3 Ways to Get Back Hours in Your Week!
Have you ever looked up at five o’clock and realized that the work you meant to do that morning was still sitting on your desk? You spent the day talking to prospective clients, getting a motion started, and answering emails from people who wanted to know how their cases were going. It was all work that needed doing. Now you’re looking at another evening at the office.
As a solo attorney, I know how easily those tasks can fill a day. I’ve had consultations run long because the conversation was going well, and I’ve watched a quick email check turn into a string of replies. If that sounds familiar, look at three places where a change in routine can give you some time back. Depending on how your week looks now, you could reclaim as much as five hours.
Give Your Consultations a 30-Minute Agenda
A good consultation gives a prospective client room to tell you what’s going on. The trouble comes when you spend much of the meeting collecting basic facts, then realize you still need to explain the person’s options and what it would take to move forward. That’s how a half-hour appointment turns into 45 minutes, with the next person already waiting.
Send a short questionnaire before the meeting. For a collection defense consultation, for example, you could ask who is seeking payment, whether the person has been served with a lawsuit, and what paperwork they’ve received. Keep it brief enough that someone can complete it in a few minutes. Then you can open the conversation with what’s worrying them most and use their answers to ask better follow-up questions.
Try spending the first 10 minutes on what happened and what the person wants to accomplish. Use the next 15 to discuss their options and leave five for questions and next steps. Tell them at the start how much time you’ve set aside and what you hope to cover. When the conversation wanders, you’ll have a natural way to bring it back. If a matter needs a closer look, agree on what you’ll review and how you’ll follow up.
If four consultations a week typically run 15 minutes over, bringing them back to their scheduled length gives you an hour. And the prospective client leaves knowing what happens next.
Dictate the First Draft
Some lawyers can explain a case out loud in five minutes and then spend half an hour typing the same explanation. If that’s you, try dictating the first draft of a client letter, a case note, or a section of a motion. Start with a short outline so you know where you’re going, then speak as though you’re explaining the point to a colleague. You can straighten out the sentences once the ideas are on the page.
For a motion, you might dictate the facts in order and say which parts of the record you want to refer to. If you need to look up an exact date or citation, leave yourself a placeholder and keep talking. You’ll have a draft to work from when you sit down to check those details. For a client letter, try speaking the answer the way you’d give it over the phone. That can help you write a letter the client can understand on the first read.
Use a dictation tool you’ve approved for the kind of information you’ll be recording, and choose a private place to speak. Budget time to check the transcript for names, dates, dollar amounts, and words the software may have misheard. If you have an assistant or paralegal, they can help clean up and format the draft. You can then review the substance before it goes out.
To see whether it saves you time, compare two similar documents and count the editing and formatting time for each. If dictating saves you 30 minutes per document and you dictate three a week, you’ve reclaimed another hour and a half.
Give Routine Client Updates a Place on Your Calendar
When clients go a while without hearing from you, it’s natural for them to wonder whether anything has happened. One asks for a status update while you’re drafting a motion. Another follows up in the afternoon. Each reply might take only a few minutes, but every interruption makes it harder to get back into the work you set aside.
Tell clients at the outset when they can expect routine updates and how to reach you when something needs prompt attention. Then give those updates a regular place on your calendar. For matters that warrant a weekly check-in, you might use Thursday afternoon to tell clients what’s happened, what you’re waiting for, and whether you need anything from them. Even when there’s been little movement, a short note can answer the question they were about to email you.
A simple template can make those notes easier to write. Say you’re waiting to hear back on a settlement proposal. You can tell the client when you sent it, when you plan to follow up, and whether they need to do anything in the meantime. The client knows what to expect, and you can handle several updates in one sitting. Keep your usual process for messages involving deadlines, decisions, or other issues that need attention before the next scheduled update.
Start With the Time You Can See
Pick whichever of these problems showed up most often last week. If appointments ran long, try the agenda with your next few consultations. If you spent half a morning typing a letter you could easily explain out loud, dictate the next one. If you answered the same status question several times, set aside a block for updates.
At the end of the week, see how much time you got back and decide where you want it to go. You might finally have an uninterrupted hour to work on your firm’s marketing, finish a brief before the day gets away from you, or get home in time for dinner.
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