How to manage time better:
Time Management Pretest:  How Efficiently Do I Manage My Time?
Time management tips and resources from Academic Skills Center at Dartmouth College
Time Management Schedules to download form Academic Skills Center at CalPoly
21 Ways to Add More Hours to the Day at Lifehack.org

How to process information better:
10 Essential Mind Mapping Links at Codswallop
Improving Note Taking with Concept Maps at Mind Tools
Memory Principles:  Quick Reference Guide for Brain Compatible Learning Principles

What resources help you study better?

Tip bit #22: On managing expectations

Many problems can be avoided or resolved easier if you are good at managing people’s expectations.  We may want many things in work and life, but because we know that we can’t get them all, we are sensitive about things that we expect to get.  That’s our compromise, so to speak.  I may give up X, but I better get Y.  If you know how to lower or raise people’s expectations, you have an influence over their levels of happiness, satisfaction, appreciation.  I don’t suggest that you manipulate people by setting their expectations low on purpose.  I believe in honesty and respect when dealing with people.  After all, trust is essential in serving professions, such as law, but it is also fragile.  On the other hand, you should not promise what you can’t deliver.  But you already know that.  Let’s look at a few scenarios when managing expectations can save you a lot of trouble.   

Scenario 1 

You get an assignment from a partner.  You think you understand what the partner wants even though you are a bit fuzzy on a few points.  You think you will figure it out once you research the question more.  You don’t want to ask for clarifications now because you don’t want to look incompetent.  “What if I am supposed to know that?” your inner critic says in a reproaching kind of voice.  You go ahead and do your research.  One hundred billable hours later, as you are talking to the partner again, you are told that you answered a wrong question.

The lesson from Scenario 1 is that in order to manage expectations, you need to know what they are.  To be clear about your task or the process to be followed to solve the problem, ask questions and repeat the essence of what you heard in your own words to make sure you understood correctly.  Fire the inner critic.

Scenario 2

You get an assignment from your boss.  The task is clear.  As you go about your business, a few complications arise.  You think you can handle them on your own.  You don’t want to bother the boss with minor details.  The inner critic says, “The boss will never give me any serious work if I can’t handle this.”  Before you know it, two hundred billable hours later, the complications snowball into a major disaster. 

The lesson from Scenario 2 is that you must keep the channels of communication open.  Good bosses know how to stay on top of things without being a micromanager.  But if it’s not your boss, the burden is on you to make a call when something needs to be brought to her attention.  What you want to do is to have a plan ready how you would handle the situation.  That way, you are not complaining about a problem, you are offering a solution.  And fire the inner critic.

Scenario 3

You get an assignment with a deadline.  You need to coordinate with John Doe, who has an important role in the project.  No problem.  You think you will be ready in time with your part and so will John Doe.  Unfortunately, John Doe has a family emergency.  You think you can still finish on time when John Doe shows up in the office on Monday, so you don’t let anybody know that the deadline may be compromised and you don’t reschedule any meetings.  “They will kill the messenger,” admonishes the inner critic.  John Doe is not in the office on Monday. 

The lesson from Scenario 3 is that sometimes you have to deliver the bad news.  Nobody likes to miss a deadline, especially an important one.  But things happen, and if you keep communicating with your team and your clients, you may be able to renegotiate the deadline, which is better than missing it.  So, fire the inner critic.

Do you have your own scenario?

The Dog Days of Summer: Advice for Summer Associates

With the approach of the summer, many of you are heading to your first legal internships.  Do you remember the first time you looked at the blue ocean glistening in the sun?  You are thrilled and mesmerized by its power and magnitude.  It’s alluring on a sunny day and frightening when the skies turn dark.  The waters are treacherous if you don’t know how to swim, and what you don’t see can hurt you, but swimming in the ocean is exhilarating.  Are you ready to swim with the big fish?  Here’s is your survival kit.

Law Career Blog describes "Do’s and Don’t’s for Summer Associates" and tells you "What NOT to do as a Summer Associate."

Kathleen J. Wu  offers her insights in the article "Rules Summer Associates Should Live By":

“Even if the firm isn't ladling work on your plate, try to find some way to get something substantive out of your time at the office. Everybody knows that law school teaches you next to nothing about the everyday reality of being a lawyer. We learned the law in school, not lawyering. So spend your summer watching lawyers.”

Read “Summer Associates, Settling In” at Law.com for more advice on schmoozing and boozing, as well as deal-making and partaking.

Finally, here's  “Law Blog News You Can Use:  An Associate Etiquette Lesson” with the focus on table manners.

