Day 27: How to Succeed in Law without Really Trying
Most lawyers know the feeling: You decide you’re going to demolish everything on your to-do list, starting today.
You start getting up at 5. After a sweaty workout, you’re at your desk early, projects prioritized in a neat new spreadsheet you’ve just created. You meditate every day at lunchtime. At home, the garage gets organized, old clothes get donated, the carpets get shampooed. You add broccoli, cut out french fries, read twenty pages before bed. You floss regularly. Everything is going great.
And then it isn’t. Suddenly- inexplicably - you just can’t take all this focus anymore.
Introducing Your Default Mode Network
Turns out there’s a good reason for this: Just as your brain needs to focus, it also needs to unfocus, according to psychiatrist Srini Pillay. There’s a system in the brain called the default mode network (DMN) that handles this job. The DMN is where your brain goes for R&R, but it’s not a passive activity - DMN activity actually consumes 20 percent of the body’s energy. This network is active when you’re awake but not focused on anything.
Neurologists have now been able to map some of the functions of the DMN. It helps you connect ideas, boosting creativity. It makes you more self-aware. It helps you understand what other people are thinking and feeling. It helps you predict the future.
Training the DMN for the Legal Profession of Tomorrow
Yesterday, I wrote about how the rise of AI will change the lawyer’s job, shifting emphasis from information processing to quintessentially human attributes like emotional intelligence and predictive strategy.
These are skills that require strength in functions performed by the DMN, like being creative, predicting the future, and understanding what others are thinking.
So if you want to be a good lawyer, it will become increasingly necessary to do something that many lawyers are not used to: Nothing.
Some Assembly Required
If this is not a skill that comes easily to you (or me), rest assured: there are practices that seem to help. Napping, physical exercise, undirected walking, and certain types of daydreaming seem to work.
Granted, these practices are a little ironic - prescriptions for how to do “nothing” by doing “something” - but if you’re like me and could use some training wheels, these practices can be a good place to start.
And knowing the science can help you fight back against the voice that says you’re wasting time - actually, doing this type of nothing may be the best investment you can make in your business, your health, and your life. You can learn more about the DMN by reading Dr. Pillay’s book, Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try.