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Productivity Tools to Help You Attain Work-Life
Balance in Trying Times
Tips for Better Professional Productivity
David Whelan
Manager, Legal Information
The Law Society of Upper Canada
4th Annual Solo and Small Firm
Conference and Expo
May 7,2009
Barreau
The Law Society of du Haut-Canada
Upper Canada I
Continuing Legal Education
Tips for Better Professional Productivity 2009
4 th Annual Solo & Small Firm Conference
Tips for Better Professional Productivity
Productivity Theories
2
Start Simply
2
The Checklist
2
Leave Work with a To Do List
3
Reduce Distractions
3
Note to Self: When Interrupted, Don't Make a Note
4
Geek Your Productivity
4
Morning Person? Not!
5
Schedule "You Time". Repeat
5
Do You Need Assistance?
5
The Bell, It Doesn't Toll for You
6
Capture Your Time
7
Automate and Integrate
7
Get Organized
9
Conclusion
9
We may not have always held productivity as an important professional asset for lawyers. Time
management and other skills that aid productivity are usually gained through practice. As the
practice of law changes, and client and operational demands increase, it becomes more
important for us to consider what tools we are using to be productive.
This is a highly
individualized area, where a resource that works for one lawyer may not work for another,
depending on practice setting, clientele, personal work style and the like.
As we explore a
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variety
tools and concepts, you can pick out those that suit your practice or life, or perhaps
be inspired to think of new ways of doing things.
Productivity Theories
You may want to start from scratch and identify a productivity theory that suits you. Books like
David Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity or Stephen CoveyJs
Habits of Highly Effective Peo pie set out a philosophy for you to follow.
1
Z
\rvebblogs like
Lifehacker, Smarterware, and 43Things gather together tipsJ new software or tools, and other
ideas related to personal productivity.2 You can even by products by Allen and Covey and other
productivity thinkers, like the Franklin Planner organizer, to put the theories into action.
3
But
productivity does not have to come in large chunks. There are ways to become a more efficient,
productive legal professional by making small changes.
Start Simply
Many of us do not need a complete overhaul, but are looking for ways to add to or improve the
productivity tools and regimens we already have. The best way is to start simply and think
about tools that you may use in other parts of your practice but not necessarily to be more
efficient.
The Checklist
If you are not already a list maker, this may seem a crazy idea. Lists are one of the easiest ways
to improve your productivity. Recent research into using checklists in hospitals for surgeries
indicates that they could significantly reduce errors.
4
The researchers were inspired by the
airlines' pre-flight checklists. You won't eliminate 1,500 deaths a year, but checklists may still
improve your client service or internal processes.
What part of your practice could you use checklists for? If you have court or other filings, you
may already use checklists to track critical dates. You might use a checklist with your staff to
insure that client intake is done more efficiently, to ensure you know with whom you are
1
GTD: b.!.1QJL\.Y..yyw. am a ~QD.. co m.1§.etting-Th i ngs- Don e-Stress- Free- Pro ductivity/d QLQ1.4 2000280;
7 Habits: http://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-People/dp/0671708635
2
Lifehacker: http://www.lifehacker.com; Smarterware: http://smarterware.org;
43Thiings: http://www.43things.com
3
Franklin Covey Planners: http://www.franklincovey.ca
4
Alex Haynes, M.D., et aI., A Surgical Safety Checklist to Reduce Morbidity and Mortality in a Global Population,
360 New Eng. J. Med. 491 ( Jan. 29, 2009).
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http://content.nejm.org/cgi!content/fuII/NEJMsa0810119
Tips for Better Professional Productivity 2009
4 th Annual Solo & Small Firm Conference
meeting} what the topic is} that the necessary files or other papers are available} do you need
your notary stamp} etc. After a certain amount of practice} you may already have internalized
these quick checklists: are you always as prepared as your mental checklist suggests? Writing
your checklists down will help you to see gaps in them} and will help you when you need to
delegate a task or have new staff to train.
Leave Work with a To-Do List
To -do lists are available for your computer} for your paper calendar} or you can just flip to a
new sheet of paper and start one. Whether you are using a pen or a keyboard} here are some
ideas to make your to-do list work:
1. Write down tomorrow}s to-do list at the end of today} before you go home. That way it
will be waiting for you} not competing with whatever crises erupt at the start of your
day;
2.
Some productivity experts suggest maintaining a rolling list of all of your to-dos. That
may work for you} but otherwise keep it short and sweet} and select the 4 or 5 tasks that
are top priority. To paraphrase Gilbert and Sullivan} when every task is a priority} then
no task is a priority;5
3.
Write down actionable tasks: call X} e-mail V} research Z. Use the necessary action word.
Break it down into the smallest possible actions - prepare for trial is too broad - to
make sure you know what you are going to do.