Generation gap in the workplace

Recently, the legal blogosphere has been actively discussing the work-life issues in the legal profession.  The Dreams of a Solo blog offers insights on how baby boomers and Gen X and Y differ in their approaches to work-life balance.  Natasha Sarkisian writes about the “new legal lifestyle” and “the attitudes of a generation that isn’t willing to sacrifice itself on the altar of work” in the article “Who says being a lawyer has to suck?” for San Francisco magazine.  What would baby boomers say of “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss?  Visit his site to find out your LQ (Lifestyle Quotient).

In light of this debate, you may want to listen to the podcast “Engaging the Generations” Pt 1 and Pt 2 from The Engaging Brand. This podcast contains a two-part interview with Tamara Erickson, the co-author of “Workforce Crisis.”  She talks about the characteristics of various generations of workers and the challenges that the management faces in attracting talented employees who want different things from their work environment.  Younger people, for example, are more comfortable with project-based engagements similar to the Hollywood model where actors, writers, directors come together to create a movie for a limited period of time and then move on to new projects with a new team.  This model offers a variety of experiences and a greater degree of flexibility. 

As a lawyer, I would ponder the following questions:  What types of clients will I have in 3, 5, 10 years?  How their lifestyle design will affect mine?  How can I be better positioned to serve their unique needs?  Clients are the puppeteers of lawyers’ work habits.  Who will be writing your scripts?

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 #18: It’s time to throw out bad apples

Occasionally, in a grocery store, I buy apples that look good and firm with shiny skin (probably coated with wax), but when I cut one of these apples a few days later, there is brown mush inside.  While I’d love to know how to pick apples better, today’s tip is not about grocery shopping.  It’s about identifying the “bad apples” among things you do.  Sometimes we engage in something that appears like a good thing on the surface, but if we dig deeper, it adds very little value to our lives.   Just like those bad apples in the store, such activities can be deceptive because they are not obviously bad or wrong. 

They often act as time-fillers and offer us a way to procrastinate.   Take example of web surfing.  There is a lot of good information on the internet that you may want to read, but after a while, internet search can turn your brain into a mush. Some things go bad with time: the more time you spend on it, the less productive the activity becomes.  That’s why time constraints are a good thing.  When do you stop evaluating options and make a decision?  When do you stop researching and start writing?  Here’s another “apple” that can go bad – reading study aids, such as commercial outlines, hornbooks, nutshells.  At what point reading more becomes a distraction form something more important that you should be doing, like thinking on your own or outlining?

We all pick “bad apples” from time to time.  What are yours?  How do you pick them and why? 

** I am doing the happy dance here because I just found my good Apple – my iPod.  Four days ago, I locked it and gave it to my baby to play with – she loves gadgets (bad idea), and then it disappeared.  I searched through every inch of my home office and couldn’t find it.  Today, I pulled a book off the shelf and it fell out.  She must have put it on top of the books.  I never realized I loved listening to podcasts so much.  It made my day!

Getting ready for the bar exam

No groundbreaking secrets here, just the ground work to pass the bar.  I ended up taking the bar exams in two states, Illinois and New York, due to the move.  And, guess what… I am no longer in either of those states, but I don’t see a third bar exam in my future.  So, the first lesson I’ve learned is not to move so much if you want to practice law, or work for the federal government, then a license from any state will do.  Here are a few other things I learned:

