In a world where work life is constantly bombarded with distractions – email, social media, smartphones – those who can’t tune out the digital noise often struggle with productivity.
That was the crux of a webinar the New Jersey State Bar Association hosted on April 4 to help its members “tame the digital chaos.” The program was part of the NJSBA’s PracticeHQ benefit, an information hub with resources for attorneys to learn management and marketing skills.
Paul Unger, a partner at Affinity Consulting, led the webinar, offering advice on how to manage daily time and tasks, improve client communication and achieve professional goals.
Here are the salient tips that can help attorneys run their practices more efficiently.
Do a self-assessment
Start by calculating your total interruptions during the day. Tally up every time you are distracted – with emails, instant messages, phones calls, internet breaks – and divide that number by 480, the minutes you work over an eight-hour day. Studies show that the average professional is interrupted every two or three minutes during the workday, and it can take up to 20 minutes to return to the original task, according to Unger.
The cost of multitasking
Human brains are not well equipped to multitask, Unger said. Doing so takes more time, leads to mistakes and causes more stress, especially for workers who use two computer screens.
“No one would expect you to write an appellate brief on screen one, and then on screen two you’re drafting a contract,” Unger said. “That’s completely unreasonable.”
Instead, give yourself and your coworkers a block of time to focus on one task, distraction-free, Unger said.
New research has claimed that workers who constantly juggle tasks, and are oft-distracted by email and phone calls, suffer a fall in IQ more than twice than found in marijuana smokers, according to Unger.
“We can’t eliminate our workload, but we can dial down the noise and we can take down the task switching,” he said.
Digital detox
The advent of technology in the workplace has hurt productivity almost as much as it has helped, according to Unger. Social media has addictive properties, which can lead to mental health issues and harm your ability to focus. Unger recommended that workers practice “digital minimalism.” Start with a 30-day social media fast, or limit your social media time to 15 minutes a day, refrain from social sites between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m, and turn off your device after 9 p.m.
“You might realize ‘I don’t need Facebook or Instagram, but I need Linkedin for business networking,” Unger said. “It’s a very effective way to put limits on the amount of time you’re on social media.”
The email black hole
About 85% of workers start the morning by logging into email and letting the barrage of incoming messages dictate the day, according to Unger.
“Don’t fall into the email black hole,” he said. “Email is not your daily plan.”
It’s more constructive to develop your own written planner to serve as a daily roadmap, Unger said. Write down your priorities for the day, grateful thoughts and a couple reminder notes.
Try not to leave email open on your computer screen all day, Unger said. You don’t have to shut it down, but minimize it and turn off notifications so you can devote most of the day to tasks on the planner.
Don’t get discouraged if you fail to accomplish everything on the daily plan, Unger said. Most professionals rarely do.
“Plans never go as planned in the legal world. However, if you get 50% to 80% of your plan done for that day, that is a total win,” he said.
Do a weekly deep dive
Attorney calendars are loaded with appointments and deadlines. To help get ahead of schedule, Unger recommended that attorneys look two weeks ahead in their calendars, read every item and ask, “what do I need to do to prepare for this?” Then go two weeks back and see if you missed anything.
“You’re looking for things that you promised people that you didn’t do,” Unger said. “Oftentimes that happens because you go from one meeting to the next with no buffer time.”
NJSBA members can access PracticeHQ resources as njsba.com.