♫ He’s got this dream about buyin’ some land
He’s gonna give up the booze and the one night stands
And then he’ll settle down, in some quiet little town
And forget about everything…♫

Lyrics, Music and recorded by Gerry Rafferty.

New Year’s Resolutions?  Phfft.  Been there, Done That, Got that T-Shirt.

We all resolve to get fit, lose weight and spend more time out of the office etc etc etc.  Speaking personally I have had my fill of resolutions that are born from the best of intentions but then die a cold hard death on the shoals of life.

So here goes: The  Hacker’s Guide to New Year Resolutions: How to make real change in your life.

First step:  Realize that you do things the way that you do because of how you are: the way  you find things enjoyable or appealing or not, the way that you reward yourself for doing certain things and avoid others, the way that you find that you are too tired at the end of the day to get out and head to the gym etc etc etc.  In other words, it is the structure of how you go thru life that determines, to a large part, how you do things (or not, as the case may be).  The problem with New Year’s Resolutions is that you set up goals without putting into place the mental supports that would allow you to change.  If you don’t change the structure of how you do things, don’t expect things to change.

Second Step: Make ONE and ONLY ONE resolution and make it YOUR priority to get ‘er done before the first quarter is over.  Stick it on your monitor.  Put it on the top of your ‘To Do’ list.  Think about it.  Often.  Take small steps towards it every morning *(not every day because that is how you let it slip it down the priority chain  – because at the end of the day you will realize that yes, once again there it is sitting on the To-Do list)*.

Third Step: Schedule time in your calendar to work on it for 15 mins every Monday to Friday (inclusive).  Rework and restructure your time, your schedule and how you approach life and work to intentionally fit in the time (and the energy) to achieve this one goal.

Fourth Step: Most of all, hold yourself responsible for making this happen.  You have to change how you work before you can expect other things to change.  So resolve to not only change this ONE thing but also –  resolve to change yourself.  Use this resolution to be the motivation to implement change, starting with you.

Fifth Step: Once you have achieved this ONE resolution, celebrate it!  Give yourself a reward for getting the job done. Make sure you make yourself feel good about achieving this change (*in yourself*).

Sixth Step: Resolve to change something else. You don’t need to wait for a special day in the year to keep the changes happening.  You are becoming  – reworking – yourself into a person who can implement change.  Congratulations.  Now get started on your future!

Time to bare the soul time. There are days when all of us…and here I speak of no other than myself –  get ground down by the daily grind: days where the simple acts of life seem to be oppressive and it is difficult to see the joy in life given all that you have to do. But all of us know that you can’t let this get you down. Silly really, given that we all live in a continent that brims with wealth and opportunity. We all know that you have to get up and set your eyes on the beauty in life, on the things that make life joyous, meaningful and truly bring value and meaning to others. You need to keep looking for ways that you can help others..since it is really in helping others that you truly help yourself.

So how do you get inspired? Everyone has their own method.  Some meditate.  Some find inspiration in nature and the outdoors. Some help out youngsters and see the joy that they take in life. Some head out on the roads and trails to run. Some do yoga. Others read.

But there are days when you can’t get outside or find a quiet place to meditate.

Speaking personally, I find inspiration in reading about people who have achieved great things or listening to inspiring talks. That is where TED comes in.  www.ted.com, if you haven’t already visited it, is well worth your time. There you will find inspiring talks by some simply incredible people.  Just this week I listened to Boyd Varty talking on “What I learned from Nelson Mandela” and his close encounter with a crocodile and how someone saved his life. Steve Jobs “How to live before You Die“, the commencement address at Stanford University, is a totally moving talk that I have listened to on several occasions.  Steve talks about how you can only connect the dots looking back on life; on how you have to believe that the dots will connect going forward.

Then there is Mark Bezos on don’t wait until you make your first million to help someone in “A Life Lesson from a Volunteer Firefighter.”

