Proper time management is essential to both your profitability and to providing quality client service. A time management plan that provides for daily, weekly, monthly, and annual planning will help you to be proactive rather than reactive in your practice and should also help make you more productive.  Ensuring that your time management system and processes are appropriate for you and your staff, adequately explained to staff and periodically reviewed to ensure they remain suitable, will help avoid breakdowns in your file management systems.

A critical aspect of practice management is learning the importance of setting dedicated time aside to deal with important and essential tasks.  Establish the habit of regularly setting some time aside to plan for the week and for the month.  Things to consider as you design your plan include setting time aside to do the following:

 

If you do not establish protocols for dealing with these, and other important matters, you are more likely to focus too heavily in certain areas at the expense of others. One way to ensure that you are using your time effectively is to minimize interruptions.  Carving out blocks of time to deal with certain matters exclusively will increase the chance that you will complete them, before moving on to something else.

 

Using some type of “to do” list or system can be very useful for your practice.  You will want to make lists of work remaining on each file, lists of files that you must deal with immediately and lists of longer-term work or projects.  Adopting the habit of handling each piece of paper only once is good practice.  Also, use desk diaries or calendars to plan your day/week/month/year, and to remind you of important matters such as court or tribunal dates, limitations periods, and insurance and tax deadlines.  As with other office systems ensure that entries are doubled up (or backed up) in your assistant’s diary/calendar as well as in your own diary/calendar.

 

One of the advantages of establishing protocols for time management, and following them, is that it gives you a model to review to objectively assess how effectively you are managing your practice. You may discover that you are spending too much time in one area at the expense of another. By tracking your time, including billable and non-billable time, you can better understand the structure of your practice and plan for changes as they are required.