managing time

Is it acceptable to start a meeting on time even if people are late? The answer is usually yes. If attendees know a meeting will not start on time, they may be purposely late.  They may take advantage of the “extra time” they now have to make a last-minute phone call or write a quick email. By waiting for the latecomers you are tacitly giving them permission to arrive whenever they choose. Even beginning 10 minutes late is wasted time for the on-time attendees and the company.

Let’s not allow the late-to-the-meeting attendees to get the upper hand. Have you ever thought about giving an incentive for people to arrive on time? There may be hope after all for the people who are ready to start at the appointed hour. Snacks and/or drinks definitely help!

There are other ways to encourage people not to be tardy. Try emailing everyone attending the meeting a few days ahead requesting that they please arrive on time. Or, remind them a few times as the day gets closer (just like an Evite). Perhaps stop by the offices of people you know are often late and remind them that it is rude to make others wait for them.

Or move the meeting to a different location.  An attorney told me that he did just that with a staff member who consistently showed up late. At the beginning of the meeting, the attorney invited everyone to a nearby coffee shop. Over drinks, they held the meeting. Imagine the surprise on the late person’s face when he saw everyone hard at work and also enjoying their favorite beverages. He got the hint. The attorney acknowledged the late-to-the-meeting person and suggested that he ask another meeting attendee to fill  in later on what he missed. Now, that’s a creative way to motivate people to arrive on time!

Here are tips to handle the meeting smoothly:

Include everyone in the discussion. Use a stopwatch and allow everyone two minutes to express an opinion on the proposal being discussed. Follow up with one minute for questions and answers. Try a round robin so everyone contributes. Often, people who hesitate to speak in front of the group end up making excellent contributions. Or, ask quiet people ahead of time for a specific contribution.

Take accurate, detailed minutes. Sometimes decisions are made at meetings and no one remembers why a few short months later. Good notes are often a life-saver because they remind everyone what was decided and why. It also makes it easy for new hires and those just promoted to catch up on a specific topic quickly.

At the beginning of the meeting (or beforehand), appoint a person to take notes that will include the names of the people responsible, the specific action and due dates. I even highlight the person’s name so that he/she can easily transfer the action items to their task list. If the meeting is important – and long – consider recording it with audio or video to ensure that no important information is lost.

Another possibility now available is to use tools such as SubEthaEdit or EtherPad. These apps allow multiple people to edit and collaborate on the meeting notes simultaneously. Everyone will stay engaged in the meeting and no one needs to spend time writing up the meeting notes because they are completed by the time the meeting is over. This is a good idea as long as people do not lose focus on the discussion and become too distracted by the note-taking.

Stay on track. Stick to the agenda and follow the estimated time allocation for each item; that will make it easy to identify issues that are dragging on longer than necessary. Keep the meeting moving and use the agenda as a roadmap – it is particularly handy if the discussion veers off-course. If that happens, try and stop the tangent right away. Otherwise, before you know it, the meeting has been derailed and is moving in an unplanned direction. Assign a committee to iron out details, if necessary.

Use meetings to discuss, maybe even argue as long as it is done fairly. It is ideas that are being discussed. The point is not to personally attack other people in the meeting.

End on time (high marks for this). Conclude a 60 minute meeting in 50 minutes and watch everyone’s face light up. That will give people an extra 10 minutes to get somewhere else or prepare for something coming up. And, they will be more likely to attend other meetings if they know their time is valued. If the meeting goes over the allotted time, the take-away message is that their time is not important. Meetings often run longer than they need to says Steven Rogelberg who teaches industrial/organizational psychology at UNC. He attributes it to Parkinsons Law that tasks last as long as the time allotted. So, if the meeting is planned for an hour, then it will take an hour.

After the meeting: Distribute the minutes asap. The person responsible for the minutes should file them  in a location (preferably electronic) where they are readily accessible. Keep track of the tasks in your planner or task list and follow up with the individuals who were assigned the tasks to make sure they are completed.