6
By focusing on smalt discrete actions}
you can avoid the mental obstacles that arise when you feel overwhelmed.
Reduce Distractions
Although this could hardly be more obvious} it is probably harder to do than we really admit.
Turn off your wireless phone or e-mail device.
Put your calls to voice mail or have your
assistant catch them. Close your e-mail software. Violate your open-door office policy and shut
5
Don Alhambra, The Gondoliers, Act II: "When everyone is somebodee, Then no one's anybodyl"
6
Gina Trapani's blog on "How to Write To Do Lists that Work"
at the Harvard Business Review:
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/01/howtowritetodoliststhatw.html
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f\Jot all day. Just
the time you need to focus on a specific task that requires uninterrupted
concentration. Other professionals who vvork with detailed information (so-called "knowledge
workers
Jl
)
have been shown to benefit from low-interruption, quiet work environments.
7
Their
productivity is higher and their overall work product is improved.
It is not the technology or the clients or the door. It is the interruption that causes the problem.
You may be able to ignore a buzzing Blackberry® or people talking outside your office. But each
interruption you experience breaks your concentration. Researchers estimate that, on average,
a knowledge worker loses 1 minute 44 seconds activating the e-mail program and another 64
seconds in returning to the interrupted task.
8
Others estimate a re-immersion time of as many
as 15 minutes for you to turn back to what you were doing and reach the same level of
concentration you had prior to the interruption. The aggregate lost time piles up.
Note to Self: When Interrupted, Don't Make a Note
Researchers have been studying how to reduce the resumption lag that occurs as you return to
a task. They looked at whether writing down a note as you are interrupted, about what you
were doing, would help you return to the task more quickly.
actually worse than not making one.
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In this case, making a note is
The demands of client-driven work make this difficult,
because they are not always aware of your schedule and may feel they have the right to
interrupt you at will.
Law is not an easily contained profession, but look for ways to balance
interruptions with your need for uninterrupted thoughtful time.
10
Geek Your Productivity
There are a tremendous number of technologies geared towards making you more productive.
Like e-mail, wireless phones ... wait, didn't we just decide to turn those off? There are many
less intrusive ways to use paper and electronic tools to shape a more productive professional
life.
7
Tom DeMarco, Timothy Lister, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, 2d ed., p.49 (Dorset House, NY;
1999), comparing environments of best and worst performers in software developer's ((Coding War Games".
8
Gupta, A., et aI., An Exploratory Analysis Of Email Processing Strategies. Proceedings of 22nd Annual Decision
Sciences meeting, Boston. (2004) http://iris.okstate.edu/rems/pubs!DSI04.pdf
9
Clifford J. D. & Altmann E. M., Managing multiple tasks: Reducing the resumption time of the primary task,
Proceedings of the 26th annual conference of the Cognitive Science Society (2004)
http://interruptio ns. net/l iteratu reI (I ifford-(ogSci04. pdf
10
For more on interruption research, check out Interruptions in Human-Computer Interaction:
http://www.interruptions.net/literature.htm
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Tips for Better Professional Productivity 2009
4 th Annual Solo & Small Firm Conference
Morning Person? Not!
What is your most productive part of the day? Do you aspire to be a morning person but are
really more effective later in the day? The Productive Flourishing blog has a heat map to help
you follow your day to find out how productive you really are.
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Once you have a sense of your most productive time of day - and perhaps even entire days
which are more or less productive - you can hone in on maximizing that time. Mondays tend to
be terrible days for productivity because you are typically catching up on tasks that were not
completed in the previous week as well as the new e-mail, voice mail, and other tasks that have
arrived since Friday.
Some surveys have found late morning and mid afternoon (after
recovering from lunch and the circadian rhythm nadir) to be the most productive: IO-noon, 2-
4. 12 Your ideal times may be different.
Schedule "You Time". Repeat.
As you schedule your week, block off regular time in your peak productive zones and avoid
meeting with clients or doing other activities then. Use the time to take a CLE course online, to
focus on a detailed piece of drafting or research that has come up during the week, or other
work for which you need uninterrupted time. Treat the time as though it was a client meeting
that could not be rescheduled.
All the leading calendar applications
whether you use Microsoft's Outlook or Google's
Calendar - enable you to create a repeating event. Once you identify the best time slots for
you, create a recurring appointment for the next 6 or 12 months and use your calendar and the
regular occurrences to make the appointment a habit. After that time, reassess whether those
times are useful or whether you have found others that work better for you.
Do You Need Assistance?
A personal assistant can help you to store information in an easy, portable manner.
personal assistant need not be digital, although those are helpful too.
