Each week, I scour the internet to look for seven posts from the preceding week that, in my humble opinion, represent some inspired thinking, or that might trigger inspired thinking in a solo lawyer.

And with each post, I’ve begun offering some suggestions about “ways in” to the inspiration of each post — i.e., questions to think about, concepts that might be “between the lines.” These are merely suggestions and aren’t meant as some sort of authoritative study guide to each post. Rather, take my suggestions merely as a jumping-off point, and come up with your own, too!

Without further ado, here are this week’s contenders!

Write to Done

Write to Done gives us suggestions on how to bill more while working less. While this post, and the blog itself, is aimed at writers, I think this post might give you some food for thought about using outsourced virtual assistants as a tool to help you grow your practice.

Consider: what in your busy, busy life can you outsource or delegate? Challenge your assumptions about affordability and advisability — are they really the truth? Or are they the comfortable beliefs keeping you locked into current routine?

Zen Habits

Zen Habits (originated by Leo Babauta, the same blogger who gives us Write to Done by the way) featured this post that made me think long and hard about civility in the profession.

Much has been written about this important topic, but there’s more yet to be done. Too often I’ve seen opposing attorneys truly “take it personally,” and any long-time lawyer you speak to will reminisce wistfully about the “old days” when deals were made amicably over a handshake and a cup of coffee at the corner diner — when relationships mattered, and common courtesy reigned.

What are your relationships with your opponents like? Could they use some improvement? Think about this: Do your advocacy skills depend on your emotions for strength? Or can you see a way through to litigating strongly by practicing the Buddhist concept of detachment?

Productivity 501

Productivity 501 gives us 6 ways to appear smarter. The fun part is that while this post is aimed at enhancing your image, in some cases the suggestion actually does increase the smarts!

Here’s another entree point into this post from an inspiration POV: what are you more concerned about — your image, or your authenticity? Yet a third way in: in what ways does your image reflect, or misrepresent, your authentic self? How can you bring the two more into alignment?

Ian’s Messy Desk

Ian’s Messy Desk gives us 4 Tips to Trap Your Inner Pack Rat, the week after we hear that actress Delta Burke has checked herself into a mental clinic for help dealing with hoarding tendencies. It’s obvious to most of us how a too-messy desk can be an invitation for lesser productivity, but what about malpractice?

Give yourself a desk audit. What’s your inner pack rat like? And how can you use these tips in the office? What needs to be organized in your practice beyond the physical clutter of files and papers and books?

When you’ve read Ian’s post above about clutter in general, take a look at this post from Life Tips Daily about decluttering your computer.

Take it one step further than just your computer’s desktop (and your desk’s top, too): is your file folder architecture optimized to the way your mind really works? Nobody says you have to follow the way your old law firm did it, or the way your mentor did it, or the way your IT guy suggests. Think about how you really work, and play around on paper with some different models of organization. Remember the goal: to make your solo practice zing with efficiency.

LifeHack

Now that your immediate surroundings and your computer are in tip-top shape, explore the issue of productivity in more detail with this pillar content from LifeHack.org, 50 Tricks to Get Things Done Faster, Better, and More Easily.

The idea behind pillar posts like this one is not to follow all 50 tips like some recipe. It’s to use the tips to trigger your own analytic creativity (not an oxymoron, by the way!) to improve practices and habits.

Nor is wholesale change necessary (though I also think it’s not as bad an idea as many other life and business coaches seem to think it is). Rather, why not pick one or two of these tips and implement them next week in a spirit of light curiosity? See what happens. Make your observations.

At week’s end, compare and contrast: are you better off now? If so, give it two more weeks of steady and consistent use (at the end of which time you’ll have new habits formed), and then try a few more. If not, discard them with ease and try a few more.

Electrolicious

Our final entry of inspiration comes from Ariel Meadow Stallings, a writer and self-professed Internet addict. At her site, Electrolicious, she’s tracking her progress in a new project called “52 Nights Unplugged,” in which for one night each week for one year, she’s going to divorce herself from all things with a screen.

Want to join Ariel? Want to exorcise your own demons instead? What do you need to get rid of? What could you get rid of or change radically, if you wanted to, in order to shake things up and get a fresh perspective? If you’re not ready for unplugging like Ariel, what about taking just a few minutes each day to meditate or journal or pray?

That’s our selection for the week. We’ll be back next Sunday with 7 more inspiring posts from around the blogosphere. And come back tomorrow when we start the First Annual Macs Practice Law week!

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