Essential 1: Time management
Website design By BotEap.comAs you and your staff learn to plan, prioritize, organize, delegate, and minimize interruptions in a way that works for you and them, you’ll have more time for, and significantly more effective, your top two revenue-generating activities. activities: serve current customers and develop new ones.
Website design By BotEap.comWhile it’s common to talk about “time management,” the simple truth is that you can’t manage time. Nobody can. However, you can manage yourself, and your behaviors and your choices, quite effectively as the day progresses.
Website design By BotEap.comIn fact, if “time management” is a misnomer, “time management for lawyers” is a veritable oxymoron. However, as the practice of law and the requirements of business become increasingly complex, it becomes even more important to spend your time in the most productive way.
Website design By BotEap.comFOCUS AREAS
Take control of your schedule
Prioritize and delegate effectively
Design of case flow systems
Run efficient meetings
Organize your physical and electronic information
Take control of your schedule
If the contents of your calendar and the way you spend your day don’t match, chances are there’s too much undone and delayed at the end of the day. Priorities get lost and important work, like marketing or staff development, is pushed aside by the barrage of the “urgent” (like staff and customer interruptions). Website design By BotEap.comTaking control of your schedule requires a combination of applying the right tools and processes that are congruent with your style and developing the mindset to use them consistently. When you take control of your schedule, you’ll plan your time around your key priorities, no longer responding to what’s most urgent, but what’s most important. Whether it’s marketing, business administration, working with clients, or spending more time with your kids, for example, you’ll work to make those tasks front and center. Website design By BotEap.comAs you learn to apply a handful of basic tactics: bundling staff questions, using project do not disturb time, effective calendar, daily and weekly planning, etc. – you’ll find your calendar starts to be something that works for you instead of something you’re fighting against. Website design By BotEap.comPrioritize and delegate effectively
By not delegating effectively, you are wasting your valuable time on tasks that can and should be handled by someone further down the scale. You have created inadequate leverage of your production resources in your company structure, and your ability to increase profitability is overly dependent on your long work hours. This is a stressful and self-defeating approach. Website design By BotEap.comIf you’re one of the many lawyers who has a love/hate relationship with the notion of delegation, longing for its benefits but stuck on how to go about it for your firm, we’ll help you master the systems to ensure that you and others in your delegation firm works correctly. Website design By BotEap.comIf you allow the easy logic that “I can do it better, faster, and easier” to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, you won’t assign work to your legal or support staff and instead hold onto too much yourself. The negative impact It’s multiple: You’re not only overloaded, you’re failing to develop your people, and you’re also likely to hurt your customers’ ability to communicate directly and quickly with your company. Website design By BotEap.comDesign of case flow systems
If your company isn’t using and refining case flow templates, you’re almost certainly tolerating inefficiencies in the way routine work gets done. Staff members may not be able to locate a file or document in a critical location.