Running an effective meeting takes planning and organization but is definitely worth it. The meeting will go more smoothly and the outcome is likely to be better. Give these tips a try!

Everyone is late from time to time (even you and me), often for a reason that can not be helped. But that’s not who we are going to discuss today. We are going to talk about people who are chronically late — people who do not leave enough time to get someplace on time. Often they often arrive late for lunch, an appointment or an important event like a job interview or a wedding.

If someone is consistently late, it can be a problem for friends and family who feel like victims. It can even damage the relationship. We all know how it feels to be sitting and waiting for a friend who is always late. “Sorry”, she mumbles when she arrives, “but I had to write an important email before I left and, oh, the traffic was really bad.” Maybe she thinks these excuses are acceptable but they get old quickly. It is tempting to give my friend an earlier time so she’ll actually arrive on time.

A far more serious problem is the effect being late has on relationships at work. Unfortunately, chronic latecomers have a poor reputation. Colleagues resent it when their peers show up for meetings after they have started. They do not feel as if they can trust their colleague. Far worse, it can eventually limit career advancement. It’s that serious.

According to Diana DeLonzor, author of Never Be Late Again, most people don’t like being late but this behavior was often acquired a long time ago. Even when they try to be on time, it is extremely difficult to break lifelong habits.

What are some of the reasons that people are chronically late?

• Their time is more important than yours, so they think, and they are indifferent to whether it bothers you. They may consider themselves more important and consider their contribution at work more substantial than yours.
• They squeeze in as much as possible in as little time as possible. Or, they are distracted by last-minute to-dos such as answering the phone instead of letting it go to voicemail. Everything is a distraction. They forget that these things can wait until later.
• They enjoy being late and making others wait. This person may be insecure – arriving well after the appointed hour may make them feel important.
• Some latecomers like creating a grand entrance especially if it’s a large group that is sympathetic to their plight and does not know their history of chronic lateness. Of course they apologize but they also get center stage.
• They do not have a good perception of time and tend to underestimate it. Often people who are chronically late fail to build in enough slack time for unforeseen situations.
• Certain traits also tend to make people chronically late such as anxiety, low self-control and a tendency toward thrill-seeking. It’s an adrenaline rush to beat the clock.
• They thrive on the mini-crisis they create when they are running late and deliberately   put themselves under the gun to get themselves moving.

Interestingly, some people are not comfortable with the idea of being early. They do not know what to do with the “extra time” and are frustrated at not making “every minute count.” The thought of downtime with nothing to do is uncomfortable. The last thing they want to do is wait.

What is their idea of being on-time? In a perfect world, some latecomers aim to arrive exactly at the start time. People who tend not to be late view it quite differently. On-time for them is arriving 15 minutes early which eliminates the stress and gives them a chance to grab a cup of coffee, relax and even scout things.

Try these tips for being on time:

1. Make being prompt a priority. Recognize the negative, stressed out feelings you have when you are late.
2. Build in travel time on the calendar. People who are chronically late tend to underestimate how long it will take to get to a place and be situated.
3. Imagine how it will feel to be on time, even early, without the familiar feelings of being stressed. People will respect that you are on time.
4. Get ready early. Gather up the documents you need ahead of time. That way, if an interruption occurs, you can handle it and still be ready to leave on time. Some of our clients begin preparing for the meeting when they are supposed to leave.
5. Take reading material or something with you so you do not feel as if you are wasting time while you are waiting. Plan it ahead of time so you know that your time will be used efficiently. It will feel so good that you will want to do it again.
6. If you are late most of the time, plan to be on time two times out of five. As you get better, add another time so that you are eventually on time five times out of five. Keep track of your progress with a journal (or Evernote).
7. Plan the night before what you will need for appointments the next day and when you need to leave. Make sure to check for early morning meetings. It is no fun when the meeting stops and everyone looks at you when you walk into a meeting late.
8. Watch the clock. Late people do not tend to be aware of the time.
9. Set the timer, even two. One for when to start getting ready and the other for when to walk out the door.
10. Think about the actions you will need to take to be ready to leave on time.
11. Estimate the time you need to get somewhere and double it.
12. Stop doing other things well before you leave. Remind yourself they can be done later.
13. Fine yourself if you are late or give yourself a negative consequence says Dr. Phil. http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/215.
14. Estimate how long something will take and then compare it with the actual time it took.

