by Alexandra K. Hedrick
I always wanted to write an article about procrastination, but I never got around to it. I finally committed to writing the article, but as the deadline approached, I had to ask for an extension. In the meantime, I found the classic 1955 self-help book “How to Gain an Extra Hour Every Day,” by Ray Josephs. I knew this book would be good when I saw that Eleanor Roosevelt endorsed it: “I know I can put some of his suggestions to good use.”
Here is my review of 11 of the author’s “243 time-saving techniques, developed by scores of America’s best-known, busiest people,” plus one of my own. Come with me on Joseph’s time machine and get ideas to kick that unprofessional problem of procrastination.
1. Get up early and work in bed. I am not kidding. Josephs explains that you can turn “that undercover period to making extra worthwhile minutes.” Apparently Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill woke up between 7 and 8 a.m., and, propped in bed, would wade through many newspapers. After that, he dictated in bed until lunchtime. Churchill felt this method gave him two extra hours a day and “conserved his strength.”
2. Simplify your work. Josephs makes you ask six simple questions about everything you do: (1) why is it necessary at all; (2) what is the point of this job; (3) where should it be done; (4) when should it be done; (5) who should do it; and (6) what is the best way to do it? If you answer all of these questions honestly, I believe you could excise a lot of busy-work from your routine, leaving time to finish important things.
3. Detour your work. Detour a/k/a delegate your work - don’t keep putting it off. This “detour the details” system comes from Admiral Robert B. Carney, Chief of Naval Operations. His theory was, “any matter which can be handled by a competent subordinate is not permitted to reach my desk.” He estimated that with this system, he handled 15 percent of the paperwork handled by his predecessors.
4. Use the Eisenhower Method. The Eisenhower method is to do “one thing at one time.” Josephs says this method allowed Eisenhower to clear his desk at the end of each day. (I bet he “detoured” a lot of his work.) This method would be a big challenge. Do you mean that you cannot listen to your voice mail, read your e-mail, and talk on your cell phone at the same time while preparing for a hearing that is in 30 minutes?
5. Do the Most Important Thing First. Make a list of priorities from highest (most important) to lowest. Actually finish the highest first. Great advice.
6. Engage in Deliberate Procrastination. I liked the name of this tip. The suggestion is to put every matter you can “do later” in a folder. Go through the folder a lot later, and you will find that 70 to 90 percent of these matters “have solved themselves.”
7. Use Telegrams. Joseph explains that telegrams “move fast, get to the right man, and usually produce fast action.” You can get things done in “an hour or so.” We should scrap e-mails and go back to telegrams.
8. Discourage Talkers. If talkative interrupters make you procrastinate, “try looking at the ceiling or window again and again. They’ll take the hint.”
9. Get Rid of Your Desk. Desks are just “instruments for collecting papers.” Josephs suggests furnishing an office like a living room with little room for paperwork.
10. Reward Progress. Josephs suggests rewarding yourself for doing something you otherwise may have put off. He has a suggestion you would not see today: “Cigarettes will help you get more done….A cigarette is a reward too, that you may promise yourself as often as you wish, saying: “When I finish this, I’ll have a cigarette.” OK, it’s 2004, not 1955. A latte with skim milk. Same thing.
11. Get a Fresh Start. “It’s hardly news that you work better and faster when you start fresh.” We are already experts at two of the “fresh starts” suggested in the 1955 book: a mid-morning coffee break (“most scientists consider coffee a good stimulant”) and for lunch, “going out for a bite.”
I promised I would deliver number 12, and it is this:
12. Get Back To Work. I know you are avoiding something if you are reading this column to the end. Get back to work!
If you have better tips (or comments on these), e-mail me at [email protected]. You will be 49 years too late to make this list of favorites from the first book of this title (there was another one in 1992, and Josephs wrote many other books and articles). But if I start now, I may have time to publish another one this time next year.
Alexandra K. Hedrick is a shareholder of Hedrick Dewberry Regan & Durant P.A., a litigation firm. Hedrick is a Board Certified Labor and Employment lawyer and a Certified Circuit Civil Mediator.
If you would like to write an article about an ethical or professionalism experience that others in the Bar may learn from, please contact Caroline Emery, chair of the Professionalism Column, at [email protected].