Healthy Lawyer

Don't wait for pressure to build

Read how your Wisconsin colleagues tackle their least favorite tasks.

By Karen Bankston

As any busy lawyer can testify, what you couldn't face today will likely seem even more daunting tomorrow. We asked several Wisconsin attorneys - selected for their affiliation with the Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program (WisLAP), not for any predilection to procrastinate - how they overcome the urge to put off the least favorite tasks of their work.

Their suggestions are as varied as their law practices, but a common theme is that making a habit of putting things off can build into a dangerous spiral where procrastination begets stress and stress begets an even stronger inclination to avoid tasks destined to become crises. Procrastination can quickly become intertwined with stress overload, substance abuse problems, depression, and perfectionism - the inability to tackle a case you don't think you can handle flawlessly.

In short, putting things off is just bad business. Of 1,479 grievances filed with the Board of Attorneys Professional Responsibility (BAPR) in the year ending June 30, 1997, the most common complaint was lack of diligence, accounting for 314 complaints, more than 21 percent of the total. Another 11 percent, or 163 grievances, concerned lack of communication.

Of course, notes BAPR administrator Gerald Sternberg, one missed deadline or "lost" phone message doesn't constitute misconduct - unless the problem is exacerbated by continued neglect. "Making a mistake is a human condition," Sternberg says. "Does a single human error constitute misconduct? Most of the time, no." Of the 28 BAPR cases that resulted in public discipline in 1996-97, 9 percent involved neglect and 12 percent a failure to communicate.

In a May workshop for small firm practitioners, Sternberg suggested that avoiding procrastination is good ethics, and good ethics is sound business. He suggests simple, efficient habits, such as setting aside two half-hour periods each day to return client phone calls and initiating a dual tickler system for recording filing deadlines and other important dates.

James Collis, Milwaukee attorney and WisLAP cochair, agrees that dealing up-front with potential problems and working as efficiently as possible are two ways to avoid procrastination. "As a single practitioner, I've got to keep myself motivated and always on the move," he notes.

Not returning phone calls promptly is a prime example of the procrastinating snowball effect. Clients often are emotionally vested in legal matters, and when their attorney doesn't return their calls promptly, they tend to become even more nervous. They require information and reassurance, "hand-holding needs" that are crucial to a comfortable lawyer/client relationship, Collis suggests.

When he returns client calls, especially if he's not sure why they phoned, Collis makes sure the client's file is open in front of him. That way, he doesn't have to take the extra time to dig for information and track down clients later.

Tom Casper, assistant city attorney in Beloit, cites a familiar example. When you get back from lunch, you find messages from "a friend suggesting a golf date, an attorney who's always been a pleasure to deal with, a pro bono client from hell, and the IRS." Who do you call first?

If you leave the latter two until tomorrow, you may be sentencing yourself to a sleepless, nerve-racked night, Casper notes. Communicating promptly with clients can save both of you headaches. "You could be doing a great job for your client, but if you don't keep in touch, you could still find yourself facing a grievance," he warns.

Another common source of procrastination results from taking a case you don't have the expertise to handle, suggests C. Michael Hausman, with Slattery & Hausman, Waukesha.

Small practitioners who don't have the skills to handle a specialized case end up "letting valuable time lapse, failing to communicate with clients, and using circular language instead of giving real answers when they do talk to them," says Hausman, who cochairs the WisLAP committee with Collis.

"Lawyers share a type of illness that may be unique to our profession: We always feel we can fix it," he adds. "You've got to realize you can't solve every problem out there and need to find someone who can help you."

Staying motivated helps head off procrastination, and lawyers discover their own personal motivation in different ways. It might be finding the right balance of work to keep you busy without becoming overwhelmed, dealing with cases you truly enjoy and do well, or dividing the workload so that paralegals and associates take on tasks you find hard to complete. Or it might be the ultimate satisfaction of closing a file and sending out the bill. For some lawyers, getting paid is a prime motivator to process cases promptly, Collis notes - although although the financial rewards of some practices, such as those focusing on personal injury, are less immediate.

Winifred Nathan's secret is "sticking to what you like to do." Taking cases you enjoy makes even routine tasks easier to handle, says the partner with the Nathan Law Office, Racine.

In terms of day-to-day tasks, following up on record requests tends to be low on Nathan's list of favorite things to do. "When you take on a task and complete it, you consider it done," she says. "But sometimes you have to keep after other people, and that gets tiring."

Tackle the toughest items on your to-do list when you feel most productive, Nathan recommends. For some people that may be late afternoon, or even after hours when the phones stop ringing, but Nathan is a morning person so she's at her desk early.

Technology also can help make routine tasks easier. For instance, Nathan had a hard time establishing a routine to bill her public defender work until she put the system on QuickenTM. She also has common form letters formatted in her word processor so she can zip them off quickly.

Mary Alice Coan, a corporate attorney with American Family Insurance, is a big list-maker, combining mundane and high-level tasks by priority on a daily basis. Coan suggests that lawyers are better at avoiding procrastination than other professionals because of deadlines imposed by the legal system.

"It's a lot easier to procrastinate when there's no deadline," she says.

Sometimes when she's working on a big case, Coan finds it easier to avoid getting sidetracked by clearing her desk of smaller, niggling tasks first. "If I've got seven or eight smaller tasks that will probably take 15 or 20 minutes each to handle, it helps a great deal to get them off my desk."

Most lawyers who call the WisLAP and State Bar-sponsored Stress Helpline don't mention procrastination as their foremost problem, notes Lea Landmann, WisLAP's chemical dependency program administrator, but it is certainly tied to job tension, emotional distress, and a tendency toward perfectionism.

Procrastination takes different forms for different attorneys. For instance, some people can't tackle a job unless the deadline is looming, while "some people get a great deal of satisfaction in doing work well in advance of those deadlines," Landmann says.

And procrastination certainly is not antithetical to productivity. You can be extremely productive on every task but the one you're avoiding.

"I've talked to lawyers who say, 'If there's just one more thing, I don't think I could deal with it,'" she notes.

Landmann's own motto to head off procrastination is: "Do the worst first." Or at least make some progress on those tasks you're most likely to avoid.

Karen Bankston, a freelance writer/editor based in Stoughton, is glad she finally got around to writing this article.