If you’ve ever watched real meerkats (not the puppet ones on TV!) you’ll have seen that they love to get up on their hindlegs and scan the horizon. Then they drop back down onto all fours to pay attention to whatever is in front of them.
They continually swap between popping up to get the long-distance view (scanning) and dropping down to get on with the ‘now’ (doing).
Even in times of uncertainty – no, especially in times of uncertainty – we need to keep scanning ahead and planning for the future.
And the further ahead you scan and plan, the less distracted you are by the things up close.
As an example, this morning I was at a workshop where we were asked to plan out what results we wanted to achieve in the next 5, 10, 15, and 20 years – it was tough to do! But looking that far ahead was a great way to see the bigger picture beyond Covid-19 and not be constrained by it in terms of my aspirations and goals.
What about you? In your firm or practice, do you spend enough time in scanning mode (assessing your firm’s future needs and creating a plan for that)? Or are you continually in doing mode (focusing on the day-to-day deadlines and demands of your firm)?
If you don’t spend enough time in scanning mode, what gets in the way?
For most people, even when they try to plan time for this, the day-to-day interruptions get in the way.
Clients call. Team members interrupt you. The inbox keeps ‘pinging’ with demands for your attention.
Before you know it, the time you’d set aside has been used up being busy with other people’s agendas and needs.
Does this sound familiar? If so you need to find ways to add more ‘scanning time’ so you can look ahead, see what’s needed, and make a plan.
Take action
A great way to find more time for this is to get out of your office (even if it’s a home office).
Not only physically but mentally too. Decide to set aside time when you’ll switch off your email, your phone, and any other distractions. So you can really focus on what’s important to you and your firm or practice.
You’ll be amazed at how much you can get done in even 90 minutes of uninterrupted time – this is enough time to plan out the next 90 days. Even better, treat it as an ‘away day’ and you can plan out the whole year.
If you want to grow your practice, then find ways to ‘Be More Meerkat’. It starts with planning some time out of the office.
If you’d like my help with planning your next 90 days, then why not take a day out of the office and come to my one-day online workshop ‘Profitable Practice Secrets’. At this workshop, we’ll work together to analyze what your firm or practice needs in order to grow, and then start implementing the key ‘Accelerators’ to get more clients and increase your fee income and profits.
Or if you can’t get to a workshop, watch my free “crash course” video training ‘The Post Pandemic Accelerator Plan For Small Law Firms’. This is the 32-minute ‘crash course’ version of what you need to know and it’s available to watch immediately – perfect if you’re in a hurry to increase your clients, fee income, and profits.