moments: a phone call from a client, opposing counsel or a secretary, for example. Case notes, client conversations, draft documents, important evidence—it can all be scattered around the desks of the many legal and support staff involved in a client’s matter. You will also tend not to adequately keep track of schedules, deadlines, delegation and supervision tasks, and almost every other aspect of representation. Website design By BotEap.comThe impact on your practice includes lost billable time, client dissatisfaction with your firm’s response time to their questions about the status of their case, and increased stress on staff and office life in general. Losing track, even momentarily, of customer files can quickly turn into a nightmare, or at least cause a real headache. Website design By BotEap.comInstead, when you design and implement case flow templates that are aligned with your company’s practice management software, you’re laying the groundwork for knowing where each part of the file resides at any point in the course of the representation. You’ll have quick access to information about status, deadlines, and benchmarks. And both the capacity and the speed of production will increase. Website design By BotEap.comRun efficient meetings
“Efficient meetings”? Another oxymoron? Most of the time, yes. And the costs of bad meetings are well known. If you spend too much time in meetings and get too little done, or, alternatively, if you avoid meeting regularly with your people because you fear wasted time and/or energy, you’re not alone. But that’s no excuse. Your law firm is, in effect, a series of teams, from you and your administrative assistant, for example, to your legal partners or practice group, so team meetings are unavoidable for a good work product. How does your company rate the conduct of meetings? Is there a huge waste of time and energy associated with most of your meetings? Website design By BotEap.comIf so, it’s time to develop powerful meeting systems. What meetings to hold, how often, with what objectives? Don’t confuse tactical project meetings with strategic discussions, or everyone will walk away frustrated and unclear. The more effective you are in your meetings with staff, colleagues and clients, the more valuable they will find your time, and therefore YOU. Website design By BotEap.comDon’t forget, too, that what comes out of the meeting really provides the value. Are people leaving your meetings without an explicit agreement on who will take what actions, by what date, and how the follow-up will be done? Without these agreements, meetings may conclude but follow-up and desired results are not achieved. Website design By BotEap.comDevelop substantial meeting skills that you can apply to all of your meetings: internally, with clients, with referral sources, or where you serve in the community or other boards. Not only will you improve results and efficiency, but you’ll also increase your reputation for effectiveness and delivering great value. Website design By BotEap.comOrganize your physical and electronic information
Disorganization and clutter in the office affect your company’s ability to be productive, costing you time and money. From ever-present piles of paper or constantly cluttered desks to haphazardly organized email and computer files, many attorneys tolerate the inefficiencies that come with disorganization. Time spent looking for things directly translates to lost income. It’s also stressful and breaks the momentum of production. Website design By BotEap.comDisorganization is often reflected in and exacerbated by ineffective case flow systems, haphazard file handling routines, insufficient storage facilities, and inadequate and frightening planning/recovery/disaster planning/recovery systems. At stake are customer service and representation, efficiency and profitability, and peace of mind. In the worst case, the future of your practice may be jeopardized. Website design By BotEap.comOn the contrary, each step you take toward greater organization will bring you immediate benefits. Simply having the right storage at your fingertips, for example, can mean the difference between successfully managing a paper-heavy workflow or suffering the debilitating effects of low-level chaos. You are buying your valuable time. We’ll set you up with robust organization systems for all your physical and electronic information. It will put your company on solid ground. You will free up time and resources, and you will gain a well-deserved peace of mind.
Take control of your schedule
Prioritize and delegate effectively
Design of case flow systems
Run efficient meetings
Organize your physical and electronic information
Take control of your schedule
If the contents of your calendar and the way you spend your day don’t match, chances are there’s too much undone and delayed at the end of the day. Priorities get lost and important work, like marketing or staff development, is pushed aside by the barrage of the “urgent” (like staff and customer interruptions). Website design By BotEap.comTaking control of your schedule requires a combination of applying the right tools and processes that are congruent with your style and developing the mindset to use them consistently. When you take control of your schedule, you’ll plan your time around your key priorities, no longer responding to what’s most urgent, but what’s most important. Whether it’s marketing, business administration, working with clients, or spending more time with your kids, for example, you’ll work to make those tasks front and center. Website design By BotEap.comAs you learn to apply a handful of basic tactics: bundling staff questions, using project do not disturb time, effective calendar, daily and weekly planning, etc. – you’ll find your calendar starts to be something that works for you instead of something you’re fighting against. Website design By BotEap.comPrioritize and delegate effectively
By not delegating effectively, you are wasting your valuable time on tasks that can and should be handled by someone further down the scale. You have created inadequate leverage of your production resources in your company structure, and your ability to increase profitability is overly dependent on your long work hours. This is a stressful and self-defeating approach. Website design By BotEap.comIf you’re one of the many lawyers who has a love/hate relationship with the notion of delegation, longing for its benefits but stuck on how to go about it for your firm, we’ll help you master the systems to ensure that you and others in your delegation firm works correctly. Website design By BotEap.comIf you allow the easy logic that “I can do it better, faster, and easier” to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, you won’t assign work to your legal or support staff and instead hold onto too much yourself. The negative impact It’s multiple: You’re not only overloaded, you’re failing to develop your people, and you’re also likely to hurt your customers’ ability to communicate directly and quickly with your company. Website design By BotEap.comDesign of case flow systems
If your company isn’t using and refining case flow templates, you’re almost certainly tolerating inefficiencies in the way routine work gets done. Staff members may not be able to locate a file or document in a critical location.
