Success Lists, not To-Do Lists
Aaron Baer
Providing Practical Legal Advice to Clients | Partner at Renno & Co | Co-Founder at 4L Academy | Founder of The Authentic Legal Professional | SMB M&A | Tech | Crypto/Blockchain | Neurodiversity Stuff
It’s time we get past the to-do lists.
Let’s face it. Days go by and even when you finish all the tasks on your to-do list, it doesn’t feel like you got anything?real?done.
Lean into instead a success list.
The 2-3 things (and no more than that) that you must do everyday. A success list is simple. It’s a reminder that if you do just those few things, your day will have mattered.
That you’re creating something in the direction of your vision, goals, and dreams.
Otherwise the currents of hollow to-do lists get you stuck in a pit of busyness and not real substantial change that matters.
Doing 5-10 minutes of business development can be one of the most helpful things you can do for your career.
Easy to do? Yes.
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Unless of course you are ruled by to-do lists where you have to put out fires everyday.
What’s on your success list?
[Aaron's commentary: This post was clearly written by Dhawal, as I am far too familiar with a never-ending to-do list, and I have mastered the art of being stuck in a pit of busyness. Which - to be clear - is certainly not what I would recommend.
I'm looking forward to giving this a shot, since it seems like a no-brainer. I also recently learned of the concept of a 'stop doing' list, which I am also going to give a shot.
One of the challenges of working as a lawyer in private practice is that the billable hour makes every minute spent on a task seem equally valuable.
In reality, of course, we all know that's not the case. But in terms of how most lawyers are measured, a 0.1 is a 0.1. Real life doesn't work that way however.]
This article is part of The Authentic Lawyer series, written by?Aaron Baer?and?Dhawal Tank
Real Estate and Finance Paralegal at Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, P.C.
3 年"One of the challenges of working as a lawyer in private practice is that the billable hour makes every minute spent on a task seem equally valuable." - I love this. True for other timekeepers as well.
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3 年Great article, thank you for sharing this Aaron!
Law + people + messy reality + ways of working + organisations + software + data
3 年I agree, Aaron. A related approach I find useful is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeblocking Richard Tromans I think Aaron's summary of an aspect of what we've been discussing recently is rather elegant - "the billable hour makes every minute spent on a task seem equally valuable. In reality, of course, we all know that's not the case. But in terms of how most lawyers are measured, a 0.1 is a 0.1."
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3 年I have always thought that anyone who works in professional services in any leadership capacity must think like an entrepreneur. And if there's one thing an entrepreneur must do is focus on the few inputs that yield the greatest payoffs. That's the whole point of the success list. It's about finding high leverage tasks and doing them regularly.
Legal operations consultant. Helping lawyers and legal organizations thrive in the changing legal landscape.
3 年Great idea! I have a 'Get To Do List' - the shift in language changes the energy and approach towards those things on my list from chores that have to be done to things I am fortunate to have the opportunity to do. I break it into sections and am now adding a standing Success section - thanks for this!