THE NEXT EVOLUTION

Most of us have settled into some kind of lockdown routine. Although our family, work, living and health situations are unique, one thing we have in common is time at home with choices about how to use the time. I did some household things (went through photos, reviewed home files and records, made minor repairs, cleared some emails, watched some shows).

It’s nice to do things on the “should” list.

But what about some bigger items on the list? In his book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Stephen Covey refers to these bigger items as Quadrant 2. Using a simple chart where across the top are “Urgent” and “Not Urgent”, and the two down columns are “Important” and “Not Important”, we have 4 Quadrants:

                        Urgent                Not Urgent

Important                   1                              2

Not Important           3                               4

1 - Important and Urgent

2 - Important and Not Urgent

3 - Not important but Urgent

4 - Not Important and Not Urgent

Quadrant 1 are things you have to do, usually right away. The daily crises. Deadlines, emergencies, health issues, things we have to do. Most of us realize that many if not all of these crises could be avoided (or managed better) if we did the things that we keep saying we SHOULD do.

I will come back to Quadrant 2. (Where the SHOULDS are)

If you spend time in Quadrant 3 you are really screwed. Not only is the thing an emergency, it isn’t even important!

In Quadrant 4 we are killing some time, and hey, we are all entitled, sometimes.

In Quadrant 2 are the things you SHOULD do. Like learning tech things, or preventative health actions, or REALLY reviewing your finances, or finding help with certain problems, or just thinking through future plans.

Quadrant 2 activities are the essence of life because they keep us out of Quadrants 1 and 3. Living in urgency is stressful and unhealthy, and mostly leads to poor results. Doing these same activities without urgency is WAY better. Most of us know that.

The lockdown has been (or can be) the greatest Quadrant 2 opportunity ever.

Last year I published a book “Evolutions of a Law Practice”. In 38 years of practice I evolved through various areas: Landlord/Tenant, Real Estate, Personal Injury, a per-diem court coverage service, and Probate/Estate work.

Further evolutions were surely in store, but I thought they would happen gradually, the way evolution usually works. The pandemic and lockdown presented the need (and opportunity) to evolve quickly, but with time to figure out how to do it.

I have (had) a court coverage business in the Jamaica courthouse. I provide a highly demanded service to other attorneys. It was 70% of my income and took most of my time and energy. The other 30% was probate and estate cases, which I handled with an associate. I also wanted to speak and consult about law practice, but wasn’t doing it much.

The court coverage business totally stopped when Court closed. Nobody knows when it will re-open, and nobody knows how it will be when it opens, though two things seem certain: It’s not fully opening for awhile, and the volume of work will be drastically lower.

Before the courts closed, things were changing and the court coverage business had become brutally difficult. The closing was almost a relief.

I had some bigger “shoulds” on my list, so when the lockdown started I worked on my probate files at home. I suddenly had time to look at some bigger issues. Extra time came from not being in Court, and from eliminating my 20 minute each way commute. I had my office phones put on an answering service where I get an email if there’s a message, thus eliminating unscheduled calls.

I noticed I had become lax in my probate marketing, so I spent some time learning to improve, and started fixing that. I noticed my work-flow procedures could be better, so I discussed this with my employees (in a zoom meeting) where we exchanged ideas and greatly improved this. Certain software upgrades had been discussed in the past, but we never had time. Now they are in place.

For years I wanted to do SOMETHING in the law practice world. I saw an ad for a “virtual lawyers conference”, emailed the sponsor, and asked if he would consider me as a presenter. (Would I have EVER made this inquiry before the lockdown?). I became one of 20 presenters at a virtual conference attended by over 1000 attorneys. I had a great time giving two presentations (one of them is on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ5K9LHBm6w&t=263s) and learned a TON and made great contacts at the conference too.

My next evolution happened suddenly. I haven’t yet decided what to do when Court opens, but I know this for sure: I will take the time to plan right and make good decisions, because I SHOULD, so I WILL.

Barry Seidel is a lawyer in Queens, NY. He is the author of Evolutions of a Law Practice, www.evolutionsofalawpractice.com

He practices primarily in the field of probate and estates law www.Queensprobate.com