Squash Stress and Increase Productivity with Mridu Parikh

Allison Williams: [00:00:12] Hi, everybody, it’s Allison Williams here, your Law Firm Mentor. Law Firm Mentor is a business coaching service for solo and small law firm attorneys. We help you grow your revenues, crush chaos in business and make more money.

 

Allison Williams: [00:00:24] So everyone, today’s episode of The Crushing Chaos with Law Firm Mentor podcast is dedicated to the topic of efficiency. Now, before you tune out and say, oh, my God, she talks about crushing chaos all the time. Do we really have to go there again? I’m not going to go there on my own. I brought in a special guest who is a productivity coach. And I learned about, I learned about this particular skill some time ago. Wasn’t the first time that I had heard of a productivity coach when Mridu is her name, when she approached me and we talked about her coming on the show. But I was really intrigued by her particular perspective because she has a framework that we’re going to end the show with. So you guys, you got to tune in to the end of the show to listen to it. But she has a framework that is so simple and so easy and I love the quick and dirty, fast and easy way of learning things so that we can implement them and actually start to see some positive changes. So without further ado, I want to tell you a little bit about her.

 

Allison Williams: [00:01:25] So first, overwhelmed business owners work with Mridu is her name Mridu Parikh to prioritize and systematize so then they can take control of their demands and distractions both at home and at work. She’s passionate about giving women the results they want, whether it’s doubling their business revenue, losing weight, or increasing time for self-care. Mridu, who is a productivity coach and founder of Life Is Organized. Now, the one thing that I do want to let you know about is that she is referred to as the stress squasher. So I crush chaos, she squashes stress. And you’re going, you’re going to see very quickly why she got that name and why it is so emblematic of the work that she does. I’m just really impressed with this particular guest because she very much lives in alignment with what I teach everyone all the time here at Law Firm Mentor about crushing chaos and law firms. So without further ado, I want to welcome Mridu Parikh to the show. Mrdiu Parikh, welcome to the Crushing Chaos with Law Firm Mentor podcast.

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:02:29] Thank you for having me, Allison. I’m always excited about podcast interviews, but today I’m really excited because I feel like we’re just we’re such a good fit here.

 

Allison Williams: [00:02:37] Yes. And you are a productivity coach and the first time I even heard what that was, I was my mind was blown because, you know, here at Law Firm Mentor, we talk about systems and the value of efficiency in systems but so many people struggle with that and that’s your area of expertise. So I first want to ask you, before we dive into the meat and potatoes of our topic today, what exactly does a productivity coach do and how do you help people?

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:03:00] Oh, I never get asked that. I love it! Yeah. So I’m a productivity coach for women, small business owners, which essentially means I help entrepreneurs wake up with a plan every day. I help them get focused, systemized, find one to three hours every day that they didn’t even know they had and just be more present. So I actually have experience as a professional organizer, which is how I started my business, and then I evolved to a productivity coach. So what’s exciting for me is that with that experience, I help women be in control of their demands and their distractions, both at work and whit their home lives, because, you know, as entrepreneurs, right? It’s all integrated like there’s no separation of it. So that’s really fun and exciting to me that I’m like, you know what? Not only can you organize and be productive with your finance or marketing, but you can also be organized and productive with your meal planning or your laundry systems.

 

Allison Williams: [00:03:56] Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, even though you direct your audience, who you work with are women, small business owners. I do want to let everyone know that what you have to offer is so valuable. It will also be valuable for our male listeners as well. So we’re going to dive right in. And the first thing I want to ask you is, what do you think holds women back from reaching their goals, even though they’re working so hard?

