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Doriyon Glass


Doriyon Glass is a second year law student at Wake Forest University School of Law. Doriyon interned with Lawyers Mutual in the summer of 2016 as part of the North Carolina Bar Association Minorities in the Profession 1L Summer Associate Program.

In the Lending Library:100 Things You Need to Know: Time Management by Mary Crane

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time management book coverAn important part of succeeding in today’s workplace is the ability to effectively manage your time and the projects that you are assigned. Mary Crane’s helpful book begins by explaining that most recent graduates are unprepared for an unpredictable and ever changing work environment. This is because they are accustomed to prioritizing and anticipating a three to four month school schedule thanks to a syllabus. There rarely are major changes to this schedule, especially without notice. In many work environments priorities and deadlines can change by the day, hour, or with only a moment’s notice. This book provides plenty of tips on how to effectively manage your time and experience success in this new environment. Here are five that I found particularly helpful:

1. Learn to love lists

One way to succeed is by setting goals and focusing on achieving them. These goals should guide how you manage your time. The book suggests making five separate lists of goals related to the following categories.

* Work/Career/Financial

* Personal relationships/Family/Home

* Physical Fitness/Health

* Mental/Educational/Cultural

* Spiritual

These lists should consist of S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Targeted) goals. Before making decisions involving your time, look to your list of goals and determine whether this action helps to accomplish any of them.

2. Understand the difference between “urgent” and “important”

It is important to tackle tasks that yield immediate consequences first. An effective way to do this is by categorizing your tasks in the following four quadrants:

* Q1 tasks- Important and Urgent

o These are tasks that have become crises and need to be addressed immediately. You should try to avoid letting any task slip into this quadrant.

* Q2 tasks- Important but Not Urgent

o These are the productive tasks on which you should focus most of your efforts. Procrastination regarding these tasks can lead to a crisis.

* Q3 tasks- Not Important, yet Urgent

o These include daily disruptions like emails, phone calls, and meetings.

* Q4 tasks- Not Important and Not Urgent

o These are useless activities that cost you time without professional or personal reward.

3. Understand what procrastination Is

Every professional, whether they are brand new or experienced, has tasks that they despise doing. True professionals buckle down and get these tasks down, while procrastinators put them off. Procrastinators continue to willfully delay completing these tasks even when they are aware that this will make their situation worse. There a serious costs to procrastinating, and one should actively avoid it.

4. Understanding the myth of multitasking

Many believe that attempting to tackle more than one task at a given time, or multitasking, increases their productivity. However, research suggests that this belief is far from accurate. Most human beings cannot successfully focus on multiple tasks at one time without their performance suffering.

5. Live productively

This is the last chapter of the book, but it presents a few self-explanatory, yet often forgotten tips that I believe are very important.

* Eat

* Sleep

* Exercise

* Take breaks

The Lawyers Mutual Lending Library is a free service provided to all insureds and their support staff. We offer a wide range of titles from subject matters including: marketing, networking, starting a law practice and social media. Please visit Lawyers Mutual Lending Library on our website to browse our selection.


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In the Lending Library: 100 Things You Need to Know: Business Etiquette by Mary Crane

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100 things You may think you know all there is to know about how to conduct yourself appropriately in a business setting. Mary Crane’s book of tips may be useful as a reminder of these common practices you are already aware of, but it can also give guidance for situations you may not have considered. The tips are broken down into ten chapters beginning at the interview process, then navigating you through working with colleagues, business meals and social events, travel, and much more. Although Wake Forest Law School’s Professional Development course thoroughly prepared my fellow 1L’s and I for our summer positions, there are a couple of tips that I was happy to come across. Below, are five of these valuable tips:

1. Handle differences of opinion tactfully.

At some point in your professional career, you will have a disagreement with a colleague. Here is a three step process to help handle these situations.

* Acknowledgement- You should not ignore or avoid a conflict, in order to reach a resolution, you must acknowledge that it exists.

* Understanding- Both parties to a disagreement must understand the underlying facts; this sometimes requires an understanding of personal assumptions or beliefs through which each party views the issue.

* Agreement- The parties should jointly develop an agreement for moving forward.

2. Determine your boss’ preferred means of communication.

Your boss may text as much as you do or prefer for the majority of communication to be face to face. It is important to determine if they have a general preference, or if it depends on what you are communicating to them. Additionally, if your boss asks you to deliver information to someone else, be sure you know how he or she wants you deliver this information.

3. Prepare for networking events

One way you can make the most out of business networking events is by being prepared for them. Here are a few easy things you can do to prepare:

* Practice your introduction

* Develop conversation starters

* Gather supplies (i.e. business cards, pens, etc.)

4. Consider Your Body Language Through the Lens of Cultural Differences

This tip is aimed at those that have the opportunity to work with individuals from other countries. You must be mindful that the gestures and body language that are accepted in America are not interpreted the same in other parts of the world. For example, in America a thumbs up sends the message that all is well, but in some other countries it is considered offensive and rude. If you will be working with individuals from other countries, it is important to find out what is and is not acceptable to them.

The Lawyers Mutual Lending Library is a free service provided to all insureds and their support staff. We offer a wide range of titles from subject matters including: marketing, networking, starting a law practice and social media. Please visit Lawyers Mutual Lending Library on our website to browse our selection.

Doriyon Glass is a second year law student at Wake Forest University School of Law. Doriyon interned with Lawyers Mutual in the summer of 2016 as part of the North Carolina Bar Association Minorities in the Profession 1L Summer Associate Program.

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