A review published at TrustRadius shares my enthusiasm for MindJet’s MindManager.

Coming on November 19, 2013, a two hour CLE, “The Lawyer’s Email: Mastering Messages | Regaining Control.” For more information, follow the link to the detailed class description.

Radical focus seeks the time, place and tools to work without distraction. Some of us can find it at those times of day when no one else is awake, when the phone does not ring, and email and other message sources are quiet. Night owls can find it, some before and at the crack of dawn, others after all go to sleep. It can be found during the day, but one must construct artificial walls, configuring and honoring the Do Not Disturb signs physically and virtually.

We may find radical focus on a blank sheet of paper, a clean desk, the removal of physical clutter mirrored in the removal of mental clutter. Perhaps I am especially inspired to write in these terms sitting in a hotel room, in the quiet of an early morning, my last of a visit to Las Vegas. Here, curiously, there is radical focus in a different way. The floors of the casinos focus immerse one’s senses in the cues and attractions of gambling. Low ambient light, no view of any outside world, no clocks, and a sea of flashing lights. The “streets” of shops in one luxury mall after offer the same. The Forum at Caesar’s goes one step further, creating a scene worthy of The Truman Show, its vaulted ceiling with trump l’oeil sky of permanent twilight blue and clouds.

Radical focus can be found on the computer and tablet screen, but the tools to do it may be hidden. Keystrokes, unheralded, may reveal an almost magic removal of visual clutter that can enable radical focus. For Windows users the clicks and keys that “show the desktop” minimize all open Windows, removing the distraction of multiple overlapping applications. For Windows 7 and 8 users, the keystroke combination WINDOWS KEY and D does the same.

This quiet morning brings the inspiration of full screen writing. It is the closest experience on screen to a blank piece of paper, and seems a refreshing return to focused writing. On an iPad, writing in Docs To Go, the Settings tool offers a Full Screen Option.  In Word 2013, one can hide the ribbon, but the choice in earlier versions to support full screen, blank page editing seems to have disappeared. Still, with ribbon and ruler hidden, the distractions are reduced, but not as radically as I seek. An option to hide the Status Bar also seems to have disappeared. The Windows option to AutoHide the Task Bar removes a distracting element.

The most radical blank page I have found recently is the Word Press option for “Distraction Free Writing Mode.” Add the full screen option in the browser, and no distraction from the text appears on the screen. Visual and mental clarity arrive.

It seems a shame that I took 30 minutes trying to find the same experience, unsuccessfully, in Microsoft Word 2013.

To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, engage in continuing study and education and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject.

Technology instruction for lawyers can be frustrating – classes peppered with jargon, not grounded in the experience and reality of law practice. Too many classes feature The Demo – not quite working – displaying confusing undocumented procedures. The Technology Fluency classes include concepts, strategies, tools and methods for professional use of technology in law practice. Each session will be accompanied by a handout detailing and illustrating the content, together with resources for additional study. An enhanced version of the handouts with live links to resources will be available online. Technology Fluency classes may be adapted to reference the technologies in use at the firms or departments where it is presented. Technology Fluency classes are delivered on site or remotely at law firms or departments that arrange for them. Charges depend on the number of classes given, not by the number of participants. In Pennsylvania, qualified law firms may self-administer classes, or classes may be administered through the Insurance Society of Philadelphia.

Practice Safe Computing (1 hour)

Professional responsibility, client service and common sense demand care and attention throughout the use of technology in law practice. Recent legislation and increased client expectations and scrutiny make security procedures a requirement for law practice today. Even if the dangers of “Reply to All” and Word Metadata seem familiar,  reinforcement of safe computing practices helps all lawyers. The proliferation of technology’s tools – from desktop protected computers to smartphones, tablets and tools nearly everywhere, all the time – create potential security risks and opportunities for discovery. The class will offer guidelines for safe, secure technology use.

Mastering Messages; Taming Tasks (1 hour)

Email messages have turned into the kudzu of professional life – planted as if a quick sprouting ornamental vine, but growing, seemingly without limit. Now email strangles, disrupts and fragments the work day (and nights and weekends). The class will focus on strategies, methods and tools to –

• Reduce the stress pervasive with e-mail.
• Save time wasted by the e-mail inbox.
• Move from message to action.
• Sustain professionalism when writing, distributing, storing and managing e-mail messages.

Key strategies include underused or overlooked tools, including calendar and tasks to convert e-mail traffic to actions.

Profiles in Metadata – A New Balance (1 hour)

Like medicine, metadata (hidden information in documents and files) in the wrong doses and used incorrectly, can poison, compromising client confidentiality and reputation. Metadata, used intentionally, helps lawyer and client work together accurately, promptly and efficiently. The class teaches how well-planned and descriptive metadata profiles can balance client service with risk protection. The class features careful use of Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature, taking advantage of improvements available in Office 2013/2010, together with the capabilities of third party products for metadata control. The class builds on content included in the American Lawyer Media Webinar,  “You Let What Go Out – Protecting Today’s Transactional Lawyer”. The live presentation of the webinar qualified for CLE in New York, California and Illinois. The webinar may be viewed by first registering at http://info.law.com/Microsystems_Registration.html.  Then view the webinar at http://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=lobby.jsp&eventid=508015&sessionid=1&key=E145E82210EF42D07A7670836960E08F&eventuserid=68520232.