moments: a phone call from a client, opposing counsel or a secretary, for example. Case notes, client conversations, draft documents, important evidence—it can all be scattered around the desks of the many legal and support staff involved in a client’s matter. You will also tend not to adequately keep track of schedules, deadlines, delegation and supervision tasks, and almost every other aspect of representation. Website design By BotEap.comThe impact on your practice includes lost billable time, client dissatisfaction with your firm’s response time to their questions about the status of their case, and increased stress on staff and office life in general. Losing track, even momentarily, of customer files can quickly turn into a nightmare, or at least cause a real headache. Website design By BotEap.comInstead, when you design and implement case flow templates that are aligned with your company’s practice management software, you’re laying the groundwork for knowing where each part of the file resides at any point in the course of the representation. You’ll have quick access to information about status, deadlines, and benchmarks. And both the capacity and the speed of production will increase. Website design By BotEap.comRun efficient meetings
“Efficient meetings”? Another oxymoron? Most of the time, yes. And the costs of bad meetings are well known. If you spend too much time in meetings and get too little done, or, alternatively, if you avoid meeting regularly with your people because you fear wasted time and/or energy, you’re not alone. But that’s no excuse. Your law firm is, in effect, a series of teams, from you and your administrative assistant, for example, to your legal partners or practice group, so team meetings are unavoidable for a good work product. How does your company rate the conduct of meetings? Is there a huge waste of time and energy associated with most of your meetings? Website design By BotEap.comIf so, it’s time to develop powerful meeting systems. What meetings to hold, how often, with what objectives? Don’t confuse tactical project meetings with strategic discussions, or everyone will walk away frustrated and unclear. The more effective you are in your meetings with staff, colleagues and clients, the more valuable they will find your time, and therefore YOU. Website design By BotEap.comDon’t forget, too, that what comes out of the meeting really provides the value. Are people leaving your meetings without an explicit agreement on who will take what actions, by what date, and how the follow-up will be done? Without these agreements, meetings may conclude but follow-up and desired results are not achieved. Website design By BotEap.comDevelop substantial meeting skills that you can apply to all of your meetings: internally, with clients, with referral sources, or where you serve in the community or other boards. Not only will you improve results and efficiency, but you’ll also increase your reputation for effectiveness and delivering great value. Website design By BotEap.comOrganize your physical and electronic information
Disorganization and clutter in the office affect your company’s ability to be productive, costing you time and money. From ever-present piles of paper or constantly cluttered desks to haphazardly organized email and computer files, many attorneys tolerate the inefficiencies that come with disorganization. Time spent looking for things directly translates to lost income. It’s also stressful and breaks the momentum of production. Website design By BotEap.comDisorganization is often reflected in and exacerbated by ineffective case flow systems, haphazard file handling routines, insufficient storage facilities, and inadequate and frightening planning/recovery/disaster planning/recovery systems. At stake are customer service and representation, efficiency and profitability, and peace of mind. In the worst case, the future of your practice may be jeopardized. Website design By BotEap.comOn the contrary, each step you take toward greater organization will bring you immediate benefits. Simply having the right storage at your fingertips, for example, can mean the difference between successfully managing a paper-heavy workflow or suffering the debilitating effects of low-level chaos. You are buying your valuable time. We’ll set you up with robust organization systems for all your physical and electronic information. It will put your company on solid ground. You will free up time and resources, and you will gain a well-deserved peace of mind.