I was recently speaking with several attorneys regarding the operation of their law practice and their personal lives. The commonality; each woke up, went to work, dealt with client issues, staff issues, complaints, ended up working late, therefore got home late, not present at home, went to bed, woke up and started the day all over again. It reminds me of the movie “The Groundhog Day”. It was an interesting revelation as I recall this occurred many years ago in my practice and recently has been threatening to happen again. This conversation, however, made me rethink the fundamentals that helped me get off the hamster wheel which I am reapplying once again in my own practice.
Michael Gerber in the E-Myth talks about having time to work "ON” the business versus "IN” the business. Most of us get stuck working IN the business, doing the day-to-day routine items that need to get done, managing staff, dealing with client issues, getting work done but few of us take the time to work ON our business and ensure are keeping our eye on the “future ball” in a more efficient manner. Nothing illustrates it more in my own personal experience of; planning, open time, and development time. The First critical element to working ON my business is planning. I start every Monday morning where the first two hours of my week I am in a restaurant eating breakfast planning all the events for my week, identifying what is occurring, and the open time available for me to create; this is the time in my life that I have to wade into the already scheduled (default) and the time to which I have directly impact what will happen in the future (design). Planning is the most critical element to any of us to avoid being "Dumped on" all week without knowing its coming. It also empowers us to utilize any open time to begin to change the future from our current reality or past.
The second critical element of working ON my business is what I call Open time (my initials). Essentially, this is one day per week where no one is allowed to schedule ANYTHING for me. This is my day to use as I deem best for the future of my businesses and the people whom work with me on my team. I may also decide to use this time for family matters. The beauty is the knowing that I have this one day each week which empowers me on Monday during my planning to prioritize those things that will have the greatest impact on my business and personal life in the short term, medium term, and long term. Oftentimes, during these days, I am able to work on short-term, medium-term, and long-term projects. I encourage you to try scheduling an Open Time into your calendar each week (and preferably not on a Friday). Just try it for 30 days and see what occurs for you.
The third element to my week, which has a great impact on ensuring my firm continues to move forward, is Development Time. Development time is two; two-hour blocks during the week which all members of the firm must leave open and not schedule anything. The purpose of this time is to ensure all members of the firm are using those two, two-hour blocks, four hours a week, to work on the business (i.e., get caught up, developing a system, clear frustrations, training) or provide opportunity for the entire team to be "available" if needed. This prevents any catastrophe in our operations because of our lack of ability to get everybody together. At a minimum, we all know there are two times during the week where we are all available, if needed. In many cases, this time is also utilized for one or two individuals to get together to move projects forward to help them become more efficient in what they are doing. For those of you worrying about how much you have in the week, I do schedule one of the two-hour development blocks on my open time.
So, are you on a hamster wheel trying to get off? I recommend you consider these three elements in your week and implement them for 30 days and see what impact it can have. The truth is, you are showing up everyday anyway, it is a matter of what intentional, focused, present and future practice energy you are putting into it, week in and week out. Trust and take try it on, it will help move you in the right direction to get off the hamster wheel. Good luck. For a free download of The complete MPS Weekly Planning Focusers go to www.mpsccs.com.
