That is a direct theft and distortion of a quote by the Sidney Harris, a well-known, former columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times (“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it”). I couldn’t resist, and of course, I do believe it is a philosophy that lawyers should adopt when it comes to legal marketing.
Furthermore, taking just 5 minutes, out of an otherwise very busy day, may just help keep that proverbial pipeline fed to ensure future work for you and the firm. The five-minute idea comes from a post by my friend Michelle Golden at Golden Practices. She gives us several quick action items that you could easily accomplish in 5 minutes. They include:
- Write a (handwritten) note to a friend, acquaintance, prospect (client, classmate, any of your contacts. Do not cheat with an e-mail, but I suppose that is better than nothing),
- Call someone to set up a lunch for next week or whenever,
- Look for names you recognize in the Business Section of the newspaper, and send them a note of congratulations on their promotion, new position, new office or whatever the news was about,
- Review “yesterday’s work records” and find something to follow up with client about (that does presume your timesheets are current), and
- Call someone you will be starting a project with in the next couple of weeks, to touch base in advance and catch-up (hopefully this is a civic, cultural, neighborhood, or bar project, and not a client matter that you should have started LAST week – sorry, couldn’t resist that one either).
Michelle promises more “5-minute marketing” tips in the future, so stay tuned.