productivity for in-house lawyers

Ten Things: What to Do When You Are Feeling Overwhelmed at Work

I have been practicing law for a long time.  And even now, 30+ years into the game, there are still times when I find myself overwhelmed by everything on my plate.  And it’s just as shitty a feeling now as it was as a young associate at a big law firm or as general counsel dealing with – literally – bet-the-company litigation.  Fortunately, getting older comes with some advantages (besides the prospect of getting 50% off if I go to IHOP at 4:00 pm for dinner).  The biggest (non-IHOP) advantage being that I have developed a lot of different ways to cope with feeling this way.  And that’s good because one thing I hear a lot from the in-house lawyers I speak with is that they are having an increasingly hard time dealing with the incredible amount of work that keeps rolling down the hill – like a boulder crushing Wile E. Coyote when his ACME products backfire for the nine thousandth time.  Okay, that sounded better in my head, but I know you get the picture because you’ve all been there (and some of you may even be there as you are reading this).    

Given the increasing number of in-house lawyers edging ever closer to burnout, I thought I would spend some time talking through what you can do when feeling overwhelmed at the office.  I am going to focus on some practical, short-term solutions to help you get out of the muck and onto solid ground in the near term – as that is typically the most pressing need.[1]  What I am going to set out is all tested and true, and some combination of these ten things will very likely help you.[2]  How much they will help depends on how far you are willing to go to gain some control over the situation (and I know that is not always easy to do).  But hear me out and stick with me.  Today’s edition of “Ten Things” takes you through what you should do when you feel overwhelmed at the office:

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Ten Things: Ten Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes (a Productivity Hack for In-House Lawyers)

I had a great time at the global CLOC meeting a couple of weeks ago in Las Vegas.  It was an impressive event.  Huge thanks to the good folks at CLM leader SpotDraft for inviting me to speak on their panel and for making 50(!) copies of my new Showing the Value of the Legal Department book available for free.  I enjoyed the two book signings we did, and I especially enjoyed meeting so many of the CLOC attendees.  I can highly recommend SpotDraft, CLOC, and the global conference for all in-house lawyers.

One question I got a lot from people I met there was “How are you able to get so much done?”  And, as usual, when someone asks me a question, I ponder it and try to answer right away (e.g., being married to the awesome “Mrs. Ten Things” helps a lot when it comes to my getting things done).  I also let questions cook inside my brain for a bit because I know there is usually more to the answer I just gave.  Sure enough, I have been thinking about it a lot over the past two weeks.  And as I sit here on AA Flight 1626 at 30,000 feet, I settled on one skill in particular that I think is truly helpful to me in terms of being able to crank out blogs, books, work, or whatever the case may be; I am really good at making use of small increments of time.  For example, if I have ten minutes before my next work call or meeting starts, I try to find something productive I can accomplish in those ten minutes, i.e., I don’t worry about the hours when there are minutes to be picked up!  As I look back on my time in-house (and now as CEO and Senior Counsel of Hilgers Graben), I see that there are lots of things that I consistently do in ten minutes that add up to a lot of progress (in Latin this is known as “getting shit done”).  Finding ways to productively use small windows of time can be incredibly valuable to you, the department, and the company.  This edition of “Ten Things” shares my list of top things in-house lawyers can get done in ten minutes:

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