Without self-discipline, your solo or small practice will never reach its full potential. Follow this tips to make sure your practice succeeds.
Do you know how much more you could accomplish with increased self-discipline? This is one of the most important virtues to have if you have any aspirations of your firm taking-off.
For most small firm lawyers, feeling overwhelmed and incapable of getting everything done is a permanent state of being. Which can sometimes lead to a lack of productivity and diminishing self-discipline.
Unfortunately for most people, improving your self-discipline is one of the hardest traits to develop. There are, however, ways to improve this essential characteristic. Follow this article to learn about seven different tips that will help:
1. Work Inside Your Passion
When you’re doing something or practice in an area that you love, discipline comes naturally. The only time you have to make yourself stay disciplined is when you don’t enjoy what you’re doing. Most people who love what they are working on never put off the stuff that is hard or not fun. They power through those tasks to accomplish them all, and before they know it their practices are a huge success.
2. Remove Distractions
If you’re a solo lawyer who works from home, this can be especially challenging.
Phones, emails, and browsers can sabotage productivity. Don’t fight the distractions. Eliminate them. Set times to make calls, answer personal emails, or check social media. You can’t be distracted if you’re not accessible.
If you really need to focus, get a conference room or workspace at an executive suite like Law Firm Suites and turn off your phone and internet.
3. Reward Yourself
Take breaks. Get a cup of coffee. Go for a short walk. Do something every few hours or so to refresh and to reward your progress.
Burnout is difficult to recognize when you are in the middle of experiencing it. And being burnt out will destroy your self-discipline. Take the necessary steps to ensure you’re not overworking and causing more harm than good.
4. Do the Hardest Thing First
People usually procrastinate on the one thing that they don’t want to do. It’s human nature.
But by avoiding frustrating tasks such as networking or social media marketing, you are putting your firm at a disadvantage. Instead, try to make a consistent effort to accomplish tasks that frustrate you. The more you do these, the less frustrating they will become, and you will be more inclined to do them in the future.
5. Make Decisions
Self-discipline comes down to choice. To be successful you must analyze information available then make a decision. Your ability to make decisions quickly will empower and motivate you to accomplish the task at hand.
6. Do Work When You Work Best
40 hours a week is the standard for full-time employment. But for lawyers, working 50 to 70 hours isn’t unheard of.
Even though lawyers often work long hours, they are no different than other professionals when it comes to the benefits of working within your natural routine.
If you’re a morning person, work then. If you’re more of a night-owl, start later. Do what fits your internal schedule to optimize your results.
7. Step up to the Plate
This is sometimes the only way to be self-disciplined. You’ve just got to get it over with. Forget about everything else. Just do what you’ve got to do. Sometimes you just have to sit down, grind it out and complete the task at hand.
Self-discipline is not easy for most of us. Like legal writing or litigation, it‘s a skill. It takes constant work and focus to improve. But by implementing these seven tips, you will improve and your practice will thank you for it.