Listen to the stories.  Get inspired.  And go out there and help someone.

As we sign off on our Practice Tips for 2013, here’s a thought – if you have a bit of spare time on your hands over the break, why not complete a self audit of your firm – Aussie-style.

Australia’s Legal Services Commission makes it easy (and mandatory) with its online self-assessment audit form.

Addressing firm risk-management in areas including competency, communications, timeliness and delay, cost-disclosure, billing practices and termination of retainers, conflicts of interest, records management, undertakings, supervision of staff and practice, and trust fund handling, the Australian self-audit could afford you with a new window on the well-being of your firm – and help you to identify a few areas where your firm could do a bit better.

So that’s today’s tip: Do the Down-Under Self-Audit.

And perhaps, resolve for 2014 to implement a practice enhancement or two, based on the insights you glean.

–  Garry  J.  Wise, Toronto

“ This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure. ”

To continue our quest to inbox zero, here are further tips to attaining Maslow’s self-actualization by reaching the seemingly stratospheric and elusive high-ground of Inbox Zero:

• Make the most of your time: OK, so you are standing in a lineup at the checkstand (typical with Christmas shopping at this time of year).  Open your Smartphone and start zapping emails…
• Get creative with Labels.  Create folders with names that are relevant to you such as “travel”  or “family” or “events” and file incoming emails into the relevant folder. Get rid of the emails from your Inbox!!
• OK – admit it.  You are a procrastinator…(or at least I am)…and take a deep breath there are tons of things that You Would Rather Be Doing than spending time dealing with the dregs in your Inbox.   This is where all those Psychology classes that you took come in…positive reinforcement and all that….remember?  You need to create a reward for yourself for spending 15 mins dealing with those bleeping emails.  Set the reward. Set the timer.. now ..GO. Get as many emails dealt with as you can in the 15 mins and then ….give yourself the reward.   GOOD. Now …honestly – how do you feel?  Wonderful?  Satisfied?  Remember that.  And do it ..often…!!  Reward yourself for doing what you know that you need to do…
• Make Appointments with Yourself.  Yes we have mentioned this before..but we think that this is an important one.  Take emails that will take time and “drag and drop” them into your calendar (most email apps will allow you to do this ..if not..just block and copy).  This way you have made a commitment to..yourself..to deal with it.  Do it!!!! The important factor here is to commit to setting aside time to deal with this matter by making a personal appointment with yourself.  Do you want to disappoint yourself? No?  Good.  Now do the follow thru!!
• Remember those nice emails from well-minded people that just want you to ….STOP.  Right now! These people are stealing time from you …and playing a guilt trip at the same time. You have NO obligation to do anything with an email that you have been sent from someone you don’t really know who just asks you to to something not on your To Do List for today….You are the ultimate gatekeeper on your time.  Hit the delete key. I betcha you will NEVER hear from these people again.(for better or worse…).  Don’t let other people control your life or your tasks or your sense of what is important for you to do today.
• Make a Plan: take  your day and decide what is important for you to do TODAY.  Stick to it. If the emails in your email box don’t fit in what you need or must or want do deal with …stick them into a ‘suspense’ folder …or just delete them if they are not relevant to a file (and if they are, put them in that folder for that file and create a to do to deal with them..later).  Your success in life is determined by what you do ..and that is based on your list of the most important items in your to do list.  Look at your Inbox..if the matters there don’t fit in your Plan ..you have a decision to make.. but don’t agonize over it…Do it ..and MOVE ON!!
• OK the kicker:  Once you open an email – don’t just close it. Deal. With. It. Now.  Decide: is this something I must deal with NOW; should I schedule a time or is it simply a time sink and something to ignore?  Now?  Later? Never?  Decide!!!!!  And  stick with it.
• The Bitter End:  The fact is that I am guilty of all of these things..and more to boot.  It takes diligence and patience and lots of positive reinforcement to change behaviours that have become engrained.  I know it isn’t going to happen overnight.  But it will happen if you if you are diligent.  If we are going to attain the rarified heights of inbox zero, this is no time for ease and comfort.  It is the time to dare and endure…

For lawyers interested in practice-building, there are few methods more proven than law blogging (or blawging, if you prefer) and getting social via social media online.

