As anybody reading this blog may know, I have a lot more time on my hands while I wait to be licensed in Minnesota and the official starting of my law firm.
The extra time has allowed me to do a lot more blogging and research into how to start a law firm. I think this has been good. I know I need to do these due diligence kinds of things before I start a law firm in Minneapolis. I also know that I have come a long way towards learning how to optimize technology to help build my fledgling law firm. It has been work, but I have enjoyed it for the most part.
Yet, taking all of that into account and not dismissing it out-of-hand, I am starting to wonder whether there is such a thing as good busy versus bad busy? For example, I have begun to question how important some of this internet marketing and blogging stuff is. Shouldn’t I be out there hustling, lunching with people, joining trade associations, utilizing person-to-person networking, and generally trying to rake up real, tangible work? Isn’t that a little more useful than focusing so much on my internet presence? Maybe, maybe not. It could be good. It could be bad.
I call this “bad busy”. Good busy is serving my clients, doing great work, and getting paid what for your efforts. Bad busy is focusing too much on things that aren’t important when trying to start a law firm.
As I’ve stated in other posts, what I learned in 3+ years of practice is that you have to get out there and you have to sell yourself and your skills. You gots to hustle. I think I am pretty good at that. However, lately, I have been more focused on internet marketing and blogging because it is easier and fun. It is also a medium of marketing that I needed to get better at. Before about two months ago, I would have laughed at you if you told me I would get a Twitter account. I’ve got one now and I can understand the effectivness of it. Building that knowledge is good busy.
But, and there is a real fine line here that I sometimes can’t see, I can focus too much on things like Twitter and blogging and social media. I bet a lot of lawyers and idle procrastinators out there might also have this problem. It’s not that your lazy or you don’t mean well. It is just that sometimes we all can be too focused on bad busy when trying to start a law firm. Bad busy is bad.