In this week’s episode of the Law Practice Doctor, Sam Gaylord interviews Theodore Monroe. Theo is specializes in copy infringement and trademark litigation while representing merchants, payment processors, and banks.

Main Questions Asked:

• Who is Theo Monroe?
• How long have you been with your law firm of Theodore F. Monroe?
• What is the match list?
• What’s involved with the trademark and copy infringement work?
• Are there ways for payment companies to mitigate their risks?
• Do you have specific recommendations for payment companies?

Key Lessons Learned:

Internet Payments

• There are a lot of things that can go wrong when transacting over the internet, chargebacks, leaked or hacked info, and more.
• Payment law clients usually involve large online merchants or banks, rarely the consumer.
• There isn’t a library of case law for this area so it’s a new area of the law.
• Most clients are derived from referrals from past clients and people that know you.
• Position yourself as the expert of whatever niche you choose to focus on.
• Visa and MasterCard keep a list of merchants that they don’t want to do business with.
• It’s important to look for multiple revenue streams within the niche you’ve chosen.

Litigation

• The internet and nation wide nature of the companies that utilize it makes practicing law more complicated. Sometime you’re working in multiple jurisdictions.
• The majority of cases occur in Federal court.
• The main kinds of lawsuits are contract disputes

FTC Laws

• Many young, aggressive marketers get in trouble by making claims that may not be true.
• Asset freezes are a common tactic of the FTC at the beginning of a lawsuit.
• Payment companies are being targeted by the FTC if they are processing for shady merchants.
• Payment companies need to vet their merchants and review them on a regular basis. Errors and Omissions Insurance would be a good investment as well.
• Cases are usually civil but can become criminal as well.

Payment Companies

• Get good insurance from a reputable broker.
• Deal with your contracts in an honorable manner, read them and keep them.
• Most disputes are determined by who has leverage, not who’s right or wrong.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

[email protected]

In this week’s episode of the Law Practice Doctor, Sam Gaylord interviews Mims Driscoll. Mims is a trauma informed yoga specialist and has been practicing in the field of spiritual direction for the last twenty years. She’s the CEO and founder of Living Mangaliso.

Main Questions Asked:

• Who is Mims Driscoll?
• What is exactly Living Mangaliso?
• What are the pillars of Mangaliso and how do they interact with each other?
• How do these principles apply to the corporate world?
• Are there specific movements in Living Mangaliso’s yoga that helps with trauma?
• Do you customize the program for certain people based on their needs?

Key Lessons Learned:

Mangaliso

• Zulu for “You are an an amazement”.
• Focuses on yoga and yoga healing and helping people work through physical trauma.
• The three components of yoga are to focus on our bodies, breath, and awareness.
• Be able to embrace silence, we are almost always surrounded by noise.
• Mangaliso is about empowering the people involved.
• You have to evaluate your limiting beliefs and deal with why you don’t feel amazing.
• There are five components: Recovery, Discovery, Exploration, Expression, and Expansion.
• We need to learn to trust ourselves, our voice, our expression.

Productivity

• Mangaliso and yoga encourages movement and proper posture.
• Better posture leads to better productivity and an empowered state.
• Pause during the work day and take a moment to adjust your posture, breath, and place your feet on the floor.
• Find a place once a day to yell and deeply express yourself.
• However many times a day you are comfortable with, pause and breath. Three deep breathes.
• Stopping mid day allows you to reset and recover and that will increase your ability to execute afterwards.
• Give yourself permission to take time and focus on you and resting and recovering.

Yoga

• Traditional yoga thought is to exhaust the person in order to seek stillness in the final pose.
• Living Mangaliso yoga focuses on a restorative method and slow movements combined with breath work.
• It’s about giving permission to people to slow down.
• Focus on health and wellbeing is important, it will make you a better employee or CEO.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

Livingmangaliso.com

Living Mangaliso on Facebook

In this week’s episode of the Law Practice Doctor, Sam Gaylord interviews Frank Klesitz. Frank is an entrepreneur, real estate investor, marketer, and CEO of Vyral Marketing. Frank started his own marketing firm in order to build up and acquire leads for his fitness training business.

Main Questions Asked:

• Who is Frank Klesitz?
• What kinds of things should you do to simplify lead generation?
• Why do you focus on education?
• What are some of the problems your clients often have?
• How does a marketing plan help with client retention?
• What happens when a client contracts with you?

