Mindset: Write for readability

On this episode of the Checklist Legal Podcast, we are covering the Triple O Productivity way to approach your contract document.

This means systematically looking at the document and:

1. Obliterating the things in the contract we don’t need,

2. Optimising the things in the contract we do need, and then

3. Find the things we can Outsource to others to make document writing and preparation faster.

• Get rid of any part of the contract help support the main purpose of the contract
• Optimise your contract for speed and readability by structuring it like a Reverse Sandwich – pull things that change to the front or back.

This contract hacking process of Triple O Productivity will has key questions for each stage:
1. Obliterate – Key Question: Does this part of the contract support the main purpose of the contract?
2. Optimise – Key Question: What changes in this contract and what stays the same… Is there a way to make this part of the contract clearer?
3. Outsource – Key Question: Can someone else (or something else) enter that information into the contract for me to create the final document faster?

Two challenges for this episode related to the Obliterate and Optimise phases of contract document productivity.

1. Find a contract document which you use a lot, and test out the Quick Wins Checklist to see how much improvement you can get from ditching common time wasters.

2. Using the sample template from the Checklist Legal Resources vault, create a basic, electronically optimised Key Details table for a contract.

Links to sources from this episode of the Checklist Legal Podcast and background information:

• Get the template Key Details Table and other free resources via https://www.checklistlegal.com/resources
• Quick wins for contract productivity: a Nozbe.how electronic checklist
• Caitlin Whiteman, ‘Why easy-to-read is easy to like – what science tells us about the remarkable benefits of simplicity’, (21 March 2016) https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-easy-to-read-easy-like-what-science-tells-us-caitlin-whiteman
• Music: Silent Partner, ‘Sway this way’
• The eBook by Verity White, Secrets of Productive Contracts

Head to the Checklist Legal Resources page for access to the other templates and examples mentioned in the show.