• To succeed at the bar exam, it’s not enough to know the law, you also need self-discipline, endurance, time-management and stress-management skills.  You must train for each of these requirements accordingly.
• Remember the three “Ps” of performance:  prioritize, plan, prepare.  You need them as you study for the bar.  To make my life easier, I just followed the schedule of the bar review course.  You must have a schedule and stick to it.  You won’t be able to catch up if you seriously fall behind because of the large volume of the material. 
• Find a routine that works for you.  It may consist of lectures in the morning, a lunch break, a short study session, a nice nap, another study session, a workout, dinner – you get the idea.  See how your energy flows throughout the day and adjust your activities accordingly.   
• Pace yourself and take study breaks.  It’s a marathon, not a sprint, you need to build up your endurance and mental toughness and not to burn out in the process.  Incorporate some type of exercise into your routine to bring oxygen to your brain, relieve stress and stay healthy.  Take naps if you can.  You are going to be learning so much every day, an afternoon nap will help you consolidate your memories.  I started meditating daily for about 10-15 minutes when I was studying for the bar. 
• Don’t try to make yourself more miserable than you need to be.  Reward yourself periodically with some fun and entertainment, but avoid anything that can give you a hangover, insomnia or indigestion.  The idea is to make you feel better, not worth.  You can even combine your studies with something pleasant.  Pack your books and go to a park or to the beach.   
• Do lots of practice questions for the MBE portion of the exam.  After reading a lot of questions, you become more attuned to the language and start recognizing patterns better.  Time yourself when you do them.  Getting the pace right is very important at the bar exam, so you should practice time-management early.
• Make sure you practice writing your full essay answers within the time constraints.  Go back and edit some of your essays to make the writing more crisp and concise.  Find better ways to state legal rules and standards so that you can use those phrases in other essays.  For the rest of the essay questions, outline your answers to see if you can spot all the issues. 
• Do the in-class, practice MBE exam, you need to know what a six-hour exam feels like. You can also schedule your own practice test or partner up with another bar candidate and take it together. 
• On the day of the exam, the last thing you want to worry about is getting lost or being caught in traffic, torrential rain or blizzard.  Visit the place beforehand.  If you have to drive far or if the weather is unstable, consider staying in the hotel nearby for the days of the exam.  When I moved to Buffalo, New York, I decided to take the February bar exam.  Buffalo can get lots of snow, and I didn’t want to concern myself with the weather, so I stayed in the hotel where the bar exam took place.  I slept better and longer. 
• Finally, no matter what, just remember that it is going to be over soon. 

Good luck!

How to form an effective study group

Some students prefer studying on their own, others join study groups.  A study group can be beneficial if it is set up and run effectively, but it can quickly turn into a time-waster if the participants gather to socialize, share confusion and commiserate.  How do you make your study group more effective?   Here are a few suggestions:

• Choose your study-buddies wisely.   A person who is great to share a beer with may not be the best choice when it comes to studying together.  You want people who are responsible enough to prepare for the meetings, who contribute with ideas and tips, who are self-directed and motivated learners, with a schedule compatible to yours.  Also, avoid large study groups because they are hard to manage and you have less opportunity to contribute.
• At the end of each meeting, set an agenda for the next meeting and allocate specific times for every task.  Make sure you have the ending time.  Stick to your plan. 
• Assign a person to each topic on your agenda to lead the discussion.  Do it in advance of the meeting so that the person can think about the best way to address the topic and prepare questions.  This is done for the sake of efficiency, and not for the purpose of sharing the workload:  everybody must still prepare to discuss each topic on the agenda. 
• Make it a goal whenever you speak to keep your message brief, crisp and to the point.  This is good practice for real-life meetings.  Brevity helps to crystallize your understanding.
• Identify your personal goals that can be advanced in a group setting.  For example, you can practice your communication and listening skills.  You can learn to think on your feet when somebody asks a question.   You can see how good you are at motivating people.  You can even work on your leadership skills.   Pick a specific goal for each meeting and focus on it.   Don’t be shy about asking for your peers’ feedback.  “Am I rambling too much?”  “Did I present your point of view correctly?” 
• If your study session reveals points of disagreement, confusion or misunderstanding, prepare a list of questions that you can ask your professor during the office hours or have a volunteer to consult a treatise or other sources for a follow-up presentation at the next meeting.  The point is to have a course of action to clarify the confusion. 
• Role-play during your studying sessions.  It may sound silly but it is a fun and effective way to step into somebody else’s shoes.  You can act as a lawyer explaining something to a client.  Talking through the material and putting it into the words that are easily understood by a lay person will reinforce your own comprehension.  Whoever plays the “client” will make sure that you don’t speak legalese and ask clarifying questions.  Or how about trying to read your professor’s mind and predict what questions can appear on the exam?  Have each member come up with one possible question or hypo that all of you can do during a review session.  Compare your answers, give constructive criticism.  When the exams come around, keep scores to see who the best “mind reader” is.  Here’s another interesting exercise to do as part of your group review sessions – the “Final Exam” procedure by Win Wenger of the Renaissance Project.
• Do practice questions and essays as part of your meeting.  It is easier to take timed practice tests within a group.  After the time is up, trade your answers, critique and offer tips to improve.  Pay special attention to the organization of your essay answers.
• Right before the exams, the students are understandably more stressed out and may feel the need to talk about something else as a diversion.  If that’s the case, schedule some time during the meeting for stress-relief activities.  Share something positive and motivational with the group.  Look at great photography or listen to a piece of music together.  Laughter is an excellent way to reduce stress and uplift your spirit.  Do an act of kindness or say something nice to the person next to you.  It will make you and those around you feel better.

