Ep. 29 - Smarter, Faster, Better

Productivity might be even more important than you realize. As Marc describes it, productivity is about buying back your time – it allows you to work faster, make more money, and spend more time living the life you want to live. In today’s episode, Marc and Diana discuss productivity through the book Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. They pick their favorite tips and explain how they apply to Marc Whitehead & Associates and firms more generally. 

Marc and Diana begin by discussing the importance of productivity. Then, they move into discussing how to set aside time to think, delegate tasks, and make changes in your firm. 

For detailed show notes, navigate using the time stamps below:

[1:45] Today’s episode is about the lessons Marc and Diana learned from Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. You may know of Charles Duhigg from his bestselling book The Power of Habit. In Smarter Faster Better, he walks readers through eight points to help them become more efficient.

[5:29] Marc defines productivity as profitability and the ability to live a stress-free life, particularly by buying back your time. The more productive you become, the less time you have to spend working, and the more time you can spend living the life you are working to live. 

[10:51] Thinking is a time to free yourself and your mind from your responsibilities and envision the big picture. Setting aside time to think is a great way to make sure you don’t get bogged down in the day-to-day functions of your firm.

[14:41] Once you have that time set aside, you create your mental models. There are two components to a mental model: what is working, and what is not. When something is not working, there are multiple approaches you can take to address it. You may need to abandon that problem, or you may just need to innovate. 

[17:48] Often, incremental innovation can be more effective than trying to make changes in your practice all at once. It is important to be open to change, which can be difficult as a firm working in government regulations that rarely change.

[20:53] After creating your mental model, you can move into “who not how.” This involves delegating decision making to a qualified person near you. If you only rely on yourself, you become a bottleneck and limit your firm. 

[25:31] Part of empowering your team to make decisions is allowing them to make mistakes. While you can and should set up guardrails, there is no way to prevent mistakes completely when delegating. 

[29:43] Businesses are complex organisms. When you make changes in one part of your firm, those changes will ripple through other parts of your firm, often with unintended consequences. Failure to anticipate these consequences accounts for many of the mistakes that firms make.

[34:33] A major change Marc Whitehead & Associates is making that is starting to work is moving into elder law. Elder law allows Marc Whitehead & Associates to follow its clients into the next step of their journeys as they age.

Buy Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg: https://www.amazon.com/Smarter-Faster-Better-Productive-Business/dp/081299339X 

Listen to Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg: https://www.audible.com/pd/Smarter-Faster-Better-Audiobook/B017WRZO9U?source_code=AUDORWS0718179KY7 

Visit the Successful Barrister website: https://www.successfulbarrister.com/ 

Visit the Marc Whitehead & Associates website: https://disabilitydenials.com/ 

Email Marc Whitehead: marc@marcwhitehead.com