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:04:20] You know, if you paint the picture of your day, right, we think about when you wake up in the morning, you have all these things on your mind, right? Everything from home, getting out in the morning to then when you start your day are like, I’m doing the marketing, the finance, the billing and the training and the admin and all the stuff. Right? And then, oh, and then, of course, of that, you’re being an attorney, you’re like serving your clients. And you wake up and you take one look at your email typically and everything is an emergency, right? There’s always a crisis. And because you’re good at your job, you’re really conscientious, you’re really ambitious, you’re going to dive right in and you just start reacting. Isn’t that like kind of how we do our day? It’s like we’re just in there, even though we might have the best of intentions of I need to work on A, B, C. Now, these emergencies are coming up now we’re just in this reactivity mode all the time. And so that keeps us in the state of I’m working, working, working, working all day long. I’m like working from morning to night and how often, though, do we end the day thinking, oh, my gosh, OK, what did I even get done today? So I find like one of the, the biggest reason that we do this, that we fall into this trap and it’s just like cyclical every day, is that we’re relying on a superpower that most of us don’t really have.

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:05:36] And that superpower is willpower. And we basically rely on willpower. And willpower is finite, as you know, willpower it gets weaker through the day. And what I mean by that is if you are waking up or you’re going through a day and you’re thinking, I’m just going to think that I’m not going to react to these things or I’m going to stay on track or I’m going to stay focused, you’re using your willpower instead of really, truly just kind of eliminating or avoiding those distractions. So, the analogy would be if we’re trying to lose some weight, do you put donuts right in front of you? You know, you’re probably at some point today going to smell them, take a bite and then nibble on them and eat them. Right. If you just had them away from you, there’s a good chance you’re not going to touch them. So it’s really similar with us when we’re thinking of going through our day. So, one really simple tactic that, that’s an easy to do is simple to do, not always easy to do, but know we can get into practice right away is such, I call it your professional power hour. Your first thing in the morning like this non-negotiable time that you’re like before I jump into that email, because I know I’m going to get sucked in. I know we shouldn’t rely on willpower, I know it’s not going to work. Have that one hour that you’re like 100 percent, don’t turn on the email, turn off the phone, put it on do not disturb. You know, walk away and like do that one hour of the thing that never seems to get done. Which typically is like strategy or planning or billing, you know, and work on that. And that becomes like a non-negotiable, right? And, and then when you do that, if all the rest of the day is like the nonsense, right? You fall into the distractions, you fall into everything else. It’s kind of OK. Because every single day you’re moving the needle on something that’s really important to you, right. And that keeps you motivated and inspired for the next day. So that is what I think is why we really fall into it. We’re relying on the willpower and instead of that, let’s just put it away for a little bit and like set some time. Does that makes sense?

 

Allison Williams: [00:07:43] That makes perfect sense. And you said so much there of value that I really want to dive in a little bit deeper. So the thing that you said that like really like popped out to me was this idea of not having the distractions come at you in the first place. And, you know, it’s just it’s such a marketing genius, it’s marketing genius, it’s management genius, it’s efficiency genius because one of the things I always tell people is that email is not an emergency. Like I, I very rarely if somebody is on the side of the road, they’re bleeding, they need help, are they going to collect their phone and email somebody? Right? They’re more likely to call. And we have so much control and power as small business owners to actually educate people on how we want communications to come to us and to set up separate emails for what types of issues and concerns are going to go into an inbox that doesn’t have to be our inbox. But we don’t ever say that, we think we have to be available to everyone. So we make ourselves available and then we make ourselves crazy. So, I mean, how do you even work with if you were, if you were to deal with a small, a small law firm owner and they were to say, I can’t possibly unplug from my email. Right? My clients need me too much, I must be available by email. How do you even get them to a place of realizing that they don’t have to have that in their line of sight all day, every day to zap that energy and that efficiency?

