Powerful Women Prioritize

I'm on a mission to propel more women lawyers to power positions where they can have more control over their careers, compensation, and courage. Today, we talk about stop doing that which no longer serves you.

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Happy New Year!!!

I hope that you have not resolved to do more.

What?

You always tell me to focus on what it takes to get to the next place.

And yes, I want you to do that but to start, I want you to free up space.?

During the pandemic, I realized how much stuff I had. And all of this stuff was taking up space in my life. And most of it I didn’t want or need. I kept most things out of habit because I might need them someday, or they felt familiar.?

But it really wasn’t helping me at all.

This extra junk cluttered up life. It overwhelmed me because clutter overstimulates us and makes us feel more anxious. This extra stuff also took over the space for the things that really mattered to me. So I made an effort to clear out the extra stuff (not to be a clean freak because not me) and make space for the things that matter to me now. By discarding the old stuff that had no value to me, I could make way for the things that would make me happy in the future, and I had more space to think and breathe.

That is what we do in our careers also. We hold onto things too long, preventing us from spending time on the things that matter to us and could move our lives forward. It is a power move to eliminate the things that no longer serve us. By removing the things that keep us idling, you create space that you can use to use to design the future you want.?

Here are some tips to help you do this.

1. Go Through Your Calendar.?

Start by going through your calendar and seeing where you spend your time. It may look something like this. You can create whatever categories are helpful to you and then put in an estimate of time.

Home housework

Children

• Sports
• Helping with Homework
• PTA

Volunteer Work

Professional Organizations

• ABC
• ?DEF

Conference

• WXY
• TUV

High-Level Strategy Work

Work I Should Not be Doing

Administrative Work

2. Evaluate

The evaluation phase is subjective. Come up with categories that are meaningful to you, which for me are: Keep, Go, Or Neutral/Case by Case.

You have to decide what is important to you. For example, I gave up PTA activities and Christmas cards when my kids were younger. As Marie Kondo would say, neither brought me joy, and they both took up more time than I wanted to spend. And yet, I have friends who find volunteering at their kids’ school a great way to be connected.

Similarly, I have found some professional and volunteer organizations I belong to be uplifting or good for my career. Others, I realized, did not help me anymore, and I decided to leave.?

Go through each category and place it in one of your buckets.

3. Execute.

Here is the challenging part - execute your evaluation. Inertia is powerful - it is so easy to just keep doing what you are doing. And if you do that, you will stay exactly where you are. You need to do something different to move forward.

When it comes to work tasks, are there people who could developmentally benefit from things that are progressing you further? For example, when I evaluated some internal committees and functions that I was leading and realized that I got accolades when I re-designed the approach and processes, and once it was running smoothly - not so much. There was nothing more for me to do on it. And yet, for someone who had never led a committee or function, it is an opportunity.

To do more, you need to start by doing less. That is getting rid of the time investments that are not propelling you forward. Take the time to go through this exercise. Because if you just keep adding new things to your plate, you will not be successful in doing them.?

What more insights? Check out...

6 Secrets To Converting Contacts Into Clients?-?In this guide, Sheila shares her insider secrets to change contacts into clients & be more effective at requests for proposals and pitches. Having selected outside counsel for over 20 years, Sheila knows what works & what falls flat.

6 Tips for Upward Mobility During an Economic Downturn - In this guide for in-house lawyers, Sheila shares her top tips for making the power moves that will propel your career forward in a recession and give you greater control of your career, compensation, and courage.

Sheila is the CEO of Focus Forward Consulting. She helps intelligent and accomplished women lawyers go from uncertain and uninspired to unstoppable and attain power positions where they have greater control of their careers, compensation, and courage.