Don’t Let the Important Things Slip

I co-taught a presentation about time management to a group of successful attorneys last week. All practice management coaches talk about time management (and I’ve written about it), so what’s the big deal?

Well, I’ve found that every time I teach something, I learn something new about the topic. This experience was no different: I began to consider how planning your time on a monthly — rather than a daily or weekly — basis can help you move your practice forward.

Think about it — there are some crucial aspects to running your business that you don’t have to do every day or every week. For example, you probably don’t send out your newsletter more than once a month; the problem might be that it doesn’t go out at all because there isn’t structure in your schedule for writing the content. Similarly, some attorneys don’t get their bills out regularly because they don’t have the time for billing written into their routine.

So, if you find you let these kinds of things slide, you might want to consider planning your time on a monthly basis. Get out your calendar for the month and create designated times for:

• Marketing
• Meeting with clients
• Production
• Meeting with your team members
• Billing
• Monthly newsletter
• Email and phone calls
• Strategic planning

And, don’t forget the truly important stuff:

• Fun
• Date night
• Sleep
• Weekend away

Please let me know how this helps you!