Have you found that you spend 70 or more hours at work or working from home? You probably just nodded and thought “Of course. I’m an attorney.”. It’s just the common belief that lawyers never get a break and they must work day and night or they’re not good lawyers and I know that even the lawyers themselves believe this! It’s not true, though.
Stay with me here. You could very well be spending time at work that you genuinely don’t need to. I’m not going to tell you that you need to take on fewer cases or anything that will cost you money, either. I’m just going to give you very simple things to do and ultimately, I want to be able to help you stop overworking yourself.
What you need to do is audit your practice.
Take a piece of paper and write down every single thing that takes place at your law firm.
Jot down notes on all aspects of your practice. From how you prepare for trial to how you handle perceptions your clients have as they move through your firm.
If you don’t think you have any systems to audit, think again. Everyone has a system. Even if it was put together haphazardly.
Once that is taken care of and you’ve removed or revised the problematic areas, you can move on to managing your time and figuring out exactly how much of it you are wasting.
For an entire week, create a time log. Carry a notepad around in your back pocket and write down everything you are doing and how long you are doing it for.
You’ll be amazed how much of it you can delegate to someone that works for you and free up your own personal time.
Some of it you may not need to continue with at all. There are always those little things that we never question that are taking up too much time. Because we never stop to question them, they never seemed silly. But when it’s written on black and white in front of you, you recognize that it’s unimportant and a waste of your time.
It’s most likely those unimportant little things that are causing you to be working all day and all night. Once you see them, you’re going to want to smack yourself for not seeing them before.
It’s incredible how these small steps can actually change how your entire practice runs, how much time you get to spend with your family, how much hair you keep on your head, and your sanity.
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