1.1
Your
The Hipster PDA
Productive Flourishing heat map template: http://www.productiveflourishing.com/wp-
content/uploads/HeatMap-blank.pdf and a description on how to use it:
http://www.productiveflourishing.com!how-heatmapping-your-productivity-can-make-you~more-productive/
12
Accountemps found that 12-2 and 4-6 were the least productive times for their survey respondents. June 2005.
http://www.accountemps.com/PressRoom?id=1508. Another survey they ran in 2004 found Tuesday to be the
most productive day. http://www.accountemps.com!PressRoom?id=2121.
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provides a great, paper-based organization system based on 3/1 x 5/1 index cards. D*I*Y Planner
offers a free downloadable template (PDF) so that you can print your own cards, including
templates made in Open Office.
13
What's nice about the Hipster PDA is that you can select just
one of the different types of card templates - contact logs, time management form, day or
week at ,a glance, etc. - that solve your particular need. You do not have need to use the entire
range of templates to benefit from the PDA.
The real personal digital assistants; with batteries and software, are also very handy. Likewise,
you can get a lot out of a PDA even if you only use it for one or two functions. Sure, yours
comes with a Web browser, wireless networking, a phone, contacts and calendar. But if you
just need a reliable, portable contact list, then you can turn off or ignore the other features.
The more important thing is to get one that really suits what you need and that works with your
other practice technology.
The ability to synchronize the data from your digital PDA to your computer eliminates a number
of problems, all obvious. No-one has to input duplicate names and addresses, has to compare
multiple calendars and spend tirTle rescheduling when conflicts arise.
saves your staff time.
important data:
This saves you time, it
Be sure that you can easily synchronize your PDA with your most
contacts and calendar.
Most PDAs will support synchronization using
Bluetooth wireless communication which makes the process easier by eliminating the sync
cables and the occasional time that VVindows "forgets" and cannot see your PDA.
If you carry a wireless phone and it is not how you manage your contacts and calendar, or
cannot synchronize with your computer, consider either upgrading to a smart phone that can
synchronize or getting a very dumb PDA.
Most people do not want to carry two devices -
doubling the chance of forgetting or having something stolen - but most phones and PDAs are
so small today, that keeping them both nearby is less of an inconvenience than it once was.
The Bell, It Doesn't Toll for You
You have your regular morning routine: turn on the computer, get a cup of coffee, check your
voice mail, check your e-mail. Now your to-do list is competing with your morning triage of
calls and e-mails that can, for the most part, wait. Try changing your morning routine. Get
started on your to do list and then, after an hour or so in the office, fire up your e-mail and
work through the messages.
Once you've checked and handled your e-mail (and there are loads of productivity tips on what
to do with e-mail); close it and don't open it again for awhile. Even if you aren't actively using
13
D*/*Y Planner Templates for the Hipster PDA: http://www.diyplanner.com/templates/official/hpda
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Tips for Better Professional Productivity 2009
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Solo & Small
Conference
you may find your attention drawn to your e-mail to see what's new. Better yet, set specific
times of day vvhen you will handle your e-mail communications, and keep it closed otherwise.
A 2 hour window between checking your e-mail may seem forever, but it is not. By eliminating
the constant interruptions of incoming e-mail, you can better control your daily flow.
Capture Your Time
You cannot bill every minute of the day but the more you know about what you are doing with
your time, the better you can manage it. If you are using a practice management application
like LexisNexis TimeMatters or Gavel & Gown's Amicus Attorney, make sure to use the
stopwatch functions in your system. You can manage the stop watch and save time into your
client file.
Practice management newcomer Clio, available as a Web-only "software-as-a-
service" application based in British Columbia, also links stopwatchs to your billings.
But most lawyers do not use practice or case management software, according to surveys done
by the American Bar Association and others.
14
Fortunately for those lawyers, a new application
is appearing which enables automatic time capture on your computer. Programs like Chrometa
or Element55's Legal55 start with your computer and monitor everything you do, capturing it
and placing into a timesheet format that enables you to remember small tasks that you might
otherwise forget having worked on.
15
Automate and Integrate
How many times have YOU reinvented the wheel? Interestingly enough, lawyers are pretty
creative at not recreating work product unnecessarily.
So you may already have this item
checked off your list. If not, then look for ways to automate your generic document creation.
Integrate your Microsoft Office applications - Outlook and Word in particular - t
0
create
documents that incorporate contact information into your work product without having to
14
A recent e-mail survey of nearly 600 Law Society solo and small firm lawyers found about 30% of respondents
used practice management software. The 2007 ABA Legal Technology Survey found 32% of solos and 54% of small
firm respondents had practice management software J and only 36% of all respondents use it. Microsoft Outlook is
the most common software used for practice management (51% of respondents).
15
Chrometa: http://chrometa.com; Legal55 by Element55: http://www.element55.com!product!;
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retype it. Or look at sites like Drawloop.com to turn your documents into fill-able forms for
16
your clients or staff to complete without a word processor.