How quickly can you find an electronic file? Are your files scattered throughout the computer in any number of places such as the hard drive, documents, the cloud or portable storage? Electronic folders that are not filed in their right locations can be just as messy and cluttered as paper folders.

So much of what we do today is electronic that we need a plan to organize electronic files similar to the way we organize paper files. While many offices still rely on paper to some extent, we are gradually moving away from paper to storing documents electronically which is a compelling reason to set up a system to organize electronic file folders.

There are numerous benefits of an organized electronic filing system. Here are some of the reasons to act now and get your computer files in order:

• Saves you time when you can find what you need quickly and easily, even years later.
• Easy to maintain.
• Helps you be more productive, and look more professional, especially when your boss needs a file now.
• Keeps documents current because the system identifies which documents can be disposed of and when.
• Saves physical storage space and money by reducing the number of filing cabinets and office floor space needed.
• Uses your time more efficiently by reducing the time you, or an assistant, spends retrieving and re-filing physical records.

If you share files with others, here are some advantages to having organized file folders:

• Team members can access shared folders and find what they need quickly, without interrupting anyone.
• Document ownership is easy to determine.
• Fewer copies of documents need to be printed as long as you, and the other team members, can access the document easily on line.
• Less printing = less paper clutter.
• It is easy to edit a document and share it with others.
• New employees can be brought up to speed quickly.

Tips to organize your electronic filing system:

1. Make sure that the electronic filing system meets the needs of the office, that all documents have a place in the system and that everyone understands and buys into the system.
2. Create a flow chart (electronic or paper) showing the type of information that will be available and the departments or people needing access to specific files.
3. Set up a system everyone will be comfortable with and will use.
4. Mirror your paper folders using the same headings and topics as your paper system. The more similar the two systems, the better.
5. Be consistent about naming conventions. Set up files, folders and subfolders that everyone will find meaningful and easy to understand.
6. Limit the number of clicks to three: file, folder and subfolder. There is no need to go any deeper. Note: whatever filing name system you choose, it needs to match your needs and/or the group’s needs.
7. Use a hierarchal system to organize files instead of a horizontal one. Group all projects and files relating to a particular project, person or thing together instead of using separate folders. For example, a hierarchy for a client file folder might look like this:
   • File: Clients
   • Folder: Individual Client Names
   • Subfolders: Descriptive topic names such as communication, contact information, taxes by year, etc.
8. Follow file naming conventions including client account numbers and revision date. Use underscores, not spaces. For example, an individual client name may look like this: tomjones_3579_11-30-14. Keep file names under 27 characters, all lower case.
9. Use the same format for dates. The key is to be consistent.
10. Add as much information into the file name as possible so it will not be necessary to open it. Be descriptive. An example of a subfolder under communication might be: casesummary1114 (for November, 2014). Don’t just put in “letter.”
11. If others also work on the document, add your initials at the end.
12. Avoid abbreviations and codes that are not immediately obvious to everyone.
13. Set up an index for quick reference, particularly if you use shortened versions of words such as DFT for draft or CTR for contract. Make sure that information is readily available to everyone with access to the file folders. If an abbreviation is not necessary, do not use it.
14. Delete previous revisions once document is final.
15. Create a records retention schedule based on function and date to ensure that outdated electronic documents are disposed of when they are no longer needed.
16. Be ruthless about the documents you save. The more data on the computer the more difficult it is to find necessary documents.
17. Move frequently-used files to the top of the file folder list by adding an “a” or ! (any symbol works) at the beginning of the file name.
18. File as you go. Do not wait until you have a long list.
19. Clean out your file folders at specific times (after a certain number, every Friday, etc.)
20. Back up files regularly.