Key Lessons Learned:

Marketing

• Frank found himself wasting a lot of money marketing to strangers to build his fitness training business.
• Instead of constantly marketing to a cold audience, Frank began building a database and then building relationships.
• Lead generation is the most important thing you can do.
• Be the trusted resource.
• Educate your audience and then add a call to action to turn them into customers.
• Get your service and knowledge into some form of media and get it out to your database.
• Filter your list and follow up with the people who click on your links.
• Focus on whatever media type works best for you.
• Marketing is more than just offers, you have to bring value via education first.
• Educating your audience gets people to trust you.
• It’s easier to book clients with a seminar where they learn something than where they expect to be sold to.
• There’s no such thing as over communicating, communicating builds good relationships which helps with client retention.
• You want to be the preeminent advisor in your space.

Lead Generation

• Seeds - basically your referrals, they take a while to grow and flourish.
• Nets - videos and media you put out to a wide audience.
• Spears - going after a specific target that could use your services.
• Having a mix is good but Frank likes to focus on Spears.
• Build a list of highly qualified people that have given you permission to stay in touch with them.

Building a Plan

• Your database of contacts needs to be consolidated. Create a spreadsheet of all your contacts and upload them to an email responder.
• Grow your list, ask for permission to stay in touch after every conversation. Get the email address.
• Schedule time to record to simple educational videos, post them online, and the pull the data of the people who watched the video.
• Contact the people and ask if they are interested in knowing more or using your services.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

Getvyral.com

1.800.323.9974

In this week’s episode of the Law Practice Doctor, Sam Gaylord interviews Lewis Landerholm. Lewis began his law career as a part-time clerk for an attorney during law school, when he confirmed his passion for family law. Motivated to make his mark on the world, Lewis founded his practice right out of law school and continues to seek new, dynamic ways to foster positive change in the lives of his clients. He has eight years of upper management experience giving him business management skills that are integral to the continued success of his firm. Lewis holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a minor in business from University of Oregon. He received his juris doctor degree from Willamette University.

Main Questions Asked:

• Who is Lewis Landerholm?
• Do you get any training about how to run a law firm while in school?
• Why did you start your own firm?
• Did you have difficulty managing the growth of your firm?
• How do you plan for your firm’s future?
• Do you have specific metrics that you measure?
• How do you stay on top of payments?
• Why did you develop a second law firm?

Key Lessons Learned:

Running a Law Firm

• Law school often leaves out the business side of running a law firm.
• Due to necessity, Lewis had to open his own firm rather than pursue a position elsewhere.
• He began with bankruptcy and family law and focused on family and matrimonial law because of client demand.
• Understanding exactly why you chose law is the best way to figure out which field to focus on.
• Having push incentives in addition to pull incentives is a good recipe for success.
• Hire someone specifically to work with clients so they understand the costs involved and the payment schedule. They should keep in communication with the clients often.
• Cash flow is always a challenge, you have to make sure invoicing is on time and be aware of upcoming expenses and income.
• Affordable Family Law is the do it yourself option for people who want legal advice but may not want to hire a full time lawyer. It came out of a realization that a lot of the side effects of your primary work can be turned into something valuable.

Marketing

• Lewis focused on online marketing instead of traditional marketing early on.
• Online leads tend to be cheaper when compared to traditional marketing.
• Video is a good medium to build trust and for convincing prospects to move through your funnel.
• If a client asks a question, that’s an opportunity to create a video.
• The ability to communicate via technology has majorly impacted the design of workspaces including the acoustic and lighting aspects considered.
• Testing the effectiveness of your marketing efforts is important.
• Understanding the avatar of the clients you want to work with is how you figure out where to market.

Growing the Firm

• Certain revenue thresholds and tracking which tasks you can do yourself is how you figure out when to hire.
• Block out your time on your schedule and focus on the high value activities that only you can do.
• Working with a coach can be useful for deciding what projects to focus on and which path to pursue.
• You can get the biggest growth in your firm by working with someone who has been where you want to be.
• Lewis works with a business coach as well as a financial coach.

Metrics

• Tracking your marketing and sales metrics is vital to success.
• Lewis tracks revenue numbers, the number of active clients and cases, as well as conversion numbers.
• InfusionSoft for internet marketing, QuickBooks and Cleo for the case management.
• If you aren’t measuring your metrics you might as well not spend your money.
• Test your options before committing.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

[email protected]

Give Lewis a call: 503-227-0200

http://www.landerholmlaw.com/

In this week’s episode of the Law Practice Doctor, Sam Gaylord interviews Ken Baker. Ken is currently serving as the member of the Gensler Management Committee and is the co-managing principal of Gensler South East Region. Ken is a globally recognized expert in workplace design and planning and has designed over 10 million square feet of office and institution workspace.