What are your experiences with the study groups?  Do they work for you?  If you participate in one right now, how can you make it better?

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.   

The leftovers guide to productivity

As I was cleaning out my refrigerator yesterday, I couldn’t help but wonder about the similarities in the ways we deal with the leftovers and the ways we approach our projects.  What do you do with your leftovers?

• Do you finish them even though the food may have lost its initial appeal?
• Do you re-work them into something new and delicious?
• Do you put them into the fridge and forget about them until a rather peculiar smell reminds you to check on your biological experiment?
• Do you throw out the leftovers right away because you know that you won’t be eating them again?

Now, it’s time to see how you handle your projects.

1. Do you always finish what you have started even if you are not as excited about the project as you were at the beginning?   If so, you certainly have the self-discipline and good planning skills.  And you probably accomplish a lot.  As long as you choose your projects wisely and don’t compromise on your taste, you are in good shape.  One thing for you to remember is that some projects, just like the leftovers, have an expiration date:  if a project goes bad, don’t be afraid to toss it. 
2. Are you one of those lucky people who know how to breathe life into an old project?  You know where to look for inspiration to keep your projects alive and exciting.  You are flexible and you are not afraid to make changes as you go.  The only word of caution for you is not to lose the essence of your projects.  There is only so much you can do with the leftovers.  Sometimes, it is better to start from scratch.   
3. Do you tend to start projects and then put them “on hold” when something better or more important comes along?  Do you have a long to-do list that keeps running through your mind?  Then, your head is probably full of mental “leftovers.”  Schedule regular times to clear you head by deciding what to toss, what to work on right away, and what to “freeze” till sometime in the future.  Planning and prioritizing will save your energy and make you more productive.
4. Do you have trouble completing your projects?  Maybe, you have many interests and you are very enthusiastic to try out new things, but you get bored easily.   As a result, you struggle to stay focused.  Try “freezing” some of you "leftover" projects for future use and re-working the others.  Find sources of motivation to stick with the project at hand.  Circulate several projects so that you can easily switch from one to another when you get frustrated.  Revisit your inventory of "frozen leftovers" periodically to see when it is a good time to thaw them.  While variety is good, you don’t want to be wasteful. 

8 things that kill learning

Do you know what stands in the way of your learning?  There are many barriers to learning.  Difference people face different challenges.  As you are trying to identify yours, consider the following common enemies of learning:

1. Prolonged stress or depression can affect your memory.  People who are under a lot of stress or suffer from depression show elevated levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that appears to shrink the hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with memory and other cognitive functions.   
2. Lack of sleep can also impair memory and alertness.  Sleep allows us to consolidate memories, find creative solutions to problems, re-energize.  Don’t sacrifice sleep if you want to learn.
3. Negative attitude towards learning can sabotage your efforts.  Maybe, school was hard for you and you convinced yourself that you were not up to the task.  Perhaps, you study only for external recognition, such as a degree, certification, or promotion, and you don’t value the process itself.  Or you feel guilty that you have been a student for far too long instead of making money in the real world.  What are your mental roadblocks to learning? 
4. Irrelevance derails the learning process.  Would you rather learn one hundred made-up words that have no use in real life or one hundred words of Italian if you know that you will go to Italy in a month?   There are lots of things that compete for our attention at any given moment.  The information that is relevant to us and that we can apply in the real world has a higher chance of making it into our long-term memory.  Sometimes, the trick is to figure out how to make the material that you are studying relevant to your goals. 
5. Too much explanation or too little explanation can inhibit learning.  Learning happens in stages.  When you are given lots of detail up front when you have not had a change to get the basics, you are likely to feel overwhelmed.  In addition, our brains are wired to solve problems.  We tend to remember things better if we have struggled to find the answer ourselves.  That’s why it may be counterproductive to start reading treatises and outlines before you have had a chance to grapple with the issues on your own.  On the other hand, the lack of explanation can leave us confused because we haven’t found a way to link the new information to what we already know.   As many things in life, it is a matter of balance. 
6. Poor time management jeopardizes your learning objectives.  Learning requires the time commitment not only to acquire new information, but also to review regularly the old material.  You must develop a studying schedule and stick to it. 
7. Lack of feedback hinders learning.  If you don’t get feedback, you can’t learn from your past actions and you can’t measure your progress. 
8. Lack of support creates anxiety that’s not good for learning.  We learn better in collaborative environments than in highly competitive ones.  If you are afraid of making a mistake or being ridiculed, you won’t take risks and you won’t learn.

