Mark Zuckerberg wears the same outfit every day. It may seem like a small thing, but even little decisions can eventually exhaust our ability to make good decisions. Decision fatigue, which is the theory that our ability to make good decisions deteriorates with each decision we make, applies no matter how small or large a decision. As the day goes on, we use up our decision-making fuel and make poorer decisions. If you’ve experienced at the end of a long day a breakdown in your willpower – getting easily frustrated and angry, or needing to go shopping, or eating a …

I am adopting a very expansive view of “practice tips” this week given some things that have been on my mind as I recently took on two new staff.

As far as starting businesses go, starting a law practice or professional services firm is remarkably easy and safe relative to many other kinds of businesses. Doing it well is a much different matter. The skills required – project management, human resource management, leadership, and financial judgment, among others – are not taught in law school. Typically, legal education programs only touch upon them briefly and many lawyers hang up their …

Time is money. Three words which pretty much sum it up for us all.  Especially when your staff consists of your dog – then you quickly realize that passing the buck isn’t an option.  Instead, you must learn to sort through the multitude of tasks facing you each day and narrow down your focus to only the key revenue-generating activities, while letting the majority of the “noise” fade away and most of us accomplish this with a to-do list.

However, not all activities are of equal value. There is an economic principle called the 80/20 Rule, or Pareto Principle, that …

There’s a lot of teamwork that goes on in a law office. Sometimes it runs like a well oiled machine. Sometimes it just fizzes and pops!

So, for today’s tip, ask yourself what’s one thing you can do to take your team to the next level? Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Communicate – Great teams know how to communicate. They make space for each individual to express their ideas, not just the ones that are naturally expressive. They don’t shy away from differences of opinion, but rather use them as an opportunity for open discussion about continuous

♫ I can see a new horizon underneath the blazin’ sky
I’ll be where the eagle’s flying higher and higher
Gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels
Take me where my future’s lyin’, St. Elmo’s Fire…♫

Lyrics and Music by by David Foster and John Parr, recorded by John Parr.

……

The time has come for us, David Bilinsky and Garry Wise,  to pass the baton to a new generation of leaders and writers to carry on the work of SlawTips.

This, therefore, will be our final, and farewell post.

Garry …

I’ve noticed lawyers pop into LinkedIn or Twitter once in a blue moon and then completely disappear.

If that’s you and you’d like to figure out how to enjoy some of the benefit others have found on social media, here are a few tips to get you started:

1. You need a strategy. Define your target audience, point of different and purpose for your engagement, so you’re not scratching your head wondering what to do everytime you log in at LinkedIn.
2. Don’t waste your time on sites that aren’t aligned with your goals. The fastest way to get turned off social

♫ Their habits, I confess
None can guess with the couple…♫

Lyrics and music by Sammy Cahn and Neal Hefti.

Look at your desk and office. Whose office does yours resemble?  Oscar Madison’s or Felix Unger’s? Is your desk neat and tidy or more a hodgepodge of piles of paper, old coffee cups and files stacked everywhere with food wrappers interspersed? Of course The Odd Couple accented the extreme personal differences between Oscar, who is perhaps the world’s most famous slob and Felix, the extreme clean freak, as a way to create an underlying comedic friction as the backdrop …

Death, taxes and change.

Reputedly, these are among life’s inevitabilities. And while there is probably very little we can do about death and taxes, change is something we truly can manage.

A central theme of many of my Practice Tips posts has been the importance of planning for law firms and other professional practices. By occasionally stepping back from the demands of our day-to-day dealings and deadlines, we can gain the benefit of a longer view, think about objectives, and develop strategies and routines to meet our short and longer term goals.

There will be many changes along the way, …

When you go to a conference and network with a diverse group of lawyers it isn’t necessarily obvious what you should do to prepare. The typical advice is to get a primer on recent headlines within the industry, or at the very least with local happenings. While this is good advice to start up a conversation, the tip I want to give today is that it’s possible to network well and make a memorable mark by “knowing nothing”.

The trick is to take a deep interest in people you seek to make a connection with. What are their hobbies? What …

When I speak to lawyers about improving productivity, some of the best feedback I receive is how to stop distractions. Research has shown that every time a person is interrupted from a task, it takes some 20 minutes to return to it. Each interruption costs productivity and, if you bill by the hour, you lose the chance to docket “0.3”. Here are some common distractions and what you can do about it.

Turn off cell phone notifications

Every cell phone beep pulls you out of the task you’re working on. If you are in the office, chances are the notification …