Best Practice 4 Modern Time Mastery Strategies For Lawyers

Management is calling the workforce back into the office. And they have been met with a large amount of pushback. Many of us have adjusted to working from home, without even trying to. Our rhythms were interrupted, and we made the necessary changes. Now that the world is slowly returning to normal. We need to decide which asks of our time are necessary and which we need to prune.

When home and work life become more intertwined, you multitask more. Before long, you are on a business call, and the toddler interrupts. Or you are having a bit of downtime but cannot get your mind off the work tasks you still have to complete. Studies show that although multitasking feels like doing many things at once, it is just quick task-switching. It is tiring and unsustainable. We need to manage our time better.

List everything

The first step in a successful time management strategy is to know what you need to get done. If you do not have a good idea of the tasks that you need to complete, you will be carried away by the day. You will often end up using your time in the least efficient ways. Not only should you list the tasks that you need to do, but you should pay careful attention to organizing your list too.

How to compile your list

Even if you are not a physical list sort of person, it is important to keep mental notes of where your time is going. You would be surprised how many tasks make it onto your To-Do List that have no place there. Getting distracted by social media, spending too long on chores or errands, or entertaining the cat. You would also be surprised at how many tasks should be there that do not quite make the cut.

Organise your time

Make sure that tasks that are both important and immediate get your attention first. Deadlines, key meetings, and crisis events should be top of your list. These are easy because they are hard to avoid, they shout the loudest for your attention.

Important but not immediate tasks should be seen to next. These are a little trickier because they are much easier to avoid than more immediate tasks. Although important, tasks relating to your family and health are often overlooked. These could be dealt with another day, and they often get relegated to the bottom of the list.

Once you have placed the big ticket items on your list, turn your attention to the smaller, less important tasks. Tasks such as phone calls and email are immediate, but they are not important. These things should be on your To-Do list only as far as they can be minimized and optimized.

Importantly, take note of the tasks on your list that should not be there, the time wasters. Even if you are not writing ‘get distracted by my phone’ down, that could still be using up your time. Eliminate as many of these unnecessary distractions from your To-Do list as possible.

Automate your list

Doccly Lender makes it easy to list tasks that need to be done - so easy that you do not have to do anything. You just select the type of job you are working on, and our Dealbots do all the rest. You do not have to worry that you are forgetting something important. Best of all, you can assign tasks to others, keeping yourself free to manage the tasks that are immediate and important to you.

Time blocking

Time blocking helps us to set aside time for certain tasks. It prevents us from getting distracted and aids productivity. When you sit down and concentrate on a certain task for a set amount of time, you minimize the brain strain of task switching. Although multi-tasking or task switching can make you feel productive, these are false friends. Experts say that for every email we are distracted by, we lose up to 20 minutes of productivity.

Try to set aside blocks of time to do your most difficult work. Do not allow distractions during this time. You will find that it will take less time to complete these tasks when you are devoting your whole attention to them. Your work may be more accurate too. Doccly Lender helps you to devote time to important tasks and minimize distractions. With communications and file sharing solely on our platform, you can put your head down and work without the distraction of emails coming through.

Saying yes or no efficiently

You are the master of your own time. Although it is tempting to want to help every client that comes your way, it is not possible. You need to be able to tell people no. Saying no to clients is difficult. But it is often necessary to decline certain tasks so that you can prioritize others.

You need to maximize the amount of time you have for work. But you still need to prioritize the important but not immediate things, like your family life, your health, and your hobbies. The issue is time. You need more time, and you need to do more work. With more work comes more success, the ability to help more people, grow your business, and meet your professional goals.

The Doccly Lender approach

Doccly Lender helps you to get more work, and do more work. You will be working faster and more efficiently. You will achieve the impossible: more time for work, and more time for yourself.

Click here to read more about time management.

If you would like to learn more about how Doccly Lender would benefit your business, get in touch!