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:09:01] Yeah, I would say start small. So if I were to say just turn off the email for five hours or turn off email for a half a day, no one’s going to do it. We’re all going to freak out, right? Any small business owners, especially in in a law firm, right? There’s, there’s so much, there’s just so much you have to react to and deal with. So that’s not going to happen. So instead say, well, can I just try 20 minutes? Can I try 30 minutes? I know you’re a fan of the Pomodoro, like the twenty-five minutes, right? Twenty-five minutes. That’s it. And you’re so right. We train people how we’re going to react and how to treat us and how to take, whether they take advantage of our time or not. And so we can also retrain them as we’re retraining ourselves. But you’ve got to start small. Right? We just like little sprints, no one’s going, no one’s waking up in the morning running a marathon, you go it a half-mile, one mile, we’re just training ourselves. And that’s exactly what this is. So due to lot less fear when, when you say 20 minutes, I’m going to put on my phone on do not disturb and just close the email tap for 20 minutes on a timer and the 20-minute buzzer goes off. Or if you’re using a Pomodoro, does the 25-minute timer, the twenty-five minutes buzzes off, you’re like, oh, wait, I can turn everything back on, go check my email, do the thing. You know, it feels so much more doable. Again, it’s willpower, right? You can’t trick yourself into thinking, I’m going to focus for four hours or three hours is not going to work. So be realistic. Do the baby steps and I guarantee you’ll start building your confidence again. We’re like, all right, the whole world is not going to fall apart if I’m disconnected for 20 minutes. Right?

 

Allison Williams: [00:10:37] Yeah. And, you know, when you, when you start talking about the idea of training your brain, I think that’s one of the things we talk about a lot when we start going into thought work and the fact that our thoughts are something that we can control. And I don’t think a lot of people realize that. So we kind of go into that it must be this way because I thought that way before not realizing that we actually have control over that.

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:10:57] Absolutely. Now, I think if there was one takeaway, I would say for all entrepreneurs is we have fallen into this, this belief that, that we have no control. Right? That we live in a world that we’re always on the receiving end, where we’re always reacting. And the truth is, you have the ability to retrain yourself. And when you do, your perception in your industry, in your business, by your clients, by your family members, is going to be so much more empowered and strong and positive when you are in control, right? Like both at work and at home. So I couldn’t agree with you more, Allison.

 

Allison Williams: [00:11:36] Yeah. All right. So let’s go on to the next area that I want to cover with you, which is really about challenges. So, you know, when you’re working with clients, I really like to know what are the biggest challenges that you see with respect to getting everything done?

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:11:50] Hmm. Yeah, that’s a good one. I’d say the biggest challenge is we’re being unrealistic and typically that’s because well, I’m going to back up a bit. I say we’re being unrealistic and we’re not really thinking through a to be what it takes to get things done. So, for example, mostly, I bet anyone listening here has some type of list like a To-Do list. Right. We all like ah, live in our To-Do list, our many, many, many To-Do lists. And To-Do lists are great and it’s a perfect place to start because you want to get everything out of your brain and we want to start, you know, really seeing things visually. The issue with To-Do Lists typically is that they’re not really broken down in a way we’re thinking through all the steps. Right. So maybe it’s just, do timesheets or do updates or, you know, work on this, you know, something for your client, but it’s not really breaking down piece by piece by piece what needs to get done. And there’s really no time frame around each of these steps. So what happens is a snowball effect that we are so unrealistic about what we can get done. Right. How many times do you find yourself or anyone listening like, you know, what you have on that and that list when you see it there? It looks so doable for the day. And then at the end of the day, you’re like, why do I only get two things done? It’s not that you’re bad at your job. It’s not that you’re not ambitious or smart. We’re just not really thinking through all the steps and putting timeframes and being realistic about what can get done in between all the meetings and the client calls and the conferences and resumes and all the things.

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:13:21] Right. And so that’s why I think we find ourselves being like, I can’t do it all. And then this leads to a really bad self-sabotaging mindset because now you’re believing I’m incapable, I’m not positive, you know, I’m not able to do everything I can. It’s just all this nonsense starts building up. So it’s just like this bad like cycle of like between actually physically not being able to do it and then mentally believing I can’t do it. So if, if we really started getting more realistic about what we can do, it actually realized I do get a lot done, I can do more, I just need to start thinking about it in a way that like actually putting the time frame. So but just give one quick example, if you’re working on, let’s say, a thing for marketing if you like, and I want to get my, my monthly kind of newsletter out to my, to my clients that might just want to be something on your To-Do list. But when you break it down, I might say, OK, well, I got to get the draft and I want to get a quote in and I want to get the picture, and I got to send my assistant and all of a sudden there’s 10 different steps. And now for each of those steps like this takes 20 minutes, it takes 30 minutes, it takes 10 minutes. And you’re like, oh, actually, this is like a four-hour task and not that one hour I had in my mind. And then you can plot that into your day and realize, oh, actually, I can get it all done. I just I was just unrealistic by how much I could.