Is it really possible to achieve a balance between work and life? Are we capable of fitting it all in? The term Work-Life Balance became popular in the 1980’s when corporations did not offer much in the way of flexible options. Picture a seesaw with work loading down one side and everything else, a.k.a. life, on the other side.

Many people have come to the conclusion that work-life balance is a myth, especially living in our all-consuming tech world. Email, smart phones and tablets blur the lines between work and all else. The office and our clients can reach us anytime, anywhere. We find ourselves “on” 24/7. There is always a lot to do and too few hours in the day to get our to-dos done.

Cali Yost, author and CEO of the Flex+Strategy Group, has given work-life balance a new name, work-life fit. Balance implies that work and life are at opposite ends which we know is not true. Work-life fit is a proactive approach, giving people more flexibility than they realize. Work can be a variety of win-wins for workers and employers.

In her book Work + Life Yost points out that the key is to find the fit that’s right for you which will allow you to be in control. You get to spend time with the people who are most meaningful in your life and to decide how much time and energy you put into activities.

Below are 12 work-life fit tips that will help you focus on the activities that are most meaningful to you:

1. Set crystal clear goals. Identify the goals that are important to you such as, work, professional, family, friends, keeping fit, your faith, and even fun. Too often, we are on autopilot and do not think about the ways we spend our time. If you want to make partner in a law firm, be prepared to devote the time and energy it will require. Clarifying your goals will serve as a roadmap going forward.
2. Ask yourself for every activity you are involved in: Does this activity add value? Does it meet my goals? Evaluate each and every project. Are you spending too much time and energy on an area that will be of little consequence to you in the long run? Eliminating a task can free you up to work on priority projects. For example: Do you still need to be attending association meetings from an earlier career? You might be able to meet your friends somewhere else and not be bound to a particular meeting time.
3. Eliminate as many errands as possible and combine the rest. Take a critical look at your errands which can take a chunk out of the day. Consider outsourcing whenever possible and batch the rest together. Do errands together that are in the same part of town.
4. Exercise. Study after study shows that working out benefits the mind and the body. You’ll need to carve out the time because it won’t happen, especially if your schedule is jam-packed, without being proactive. Make the time because it certainly won’t come to you.
5. Get enough sleep. Sleep-deprived individuals do not think clearly. Lack of sleep causes problems regarding focusing, stress, and sometimes serious medical issues. The Better Sleep Council survey in 2013 found that almost half of all Americans do not get enough sleep. (http://bettersleep.org/better-sleep/the-science-of-sleep/sleep-statistics-research/better-sleep-survey)
6. Start slowly and keep a journal. If you decide that you want to make a change in your work-life fit, do it gradually and mindfully. There is no need to rush into this. Even small changes can have a big impact. Keep track of these changes with a journal.
7. Find a balance between work and enjoyment. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. There’s some truth to that. Plan on doing fun things such as spending time with family and friends, learning a hobby, or taking a class to advance your professional career. All of these activities will expand your mind and, believe it or not, make you better at your job.
8. Set boundaries. Are you going to answer that text or email on a Saturday afternoon? Let your clients and colleagues know what is acceptable. They will appreciate your candidness.
9. Say no, especially if it interferes with your goals. If a supervisor asks you to handle a specific project, ask him/her what project(s) you should work on first. If you report to several supervisors, let them make the decision.That way you can stay out of it.
10. Re-evaluate your goals periodically. As life changes, so do our goals. Set a certain time quarterly to sit down and review your goals. Mark it in your calendar. Something may have changed that could affect your current list of goals. For example, a promotion, or a new baby, might cause you to rethink the future.
11. Select an accountability partner. Bounce ideas off of someone you trust who can help you stay on track and meet your goals. Ask someone who is committed to your well-being such as a co-worker, a friend or a coach.
12. Reduce the amount of television you watch and the time on the Internet. Both are black holes. Not many of your activities will get done if you are searching the web or watching hours of television.

Does this happen to you?

