Copyright 2010, Jeffrey S. Krause, Esq. and Lawtopia, LLC

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2 Technology can save time or waste time Offices are full of computers running various applications all in an attempt to increase efficiency Is all of this technology making things better or worse? We will look at five areas Managing Calendars, Managing Time, Managing Distractions, Capturing Time and Managing Tasks

3 Electronic calendars come in many shapes and sizes applications Practice management software Smart phones You probably have access to several Which one should you use?

4 All of the above Each type of electronic calendar has specific benefits system calendars are convenient because most people spend most of their time in that application Practice management calendars are important for their links to the client file and sharing capabilities Smart phone calendars give you mobility

5 If you are going to use three calendars they need to be in sync It is almost impossible to keep three identical calendars in sync manually (entering data on all three) You have to have an automatic sync This is tricky but not impossible if you remember to centralize the sync around your calendar

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7 Once the sync is setup Without practice management you can enter your appointments anywhere With practice management you can enter appointments anywhere but should try to enter them in the practice management program This is because only practice management has the link to the client

8 Alerts and reminders are another part of your calendar system(s) where practice management has advantages and smart phones tend to remind you of everything and you become used to dismissing them You have more control over reminders than you do with and smart phones

9 So far, we have been talking about calendar mechanics The mechanics are easy Managing your time is about developing a daily strategy that works for you Start by making a list of the reasons you don t get things done, then develop a strategy to correct each one

10 Reasons things don t get done (examples) Interruptions Distractions Procrastination Overload Once you have your list, you can work on strategies or implement technology to address the problem

11 A default calendar is where you set specific times each day or week to do specific things Some examples: Every morning you answer s from 9-10 and 3-4 Every Friday morning from you review next week s docket with your paralegal Every Friday from you write a blog post

12 A default calendar sets an agenda and routine for you to follow (helps avoid procrastination) Over time others will come to respect your default calendar (avoids interruptions) A default calendar sets specific times to get things done (it can help you eliminate some distractions and the feeling of overload)

13 Some people find it useful to calendar their tasks Calendaring tasks means you block time on your calendar for each specific task on your to do list This takes extra work because you have to create more appointments However, if this is the best way to keep yourself on task, it is worth the extra time

14 Taskline integrates with Outlook Start by specifying your parameters such as the hours and days you work Next, you complete a form (due date, how much time you need, etc.) for each task and tell Taskline to process your tasks Taskline takes your to do list and creates appointments for each one in the available slots on your calendar Cost is a one time fee of around $50

15 Like many of you, my business runs on is a great tool because you can communicate any time, reach people anywhere and often get an immediate response The problem is that everyone else knows they can use it to communicate with you in the same way

16 The average worker receives 300 s per week or 60 per day What do most of us do when an comes in and the little bell goes off? We stop what we are doing and look at the This means that we stop what we are doing and lose our focus on what we are doing 60 times per day

17 If is the great distraction for you, the answer is simple turn it off I don t mean completely, I mean for a portion of the day so that you can focus on other things Set specific times to read and reply to s (i.e. default calendar) If you are really worried about missing that one important , you can share your mailbox with your assistant and let them watch it

18 Attorneys are in the client service business However, if you set ground rules for communications up front, clients will know what to expect Most will also appreciate that you will not interrupt work on their file to answer someone else s Not convinced? Turn it off for an hour or two and see whether you get more done

19 Another great distraction of is that it piles up over time Many s are client related and need to be preserved but looking at an inbox with over 10,000 s can be a discouraging way to start the day To clean this up, start by using folders within your program

20 There are many technology tools for managing Practice management systems have the ability to save s to the case file Document management systems save the to the system and fully index it for searching later Adobe Acrobat allows you to take an entire folder of s and turn it into a single searchable PDF (a great way to archive a closed case)

21 A critical component of time management is capturing your time If you are not properly capturing time, you might be getting things done but you also might not be getting paid for your work

22 If you have a billing or practice management system, you probably have the ability to capture time automatically. Some run a timer on the record as you create it

23 Some practice management applications allow you to run multiple timers and then switch between them

24 Have you ever had one of those days where you were completely busy the entire day but realized your timesheet is empty? Chrometa is a tool that watches what you do and keeps track of it for you At the end of the day, you can go back and see what you did, categorize it and bill it Chrometa has a monthly fee but it easily pays for itself in one day

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27 Managing tasks is one area where I am not sure technology has helped us Many people still use written lists Technology helps us record that we have something to do but a handwritten list worked for that The problem is that you have to manage tasks In many cases, technology actually over complicates task management

28 Most applications have the ability to track tasks You can enter a simple task with due date, subject and note but not much else In the end, its just a list of tasks

29 Every practice management system also includes task management This provides the ability to assign tasks to other people and to specific clients You can customize a practice management application to track tasks the way you want For example, you can create fields, filtered searches, lists, etc.

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31 Another advantage of some practice management applications is the ability to automate tasks The system can automatically prompt for or create tasks based on pre-existing rules For example, PracticeMaster Workflows can automatically create a task based on the creation of a new client file Time Matters does this with Triggers

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33 Many people find managing the software to be the hardest part of task management While practice management is great, you have lots of fields to complete and you have to constantly open it and search for things Handwritten lists need to be recreated daily and can be difficult to prioritize Is there any happy medium?

34 Workflowy is a simple but surprisingly elegant tool for task management Workflowy is an online outliner tool Enter tasks in an outline format broken down by categories, clients or just about any other criteria

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36 If something simple and non-technical works, use it Before you adopt something complicated, understand the problem you are trying to solve When it comes to time management with technology the best tool is the one that works for you

37 Jeffrey S. Krause Marquette University Law School, 1996 Legal Technology Consultant since 1998 Founder of Krause Practice Management, LLC Co-Founder of Lawtopia, LLC