Three weeks ago, you brain-dumped. Then you culled. Last week, you narrowed your list to your top three rainmaking moves for the next 90 days, each with a specific definition of what success looks like.
Now we put them on the calendar. Because here’s the truth nobody wants to hear: a priority without a date is just a wish.
You already know this, by the way. You know it every time a rainmaking task gets bumped for a filing deadline, a client call, or a fire drill that wasn’t actually a fire. The things on your calendar happen. The things on your to-do list compete with everything else in your head and usually lose.
So this week, we schedule!
Pull out your calendar and your top three priorities from last week. For each one, ask: what’s the actual recurring action this requires, and how often does it need to happen to hit my ninety-day goal?
If your goal is coffee with five dormant contacts in ninety days, that’s roughly one outreach every two to three weeks. If your goal is to speak at one bar association event, that breaks down into research, pitching, and prep, each requiring its own block of time. Break each priority into the smallest recurring action that actually moves it forward.
Now put it on the calendar like it’s a client deadline. Not a vague block that says “business development.” A specific time, a specific day, recurring. Tuesday at noon: call one dormant contact. Thursday at four: write and send one personal note. Treat it with the same non-negotiable energy you’d treat a court filing, because to your future practice, it is exactly that important.
Here’s the part most lawyers skip: protect that time the same way you’d protect a deposition. If someone tries to book over it, you don’t automatically cave. You ask whether this can move instead. Rainmaking time is treated as optional because lawyers themselves treat it that way. Stop doing that.
Build in a recurring check that this is actually happening. A reminder, a note in your planner, whatever works for you. Not to add guilt if you miss a week — life happens — but to catch the pattern before three missed weeks turns into three missed months.
Here’s why the calendar matters more than willpower. You are not going to remember to do this when you’re buried in a deposition prep or rushing to make a filing deadline. Willpower runs out. A calendar entry doesn’t ask you to remember. It just shows up.
The lawyers who build real books of business protect time for it the same way they protect time for everything else that matters in their practice. They don’t wait to feel like doing it. They just show up because it’s on the calendar.
So this week: take your top three, break them into recurring actions, and put them on the calendar like they’re depositions.
We close out the series with the piece that actually makes this stick in the long term — the weekly check-in.
The post Rainmaking Recommendation #324: The Rainmaking Schedule first appeared on Enlightened Rainmaking.