Microsoft Office Online has business, legal, and productivity templates that you can adapt to
your practice. They have a handful of legal forms, mostly u.s. practice oriented, including a
17
legal trial notebook template.
The more useful templates are in their general business area,
like a to-do list ready to use in your I\~icrosoft Excel application, or a sample invoice to vvhich
you can then add merge codes. There are also some hidden gems; like:
II
II
II
A law firm project tracker template for Microsoft Excel 2003 or later;18
A client notebook template for Microsoft OneNote 2007;19
20
A law firm time tracking chart for Microsoft Excel 2007.
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There's even a Word 2007 template so you can ({write" on a yellow, ruled legal pad 1 There
are other automation tricks, and Microsoft has written specific guides on how lawyers can get
more out of Microsoft Word: download the guide that relates to your version to get tips on
22
lawyer-specific functions.
Using electronic templates as opposed to their paper equivalents
may make it easier to share with other lawyers or staff on your law firm network, rather than
chasing the paper copy around.
The more integrated your paper or electronic systems are - the fewer times a client's phone
number is typed or copied down, the fewer locations for a document to be stored - the easier it
is to retrieve and manage that information.
Whether you keep a colored note card in your
client file folder with the client, opposing counsel, and other current contact information or you
store it in a shared electronic contacts management software (like Microsoft Outlook), there
should be just one location for information to be entered and retrieved.
16Drawioop: .h!1Q1Lwww.drawloop.com.
Electronic practice
Do not use the free service, which will publish your documents for all
eyes. Use the Premier edition at $12 per month which incorporates the ability to make your documents private.
17 Microsoft Office templates for lawyers: http://tinyurl.com/ms-office-Iegal-templates Microsoft Office business
templates: bJjQ..1L.1Lnyurl.com/ms-office-biz-templates Another online resource for legal precedents is JDSupra:
http:/Lwww.jdsupra.com.
18 Project tracker: http:LLtinyurl.com/law-firm--proiect-tracker
19 Law firm client notebook: http:/Ltinyurl.com/client--notebook
20
Time tracking spreadsheet: http://tinyurl.com/time-track
21
Yellow legal pad Word template: http://tinyurl.comLyellow-pad
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The Microsoft Word Legal User's Guides for: Word 97 or 2000: http://tinyurl.comLlegal-word-200Q; Word 2003:
http:Lltinyurl.com/legal-word-2003; Word 2007: http://tinyurl.com/legal-word-2007
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Tips for Better Professional Productivity 2009
4 th Annual Solo & Small Firm Conference
management systems allow you to re-use that information without rekeying it, but the goal is
the same.
Integration does not need to be complicated.
The ultimate integrated systems take your
various productivity softvvare - ~v1icrosoft 'v''Jord; LexisNexis TimeIV1atters; Lexist~exis PClaw;
Microsoft Outlook - and enable you to seamlessly connect the information from one source to
another. But even if you just use the integration inherent in your ~jJicrosoft Office or other
office suite, to connect information in one application (Outlook) into another (Word merge
fields), you are saving yourself time. My favourite integration is relatively simple: I synchronize
my Palm T i X PDA with my Lotus Notes client} downloading contacts, events, and notes, so that
I always have a single calendar or contact list to check.
Get Organized
Every legal professional has a filing system. You may not be happy with yours but you are
probably putting incoming information somewhere!
Whether you are using your e-mail
program or storing your electronic documents on your computer} use some sort of system that
makes it easy to recall the information. Even a system that starts with a top level folder of
({clients", followed by an folder for each client, in which you place additional folders for each
matter} is a good way to start. In fact, it may be the perfect mouse trap.
Supplement your electronic filing system with a good desktop search utility like Google Desktop
or Copernic.
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It will index the information on your computer (you can tell it to look in or avoid
specific folders) so that you do not even have to remember how you named the file or for
which client you did the work. Merely call up your search tool (for Google Desktop, you can
hide it until you need it} and bring it up by hitting your CTRL key twice) and start typing. It will
return matching documents from your computer, your e-mail account, and the Web.
Conclusion
Legal professionals who focus on focus on their productivity can find ways to take more control
over how they practice. While technology can assist you in improving your productivity, there
are many ways to make changes without buying any new gadgets. Take incremental steps to
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Google Desktop is free:
http://desktop.google.com
Copernic Desktop Search is $49 for a single license:
http://www.copernic.com. Discussions on the Solosez list suggest that Copernic may be a better search tool} and
worth the license fee. You might start with Google Desktop and see if you can benefit from the desktop search
concept.
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improve your current practices and they will accumulate into bigger gains. What you do with
the time you save, additional hours you can bill, or greater appreciation you have for your life
and work, is up to you I
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