Main Questions Asked:

• Who is Ken Baker?
• What do you mean by workplace design and planning?
• How is today different for law firms compared to twenty years ago?
• What is your experience with the different perspectives between the traditional way of doing things and the way millennials want to work?
• What are firms doing to attract new legal talent?
• What should firms be doing to help adjust to the trend towards collaboration?
• Do firms need less space now?
• Has technology like video conferencing changed the way law firms operate?

Key Lessons Learned:

Designing Workspace

• Having an understanding of the structure of a building influences the design of the interior of the building.
• Inside out design is where the interior and what the space needs to be determines the exterior of the building.
• Workplace design is about analyzing what the average end user is looking for. It goes beyond offices with windows and is more about the efficiency of the space, ergonomic issues, as well as trends in technology.
• Trends in design include the focus space, the collaborative space, learning space, as well as the social space. The correspond with four different modes of working.
• Design is moving away from a traditional modular style of office space.
• The number of secretaries per lawyer is going down because of the average law graduates technological skill set.
• Considering the future needs of the law firm is important to considering the design of the workspace today.
• Allowing people a choice of place to work is a trend in workspace design today.
• Gensler benchmarks the changes and effects their designs have had to the businesses they have served.

Traditional Vs. Modern

• Firms are moving towards workspace design that accommodates the new way millennials want to work.
• There is more focus on the needs of the business instead of the traditional way things have been done in the past.
• Law firms tend to favour the focus mode but the emerging trend is moving towards collaboration which is growing in importance.
• The average number of square feet per attorney has gone from 1000 to 650 in the last fifteen years due to technology making the work more efficient with a smaller footprint. The space is mostly being invested in other areas.
• The ability to communicate via technology has majorly impacted the design of workspaces including the acoustic and lighting aspects considered.

Building Collaboration Space

• A firm’s design should focus on ubiquitous technology in the workspace. Wifi should be widely available, plug and play options, areas that you can collaborate without interrupting the focused work.
• Access to natural light is important and making the interior space comfortable and pleasant to work in.
• Space that isn’t client facing can be made more casual.
• Beverage and food options where lawyers can escape and decompress and return to work refreshed.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

[email protected]

Gensler.com

In this week’s episode of the Law Practice Doctor, Sam Gaylord interviews Dave Frees. Dave runs several companies including Success Technologies and Business Black Ops. His experience has exposed him to leaders, communicators, and influencers from across the world. He uses his experience to teach leadership, sales and marketing, and influence to his audience.

Main Questions Asked:

• What is enhanced communication?
• What are force multipliers?
• How can attorneys apply force multipliers in their practice?
• How do you manage to do everything you do and also practice law?
• What kind of team do you have working with you and how did you build it?

Key Lessons Learned:

Enhanced Communication

• Science is giving us a better idea why certain communication strategies work over others.
• Disagreeing right at the start is the wrong approach to negotiating.
• There are certain steps you can take to change someone’s opinion or position.
• Start with agreeing with them and presupposing the change.
• Pique their curiosity by asking them what would it be like if the opposite of their position was true.
• This method, influence instead of persuasion, is more in line with our biological way of thinking.
• Persuasion is manipulation like all communication. It’s the tactics we use to change the way people think. Influence is persuasion combined with trust that you have the person’s best interest in mind.
• Most people don’t have a deep understanding of what they want and so when asked, tend to lie by omission.

Marketing

• Successful marketing involves asking your audience constantly for feedback.
• More information allows you to better serve your audience and customers.
• Even when you know what someone may need you may not be able to give it to them.
• Experts tend to take for granted about how much they know that they forget how the client feels about it.
• Proposing a solution has to be done in the language of the client.

Force Multipliers

• A force multiplier is a technology or technique that allows you to achieve much more with fewer resources.
• You can take strategies and techniques from other areas of life like the military and use them in your business and marketing.
• Gathering intelligence on what your client’s are interested in via social media and using that to customize the way you communicate with them is a force multiplier.
• Technology like a client relationship manager is a powerful way to create a better connection with your existing clients. This increases the odds of them referring you to new clients.
• If you find yourself saying that you have tried something and it didn’t work, reassess, you probably haven’t.

