Practice Management

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By chucknewton

You know what?  As a Third Wave attorney, and especially as a home office attorney that gets work through networking, it is very, very easy to get bogged down in so many things, and so many requests, that do not truly advance your agenda or make you money.  This as an effect on you work-life balance or blending as well.  Because, like a lot of you, I want to be through with work, have eaten dinner and in my undies by the time Sports Center comes on. (I know, I know, too much information).  But, you cannot do this if you allow all of these requests and distractions to mislead you.

That is the reason that I especially like the post by Brad Isaac on his Achieve-It blog that states the solution to the mania is to learn the word "NO"!

He suggests that you learn the lesson by saying "NO" to every single request made of you for the next 30 days.  His point is that you need practice in saying "NO".

He thinks it would be fun to see what would happen to your business, judicial and personal relationship if you started saying "NO" to everyone.  Right.  And, he suggest that saying "NO" sometimes helps in dramatic ways - like maybe not having friends and referral sources to take up all of your time?

Hum-m-m-m-m-m.  The thing is that I do not believe that the word "NO" is always effective, dramatic or informative enough in some situations.  Sometimes you need more than "NO".  So, I would suggest that you start experiencing and experimenting these alternatives of add-ons, depending on the situation and what you are asked to do:

1.  "NO"!

2.  "HELL NO"!!

3.  "OH HELL NO"!!!

4.  "WHEN HELL FREEZES OVER"!!!!

5.  "OVER MY DEAD BODY"!!!!!

Maybe you can start with the judge that asks you to brief some point that should so unbelievably obvious.  I find that judges love to be told "NO".

Now, this is no exaggeration.  During law school I worked with an attorney (back before faxes and emails) who kept an old fashion ink pad and stamp in his desk drawer of a rendering of a right hand shooting the bird.  When some request aggravated him (and a lot of requests aggravated him) he would take the stamp out, place it on the red ink pad and then pound it on the correspondence, and mail it back to the sender with no other comment.

I always like the Rosanne Barr joke that her husband told her he wanted her to be more aggressive in bed, so the next time he rolled over and placed his hand on her she screamed "NO-O-O-O-O-O-O"!!!!

There might be other ways, means or manners in saying "NO".  Just click on the comment link under this post and let us know any suggestions that pop into your mind.

Full post as published by Chuck Newton on February 03, 2008 (boomark / email).