Time Management for Lawyers: Five strategies to increase your productivity

Time management for lawyers: Time management must be put into perspective so that you will fully understand why it is so important to tame the time vultures in your life.  Here are some attributes of an attorney who lacks sufficient time management skills. 

• They are reactive as opposed to proactive
• They answer every phone call when they are in their office
• They carry a cell phone or Blackberry and answer all their calls, even while in meetings with other people or (worse) clients
• They arrives at the office whenever they feel like it
• They wait until the last minute to handle important matters
• They never have time to concentrate on legal marketing

Do these attributes sound familiar?  The following five strategies regarding time management for lawyers is meant to help you eliminate these types of attributes from your daily life.  By using these five strategies, you will be able to keep your sanity and increase your daily productivity:

1. Stop taking phone calls - Yes, I said it.  The phone, email and fax are all time vultures.  You must tame them.  Lawyers should have a list of very important people - if the caller is not on that list, have your assistant take a message and call them back (see item #4 for when you should call them back).
    
2. Be punctual in everything you do, and insist on it in others - This is pretty simple.  You should be on time for every meeting and court appearance that is on your schedule. 
    
3. Keep lists and use them - I like to make a written list of things that I need to accomplish each day.  Every night, my wife makes a list of people she needs to call and things she needs to do.  You can use Outlook or other programs for this, or you can merely use a legal pad.  Find a system that works for you and stick to it. 
    
4. Time Blocking - In any discussion related to Time Management, time blocking is a necessary ingredient.  Essentially, this means that you must sit down and block out your time.  It's not an easy thing to do - but it is vitally important to keeping your life (and practice) under control.
    
5. Minimize Unplanned Activity - This idea goes hand in hand with Time Blocking, but the basic idea here is that you should schedule out each of your days ahead of time.  If you know that you will be working on a certain file on a certain date, then determine in advance what tasks must be completed and then estimate how long it will take you.  This way, you can always have built into your schedule little "mini deadlines" that will keep you focused and efficient.

These are just a few of the many strategies that can be employed to increase Time Management for Lawyers.  By following these suggestions, and blocking marketing time into your hectic schedule, you will be more productive and generate more revenue for your practice.

Return from Time Management for Lawyers to Marketing Made Simple

Return from Time Management for Lawyers to the Legal Marketing Center homepage

Back to Top