What kills your learning? 

The Iceberg of Legal Writing

Some projects need time to brew, just like a good cup of tea.  But we   are all pressed to produce good quality within tight deadlines.  How can we do it?  We must plan well.  A good approach is to break down a project into several steps, figure out their logical sequence, and allocate sufficient time to perform each step.  It sounds obvious, but many people don’t do it.  In fact, most people underestimate the time it takes them to do things.  Sometimes, the challenge is to figure out the steps.   For example, look at the Iceberg of Legal Writing that I sketched to show the steps that may be required to complete a writing project, such as a student note or an article.  There are numerous things you have to consider when you write a longer piece.  The order of steps is also important.  It doesn’t make sense to edit the paper unless you have done all the revisions.  If you want feedback from your professors, you need to give them enough time to read your work.  By estimating how much time each step takes, you can count back from the deadline to determine when you must start the work.  And add some extra time for unforeseen events. 

What other tasks can benefit from such multi-step approach?

Take a nap

Continuous self-improvement requires discipline and sacrifice.  At least, that’s what performance gurus and self-help books tell us.  Is there a lazy way to perfection?  The answer may be a surprising “yes,” according to Dr. Sara Mednick.  Dr. Mednick studies how napping can improve human performance.  In our busy, sleep-deprived world, taking a nap in the middle of the day sounds like a luxury we don’t have time for.   But Dr. Mednick says that in reality, it is wasteful not to nap because we rob ourselves of such essential elements of productivity as endurance, alertness, attention, energy, creativity.  I first heard an interview with Dr. Mednick through The Theater of the Mind podcast, in which she described her research and her recent book Take a Nap! Change you life.  Her studies show that you can target different aspects of performance by varying the time and duration of your naps.  Morning naps can boost creativity, while afternoon naps help to absorb large quantities of information and improve memory.  You can learn more about the power of napping and read sample chapters at Dr. Mednick’s website.  A Nap Wheel on the website will help you design your customized nap schedule for optimum results.  Mine is showing that it’s time for my nap.  Efficient napping requires practice, so I better go.  Wouldn’t you like to be good at napping?   

Find your learning rhythm

Lately, I have been experimenting with various patterns of work/rest/chores/childcare/ other tasks throughout my day.  I have found the challenge to be not so much about scheduling all those activities, but rather about establishing routines that give a healthy rhythm to my day without disrupting its natural flow.   I don't think it is just kids and dogs who need routines.  Adults can benefit from them too.  I can explain it better with a cooking example.  Making lasagna is a multi-step process:  I need to brown ground beef, make the sauce, prepare the ricotta mixture, boil lasagna noodles, assemble the lasagna and then bake it in the oven.  Some of those steps require a certain order:  I cannot assemble the lasagna until I have all the components ready. At the same time, I can choose to make it in several sessions:  I could assemble the lasagna in advance and put it in the refrigerator to bake at some later point.  To use the time efficiently, it makes sense to prepare several things at the same time, for instance, I could mix the ricotta cheese and eggs while browning the meat.  I need to remember to preheat the oven so that I don’t have to wait for it.  With practice, you are able to get into the swing of things so that the whole process goes smoothly and efficiently.  You have found your rhythm. 

Human beings are very rhythmic.  Our hearts pump blood through our bodies rhythmically.  We breathe, walk, talk in a rhythmic fashion.  Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users describes it well in Rhythm Method: “Life runs on a pulse…”.  It is not a stretch to say that learning has its rhythm too.  How can you find your learning rhythm?  There are a few questions you may want to consider:

• Is there a certain order in which you prefer to do your tasks when you study?  Do you like to complete all your reading assignments first and then outline?  Or do you prefer to start with reviewing and outlining, and then get to reading?  What are the trade-offs of each approach?
• Do you first complete the easy tasks or the difficult ones?  Why?
• Do you like to focus on one subject matter and do everything related to it during the whole study period or do you switch between subjects and tasks?
• When do you review your notes:  right after class, before the next class, or at the end of the week? (I hope it’s not one day before the exam.) Do you know what works best for your memory?
• How often do you take breaks when you study?  Many believe that 50-minute sessions with 10-minute breaks are optimal. 
• How well is your studying schedule coordinated with the rest of your daily routines?  Do you feel rushed all the time?  Are you exhausted by the end of the day?
• What are your best working hours?  Do you take advantage of your natural energy peaks throughout the day when you study?  What tasks should you be doing when you energy is high?  Which ones do you reserve for your low points?   

