Lawyers: Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Day?

Originally published by Cordell Parvin.

Can you honestly say you are getting the most out of your day?

I ask the question because working from home in 2020 is far more difficult than working in an office in 2005 when I gave up my law practice to coach lawyers. It is significantly more difficult than when I started a long time ago with no computer, no cell phone, no email and very few other distractions.

I spent my law career with work done at the office and family time and enjoyment at home. I can count on one hand the number of times in 38 years that I brought work home.

Now, I must share that approach could create a challenge. On Saturday, Nancy and I will celebrate our 50th anniversary. It is really hard to imagine.

One year I was busy at work at 7:00 PM when I received a phone call from our next door neighbor. He asked:

Cordell, do you know what day it is?

I think I answered,

June 6

He then said,

Nancy is home (he may have said crying, but she rarely cries), because you forgot your anniversary.

I told him I had actually remembered and I had ordered a fancy dinner to bring home. As soon as we hung up I ordered the dinner.

I haven’t forgotten the last 43 anniversaries. This year to celebrate our 50th, we ordered a bottle of Jos Heitz 2006 Martha’s Vineyard
Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville.

 

Enough of my anniversary tales. Here are my suggestions:

1. Start early. When I practiced law I was up at 4:30, coffee in hand at 4:45, arrived at Cooper Aerobics to work out when it opened at 5:00 and finished in time to be at my desk at 7:00 before most people arrived at work. I should add that the energy boost from working out gave me a good start to my day.
2. Have a plan for your day. Create a plan on what you want to accomplish that day. I wrote mine on a legal pad and later in my career typed it on my computer.
3. Stay on Task. I always found it easy to get diverted from what I was doing. The way I solved that problem was to focus on one task for 30 minutes. I didn’t look at email during that 30 minutes.
4. Get up from your computer. Take a few minutes every couple of hours to get up. You might even go outside and walk around the block breathing fresh air.
5. Grade yourself at the end of the day. At the end of the day ask yourself how you did and give yourself a grade. Did you make the best use of your time that day?

The post Lawyers: Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Day? appeared first on Cordell Parvin Blog.

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