Blocked Time

• Dave sets aside a block of time each day for him to work on his business instead of in it. It typically involves activities that are on a high, strategic level.
• If you want to achieve you need to set aside time for yourself and be strict about your schedule.
• Do the small things each day, and over time you will achieve things that would seem insurmountable at the start.
• Start your thinking from where you want to be and work backwards.

Building a Team

• You can’t do everything on your own nor should you try.
• Building a team you can trust to make intelligent decisions frees you up to pursue strategic plans.
• Take responsibility and train your team for leadership.
• Hire slow and fire fast. Do a pre-hire assessment and a post-hire assessment.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

Business Black Ops

Dave Frees on Twitter

David Frees on Facebook

The Language of Parenting

Abundance by Peter Diamandis

Extreme Ownership

3 Days To Success

The Slight Edge

In this week’s episode of the Law Practice Doctor, Sam Gaylord interviews Aiden Kramer. Aiden is a solo practicing lawyer focusing on business transactions and estate planning. Producing videos on YouTube has been a major driving force in the growth of her practice.

Main Questions Asked:

• How did you get into creating videos for YouTube?
• What are some mistakes people make in their marketing?
• How do you come up with the ideas for your videos?
• What is the process you go through to upload your videos?
• Do you do any keyword research to figure out what search terms to focus on?
• How do your videos incorporate into your marketing plan?
• Do you track and analyze the statistics for your YouTube videos?
• How much of an impact has video marketing had on your law firm?

Key Lessons Learned:

Internet Marketing, Blogging, YouTube

• YouTube is less crowded for lawyers than other possible channels.
• Blogging increases the odds of you being found on search engines like Google.
• Videos are an easy, fast way to discuss a topic and connect with your viewer.
• It takes a while to become proficient with video production, but if you put in the work you will see results.
• Don’t get intimidated by the process, it’s easier than it looks.
• Once the video has been uploaded, you should promote and share it to drive views.
• The more views a video has in the first couple of days of being posted, the higher YouTube will rank the video.
• Pinterest and LinkedIn are others places to post your video content that can drive views.
• 70-80% of Aiden’s clients find her online through her video marketing efforts.

Video Production

• Create an account on YouTube and Google+.
• Invest in the equipment you need, your computer’s webcam and microphone will work when you’re just getting started.
• Good audio can make up for substandard video quality.
• Lighting can be tricky when recording video. Use extra light/block extra light to try to even out the recording.
• Cell phone cameras have improved a lot in the past few years and are fully capable of creating high resolution videos.
• Video content doesn’t have to be complicated to work well and drive results.
• Video marketing can create a connection with your viewers before you ever meet them in person.
• Write an accurate description for your video while trying to keep in mind what your potential clients will be searching for.
• Write as many relevant tags for your video as YouTube will let you.
• Editing the closed captioning of your video can help with SEO as well.

Inspiration

• Questions your clients ask you make for great content.
• Once you begin producing videos, the comments are another great place to find new ideas.
• Snapchat is a relatively new app that works well for reaching your followers and asking for feedback.
• Searching in Amazon is another good source of ideas, chapters in books you are searching for are great for finding long tail keywords.

Video Editing

• Windows Video Editor (PC) is a viable option for editing simple videos. iMovie for Macs is the alternative.
• Fiverr.com is an easy and inexpensive way to outsource video editing.

Keyword Research

• Use Google Keyword Planner to discover what keywords your clients are searching for.
• Use those keywords in your video title, description, and tags.
• The keyword planner can also help you find ideas for new content.
• Identify the channels that are driving the results you want. Focus your resources on what works.

Tracking Metrics

• YouTube stats can show you valuable information about how your viewers are interacting with your video.
• You can use tracking to find out which content resonates and what you should focus your efforts on.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

Google Keyword Planner

Long Tail Pro

[email protected]

AidenKramerLaw.com

All Up In Yo Business

In this week’s episode of the Law Practice Doctor, Sam Gaylord interviews John Skiba. John has practiced law for the past 13 years, he’s also a blogger and a podcaster and focuses on law practice management and marketing.

Main Questions Asked:

• Was there anyone you looked to for inspiration when it came to marketing your practice?
• What are some mistakes people make in their marketing?
• Is it more important to create quality content or more frequent content?
• How do you track the results of your marketing efforts?
• What are some of the resources you use in your solo practice?