Our meetings never start on time because people are always late. The rest of us sit and wait, checking email and thinking about what could be getting done if we were back at our desks.  Or we start the meeting without the latecomers. Eventually they show up and want us to catch them up on the discussion. Help!

It is frustrating when fellow employees – colleagues, supervisors or subordinates — are late for meetings. Does it disrupt the meeting when someone walks in after the appointed time? You bet. For those of us who wait for the latecomers to arrive, or who start without them, we may wonder what’s going on in people’s heads when they are consistently tardy. No question about it – it is inconsiderate. We feel as if they are stealing our time and our colleagues’ time, too.

From their perspective:

• An on-time arrival may not be a priority. They may think that being 15 minutes late is really on-time.
• Their time is more important than ours. They would rather waste your time, not theirs.
• They choose to take a last-minute phone call or email which can easily delay them. The adrenaline rush is on. Maybe they prefer this to a boring meeting.
• They may not be aware of what others are thinking. Or maybe they are and do not care.

Being chronically late for meetings is more common than you think (although is still not acceptable). I’m not talking about coming in late once in a while because that can (and does) happen to everyone. With an average of 11 million meetings a day in America*(yikes!), someone will be late. Often it is the CEO. CEOs were tardy 60% of the time according to a survey of chief executives by management consulting firm Proudfoot. What kind of message does that send to company employees? Being punctual for a meeting, from the CEO on down, sets the right tone. Meetings starting on time (or not) can be attributed to the leadership of the company. Sometimes it starts with one person, probably the one with the most seniority at the table, being consistently late for a meeting. Before you know it, it becomes the norm and now everyone is 5-10 minutes later. Since most professionals attend a total of 62 meetings monthly**, wasted time adds up quickly.

CEOs may be late for their own company meetings but, interestingly, are punctual when they meet customers or clients. In the Proudfoot survey which covered nine countries, only French executives were late to more meetings than U.S. executives (late 65% of the time vs. 60%). Japanese CEOs had the highest on-time rate (late 34% of the time).

Waiting 10-15 minutes for a meeting to begin can be very costly to a company. When you multiply salaries by the time wasted, it can be a very expensive proposition.  And how about the cost to morale? Employees who make it their business to be on time end up spending precious minutes waiting for others so the meeting can finally begin.

At a large company based in Atlanta, meetings are the culture of the company. The day is driven by meetings – starting early in the morning and steadily continuing throughout the day. All day long people move from one meeting to the next. If a meeting starts late, everyone’s schedule is thrown out of whack for the rest of the day. In other companies, you may not be heading for another meeting, but a late start will affect how well you are able to manage your day.

Here are a few tips to help round up everyone in the same room at the same time:

Before the meeting:

• Include in the meeting invitation the start and end times of the meeting and, of course, the location.

• Create an agenda listing the topics, the persons responsible, and the time people will be presenting.
• Call or email invited attendees reminding them of their role and the time they will be presenting.
• Put late offenders first on agenda.
• Establish tardiness fines. For every minute a person is late, they owe $1 or even $5. Donate the money to a charity or use it to buy lunch for the next meeting. (A good incentive for people to come!)

At the meeting:

• Start the meeting on time no matter what; no need to penalize those who made the effort to be on time. Everyone is on a tight schedule and cannot afford extra waiting time.
• Continue the meeting even as latecomers arrive. Acknowledge them and keep going. Do not review what has been discussed in their absence.
• Lock the door two minutes after the start time. This is what employees at a high-tech company in California’s Silicon Valley do. They open the door but the boss needs to knock first. Caution: try this only if your boss has a sense-of-humor.
• Laugh uproariously at a pretend joke when someone walks in late. The latecomer will be sorry that he/she missed out on something funny.
• Note: After the latecomer is locked out of the meeting room and the group is laughing hysterically at a non-real joke the latecomer does not know, constantly late people may start to become embarrassed. It may begin to occur to them that walking in after the meeting has started is not acceptable behavior.
• Or, wait five minutes for the most senior person to show up. If he/she does not, reschedule the meeting. Choose a time that’s convenient for the group that is present.
• Follow the agenda and end the meeting on time. This sends a clear message that you respect everyone’s time.

