It took forever for law firms to get on the bandwagon to utilize computers back in the day when all of CorporateAmerica was pushing ahead into the world of high-tech. Law firms reluctantly followed suit when three things happened: Clients pushbacked and protested loudly that law firms were still on a manual system and doing things the "old-fashioned" way; Lawyers got over the...
Ah, the "trying to do my job, but people keep interrupting" problem. Do you have time management on the job under control? "If you've been living in the corporate world for some time, you've probably attended a training session where one of the exercises was to conduct a 'time spent' analysis in order to increase your efficiency. You cracked open your calendar, reviewed how you...
How many times have you asked this question when handed a new assignment? LawCrossing looks into why this happens & how paralegals can handle these situations:"Some projects—especially the most urgent ones—seem to demand time traveling as a requisite skill. Everyone wants work done ASAP, but there's only one you and 24 hours in a day. What's to be done? "Paralegals are the...
Does this New York Times article sound like anyone you know? Yourself perhaps? "RECENTLY I’ve found myself annoyed by how busy my friends seem. Putting aside the possibility that they are avoiding me, some are so on the go that they barely have time to tell me they do not have time to talk. Every phone call, no matter how short, seems to be interrupted by several others. That is, of...
These helpful, common-sense tips come from Beth Dargis, a certified life coach & simplicity consultant: "Planning is the best time saver there is. At the beginning of the week jot down your goals that you want to accomplish, fun things you want to do, work that needs to be done, and appointments to keep. Then write out a loose schedule for the week ahead, balancing it out between work,...
I'm both surprised & not, really, after reading this post pointed to by Legal Blog Watch: "Every once in a while, we lawyers hear about conduct by our colleagues that's so deceptive that it makes us embarrassed to be part of the profession. David Lat offers an example of the type of activity that I'm describing in this post about a law firm that discovered a way to give itself a couple...
Excellent question posed on the Web Worker Daily blog : "We’ve recently profiled two online apps for supporting David Allen’s Getting Things Done approach to personal organization: Vitalist and Nozbe. With tools like that–or even just pen and paper–you can capture everything you need to get done. Once you’ve offloaded all those must-dos from your brain, though, you need to take...
I love how "trigger" reminders work: "Does your current time and billing software help you manage your law firm's workflow? Does it identify key 'events' that trigger paperwork? If not, it may be time to upgrade. "By simply defining certain conditions, or rules that must be met -- such as the payment of an invoice, the generation of a specific type of document or even...
This career article comes from CIO magazine, but I think the advice applies to all knowledge/information workers: "Twelve-hour workdays packed with mile-long to-do lists and meetings on top of meetings. Cell phones and BlackBerrys that are always on, and laptops you take home to squeeze in one more hour of work. With companies firmly focused on growth after several long years of...
Yeah, been there, done that. But this article describes to-do tips that might really help! "We have all done to do lists. Somehow there never seems to be enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things on your to do list. Here is the system that has worked for me. It can work for you too. A List Is Not Enough"Making a 'things to do list' is not enough. You have to rank them. You...