I am sure there are more questions to ask.  Send them in!  I encourage you to experiment with your daily routines to see if you can find your rhythm and flow.  It makes a difference.

Tip Bit #3: The Three 'P's of Performance

The approach of another semester causes some students to renew their commitment to better studying habits.  Today’s tip bit is for them.   The three 'P's of performance are:

• Prioritize.  You need to list all things that you do on a daily basis and prioritize them.  Some of them may be essential, like eating dinner or going to classes.   Others may fall into the ‘time permits’ category. 
• Plan.  You need to develop a plan that will help you to accomplish your important tasks without feeling stressed and exhausted. 
• Prepare.  Your performance as a student is all about preparation.  Once you have a plan, all you need to do is execute.   

Law School Academic Support Blog explains how to create a weekly time-management schedule to make sure you complete all your important tasks.   

I’ve also put together Studying Schedule Tables that will help you to allocate time to various tasks you need to do to prepare for your classes on a weekly basis.  You just need to substitute your own subjects, activities and percentages.  Download studying_schedule_tables.xls [Excel 33 KB]

The Available Study Time Table requires you to determine how much time you have to study each day and fill in the time in minutes.

In order to fill in the Effort Concentration Table, you need to decide what percentage of your study time you allocate to each subject based on your course schedule and studying preferences.  For example, you may decide that Sunday is your Contracts day, but you split Monday 50%-50% between Property and Con. Law.

For the Activity Distribution Tables, you break down each subject into smaller activities, such as reading, outlining, review, etc.  Then you decide what percentage of time you want to spend on each activity for that subject. 

The Summary Table automatically calculates how many minutes you will spend on each activity of each subject for every day of the week.  That’s the second sheet in my Excel file, titled Weekly Summary Sheet.

Prioritize, plan, prepare!   

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.    

6 steps to eliminating distractions

Distractions have the power to zap our energy, steal time, disrupt our thoughts and make us unproductive.  But what is the source of their power? We most often use the verb “distract” in the passive construction, as in “I was distracted,” or “I get distracted easily,” suggesting that distractions are something that happens to us without our volition. The truth is what is a distraction to some may not be a distraction to others.  Distractions surface when our brain reacts to a stimulus in our environment and causes us to switch tasks (see my post Try focusing instead of multitasking).  This process can work to our advantage in some cases when, for example, we hear a fire alarm and react to it, but it can also make us inefficient.  This brings me to the first step to eliminating distractions:

1. Admit that you can choose to either react to the distracting stimulus by acting upon it or ignore the stimulus.  You are in control.  Build awareness of when and why you respond to distractions.
2. Plan and prioritize your activities.  If you know what you should be doing in a given moment and why, it is easier to stay focused on the task at hand. In his book Finding Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talks about how to achieve the state of complete engagement, “being in the zone,” or “flow”.  It is a very joyful state when you are completely immersed in the experience and don’t want to get distracted. Do you have a favorite hobby that brings about this sensation of effortless achievement?  According to the author, the “flow” occurs most often when people set clear goals, receive immediate relevant feedback and when there is a fine match between the skills and the challenges they face.  When you consciously choose to put your energy into something that has meaning and value to you, the distractions will disappear.
3. Motivate yourself properly.  If you’ve read my post What is your motivation direction, you may know what works for you.  The truth is we like our distractions because they save us from routine, mundane tasks that we don’t want to do.  The solution is either to choose not to perform those tasks or to make them appealing because of the outcomes or benefits you receive once they are completed.  When you create your list of goals, write down the reasons why you should accomplish those goals.  Visualize the outcomes. The feelings and emotions you experience can be strong motivators.
4. Declutter and simplify.  Make your physical environment conducive to working without interruptions.  Turn off the new email notification, clean out your desk to avoid unnecessary visual stimulation, eliminate the sounds of TV or radio, turn off your cell phone.  You decide when you check your email, talk on the phone, watch TV, or chat with your friends or coworkers.  Schedule those activities and be disciplined about following your schedule.  To learn more about the tools that help to minimize the distractions, read Limiting Distractions from Productivity Goal.
5. Meditate.  Sometimes we get distracted by our own thoughts.  “Oops, I forgot to call my Mom.”  “When am I going to get to that report that is due in a week?”  “I need to go to the grocery store before it closes.”  You know those pesky thoughts that buzz around when you try to concentrate.  Meditation can be a great strategy to train your brain to quiet itself.  When you start feeling overwhelmed and hurried, take a few deep breaths, close your eyes and focus on breathing.  Let your thoughts come and go, if they linger, simply redirect your attention back to your breathing pattern.  Take it easy. Relax.  Make it a habit to meditate regularly.
6. Be consistent in your efforts to minimize the impact of distractions, but remember that you can’t avoid them completely.  Don’t get frustrated when distractions happen.  Instead, budget a bit more time for your main tasks to factor in the possibility that you may have to attend to something else.  It is especially important if you tend to underestimate the amount of time you need to get things done.