As I wrote in a recent paper, Social Media, A Vital Tool for the Modern Family Law Practice, delivered at an Ontario Bar Association CPD programme for family law lawyers last month:

Increasingly, the sophisticated shopper for legal services is looking online for the legal professionals he or she will hire. A strong social media footprint will help these shoppers to find you. Quality content, branded and delivered authentically and professionally, will help these purchasers to choose you.

The results may not be apparent overnight.
But opportunity abounds in the Ontario online family law space, in particular, for family law blogging and social media participation, focussed exclusively on family law topics, video and content. There are an abundance of family law firm websites, but comparatively little participation in blogging and other social media.

Over time, with active regular blogging and social media participation, your firm’s stable and recognizable online presence will emerge. You will have clients call you because you have written or even tweeted on a topic that is central to them. Opposing counsel will let you know they’ve read your work. The press will call for comments on important court rulings, law reform topics and new legislation. Your Google ranking will start to improve. The OBA or CBA or LSUC may start calling on you to participate as a presenter in CPD programmes.

And your practice will grow.

As I said, trust me on this. It happened to a friend of a friend of mine…

And it happened to me.

So this week’s practice tip is a simple one. Think about starting a law blog and participating professionally in social media.

It could make a giant difference in your practice.

-Garry J. Wise, Toronto (@wiselaw)

Where do all these email alerts, newsletters, updates, sales pitches and unrequested announcements come from?

Inspired by my co-Tipster David Bilinsky’s recent posts on the elusive quest for Inbox Zero, I’ve been in a mood to purge all those unwanted or redundant messages that clutter up  my own, perpetual Inbox Five Hundred.  

In the last few days alone, I’ve hit unsubscribe and said goodbye forever to emails from REM, Quora, Legendary Motor Cars, Carswell (I know, sacrilege), ManChef, Houzz, Cater Trends, Joel from Buffer, Go Daddy, Facebook, CPD On Time, Digg, NY Times, York University, LawCrossing, Sky Auction and PR Hacker, to name a few.

If I have my way, before very long, only bulk missives from the Law Society, CBA, OBA and my CNN alerts will remain standing.

But if all that manual unsubscribing is just too much bother, here’s a quick tip via LifeHacker – set your email client’s “message rules” or filters to search for the word “unsubscribe,” and direct all emails containing that word to your trash bin automatically.  As most unwanted email will contain “unsubscribe,” this is a quick and dirty way to get the spam out of your inbox and en-route to its rightful destination.  Note, however, that this filter may capture the occasional email you actually want, so a manual check of your trash folder will be a good idea before a final delete.

Alternatively, if you may want to review all these emails at a later date (a date that will never come, I promise), or are simply an unapologetic digital packrat, create a new folder called MYSPAM and direct these filtered emails there.

It may be just a small step for mankind…

But its a giant step toward Inbox Zero.

-Garry J. Wise, Toronto (@wiselaw)

♫  Nothing, now you live with zero, nothing nada
Now you live with zero
Now you live with zero…♫

Music and lyrics by Keyshia Cole, Vidal Davis, Tyler Williams, Guordan Banks, Jessyca Wilson, Robert Williams, recorded by Keyshia Cole.

This post continues our journey towards achieving ‘inbox zero’.  This time we are delving into more shall we say, ‘drastic’ ways of dealing with the email avalanche.