Managing the Deal – Time, Tasks and the Closing Checklist (1 hour)

Lawyers need to manage all their deals, and most transactional lawyers have had a tool right in hand, the Closing Checklist. Yet, for many, it remains a Microsoft Word document, and the tasks and responsibilities that carry the deal and bring it to a close are scattered in personal calendar and task entries, (too) many email messages and more Word documents.

Legal Project Management has grown as a discipline that offers ways to address these issues, but can be daunting and too difficult to staff, with technologies daunting to master.

The class will review the needs to be served when managing deals and offer strategies, methods and responsibilities for using tools at hand, including ones already in Outlook and possible with SharePoint.

Drafting Documents – Dangers and Empowerment (1 hour)

When documents travel from lawyer to lawyer, inside or outside of law firms and clients, their structure and formatting can fail suddenly, exploding from the accumulation of cuts and pastes. A document’s “true history” may be lost, scattered in a storm of email messages. Editing on mobile devices adds new dangers.

The class shares approaches and tools to minimize, correct and repair these risks, and maintain an accurate and complete version history.

Technology has empowered drafting since word processing began, and especially when lawyers learned to write and edit documents with all ten fingers. New technologies allow thorough real-time checking of the “grammar” of complex documents, especially the defined terms of transactional documents. What was tedious and manual now approaches the experience of radar and laser enhanced adaptive cruise control in a high performance car. Meet the demands of time and quality work with these tools and methods.

Putting iPads to Work (1 hour)

Can the iPad and its tablet cousins  replace laptops? What are the capabilities of both devices? Is it feasible for users to perform their daily work on an iPad? The class will identify which users might be candidates to use iPads instead of laptops, explaining the applications, tools and support they might need. The class will explain how to identify and manage risks and inefficiency of editing documents on an iPad that originated in Microsoft Office. The class will also explore tools and techniques that take special advantage of the iPads portability and integration with iPhones, particularly for data collection and due diligence away from the office. The class will incorporate content presented a session entitled The iPad as Laptop Replacement at the 2012 International Legal Technology Association’s conference and published in Technology Property – iPads and iPhones: Tools for Practice, Probate and Property, September / October 2012, Vol. 26 No. 5, p. 48, a publication of the Real Property, Trust and Estate Section of the American Bar Association. The article may also be viewed at http://www.blacksbergassociatesllc.com/2012/10/01/ipads-and-iphones-tools-for-practice/

Persuasive Presentations (1 hour)

Point: PowerPoint has finally come of age, 22 years after its introduction. The new visual tools and formats in PowerPoint 2010 and 2013 make it still the “best presentation tool.” Counterpoint: “We Have Met the Enemy and He is PowerPoint.” (The New York Times, April 26, 2010). Casualties attributed to “Death by PowerPoint” number in the millions. Synthesis? Keynote (on the iPad) will overtake and replace PowerPoint (on the laptop). Perhaps the best answer – all and none of the above. Could we imagine a brief, a closing argument to a court or jury using PowerPoint? Whether meeting with clients or colleagues, presentations are ubiquitous and expected. Shuffling a slide deck alone does not create an effective presentation. The class will use its own topic as a model for creating, documenting and presenting content effectively. A printed handout will support the class, with an explanation of its own preparation. We will put PowerPoint to work to demonstrate and document drafting, editing and presentations. Graphics – the heart of most presentations – can enhance, inform, engage and inspire inquiry. Many achieve little of those goals. A tour of those that do will illustrate how visual tools can be harnessed for law practice. This class can be presented by itself or together in a series with Data Stories.

Data Stories (1 or 2 hours)

We grow up delighted, educated, excited, and entertained by excellent narrative. Excellent fiction, fantasy, biography, movies, television (even music) rely on master storytellers. Data and numbers – gathered, listed, charted, illustrated – can be brought to life when framed as narrative, making their story clear. Those stories can inform and persuade juries, judges, clients, even colleagues. We will explore the world of Infographics and Data Visualization, drawing on the seminal work of Edward Tufte, the Yale Professor whose work defines excellence in the use and abuse of informational graphics, who coined the term “chart junk” and invented sparklines. We will share excellent data stories from sources such as The New York Times, Google Finance and Bloomberg News and examine how these techniques can be put to use in the practice and business of law firms. Excel can be used to create well narrated, data rich stories. The class will include demonstrations of these tools and techniques, including the implementation of sparklines in Excel 2010 and 2013. The two hour version of the class provides indepth instruction of the use of the techniques.

Collaboration – Strategies and Tactics (1 hour)

As clients insist on more (legal work) for less (fees), mastery of the practices and technologies of collaboration may be more than competitive advantage. It may now be a key survival factor for private law practice. Today’s engagements span time zones, countries and continents. A mass flowering of new, highly connected technologies, driven by cloud computing, mobility and the “consumer revolution” of technology tools and programs, creates new opportunities to lower the cost to connect lawyer to client and, where appropriate, lawyer to lawyer. Yet lawyers must sustain their professional responsibilities for zealous advocacy of their client’s interests, and protection of confidentiality. They are their clients must abide by law and regulation, in the U.S. and around the world, for data privacy and custody. These demand a careful balance between professional responsibility, client service, technology services and lawyer and staff competence. This session provides an overview of the methods and issues involved with rapidly changing tools that permit work together, across the boundaries of lawyers, law firms and clients. With an explosion of capabilities from mobile devices and cloud connections, as well as the arrival of the wealth of connections afforded by social media, these concerns are immediate and fully pressing.

Technology Fluency for Lawyers™ is a trademark of Blacksberg Associates, LLC.