Valentine’s Day Gifts for Lawyers
People may think that lawyers are cruel, heartless bastards. Many lawyers are. But somehow our significant others find a way to love us anyway. 🙂
But what do you do when buying a gift for a lawyer? Especially when it’s time for Valentine’s Day?!
Use your imagination. Think outside the box of the courtroom. And figure out what your lawyer-love might like. Here are a few suggestions.
Warm heart for warm hands
You can’t always be at your Valentine-lawyer’s side. To keep her hands warm when you’re away, give her a heart hand warmer. It reheats due to chemical reactions beyond my understanding. But it’s sure to be a unique gift! Can you go wrong for $5.99 at ThinkGeek?
Leather, computer-friendly attache
Does your lawyer have a place to carry around his files? What about a snazzy computer case? This puppy does double duty, all in handsome leather. And it’s expandable! Buy one for your lawyer at Amazon for $49.99.
Ladies organizer
For those women attorneys who want to make a statement, check this out. It’s a slim organizer, but it does the trick for important meetings and court appearances. And that red pops! This is a Lodis Audrey item, so it goes for $245 at Amazon
Aromatherapy in the office
Many lawyers I know have stale, drab offices. Spruce up your Valentine’s with a neat aromatherapy gadget. Put a drop of oil on this stick, plug it into a USB port on the computer, and let sweet scents waft those troublesome clients away. It’s only $5.99!
Stylin’ watch
Judges definitely don’t like lawyers appearing late. If your Valentine has this Movado watch, she’ll always know the time. Elegant, sexy, and powerful. What more could a guy hope for in a Valentine’s Day gift?! It’s only $209 at Amazon
Twisted heart candy
Finally, if your Valentine is too cold-hearted to care about the Day, check out these heart candies. Instead of typical sappy sayings, they say things like “INFIN8 AGONY.” Ouch! They could be fun, for just $9.99 at ThinkGeek.
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Cool Business Card Idea – Coupon on Back
Is there anything on the back of your business cards? There’s a ton of wasted real estate back there. You could use it for cartoons. Or maybe try another idea….
Coupons!
For your business card to be successful, potential clients must actually contact you. If they throw away your card or don’t call, it’s virtually a waste.
But who will throw away a coupon for a service or product they might need? Some people will, but many others will save it, just because it’s a coupon.
Free legal help
I’m a lawyer. If I give you a card, you might keep it for that rainy day when you need legal help. But what if the back says that you get 2 FREE hours of my time?
Two hours won’t go far in a major lawsuit. But it might make a traffic ticket disappear. In two hours I could review a contract for you or draft a simple document.
If you’ve ever received a bill from a lawyer, you know that two hours is a significant amount of money. Why would I give that away for free? So you’ll use my business card and I’ll become your go-to man for legal issues.
I seriously think I’m going to implement this idea. Now, I just need to integrate a cartoon into my coupon.
What’s on the back of your business card?
Photo by Roadsidepictures
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Minimize the Magazine Mess
Quick! Count the number of magazines that clutter your house! If it’s more than a couple dozen, you need help. Here’s a few handy tips to unclutter your magazines.
1. Don’t subscribe. The easiest option is always to keep junk out of your house. If you don’t subscribe to magazines, you don’t have to worry about any mess from them.
2. Read online. There are lots of magazines online. Even the most basic magazines have at least a few articles online. This gives you all the info without the mess.
3. Visit the stacks. Most libraries have a great selection of magazines. If you don’t have a library card, go get one.
4. Swap them. Do you have friends that enjoy magazines as well? They’d probably be willing to do a magazine exchange. I’m going to start swapping Fast Company for Wired.
5. Recycle. Did you know that only about 20% of magazines are currently recycled? But you can easily recycle them with newspapers. Clear your clutter and help the planet!
6. Snip and scan. When you find articles you really want to save, clip them out. Drop them in a scanner (like the ScanSnap), and you’ll have them forever. 1’s and 0’s take up a lot less space.
7. Buy the DVDs. Lots of magazines sell old issues on CD or DVD. You can get things like MAD Magazine
8. Get cases. If you’re still clinging to the paper at this point, at least organize them. Invest in some quality magazine cases
How do you deal with magazines?