Additional resources: Managing Internal Distractions by Meg Edwards of the David Allen Company.

Do you have tips to minimize distractions?  Please leave a comment or email me. 

Strategies and tools to plan your exam preparation

When you have about a week left before your exams start, how can you ensure that you have enough time to cover everything you need?  (As if you ever have enough time for anything in law school…)  I found the answer in Granularity for students by Lifehack.org.  It describes the application of the notion of “granularity” to studying.  The “granularity” method presupposes breaking down a daunting task into smaller manageable parts.  You can then prioritize and schedule those smaller projects accordingly. 

Inspired by the idea, I put together a few tables in Excel with my husband’s help to assist students in breaking down and scheduling their study time. Download exam_schedule_tables.xls [Excel, 32.5KB]  Here’s how you approach it:

• First, you determine how much time you have to study each day.   You fill in the time in minutes.
• Second, you decide what percentage of that time you allocate to each subject based on your exam schedule and your preparedness.  For example, you may decide to spend 100% of day 1 on Torts and split day 2 50%-50% between Property and Con. Law.
• Third, you break down each subject into smaller activities, such as outlining, practice, review, etc.  Then you decide what percentage of time you want to spend on each activity for that subject.  I filled out the tables with random numbers to give you an example.  You can substitute your own activities, subjects and percentages.
• Now you are done!  The summary table automatically calculates how many minutes you will spend on each activity of each subject for every day of study.  That’s the second sheet in my Excel file, titled Weekly Summary Sheet.

It is pretty granular, but I found that sticking to a schedule helped especially when I had to study multiple subjects for the bar -- for two states, in fact, Illinois and later New York (yes, I was crazy enough to repreat the experience when we moved to New York a few years later).  Let me know if you find this approach useful.

Try focusing instead of multitasking

As the exams are just around the corner, students often feel the pressure  to multitask more and more. Before you do, however, consider that many experts believe multitasking to be a myth.  Our brains cannot do parallel processing if it requires conscious awareness. Multitasking is really a rapid task switching. I’ve recently read an article in the series Multitasking (Part 2 of 3):  The Mechanics of Multitasking by H. Les Brown, in which the author discusses the factors affecting our ability to switch tasks effectively. I often multitask more around the holidays, so now that Thanksgiving is over, I’ve decided to do some post-action review of my multitasking.  Here are my lessons form the kitchen.

Those of you who have ever tried to bring milk to the boiling temperature, should be able to relate to the notion that true multitasking may not be possible. You can stare into the pot for the longest time waiting for those little bubbles to appear and nothing happens, but the moment you look away, your milk boils all over the stove.  I guess, some activities are just not meant for multitasking.

If the “operational complexity” of the tasks (one of the factors in H. Les Brown’s model) is not high, it is easier to switch between them. If my teapot whistles while I am stirring something on the stove, I can put that teapot aside without much trouble.  I can even gradually add flour while mixing the dough because the “operative rules” for those activities are pretty simple.  However, I find it difficult to baste the turkey while trying to keep the dogs away from the hot oven.  I guess, the “operative rules” are more complex here, and I don’t get much cooperation from the dogs either.

Another factor that enables us to determine when to shift tasks is “task dominance.” I can ignore the timer for a bit in order to finish peeling the potatoes, but I will drop those potatoes immediately if the smoke detector goes off.

“Task familiarity” allows for a quick switching because we can usually perform the habitual actions without much thought.  There is a downside to it though:  I sometimes put the ice-cream into the refrigerator instead of the freezer and the cheese into the bread bin without much thought.  If we don’t pay attention to those rote activities, we can get inappropriate results.

When I have various dishes cooking simultaneously, I am forced to switch tasks more often with an increased chance of an error.  This relates to the “response stimulus interval”, which is the time between one activity and the next “perceptual cue” that invites us to shift tasks.  “Haste makes waste,” as the saying goes.

So, what should we do to perform tasks effectively and efficiently?