 

Allison Williams: [00:14:37] Yeah. So that makes perfect sense to me, I do think that people, when they don’t track everything that they do, there are a whole lot of lawyers. There’s like a whole movement around the idea of let’s do flat fees so we don’t have to track. But the reality is you have to develop the discipline to track yourself in order to have that realistic perspective of, this is how long it takes me to do the different things. And when you start talking about that, the first thing that comes to mind is the fact there are so many people that struggle with the idea of leaving space on their calendar. But it sounds like you’re a big proponent of that so that you actually do have the room to go in and respond to those emails, the room to go respond to the telephone calls that came in. And you’re not running from appointments to appointments scheduled from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. with no breaks.

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:15:21] Absolutely, I love buffer time, and I think some of the things we leave out as, as more and more people are starting to travel a bit more now, we may be getting back to commuting and seeing clients. Where is that time? Where is it time to drive, not just drive, but park and deal with traffic and pay the toll? You know, like all where is all that time? Or just to even settle in. We went back-to-back meetings, you know, you got to get your headspace together right in-between like and if we’re using a calendar management system, right? If you’re using a calendly or something like that, there is an option there that says we need 15 minutes between meetings, like when for calls, you know, when someone sets up a call or meeting. So use that simple technology or just put it into your calendar like I need some buffer, because if I’m not prepared, right? If I don’t have the right mental bandwidth and mental space or also just getting all my papers and files together, I’m going to look unprepared. I’m not going to show up as my best. So you’re not doing yourselves any favors by like smushing and cramming everything back to back to back to back? Yeah. So, yes, definitely a big, big proponent of white space. So sometimes people who are like very numbers-driven or analytical are like, well, how much? Tell me a number. So I’ll say, usually leave at least 20, 20 percent. Like just leave a 20 percent extra, extra buffer if you really need that number and leave the extra 20 percent in-between so that you have that time.

 

Allison Williams: [00:16:41] Oh, God. So the buffer time is such a big thing, because one of the things that I have, I will I always confess whenever I bring on guests is because I personally want to learn from them. So I’m getting so much out of this. But I’ll tell you, one of the things that I really struggle with is the buffer time. And there will be times where I will create rules for my calendar and my assistant will say, don’t we need to include a bathroom break in here somewhere? Or, hey, are you going to be thinking at any point during the day? Because if not, you know, your brain is going to need some recharge time. And, and I used to think I used to feel really bad about that, thinking, oh, my God, I’m getting old because I need time to think and I used to just think all the time. But really, I think it is that I’m getting more intentional about having deep work time. So there are times where, you know, running from thing to thing to thing that does wear you out, it wears out your energy and I try to convince lawyers of that and they just don’t listen to me. So I’m glad somebody else is really a big proponent of buffer times, I just I cannot say enough how much building that in has made me more efficient and more productive in the course of my workday.