Photo by smannion
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Dress Great on the Cheap – Shirt SALE
Dressing nice can be very expensive. But it doesn’t have to be. Especially for us guys. There are great tips to iron better and save on a suit. And you can also save on dress shirts!
Right now The Dress Shirt Group
Now I’m not advocating that you get really out of style clothes. Just because a style is “discontinued,” that doesn’t mean anybody will know the difference when you walk into the office. So let’s see what some of these low-priced shirts look like.
Here’s a Geoffrey Beene Quick Dry Dress Shirt
How about a Kenneth Cole Reaction Sateen Dress Shirt
And if you really want to be dressy, go with a French cuff (they’re my favorite). That’s where this Donald Trump Non-Iron Fancy Dress Shirt
Do you have a favorite place to buy affordable dress clothes?
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Streamline Your Work – Batch Process
How many simple, repetitive tasks do you have each week? Don’t they take up a lot of time? There IS a way to get them done quicker!
Easy as building cars
The assembly line revolutionized manufacturing because it broke down a complex project into a series of small, batchable tasks.
Instead of lots of people working on all parts of the car, each person was given a discrete task that they’d do repetitively. Each worker could do his task quickly because he was geared up for it all day, every day. The tools were close at hand, and he knew exactly how to tighten his bolt in the most efficient way. It’s even a good way to make pins.
Batch your life
The same principles easily apply to tasks in your to do list.
Here’s a great example: ironing clothes. I pretty much hate ironing, but many of my dress shirts need it. And since the public service life doesn’t lend itself to outsourced laundry, I iron.
Setting up the ironing board, plugging in the iron, and warming it up are pretty big time hogs. Multiply that time by 5 days a week (who irons their weekend clothes?!), and you’ve just wasted a chunk of your life. Ugh.
But if you iron everything for the week all at once, you save that setup & break-down time. And if you get in the flow, your ironing might even speed up during the batch. If you iron in batches, you’ll save time!
And if you have a big batch of ironing, you can set up in front of the TV. Reward yourself for doing this grunt work with a great episode of your favorite show. Not a bad trade-off.
What repetitive tasks do you batch process?
Photo by northbaywanderer
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Get It Done AND Clear Your Inbox – Gmail + Milk
Is your email inbox overflowing? I’ll bet that’s not helping you get things done.
There’s hope for you: Gmail + Remember the Milk.
Link directly to emails
Productivity ninjas agree that you should archive email, not leave it in your inbox. But what about emails that have critical information in them? You probably get emails from your boss, asking you to do things. Nobody wants to lose those!
Gmail has a little known feature that lets you link directly to any email. Just open an email and you can bookmark it with your browser or even del.icio.us.
Now you can archive the email and return to it any time. But how do you keep track of those task-based emails?
Add URLs to tasks
My favorite to-do list, Remember the Milk, has a cool feature that works hand-in-hand with Gmail’s links. You can add a URL to any task.
To do this, just click on the URL field in the task details pane. Add the URL you need, and it’ll be saved on your task list. And there’s a handy shortcut key: u.
When you need the info for a task, just click the URL field, and you’ll go straight to the webpage. Handy!
New email task flow
Next time you get an email task from someone, try this:
- Open the email and read it
- Copy the email’s URL
- Archive the email in Gmail
- Create a new task in Remember the Milk
- Add the email’s URL to the task
Now you’ve cleared your inbox and put the task on your to-do list, where it belongs. When you get ready to do the task, the critical email is a click away. Can it get any easier?
Do you have a tip to keep track of key tasks and emails?
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Be a Better Writer with Leo – Write to Done
Do you want to be a better writer? You need to subscribe to Leo Babauta’s new blog, Write to Done.
You may know Leo from Zen Habits, his wildly-popular productivity blog. Didn’t you hear that it’s the best overall blog for 2007?
The first post went up on January 9. And today Leo has 3,066 subscribers. Are you one of them?
Write to Done is already a great resource for writers. And it will only get better with time. Leo is promising two “unmissable articles on writing” every week. He’s sure to deliver just that!
Leo’s latest article explains how reading improves your writing. And he’s written on key editing skills. Since Leo is all about habits, there’s already a post on creating the writing habit. And he’s got me thinking about writing a short story.
If you can’t tell already, Leo is one of my role models. The guy has 6 kids, he’s now a self-employed full-time blogger, and he’s got a book deal. The man is getting it done!