• Plan and prioritize.  List things that need to be done, determine which ones are more urgent, and focus on those tasks.  Sometimes, it is beneficial to switch tasks.  I like to attack a problem in multiple sessions, for example.  I think about it for a while and then I let it go and do something else.  Occasionally, the solution comes when I least expect it.  You need to decide in advance when such strategy is appropriate. 
• Eliminate the distractions.  Remember those perceptual cues that invite us to switch the tasks?  Limit them if you can.  Turn off your new email notification unless you really need it.  Let your voice mail to pick up the call if you are busy with something important. And don’t turn on that TV, it’s not just the background noise.
• It’s not true that you can never do several things simultaneously.  You can combine conscious tasks with activities that do not require you to focus.   I like to think and conceptualize while walking my dogs.  You’ve probably heard that taking a hot shower can stimulate production of good ideas, probably because people are more relaxed. Listening to Baroque music like Mozart while studying can improve recall.  Find the combinations that work for you.
• Be mindful of what you are doing if you want to accomplish more.  Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users addresses the benefits of mindfulness in her post Your brain on multitasking.  Also, check out her follow-up post Multitasking makes us stupid?  on the dangers of media multitasking.  Aren’t we all guilty of it?

Are you a shark or a dolphin?

Energy seems to be a big word these days everywhere from global offices to local kitchens. I’ve recently read the article Learning to Manage Your Energy at Entrepreneur.com that tackles the problem of time, or lack thereof, from the personal energy perspective.  The article offers a test to identify your energy profile:  you can be a shark, a dolphin, a whale, or a jellyfish. It also asks some important questions:

• Are you surviving or thriving?
• How to get from the surviving to thriving mode?

It appears that one way to increase you energy level is to eliminate the activities in your daily routine that drain you without giving you much in return.  If you don’t like the outcomes, you have to change what you are doing.  Legal Andrew has some tips for you in Increase Productivity by Doing Something Different.  Are you a fan of to-do lists? Learn to love not-to-do lists as they help to conserve your energy for bigger and more important things in your life.  Productivity Goal offers some suggestions on the issue in What Have You Committed Not To Do?  Here is advice from Kelly Forrister of the David Allen Company.    

My little dirty energy secret?  I have to have a good cup of coffee in the morning, so I am off to check out 12 Best Cups of Coffee of 2006 by Fast Company. I already feel energized. 

5 ways to procrastinate with purpose

Procrastination has a bad rep.  Once people realize or, even worse, are told that they are procrastinators, many tend to dive into a wave of negativity and self-doubt only to emerge with a desire to prove to the world that they can procrastinate even longer.  Is there a way to make this potentially debilitating habit productive?  Here are 5 ways to procrastinate with purpose:

1. Use procrastination to organize your thoughts and assess the situation objectively.  Mentally run down the list of burning questions you must address.  Here are a few favorites to get you started:

• What needs to be done?
• Why would it be desirable to do those things?
• What have you already accomplished?
• What kinds of resources and help will you need when you decide to start working on the project?
  
  For more useful questions to assess your situation, look here. 
  
  Write out your thoughts. Writing has the great effect of bringing clarity, calmness and objectivity to the mind. 

2. Use procrastination to create a time-management system for your future actions.  John Richardson of Success Begins Today wrote a series of very insightful posts on focused work time.  The Focused 50 has some great resources for allocating time to various activities throughout the day. 

3. Use procrastination to motivate yourself for success.  Take a walk in the park, meditate, put on your favorite CD – do whatever works for you to create a positive vision of accomplishment.  How will you feel once the project is completed?  Imagine the actual result:  your student note published in a law journal or an effective presentation of your moot court argument.  What will you do for fun to reward yourself for your great work?  Think of little rewards you can give yourself when you complete each part of a longer project.  Talk to people who can motivate you for action.  Write down two or three positive attributes of the final product as you see it and repeat those attributes whenever you sense a negative self-talk.

4. “Turn procrastination into rehearsal”, writes Roy Peter Clark of Poynter Institute.  Use this time to create a mind map of your project. Maybe, you’ll be able to come up with some catchy headings for your paper or construct an argument for a brief.  Keep your mind on the target and take notice of any useful ideas that come to you.  You can do this along with any activity that does not require a lot of mental work.  I get all sorts of decent ideas while cooking.   My husband likes to lie down to do “conceptual work.”
   
5. Finally, if you don’t have much time left to procrastinate, read How to make something amazing right now by Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users.  Time constraints may be a good thing as they can drive creative.  Those of you with a perfectionist streak may find it therapeutic to use your procrastination time to produce something fast without worrying too much about quality.  You’ll have more time later to improve your product.

Procrastinate with purpose!