The wait is over! Well, maybe just for me. It took a while, but my sixth book, “Productivity for In-House Lawyers: Tips, Hacks, and the Art of Getting Things Done” is now available for purchase. If you are struggling to manage everything on your plate or just want to be more efficient day-to-day, I have collected all of my best tips and hacks for increasing productivity in the unique world of practicing as an in-house lawyer (though anyone can probably benefit from the book). You can buy it here: Productivity Book.
Here is an early review from In-House Lawyer Monthly Puzzle Magazine:
“In his last book, Showing the Value of the Legal Department: More Than Just a Cost Center he took on the biggest challenge facing in-house legal departments today – how to respond when the business asks the department to show its value to the organization. Now he tackles the greatest challenge facing individual in-house lawyers – how do I become more productive without working more? Once again, he hits the ball out of the park. With his clear, humorous, and practical style combined with someone who has experienced all of the highs and lows of a long in-house legal career, Sterling takes you on a journey to explore not only what you need to do to be more productive every day, but how to do it:
“For too long many in-house lawyers and legal teams have given little more than lip service to productivity, almost as though the concept is beneath them as highly trained, super-smart professionals. Many have tried to “increase productivity” but never made it a real priority, even though the benefits of hitting the productivity jackpot are many and undeniable. Ignoring productivity as a high-priority goal also puts the legal department at odds with the business. Why? Because the business is all about finding ways to increase productivity and if the legal department is not on board, is not making the same efforts, and is not finding ways to become more productive, the business looks at the department like any other underperforming asset: cut its budget, fire people, get new managers, outsource it, or start over. All of those are bad outcomes – outcomes that can easily be avoided when in-house lawyers embrace the productivity challenge versus holding their noses. Productivity is not just about doing more with less; it’s about efficiency, growth, competitiveness, innovation, and – most importantly – getting [stuff] done.”
The Productive In-House Lawyer: Tips, Hacks, and the Art of Getting Things Done sets out in great detail a practical path to enhance and increase your productivity, for yourself and for the legal department as a whole, including:
- The good and bad of to-do lists
- Slaying the email monster
- Escaping meeting hell
- How to delegate properly
- Setting priorities
- The power of checklists
- How to focus your efforts properly
- Learning to say yes (and when to say no)
- The productive power of “little things”
- The promise (and pitfalls) of ChatGPT and Generative AI
- How taking care of yourself – and your team – boosts productivity
Sterling also includes sample checklists, a legal department meeting agenda, a list of the best productivity books, websites, apps, and so much more!
Inside the covers, he lays out lessons, advice, and practical tips on lawyer productivity based on a 30-plus-year legal career and almost 25 years spent in-house at four different legal departments. If your goal is to truly work smarter (and not harder), to get more done in the time you have, and to enhance the value of yourself and the legal team as productivity superstars, then this book is the go-to source for every legal department and a “must-have” on the shelf of every in-house lawyer anywhere in the world.”
*****
I want to thank my mom for writing that review! I also need to thank the good folks at the publishing arm of the American Bar Association for all of their help with editing and managing the printing process. They were terrific – as always – to work with. And thank you to the readers of the “Ten Things” blog. You make it all possible. But most of all, I want to thank my wife Inger who lets me pound away away at the keyboard while she takes care of pretty much everything else – that’s the real secret to productivity!
Anyway, I hope you like it. And it’s the perfect gift for… anything! Birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, World Cup wins, Olympic medals, BBQs, sentencing hearings, rodeos, weddings, interplanetary space travel, or whatever you got. It’s also pretty thick (400 pages) so if you find yourself cornered in the bad part of town you can use it to smack a few villians upside the head with devastating affect and make your mad dash to safety. Just one of the many uses for the book. So, don’t just buy one. Buy 5 – you’ll be glad you did!
Thanks again for all the support!
Sterling Miller
June 28, 2024
My fifth book, Showing the Value of the Legal Department: More Than Just a Cost Center is available now, including as an eBook! You can buy a copy HERE.
Two of my books, Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel – Practical Advice and Successful Strategies and Ten (More) Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel – Practical Advice and Successful Strategies Volume 2, are on sale now at the ABA website (including as e-books).
I have published two other books: The Evolution of Professional Football, and The Slow-Cooker Savant.