• Step 1: Admit it.  You are not going to get to those emails that are 2 years old and still sitting in your inbox.  In fact if you are facing brass tacks, you are most probably not going to get to those that are a month old either.  So what to do?  Create a folder called ‘old emails’ and move all those that are at least 3 weeks or a month old into it.  Scan the newer ones before doing this to ensure that you are not missing something important first!  But by moving the emails out of the inbox into an old email folder you are taking the first step in acknowledging that you are (most probably) never going to deal with these (and they are most likely hopelessly outdated anyway).
• Step 2: Go thru the ones that are left.  Delete those that you can.  Create a new folder “Reading” for those that are informational but don’t require any response from you.  Move all such emails into the “Reading” folder.
• Step 3:  Start using Categories in Outlook  ().  Categories are completely customizable so you can take the standard list and edit them as you wish.  I like to create “Urgent”, “Follow Up” (for those that need to be dealt with but are not urgent), “Networking” and “Personal” but you can create such categories as you wish.  By using the “Edit” command in Categories you can assign colours to each of the categories so that, for example, “Urgent” is red and “Personal” is blue.
• Step 4: Turn off the new email notification.  Remember Psych 101 and Pavlov and his dog?  He demonstrated ‘Classical Conditioning‘.  We don’t need to be slaves who jump the moment the incoming email message appears or dings!  Work on email when you can fit it into your day.
• Step 5: Take emails that will need extended time to deal with and create appointments in your calendar to deal with them.  Most email programs will allow you to ‘drag and drop’ an email into your calendar and create an appointment based on the email.  If not, you can always ‘block and copy’ the text in the email and insert it into a calendar appointment and move the original email out of your inbox. This way you have committed time to work on these bigger emails.

In our next instalment we will continue with further tips on how to clean up the email avalanche and get you closer to living with zero.

-David J. Bilinsky, Vancouver.

  I want to tell her that I love her but the point is prob’ly moot..♫

Lyrics, Music and recorded by Rick Springfield.

West Coast Environmental Law is inviting law students from across Canada to participate in a unique Canadian social media competition!

The “Twitter Moot” will be held on Friday, February 28th, 2014, at 10am PST.  This event, now into its third year, will see teams from Law Schools from all across Canada participate in a mock court hearing over the Twitter social media platform, arguing an appeal to the Supreme Twitter Court of Canada. Students are invited to audition – how else? ..by using  Twitter – by December 6th, 2013.

“We want to get people talking about mining, Aboriginal Rights and environmental law,” explained Andrew Gage, Staff Lawyer. “This is taking an important legal debate out of the court room and onto Twitter.”

This year’s Twitter Moot will focus on an appeal of Ross River Dena Council v. Yukon, a precedent-setting decision of the Yukon Court of Appeal which last December held that the Territory’s mining laws did not provide for adequate consultation with the Ross River Dena Council.

Similar (although not identical) laws are in place in many of Canada’s provinces, making the case an ideal one for the Twitter Moot to focus on.

The Twitter Moot is scheduled to be held at the same time as North America’s largest Public Interest Environmental Law conference, held each year at the University of Oregon, and will be profiled at the Conference. “This will give the students unparalleled exposure to some of the top environmental lawyers in North America.”

Of course the Twitter Moot will have a Twitter hash tag! The hashtag for the Twitter Moot is #twtmoot.

West Coast Environmental Law made social media history when it held the world’s first Twitter Moot in February 2012. The event was a trending topic in Canada, with an audience in the thousands. The second Twitter Moot was held in November 2012.

West Coast Environmental Law invites inquiries about sponsorship opportunities. For information about how to field a team, visit http://wcel.org/competing-twitter-moot.

For more information contact:
Andrew Gage, Staff Lawyer at 604-601-2506 (Vancouver) or 250-412-9784 (Victoria).
See www.wcel.org/twtmoot for more information.

One thing is for certain – this event is very much a’twitter and not moot at all!

♫  I’ll tell you simply I’m fallin’ for you;
I’ve never felt this way before…♫

Lyrics, music and recorded by Sara Hickman.