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:17:43] Yeah. Can I just add one thing? I think like a habit that’s taken me a while to do, but now I’m pretty good at it and I you know, this is what I really encourage, you know, clients or people to do is when you are scheduling that, whatever that meeting or that phone call at that time, like, right then put in the time before it put in that time, right after right at that moment, you won’t remember later on. Right? So, so, for example, when you and I put this interview on our calendars for about, you know, to do this podcast, it’s you know, it’s on a half-hour for us, I had booked in the half-hour before. And just for me just to be like, OK, I got to get my headspace together. I want to be I want to have the best information I want to listen to, you know, like just to get ready for this. And so if I hadn’t done that at that moment, I just know I probably would have, you know, booked and something to the last minute up to it again. And so it has been really helpful. Yes, does it take an extra, you know, 20 seconds at that time? Of course, it does, right? It takes the extra effort. But that extra effort saved me so much stress, you know, down the road when I don’t have it back-to-back meeting set up. So that’s just a little tip. Just like as you’re doing it just to right then do I need time before or after either before to prep or drive or after to like just decompress and, you know, make time for the next thing?

 

Allison Williams: [00:18:57] Well, and I think that’s a really important point, too, because when you talk about saving yourself stress, I think what a lot of lawyers fall into the habit of is thinking that chronic stress is a natural part of this job. And I try to tell people all the time I have a fully systematized law firm. It does not cause me to stress at all. Like my days are oftentimes busy when I start to do things in both of the businesses, both the law firm and a coaching business. But the busyness is not stressful. The business is exciting and it’s enlivening and it fills me up, right? It’s the things that make me happy with my life. For people that run from tragedy to travesty to urgency to emergency, that really wears out your body and it oftentimes is what contributes to burnout. So I really, really take, you know, take the audience to task. I’m listening to all of this great advice and make sure that they take that takeaway and do something with this information, actually start making these little habits, these little ships that are going to make so much difference in the quality of your life.

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:19:57] Yeah, we are just soul sisters on this, so absolutely.

 

Allison Williams: [00:20:00] Yeah. So one last question I want to go into before we wrap up. And it’s really your framework for success. If you were working with a client, how would you ultimately categorize the framework for success that they would be able to implement for themselves?

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:20:13] Yes, I wish I could say there was one thing right. If everyone’s like, well, what’s the one thing I can do, you know, to be more productive or lower my stress or be more in control. And I think that’s kind of funny because as entrepreneurs, you would never say there’s one thing to be successful. Right. So I will say I wish I could say that, but you and I both know that that’s not the truth. But I do think there are, there are four pieces that really integrate for anything that you’re trying to accomplish, whether, again, it’s in the home front or in your business. And it’s, it’s this four-step framework. And the first thing is getting really clear on your goal. And that can apply to what do I want to get done today or what I want to get done this week or what’s most meaningful for me to accomplish this month, what, however you want to look at it. But if you are looking at a daily basis, you’re like, I need to get really clear on that before I start my day. OK, that’s the main thing. What is the main goal today? What’s the most important thing? What’s going to make me feel most accomplished? But you cannot figure that out while you’re in reaction mode, right? You just can’t. So it’s got to be done beforehand. So that’s a real simple one like, what is the biggest goal? What’s most important? And often, by the way. I’ll just say this is you can figure this out without even like the whole matrix. And, you know, I love my matrices in this map.

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:21:25] But you can basically figure it out by saying, asking yourself this one question. When my head hits the pillow tonight, what’s going to make me feel most accomplished? But what will make me feel the best if I got this thing done and fill in the blank and that’s what you’re going to know to do. The second is to then and what we just talked about, this is really to schedule it on your calendar. And this is where the true freedom kind of comes in, because it’s not enough to have it on the list. It’s not enough to have it in your head and not enough to just, you know, sort of like throw on something on the calendar without thinking through how long is this really going to take me? So put a time frame around those tasks, as we just talked about, and get that get the piece of it done, or however long you can fit within everything else going on and get it on your calendar. Create that freedom for you to know that I have time to allotted to actually make this happen. Again, this might be where you go to the power hour, because, you know, once you get into the day and we start relying on willpower, it’s not going to work. So this will be a great time to put in the power our like first thing in the morning before we do anything else. The third piece is to create some type of system or process around it. Right? So if you’re like, I never seem to get the billable hours in, which means I’m behind on invoicing, which means I’m not getting paid. Right? This is really, this is not good for my business. I’ve got to get paid. Maybe your system is, I’m going to create that billing every Friday and I’m going to get that on my calendar for the first two or three, two hours of my morning. And some of the, the system of the process around is that my assistant has already pulled together all the hours based on my schedule for the week, she has access to it and so she’s providing me this information, so I’m not wasting my time doing that. That’s just an example, I mean, there’s you know, there’s obviously ways to set up any system, but you want to have that in place because here’s what I find, is that you can do the first two steps. Right? You know, like I’m really clear my goal, I got it scheduled, I know what I would do but if I don’t have some type of system, you know, it just falls apart. Right. You get to that point, it’s on your calendar and now you’re like, I don’t even know where to begin. I’m overwhelmed. I don’t know where to start. So you want to have that kind of thing, that system in place.