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I’m on Facebook – Now What?
I’ll bet you’re on Facebook. But now what do you do? How do you leverage this tool for your career, business, and social life?
I’m on Facebook – Now What? will teach you!
After Jason Alba’s popular LinkedIn book, he has teamed up with Jesse Stay to tackle Facebook.
If you’re looking for a thorough, but readable, guide to Facebook, you need to read this book. I’m on Facebook – Now What? gives you the keys to making the most of this powerful social network.
Make a good impression
One of my favorite takeaways from this book was about making good impressions. Jason and Jesse explain this point well:
Keep in mind that your profile may be the first impression someone gets of you. Having a bunch of Vampires and Werewolves, or Ninjas and Pirates on your profile page may do more harm than good.
As you can see, your public image is more than just keeping your profile G-rated. You also shouldn’t have it cluttered with insane applications.
Different uses for everyone
In case you’re thinking the book is geared toward a single type of person, I’m here to tell you otherwise. An entire chapter is devoted to explaining how different types of users can make the most out of Facebook.
Whether you’re a student, employee, business owner, or parent, there are still great insights in this book for you.
What about applications?
Since Jesse builds Facebook applications, you’ll find plenty of application info in I’m on Facebook – Now What?
I even found out about a couple cool apps that I’m going to install: PayPal and HobNob! They can both be useful in my Facebook efforts, both business and social.
Get yourself a copy
If you’re interested in learning more about Facebook, you should buy a copy of this book. It’s available now. Heck, the ebook version is only $11.95!
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Improve Your Workspace with $200
Are you happy with your office or workspace? Could it be better? I’ll bet you have some improvements in mind.
I know I do. And I just had a $200 windfall (more on that later). But what should I buy with it?
How can $200 improve your workspace?
Most of us spend the majority of our awake time at the office. So why not make our workspace pleasant?
That’s what I’m setting out to do, but I’m stumped. There are so many possibilities that I can’t decide what to do.
Please give me your advice!
New stool – I stand up to work. I have a cool bar table that puts my work surface up nice and high (I’m 6’3″). But my stool is getting a little wobbly. $200 could buy a nice replacement.
iPod dock – Don’t we all work better with music? It helps me focus and tune out distractions. But I’m getting a little tired of Pandora (now open to non-U.S. peeps). I could buy a cool iPod dock and some new music.
Digital picture frame – I’ve always wanted one of these. I don’t have kids (yet), but I could display photos of my wife, neat pics I find on Flickr, or anything else of interest. It could be really fun.
What would you do?
As you can see, I’m really at a loss here. I’ve thought of many more things I could get, such as a second monitor, a comfy club chair, etc. But I’d like to know what you think makes your workspace great. So let’s start some comments on this.
What cool item is in your workspace that could be bought for less than $200? Or should I forget my office and have a $200 blog contest? 🙂
Photo by *nathan
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Keep the Status Quo for 2008
The new year has come, with all sorts of talk about great changes you can make. But let’s be realistic. Most of us are going to keep doing the same old thing, again.
Why make a resolution?
I’ve never understood why people set new year’s resolutions for themselves. Yeah, I’ve done it in the past too. But why?
It’s like we’ve screwed up all the previous years, and now it’s our chance to make things right. Do you think January 1 wipes the slate clean? I know my creditors don’t think so.
Unique goals for the year
You’ve probably seen lots of blog posts musing on about great things for 2008. I’ve seen my share as well. Some are pretty cool, and some are down right interesting:
- Choose your clients wisely
- Be uplifting
- Save the world
- Help non-profits
- Save carbon
- Increase dividend investments
Keep on keepin’ on
Are those types of goals for you? If so, more power to you. I wish you a slim, cigarette-free, financially-happy 2008.
But I’m just going to keep trucking like I have been. Instead of writing “07” on my checks, now I’ll write “08.”
Plan better
I personally think it’s a mistake to plan changes around January 1. You’re just falling into the media hype about the new year being upon us.
Instead, plan two different goals: short and long term. I have goals for several months out, and I have goals for several years out. I don’t plan much in between. Life is just too unpredictable.
A question for you…
Anybody have a good gym recommendation? I’ve been wanting to join one, so I might as well take advantage of a New Year’s sale. 🙂
Photo by mugley
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About Andrew Flusche
Lawyer, bicyclist, husband.
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