After the meeting:

If your boss is always late:

• Speak to him at another time and ask if it is acceptable to start the meeting without him so that the entire department does not lose valuable work time. Calculate the cost savings and mention that as well.
• Ask if there is a better time to hold these meetings. Would earlier in the day ensure that he could arrive on time?

If a subordinate is always late:

• Speak privately to the offender and find out the reason the person is late.
• Ask how you can help or what resources you can provide. Maybe a time management class or maybe, ahemmm, one of us can help
• Last resort: Include it in the person’s performance appraisal.

*A network MCI Conferencing White Paper. Meetings in America: A study of trends, costs and attitudes toward business travel, teleconferencing, and their impact on productivity.

**Same source as above

The 15-Minute Closing Ritual is a technique that It’s Time To Get Organized created to ensure that each day runs smoothly. Recently, tips and techniques on what to during this closing ritual were posted in the Abacus blog to help maximize the time management techniques of thousands of attorneys. Not only does it keep attorneys working efficiently but it will benefit others as well.

Most of us lack energy or inclination at the end of the day to get organized for the next day. Yet, those 15 minutes yield a huge payoff.  Check out the blog to read about how you can add this highly successful routine to your day.

Have you ever wondered why, in spite of all the “time-saving” devices we have today — apps, technology tools, and “instant” everything — we are inundated with too much to do coupled with too little time to do it in?

A solution? Outsource jobs, tasks, or responsibilities that need to be done, but not necessarily by you.  Hire extra hands to help with the lifting, freeing you up to attend to other things.

Sometimes outsourcing makes sense while other times it doesn’t. You might be surprised to find that you can outsource more than you realize.

Professional outsourcing options can include: Accounting, IT, PR and advertising, recruiting, web design or even a productivity specialist (ahem, ahem). How many of these areas do you currently outsource professionally?

What about personal outsourcing options? Baby sitter, dry cleaners pickup and delivery, house cleaning, meal preparation, personal trainer, yard work or seasonal plantings? These outsourcers can be a huge help with work/life balance!

Our guess is that you outsource at least one, if not a lot more of the areas mentioned. We’re sure you would agree that we often count on the skills from others to get our job done.

When should you outsource? Here are some considerations:

1)　Missing Expertise – You could possibly learn the skill (and maybe you will at some point) but, at the moment, it is not one of your strong suits. For instance, we depend on a website guru.

2)　Time – You may be better off focusing on areas that bring in revenue and leave value-added tasks to people who do it for their day job. For example, many people count on a virtual assistant to handle administrative work remotely.

3)　Resources – You may be missing the hardware, software or equipment needed to perform the task. Have you seen the size of facilities for off-site physical document storage?

4)　Financial Impact – Weigh the outsourcing cost against your hourly rate. If you don’t know your hourly rate, take your salary and divide by 1080 (52 weeks x 40 hours/week) to find out your hourly rate. This is a good thing to know anyway.

5)　Prefer Doing It Yourself – Use your time wisely. As long as the task does not take a lot of time and you enjoy it, then it may be a task to handle on your own.

6)　Internal Resources – Take advantage of in-house staff, if available. As an example, if you have in-house counsel, outside attorneys are less likely to be needed.

What else can you outsource? What would be the impact of more outsourcing on your ability to achieve goals, manage time, and potentially reduce your work hours? What’s holding you back?

If you have trouble finding good outsourcing options, ask your social media networks for recommendations. If you are a member of　professional associations, you’d be surprised what outsourcing resources those can provide. If you or someone you know is a member of Business Networking International (BNI), then you have a huge source of vetted professionals to whom you can outsource.

To do it yourself or to get help is not always an obvious decision. At some point soon, we all face this. Please let us know what you outsource and how it has benefited you.