Key Lessons Learned:

Marketing

• Marketing has changed drastically in the last 10 years.
• Technology and the internet is the new way to market.
• Content marketing is a great way to market and build a practice.
• Model the marketing efforts of attorneys who are getting the results you want.
• Marketing is all about getting people to know, like, and trust you.
• Give value in your content and you will build trust and authority.
• Many attorneys don’t really understand what they are getting into when it comes to marketing. Do some research and test the process before spending a large amount of money.
• You will make mistakes, the trick is to learn from your mistakes.
• Be genuine and human in your marketing, create an authentic connection with the people you are trying to reach.

Video

• Creating videos is one of the most effective ways to market your practice.
• Invest the time into figuring out the setup, it’s definitely worth the effort.
• Don’t project your beliefs and habits onto the market. Just because you don’t consume video content, that doesn’t mean you future clients don’t as well.
• Producing video is a great way to create a connection between yourself and a potential client.
• Video content can pre-sell your practice.
• Video allows your client to get to know you ahead of time and builds their confidence that you are the right choice.

Blogging

• Blogging has driven major results within John’s practice.
• Longer articles are more effective than shorter ones.
• Really dig into the question you are trying to address. Your content should be the answer the user is looking for.
• Quality content is what people and search engines like Google want.
• Write your article from the perspective of your reader.
• Your content should benefit the reader and help them answer their questions.
• Writing is a chance to convey empathy and connect with the client.

Social Media

• Facebook and Twitter are powerful platforms for reaching new clients.
• Your Facebook page should focus on helping your readers rather than just promoting your practice.
• Paid ads on social media are an inexpensive way to target the exact people you want to see your ads.
• Edgar is a useful tool for driving traffic to your site and recycle your content.

Tracking and Analytics

• Tracking your most important metrics gives you the feedback to improve.
• Analytics will show you what is working and what isn’t.
• Google Analytics is a great free tool you can use to understand your website traffic.
• Identify the channels that are driving the results you want. Focus your resources on what works.

Resources

• Assistants can be overwhelmed with work and calls. Ruby Receptionist is a service that can make sure your office doesn’t miss a call from a potential client.
• Lexicata is a software that tracks people as they come into your office and helps you identify the practice areas that are driving the most revenue. It also tracks conversion rate and helps with follow up.
• Rocket Matter takes care of the billing and client information.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

Jdblogger.com

[email protected]

@johnskiba

MeetEdgar

CallRail

Avvo - Lawyernomics

Ruby Receptionist

Lexicata

Rocket Matter

In this week’s episode of the Law Practice Doctor, Sam Gaylord interviews Tamarra Causley Robinson. Tamarra is a certified coach that helps people live with purpose right now. Tamarra has worked in the corporate world for the past 25 years, 20 of those years with one of the largest professional services firms in the world.

Main Questions Asked:

• How did you come to realize that your life needed to change?
• How does someone figure out what they really want?
• What does it mean to actually coach someone?
• What are some common reasons that people come to you for help?
• How do you work with clients to figure where they should go from here?
• How does confidence fit in to how you coach people?

Key Lessons Learned:

Lifestyle

• Being successful at work can sometimes be at odds with living your life.
• High achievers often work unconsciously, focused on success without thinking about things like family.

Understanding Yourself

• People often have a hard time admitting that they don’t know how to change.
• Look to your past to see where you found joy in your life.
• An extra 15 minutes each day can be the small win that can create big changes.
• You are you’re own worst critic.
• You need to find a balance between achievement and appreciation for what you’ve accomplished.
• Celebrate your small wins.
• Maintain a positive atmosphere in your life and try to eliminate or minimize negativity.
• “Comparison is the thief of all joy.”
• Other people often see things in you that you can’t see yourself.
• Focus on your work rather than the possibility of failure.

Coaching

• Coaching is helping people understand where they are and where they want to be.
• A coach helps you in every area of your life.
• They ask questions that make you think about the way you live.
• A coach can help you take your “game” to the next level.
• Compete against yourself instead of someone else.
• Journaling can reveal what you really want.
• Physically writing can be more powerful than typing.
• Find a close friend that you can actually talk to about what you want. Saying it out loud is very different from saying it in your head.
• Focus on creating value and giving, you will tend to get back more in return.

Common Problems

• People typically compare themselves to others without taking stock of what they have already achieved.
• High achievers feel like spending their time on themselves can cost them professionally.
• People lose the passion for their work. Without the support of family or friends that they can share with, they can feel lost.
• Your perception of others can minimize how you feel about your own achievements.

