Tools for the Lawyer/Entrepreneur...

Six highlights (below) from the NYTimes' small business toolkit. The list really hits home for me because I think that the *planning tomorrow today and the *lunch break/walk go a long way towards defining my daily productivity. That begs the question why I don't do those two things daily...but I suppose that's a "personal" problem.

¶Plan tomorrow today. If you do not wait until you get into the office to plan your day, you will be that much further ahead. Accept the idea you may not get everything done. The solution is to prioritize. In creating your “to do” list the night before, “put the No. 1 next to the most important item on your list. Place the No. 2 next to the second most important item on your list, etc. Then tackle the items on your list in order of their importance. It sounds simple, he says, but most people don’t do it, deciding to complete tasks that are easier to do, but not necessarily the most important.

¶Do not try to keep it in your head. “A faint pen has more power than the keenest mind. Get into the habit of writing things to do down using one tool (a Day-Timer, pad of paper, Palm Pilot, etc.) Your mind is best used for the big picture rather than all the details.”

¶Sleep. “You can have a great to do list for your next day but if you are tired, your productivity will be adversely impacted. Schedule a sufficient amount of sleep.”

¶Take a speed reading class.

¶Break for lunch. “After doing what we do for several hours, we start to ‘dull out.’ Sure, we can work through lunch and be productive, but that is not the issue. The issue is ‘how much more’ productive we can be. A lunch break, even a short 15-minute break, gives us a chance to get our batteries all charged up again to more effectively handle the afternoon’s challenges.”