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:23:35] And then finally, and this is like probably the most undervalued, but really important is to have like your boundaries and communication tied into all of this. Right’ Really create a way that it’s like you are honoring this time on your calendar or you’re communicating to your client maybe there’s an autoresponder on your email that says, I’m going to have a meeting today. I’ll get back to you later in the afternoon. That way you’re giving yourself the freedom to work on this project you had without feeling like weighed down by the clients or like you’re not getting back, you haven’t set their expectations or maybe you let your assistant know that don’t pass me any calls for the next two hours because I’m working on this thing. Right?. So essentially you’re creating these boundaries. And again, you could do the first three things, right? You could have the goals right, you could have the calendar, you get a system but if you don’t have those boundaries now, it’s all going to fall apart. So to me, this is like the four pieces of the puzzle, the framework, the approach to get anything that you want done, you feel really good about it and be really successful is to kind of just see that those four pieces are in place. That can sound like a lot upfront. So a take away for today might just be, pick one. Pick of the one right now that your like I’m weakest in. I’m either really weak and just, my goal, I don’t even know, like what is the most important thing every day, or maybe I’m really weak in truly breaking it down and getting it on my calendar. Or maybe I just really need a system on it, or maybe I’ve got to put up better boundaries. But, you know, pick one and say that’s, that’s the one I want to start with and then we’re like, as I get a little bit more mastered, you can bring the other ones in place.

 

Allison Williams: [00:25:07] Oh, my gosh. So that was absolutely phenomenal. I mean, I just I cannot tell you enough, how much people talk about productivity, they don’t talk about boundaries and communication. And I think just tying that together so seamlessly as you did, it’s just been such a value to our community. So I really want to thank you Mridu Parikh for being here with us. And I want you to let everyone know how to get a hold of you if they want to learn more about how to work with a productivity coach like yourself.

 

Mridu Parikh: [00:25:32] Thank you so much. I’ve loved our time, Alison. You can find out all about me or really we could stay in touch best if you come over to lifeisorganized.com/resources. So I have a couple of resources there that I think you might love or maybe you’ll find resonate with you well, there’s twenty-one killer hacks to stop feeling overwhelmed or six smart ways to get and stay focused or how to finally stop procrastinating. You can take your pick or you can get them all. But I think that’s the best way for us to like really get in touch and for you to get some value.

 

Allison Williams: [00:26:00] Yeah, absolutely. So, everyone, thank you so much for tuning into another episode of The Crushing Chaos with Law Firm Mentor podcast. I am Allison Williams, your Law Firm Mentor. Everyone, listen to the podcast on any of your favorite channels, and we will see you on the next show.

 

Allison Williams: [00:26:30] Thank you for tuning in to the Crushing Chaos with Law Firm Mentor podcast to learn more about today’s guests and take advantage of the resources. Check out our show notes. And if you own a solo or small law firm and are looking for guidance, advice, or simply support on your journey to create a law firm that runs without you, join us in the Law Firm Mentor Movement Free Facebook group. There you can access our free trainings on improving collections in law firms, meeting billable hours, enjoying the movement of thousands of law firm owners across the country who want to crush chaos in their law firm and make more money. I’m Allison Williams, your Law Firm Mentor. Have a great day!