10 Ways to Free Up Your Time As an Attorney

Time is a precious commodity that waits for no man (or woman).  Everyone seems busier these days, hustling to and from work, meetings, lunches, appointments, and the like.  But for the average attorney, time seems to run double time.

Time management is a necessary evil for many attorneys.  The real kicker is that attorneys can hardly find time enough to adopt a time management system!

So let me make this quick and easy.  Here are 10 ways attorneys can free up their fleeting time:

  1. Throw away your flip phone already and upgrade to a smartphone.  All the cool kids are doing it.
  2. Automate administrative tasks.  As many as you possibly can.
  3. Hire a killer paralegal to assist with discovery, legal research, case management, and report writing.
  4. Use Todoist, Trello, or some other awesome checklist tool to get your daily “to do’s” knocked out.
  5. Check out Rescue Time or Toggl to discover how much time you really are spending on unnecessary tasks.  Then change your behavior based on the results.
  6. Eliminate one service you provide to enable yourself to spend more time on other, more important services or tasks.
  7. Check out Calendly.  It’s a calendar that syncs with Google Calendar.
  8. Stop saying “yes” to every lunch, dinner, meeting, service opportunity, or other time suck.  Try saying one “no” to every five “yes’s”.  Start somewhere.
  9. Drop or delegate whatever you can, whenever you can.
  10. Hire a private investigator!  This one will save you both time AND money.

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