(click image to enlarge)

Continuing our discussion of getting to ‘Inbox Zero’ this second post in the series of posts dealing with email is about SimplyFile – an intelligent add-on to Microsoft Outlook (2007 or 2010).  Of all the ‘tips’ that I put forward doing “60 Tips in 60 Minutes” type presentations, this is the one tip for which I receive the most feedback.  I use it all the time on my PC and I didn’t realize how much I depended on it until our IT department took it away for a bit (they were implementing a document management system and wanted to ensure that everything was working well before starting to reintroduce software).  It is now back on my PC (upgraded to version 3.1) and I am a happy camper once again!

What does it do?

In the words of TechHit:

“SimplyFile is an intelligent filing assistant for Microsoft Outlook. It helps you file email messages in your Outlook folders quickly and efficiently. Due to SimplyFile’s advanced folder prediction technology, one click of a button is all it takes to send a message to the right folder! SimplyFile includes an advanced algorithm, which quickly learns about your filing habits and then starts to predict where you will want to move every message. So after you train SimplyFile for a bit, filing a message to the right folder becomes literally one click – much faster than drag and drop.

If you tried to sort messages into various folders with rules, you know that rules can become complicated and hard to maintain once you have more than a dozen of them. SimplyFile does not require you to maintain any rules. Its algorithm keeps track of messages and folders and does all the work for you. Try it for yourself and you will be pleasantly surprised by how accurate it is!”

I totally agree with those statements…SimplyFile makes dealing with email a breeze..and it saves so much time. There is another benefit – by using SimplyFile to quickly organize and file both incoming and outgoing emails, you can organize all client emails (both in and out) into the same client folder in Outlook.  No more looking thru “Sent” to find something that you did on a client file.

Another tip:  If you use Adobe Acrobat (standard or professional) you can convert all those emails in a client folder into an Adobe Portfolio document (a big PDF containing each email as a pdf document).  That allows you to archive the client email folder as a PDF portfolio and delete the email folder from Outlook when the file closes (knowing that all the incoming and outgoing emails are in there courtesy of SimplyFile).

After a few hours of use, you will fall in love with it. After a few days, you will wonder how you ever lived without it!

–David J. Bilinsky, Vancouver.

Ah, it’s that hallowed eve when the law goblins come out to play, wreaking  havoc and terror wherever they go.  

They may keep us up at night.  They can even cause our insurers to quaver. 

There are many nightmares you could encounter when you visit The Haunted House of Legal Horrors.  

So beware the darkness, my friends.  

Don’t say we never warned you – one of these things happened to a friend of a friend of mine….  

• Remember that guy who called you once in 2010, but hung up on you before you got his name? Well his Statement of Claim against you for failing to start his court action in time is on the way…
• Well, at the time it sure seemed OK to release settlement funds from trust to that poor missionary lady in Asia who emailed you about her collection matter. Who’d have guessed the cheque was going to bounce?
• Your trial started 5 minutes ago in Milton. So what are you doing in Newmarket?
• Ooops, the Photo ID your overseas client emailed you was a fake.  
• And by the way, the lovely woman your client brought in to sign spousal consent on the new 2nd mortgage wasn’t really his wife.  Well, not the wife he owns the property with, that is.
• Didn’t get around to renewing your E&O insurance yet? This would be as good a time as any…

So here is today’s verrry scaaary Slaw Tip:  Read LawPro’s Avoid A Claim Blog.

It could help you keep the law goblins away.

– Garry J. Wise, Toronto

• Nicholas on Software Tools for Editing
• Jamie on Software Tools for Editing
• Steve Coughlan on ‘I Hope This E-Mail Finds You Well’
• Lyn on Womxn
• Celia Chandler on Gross Negligence

• Suggest a Tip
• 
• Slaw.ca
• 
• Slaw Jobs
• 
• Copyright
• 
• About SlawTips
• 
• Contact Us