How do you spend your time? We all have the same number of hours in the day and yet some of us achieve quite a lot while others less so. Author Harvey Mackay suggests that improving our time-wasting habits is the answer. As productivity specialists, we agree with the article he wrote in the Atlanta Business Chronicle August 30-September 5, 2013. It contained seven smart suggestions:

1) Begin With A Plan Every Day so that you can focus on the right tasks; otherwise you will lose sight of what is important. Remember to make a to-do list for the following day so you can be productive as soon as you enter your work space.

2) Prioritize based on what is most important. Complete important items first.

3) Be Realistic and don’t take on too much at one time. There are times when saying no is necessary so you can complete your work on time. Otherwise, you’ll be adding stress when it can be avoided.

4) Keep Your Workspace Neat. Spend 5-10 minutes daily to put away files and get rid of the clutter. It will make a big difference and will prevent you from searching through documents to find the one you need. Statistics show that workers spend 50 minutes a day searching for documents they know they own.

5) Focus. Interruptions and distractions pull you away from what is important. While 20% of the interruptions are good, try and avoid others such as answering the phone and checking email often.

6) Get Enough Sleep. Everyone functions better when they feel rested. It puts you in control, reduces your stress level and helps you tackle problems better. According to the experts, most people need between 7 and 8 hours.

7) Take A Break. While it is tempting to continue persevering on a project until it is done, short diversions are recommended. Stopping and doing something else for a short time will take your mind off of it. When you return to the project, you will feel renewed. That is why activities such as exercise and taking time to eat lunch are a good idea and help refresh you.

Many of us are aware of these steps but putting them in practice is not always easy. Choose one of them that you currently do not do and give it a try for a week or two. Our guess is that you will like the results.

With less paper in the office, many of us find that we do a lot of reading and work on our computers. Do larger screens or several monitors make it any easier? The consensus seems to be “yes”.  Once you try two monitors, there’s no going back, according to Dave Kinsey, president of Total Networks.  Several studies show that, with two monitors, tasks are completed more quickly with fewer errors compared to using one monitor. How nice to have several screens open at one time without having to switch back and forth!

If two monitors are great, why not five or six? Kinsey cites a paperless law office that does just this. The six monitors are open to calendars, email, the company’s practice management program, documents, a screen for another application and the two end screens in landscape which are perfect for spreadsheets. The monitors cover a lot of screen real estate. When you can read  two documents side by side, the need to print out or keep paper is almost completely eliminated.

While I was mulling over the idea of how many monitors would fit on my desk, I came upon an article posted in The Lawyerist suggesting one BIG screen. Todd Hendrickson posits in his article “In a Paperless Office, A Bigger Monitor is Better” that a jumbo monitor (27” or larger) is better than multi-monitors if you spend most of your time reading and writing. The key advantage? You can see several full-page desktop views with minimal scrolling.  All it takes is a few keyboard shortcuts. In essence, it can do the same thing as multi-monitors and still leave room on your desk. For more details, check out http://lawyerist.com/in-a-paperless-office-a-bigger-monitor-is-better/.

How many monitors do you use?

Last week we discussed the importance of goals but did not talk about how to accomplish them.

Often clients ask us how many goals do they need? The answer is as many as you can think of. And write them down.

Prioritize them. Decide which ones to tackle first. After all, not all of them can be worked on at the same time and some

may be more important or more timely than others.

Use the S.M.A.R.T. system to evaluate each goal and to decide if the goal is achievable.

S.M. A.R.T. is an acronym for:

S:   Specific — be as concise as possible. “W” questions as a guide: Who is involved? What do I want to achieve? Where is the location? When does it happen? Which requirements and constraints do I need to follow? Why is this goal important?

M:   Measurable — How much? How many? How will I know when I have reached my goal?

A:    Achievable — Make it attainable. What are some of the ways I can reach my goal?

R.    Realistic — How hard are you willing to work?

T.     Timely — It needs to be time-bound for a goal to be achieved.

Often people set themselves up for failure by setting goals without the specifications in the S.M.A.R.T. system.

Now that you know the steps, consult your planner and choose a date and time to work on your goals.

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. — Eleanor Roosevelt