at work to be as productive as
FEATURED
possible – staying focused and on task would immensely help me to develop as an attorney. As a firm we read a lot of selfhelp and professional development books. Some are more relevant than others, and a lot bring up concepts we have all heard before but perhaps in a new way that makes them seem easier to implement in your day. Quadrants of Productivity One book we read early on was The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
by
Stephen
R.
Covey,
which brought up the concept of Quadrants of Productivity for different activities you complete during the day. I was exposed to the Quadrants concept previously, but this book shed new light on the activities I was completing at Melissa C. Martorella, Esq., Attorney Geraci LLP
Five Strategies for Staying on Task
A
By Melissa C. Martorella, Esq., Geraci LLP
work. In sum, the four quadrants are: Quadrant 1: Urgent and Important These are the “Do Now” tasks – for me, the emails related to a loan closing, a new file to forward to my team for review, or perhaps managing
a
client
complaint.
fter I graduated law
asked a million questions of my
These are the tasks that come along
school
and
started
senior colleagues, bought books
that are extremely important for
I
thought
about private lending, and tried to
you to deal with and take care of
my biggest hurdle to
absorb as much information as I
immediately.
overcome to be successful would
could. It quickly became apparent
be becoming an expert at the area
that to be successful I needed
Quadrant 2:
of law I would practice. So when
to do more than just learn and
Important but Not Urgent
I started working at Geraci LLP
understand the ins and outs of real
These are the “Decide When to Do
I was ready and eager to learn –
estate finance. I needed to learn
It” tasks – big picture planning,
I reviewed real estate treatises,
how to maximize the time I spent
training, or other “working on the
working,
36 Originate Report March 2020
