Techniques to Address Procrastination Tendencies
Not all lawyers procrastinate. For those who do you, go ahead and blame the fact that you may be hardwired to do so. Most people who procrastinate are conscious of their tendency but do not necessarily do anything to address it. For some lawyers, procrastination may be a habit. Like all habits, it can be broken with change and challenge.
Procrastination and the NC Rules of Professional Conduct
In the article “The Not Now Habit: Procrastination, Legal Ethics and Legal Education,” authors Annalise Acorn and Jason Buttuls relate the story of a young lawyer who joins colleagues at a restaurant. They ask him why his hair is so long. His reply is that he is representing his barber on a matter. He is loyal to his barber, so he won’t go anywhere else, but doesn’t want to face him and admit he has done nothing on the case.
In addition to NC RPC 1.4 Communication requiring lawyers to promptly communicate with their clients about the matter and in response to their questions, Comment [3] of NC RPC 1.3 Diligence makes it abundantly clear that the results of procrastination do not comport with acting with diligence and promptness in representing a client:
[3] Perhaps no professional shortcoming is more widely resented than procrastination. A client’s interests often can be adversely affected by the passage of time or the change of conditions. In extreme instances, as when a lawyer overlooks a statute of limitations, the client’s legal position may be destroyed. Even when the client’s interests are not affected in substance, however, unreasonable delay can cause a client needless anxiety and undermine confidence in the lawyer’s trustworthiness. A lawyer’s duty to act with reasonable promptness, however, does not preclude the lawyer from agreeing to a reasonable request for a postponement that will not prejudice the lawyer’s client.
Alvin the Cat
While an attorney may request a postponement, it can be taken to an extreme. Take for instance the example of a Washington, D.C., solo who had an explanation for repeatedly missing a filing deadline.
In a federal court filing, the solo practitioner enumerated in detail why he had asked for repeated requests for extensions and failure to timely file. This included coming down with gout and pneumonia, taking painkillers to remedy the situation that rendered him incapacitated and then losing his cat only to have his children search the house to discover that the cat had asphyxiated in a closet. Then his roommate, who was living with him while going through a divorce, needed emotional support. When he was finally able to get the filing prepared both of his scanners failed.
The opposing counsel was unmoved by the DC lawyer’s explanation. “Plaintiff counsel seeks special rules for a solo practitioner as if proceeding pro se. No such rules exist. Plaintiff counsel should not take cases that he cannot adequately handle as a solo practitioner or to obtain special treatment as a result.”
Types of Procrastinators
Linda Sapadin, Ph.D. psychologist, coach, and author, identifies 6 different styles of procrastination. By identifying your style, you can try to address how to improve. Lawyers tend to fall into the following six types of procrastinators. You may fit into several types:
- Crisis maker – feeds on adrenaline and enjoys living on the edge
- Defier – the rule-breaker, a rebel (or passive-aggressive)
- Perfectionist – too much attention to detail so that a project never feels good enough or done
- Dreamer – great at lofty ideas but focusing on details does not come easily
- Worrier – excessively cautious and risk intolerant, the worrier fears change and the unknown
- Over-doer – says yes too much and ends up doing everyone else’s work and not their own
Impact of Procrastination
Whether you procrastinate because you are too busy, fear change, the work is emotionally triggering, intimidating because it is novel, or you have simply burned out and are having difficulty starting or finishing work, procrastination has a serious impact on your mental state. You may become overwhelmed and wonder when you will ever catch up on the work. Your stress mounts and all the missed deadlines and unfinished work snowballs and feeds your stress and fight or flight instinct. If you are a chronic procrastinator, you may find that it affects your livelihood, the opportunity for advancement, and clients may even complain about you. You know that you need to change, but stress is immobilizing you.
Techniques to Combat Procrastination
There are a variety of techniques you can try to change your behavior and reduce your stress. You can try more than one and be aware that procrastination is a habit. Breaking a habit requires forming new behaviors. Be patient and keep trying. Breaking a habit can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days. You just must keep trying.
Just Say No – depending on your status in the firm and who is doing the asking saying “no” can be extremely difficult. Look at your deadlines and priorities and decide whether you can achieve success in a prompt fashion. If the request comes from a supervisor, ask for help on how to prioritize the work based on your current workload. If saying yes to a request is an excuse to do something for someone else rather than your own work be realistic about why that seems more attractive than your own assignments and matters.
Eat a Frog – when you are working on your daily to-do list, tackle the thing you want to do the least the first. You will feel a sense of relief and accomplishment and you won’t find that it has – once again – rolled over on your to-do list for the next day. Do you have “fish” files? Set aside a day to work those files or decide you are going to refer them out.
Reduce Distractions – Clear your desk, turn off your phone, turn off any distractions like social media and email, close your door, and set a timer to start working. You can use a methodology, like the Pomodoro Technique, to help you build in time for deep work and focus. Don’t forget to build in breaks.
Assign Deadlines – work that isn’t measured isn’t managed. Similarly, work that has no deadline assigned has no priority. Assign all tasks a deadline so that they do not continue to roll around on your to-do list until they really are late. If you have a hard deadline always recognize that things take longer than they should. Don’t wait till the last minute. Set up ticklers and change the deadline to a week earlier than it really is – although this may merely train you to hit “snooze” till you are close to being late. Think of a way to reward yourself if you meet the first deadline.
Get Help – it is hard, but it may be necessary to ask for help. Delegation and supervision are skills that you can build. If you have ever told yourself that it will take longer for you to explain how to do something than to do it yourself then consider reading up on delegation or taking a course. This is another new habit to adopt!
Find a Go-By – staring at a blank screen can be intimidating. See if your firm or colleagues have a go-by you can use. It is often easier to edit than starting from nothing.
Start in the Middle – You may not have your central argument or thesis in mind. You do not have to start from the beginning. If it helps to put together an outline that starts in the middle, you can build around it. You won’t have all of your arguments constructed in advance like the Harry Potter series.
Chunk It Up – break tasks into more doable subtasks. So, instead of “update employee discrimination policies for XYZ Corp” break it into “update research on ADA,” “review NCEEPA and NCPWDPA against policy language,” “mark up policy,” “finalize draft updates and send for review,” etc.
Adopt A Methodology – whether you use David Allen’s Getting Things Done, the Pomodoro Technique, the Lean Law Firm or others, you can see if a tried and true formula to finish tasks might work for you.
Take A Break – if you are procrastinating because you are burned out, stressed out, and overwhelmed, can you take a break? Whether you take a staycation, a weekend at the beach, time to catch up on sleep or a sabbatical, if you can truly put aside work and reassess your values, you may find you want to go in a different direction. If you are stressed and overwhelmed, you can also seek help from BarCARES.
Conclusion
Everyone procrastinates. Try to figure out why and find a way to tackle those deadlines and projects. Even a few missed deadlines can have grave consequences for your firm and your clients. Be realistic about your workload and seek help before that happens. Learn to prioritize work – you may have a lot of tasks to do, but they don’t all have to be done at once. Triage by creating hard due dates and a ranking system to try to figure out how to tell the difference between what may seem like a long list of critical priorities. If you fall short, try again. While you may still end up pulling a few all-nighters and missing a deadline, visualize how tackling your procrastination habit can result in regaining time so you can do more with your friends/family/community or spend time on self-care!
Catherine Sanders Reach serves as director of the NCBA Center for Practice Management.