Have you ever had the experience of sitting down to write something important, having a rough idea of what you wanted to say, and yet finding yourself so tired or so distracted that you have significantly reduced ability to get the writing done? I’m not talking about ordinary writer’s block or waiting for a muse […]
I’ve been rereading First Things First, by Stephen Covey, A. Roger Merrill, and Rebecca Merrill recently, as I’m creating my list of “must read” books for clients concerned with time management, work/life balance, and the like. This book was first published in 1994 and I read it then. Perhaps the best accolade I can give […]
One of my clients (“Bob”) has had numerous bad experiences with opposing counsel. Over the last few years, he’s felt more and more worn down by angry phone calls, disingenuous arguments, and general incivility. (A sidenote: a question we addressed is whether Bob is really surrounded by opposing counsel out to gain some advantage by […]
The WSJ Law Blog has an interesting post asking whether women lawyers are reaching a crisis point. The MIT Workplace Center has issued a report titled “Women Lawyers and Obstacles to Leadership,” which states that of the 1000 Massachusetts lawyers surveyed, 31% of female associates and 18% of male associates had left private practice, as […]
Cristina Favreau, The Savvy Entrepreneur, has tagged me to participate in The Ultimate Guide to Productivity, started by Ben Yoskovitz of Instigator Blog. The rules are as follows: Write a post on your best productivity tips. Challenge yourself by picking your single best productivity tip (although this isn’t a requirement; you can give us more […]
Time management has been on my mind this week, since I’m delivering a workshop tomorrow on that topic. It often figures in coaching, sometimes as a key presenting issue and often as a secondary issue that comes to light in the course of the engagement. Procrastination is always a big one. It’s especially challenging for […]
Last Wednesday, I attended the NALP Annual Education Conference. I wish I’d planned to be there for the whole conference, because I met some fantastic people (including Steve Seckler of the Counsel to Counsel blog) and read about a number of presentations that I would have loved to attend. But, I’d budgeted only one day, and […]
Graduation is approaching, and I thought I’d share this excerpt from Michael Ignatieff‘s 2004 commencement speech to Whitman College graduates. The theme will perhaps strike a chord with some of you. My theme is living fearlessly in a fearful world. Living fearlessly is not the same thing as never being afraid. It’s good to be […]
Another pointer to some interesting goings-on… 1. The 800-CEO-READ Blog has an interesting post about the necessity of praising twentysomething workers for absolutely everything, because parents, teachers, and so on have rewarded this generation with everything from verbal reminders to winner’s ribbons and gold stars, following on a similar (but unlinked) WSJ article published last weekend. The post […]
Travel week here: I’ll be speaking on Wednesday at the NALP annual conference, on Facilitating a Successful Transition from Student to Lawyer. Since the conference is in Keystone, CO, I seized the opportunity to spend some time in Colorado and Wyoming over the weekend and into this week. I flew into Denver (home of Stephanie West Allen, […]