Finish 2019 strong – top tips for lawyers who want to get shit done

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It’s happened. The thing that strikes terror into the hearts of even the most organised lawyers every year. The Christmas displays are going up! The countdown is on.

There are only 40 working days between now and Christmas.

That gives you a little over eight weeks to hit all the targets you set for your law firm back in January! 

As the end of the year draws (rapidly) nearer, our calendars fill up with all kinds of seasonal commitments and carving out a full working week gets harder and harder. We see friends, family and even colleagues begin to wind down, giving themselves permission to coast along to the finish line of another year. It’s tempting to go with the flow, to throw our hands up and say, “I’ll do it next year”.

Don’t. Next year never comes (metaphorically speaking – 2020, a brand new decade, is actually hurtling towards us at breakneck speed).

My challenge to you today is: Make these last 60 days count.

Forget about New Year’s resolutions. Resolve right now to finish the year strong!

Execute. Evaluate. Establish.

To end 2019 with a bang, not a whimper, you need to do three things.

  1. Execute: Push hard to complete your “to-do” list and hit those targets you set yourself back in January.
  2. Evaluate: Review 2019. What worked, what didn’t? What have you learnt that you need to take forward?
  3. Establish: Set your goals for 2020 and plan how you’re going to get there. 

Execute: The time to get it done is NOW

The clock is ticking and just when you need it most, your time is becoming an even more precious commodity thanks to all the seasonal hoopla heading our way.

I’m not advocating being a grinch and avoiding the annual melee of lunches and parties (after all, what a great opportunity for you to connect with people and passionately promote your law firm and online legal solution). But, with all these distractions around, you need to be even more focused on what you need to do.

Here are some of my top tips for getting shit done during the silly season:

  • Set your goals. Be realistic. Yes you want to hit all the targets you set yourself but what can you get done in eight weeks? Review and prioritise. Write. It. Down.
  • Schedule it! If you don’t put it in your calendar it won’t get done. If you don’t get it in someone else’s diary asap, they’ll tell you they’re at capacity till January. Book those meetings, block out time to work.
  • Meet with the team. Communicate what needs to be done and get everyone on board with your Finish Strong mantra. Listen to the team – making them reach for unrealistic deadlines or targets is a sure-fire way to kill motivation. Instead prioritise what must be done and what should be underway.
  • Check your arsenal. Have you got the resources you need to finish strong, to complete the tasks on your priority list and reach your goals? If not, what can you do? Can you bring in some extra help to get you to the finish line? Can you temporarily reassign team members to critical areas?
  • Practice self-care. You work best when you’re at your best. Make sure you keep doing those things that keep you that way. Schedule those gym sessions, yoga classes, dog walks or family bike rides in your calendar. Don’t exhaust yourself with endless late nights (either working or partying!). In short, make sure you’re doing what you need to so YOU are strong at the end of 2019.

 
Evaluate: Review where you’ve been and what you’ve learnt

Schedule time with your key team members to look back and take stock of 2019. What strategies and tactics worked? Which bombed? What did you learn about your systems, your processes, your clients?

It’s only by knowing where we’ve been that we can adequately plan to move forward.

Encourage people to be honest about the failures. It’s human instinct to gloss over what didn’t work but some of our greatest learnings come from missteps (and at the very least, knowing something doesn’t work gets you one step closer to figuring out what will).

Write it all down. You might be known for your unerring memory day-to-day but honestly, after a brilliant summer holiday half my team (me included) struggle to remember their login on day 1!

Don’t forget to give yourself and your team a hearty pat on the back and celebrate all the successes – big and small – that you’ve achieved in 2019.

Establish: Set your goals. Plan your strategies. Work out your tactics

2020 is two months away. Sheesh! Remember when it wasn’t just the future but like the Sci-Fi future? We were all going to be riding hoverboards, or teleporting through dystopian cities!

Instead you’re going to be spending 2020 building your a scalable law firm and generally being rad! To do that you need a plan – a roadmap for success.

If you wait till January to establish your plan for 2020, you can’t hit the ground running. Without a clear path your team will head off in ad-hoc directions and you’ll be halfway through Q1 before everyone is on the same page. (Plus you’ll be staring out the window wishing you were at the beach instead of setting KPIs).

Scale Up for 2020

If you’re struggling to articulate your 2020 goals or want a coach and mentor who can push you to achieve more, book a FREE strategy session with my team. During the call we’ll chat with you to determine: 

  •  Where you want your law firm to be in the next 12 months 
  • The #1 thing holding your firm back from achieving the results you deserve 
  • The 3 strategies you need to implement to take your firm to the next level.

If we think you’re a good fit, we may invite you to join our Scale Up program (probably the single best way you can finish 2019 strong!).

Scale Up has been designed specifically to help driven, high-earning, high-achieving entrepreneurial lawyers like you. It will show you how to achieve higher levels of success and have a bigger impact on the world. Scale Up teaches a clear, step-by-step process for using automation to scale your law firm from 6-figures to a million dollars.

If that sounds like you, click HERE to book your strategy session

Let's scale your law firm with ease