Confidence

• Building confidence can be done in many different ways.
• Affirmations, saying positive things about yourself out loud.
• Facing your fears directly and finding they aren’t as scary as you thought can be life changing.
• A common fear is public speaking, conquering that can be a major confidence builder.
• People sometimes feel that if they aren’t confident in one thing, they aren’t confident in anything.
• If you see someone doing something you want to do, ask them how they got to where they are.
• Put your problems into perspective, the biggest problem you’re facing is likely pretty small in the scheme of your life.

Final Tips

• Figure out where you are and where you want to be, then take the first step.
• Don’t compare yourself to others, compete against yourself.
• Take the time to celebrate your achievements.
• Start journaling, you may learn something about yourself you did not expect.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

Confidence From the Inside Out Workshop

Call Tamarra: 1-609-238-2874

Dare2doitnow.com

In this week’s episode of The Law Practice Doctor, Sam Gaylord interviews The New York Times bestselling author Kevin Kruse, who is a reformed serial entrepreneur. Kevin is a speaker and podcaster, and has built and sold several multi-million-dollar technology companies. During the show, Kevin and Sam discuss time management, the secrets of high-achieving, ultra-productive people, to-do lists, living from you calendar, block scheduling, avoiding procrastination, notebooks as a tool for legacy, and the importance of morning routines.

Main Questions Asked:

• Why is time management so important?
• What are the secrets of high-achieving, ultra-productive people?
• What is the best way to avoid procrastination?
• Do the people you interview have similar routines?

Key Lessons Learned:

To-Do Lists

• Ultra productive people don’t use to-do lists.
• 41% of things we put on our to-do lists we don't do at all.
• To-do lists are where important but not urgent things go to die.

Living From Your Calendar

• Successful people live from their calendar and schedule everything.
• Take everything on your to-do list and choose a date, time, and duration and transfer it over.
• Even checking e-mail and taking breaks is on the calendar.
• We can’t really manage time, as we have the same 1440 minutes per day, but we can manage our energy, focus, and attention.

Block Scheduling

• Work through the day in ‘working jam sessions,’ where you are all-out on one task without interruptions, then go into a short break.
• The most well-known technique is called the Pomodoro Technique, which suggests we work in 25-minute blocks with a 5-minute break.
• The front part of our brain known as the prefrontal cortex is like the CEO of our mind and controls decision-making, logic, and impulse control. This runs on glucose, which burns faster the more we are taxing our minds.

Avoiding Procrastination

• Know what your most important task of the day is.
• 20% of people are chronic procrastinators, where it interferes with personal happiness and careers.
• Procrastination is sometimes a cognitive defect, where we can’t estimate time well. However, for most of us, it is a behavioral issue, where we choose a more pleasurable task now and put off the less pleasurable task.
• To cure procrastination, you need to time travel and do battle with your future self.
• Your future self is the enemy of your best self.
• The best way to understand procrastination is to understand all the excuses you will make and the triggers that will make you slip up, and deal with them ahead of time.

Notebooks

• These are part of our legacy.
• It is, however, important to get ideas out of your mind and on to paper, so a notepad is a great idea to use and then transfer to the calendar.
• Use your notebook as an opportunity to give back and complete your thoughts for those who will follow you.

Morning Routines

• When you wake up, you are already 1-2% dehydrated.
• Ultra-productive people don’t skip breakfast and know food is fuel.
• Exercise in a way that will give you immediate benefit and a better day.
• 20 minutes of light cardiovascular exercise will oxygenate our brains in a way that allows us to make better decisions and focus. 
• Achieve more by becoming more, not by working longer. 
• Doing your morning routine will give you a more productive day.

Energy Management

• Without energy, you won’t be productive.
• This starts with staying hydrated. Most of us are mildly dehydrated throughout the day; that has an effect on brain function.
• Take your body weight and divide it in half, which is the number of ounces per day you should drink. E.g. A 200lb person needs to drink 100oz. of water.
• Food is fuel, so eat the right food and not the wrong carbohydrates in excess.
• Sleep quality is better than sleep quantity, so maximize deep sleep.
• Caffeine may not keep you awake, but it will prevent you from going into a deep sleep.
• If you dream a lot, then you are in shallow sleep.

Resources:

How to Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement

15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management 

Extreme Productivity Podcast

Master Your Minutes

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