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Being an attorney can be rewarding, lucrative, and fulfilling\u2013and it can also be incredibly time-consuming. Many attorneys regularly log 12+ hour days\u2013with only a fraction of that time being billable (one study showed that lawyers bill only 2.3 hours a day<\/a>, on average).<\/p>\n That being the case, time management is of utmost importance to attorneys. With a heavy load of responsibilities, a variety of tasks, and a range of clients\/projects, they can benefit enormously from using tools and developing strategies to maximize their personal efficiency. The end result? A balanced and effective approach to personal productivity<\/a>\u2013and maybe even a shorter workday.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Attorneys face a particular set of challenges when it comes to managing their workload. As mentioned above, they have a \u201cdynamic\u201d workload (and that\u2019s putting it nicely) that compels them to juggle various people, projects, and administrative tasks. Here\u2019s why that makes time management so difficult:<\/p>\n Like most professionals, attorneys may find it tempting to constantly multitask\u2013switching back and forth between checking their inbox, researching a case, and tackling \u201curgent\u201d tasks as they pop up. Multitasking can sometimes feel like the only way to work, but the truth is, it significantly drains productivity and efficiency. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span> In fact, psychologist Susan Weinschenk says that switching tasks drains up to 40% of our productivity<\/a>.<\/p>\n While it may not always be realistic to completely<\/em> avoid multitasking because of genuine urgency or time pressure, attorneys still need tools in place to help mitigate the risk created by multitasking\u2013for example, a tool that automatically tracks what they\u2019re doing so that they can accurately bill clients.<\/p>\n One primary reason for their exceptionally lengthy work days is that attorneys typically have a heavy load of administrative tasks outside of their billable work\u2013such as researching law, drafting up legal documents, and representing clients in court. Checking email, billing clients, and communicating with potential new clients are just a small handful of the tasks that attorneys must also perform as a part of their profession.<\/p>\n With a heavy day-to-day workflow<\/a> and overwhelming number of high-urgency demands, it can become easy for attorneys to get bogged down in the details and forget their big-picture goals or focus on business development. Effective time management can help attorneys to optimize their time usage so that it\u2019s possible to build in time to take a step back, review long-term goals, and strategize for the future.<\/p>\n While the challenges that attorneys face are not insignificant, they can<\/em> be managed with the right tools and strategies. In the next section, we\u2019ll take a look at how Timing can help attorneys to manage their time more effectively\u2013ultimately resulting in a work schedule that\u2019s more streamlined and manageable.<\/p>\n Timing<\/a> automatically tracks all hours and minutes, including where and when that time was spent. It\u2019s ideal for attorneys because it allows them to manage their diverse workload, gauge their productivity, and even automatically generate reporting for clients with minimal effort.<\/p>\n Here are three core strategies that attorneys can utilize on Timing to up productivity and efficiency:<\/p>\n One of the most powerful advantages of Timing is that it allows you to create categories\u2013called \u201cProjects\u201d\u2013that allow for more targeted attorney time tracking<\/a>. At the end of the day, you can review not just your overall time usage, but your time usage for specific cases, for example.<\/p>\n This comes in handy especially when making a continual switch back and forth between cases and clients\u2013no need to stress about accurately invoicing for your time.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how it\u2019s done:<\/p>\n By using Strategy #1 described above, you can get started on Strategy #2: staying accountable to your own usage of time.<\/p>\n As mentioned above, attorneys spend a majority of their time engaged in non-billable work. While this may be non-avoidable for the most part, you\u2019ll still want to be strategic about how you use both your billable and non-billable hours in order to maximize your efficiency, and ultimately, your profitability.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you begin the day with the goal of spending one hour on Case A until 11 AM, and then the remainder of the day focused on research for Case B. You\u2019d also like to squeeze in an hour at the end of the day for business development purposes for your firm.<\/p>\n Timing can help you accurately assess how well you\u2019ve met these three goals, and if you made the best use of your time. Under the Review tab, you\u2019ll see a timeline of your time usage with a breakdown of what you did for each portion of the day. If, for example, you worked on Case A until 1:30 PM because you got caught up in minutiae, then you can quickly identify why it is you still have work left to do for Case B\u2026and why you never made it to your goal of working on business development.<\/p>\n In any case, combining goal-setting with the ability to review your time usage can help to identify\u2013and resolve\u2013weak spots in efficiency and productivity.<\/p>\n As mentioned above, one of the benefits of using Timing as an attorney is that it accurately measures time usage for your range of cases and clients\u2026even if you\u2019ve been switching back and forth between projects.<\/p>\n Timing\u2019s detailed accuracy can also help you to detect fine \u201ccontext switches\u201d between cases\u2013for example, you might use the same application for all cases, and even similar keywords and URLs. By creating a couple detailed rules, however, you can use Timing to detect the difference between cases\u2026.and accurately calculate how much time you\u2019ve spent on each.<\/p>\n The best part? You don\u2019t even have to come up with your own invoices. Timing\u2019s Reporting feature will automatically generate detailed Reports<\/a> of your time usage, that you can download with the presets (e.g. by Weekly Time Usage, Time per Document, etc.) and format of your choosing.<\/p>\n Because attorneys split their day between billable casework and non-billable admin, Timing also includes a built-in Billing Status<\/a> field for every time entry. You can tag entries as Not Billable, Billable, Billed, or Paid \u2014 one at a time or in bulk via right-click \u2014 so research, filing, and client calls get separated from email triage and firm admin at a glance. Set a default status per project (each client\u2019s case defaults to \u201cBillable,\u201d internal firm work to \u201cNot Billable\u201d) and most entries get categorized automatically as you work. When you issue an invoice, flip those entries to \u201cBilled\u201d; once the client pays, update them to \u201cPaid.\u201d You\u2019ll always know exactly which hours are ready to invoice, which invoices are still outstanding, and you\u2019ll never accidentally bill the same time twice \u2014 a particular risk when your day is fragmented across cases.<\/p>\nThe Challenges<\/h2>\n
The Temptation to Multitask<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nA Heavy Load of Non-Billable Administrative Tasks<\/h3>\n
Forgetting the Big Picture<\/h3>\n
How Attorneys Can Use Timing to Optimize Their Time Usage<\/h2>\n
Strategy #1: Set Up Clients as \u201cProjects\u201d in Timing<\/h3>\n
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Strategy #2: Stay Accountable to Your Time Usage<\/h3>\n
Strategy #3: Use Reporting to Bill Clients<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nTiming Saves You Time<\/h2>\n