Tahlequah attorney Tery DeShong gave a great presentation on time management at the OBA Solo and Small Firm Conference.

One of the most common complaints among all attorneys is that they do not have enough time. In fact, that seems to be a common complaint from many people in our society today. I never seem to talk to anyone, no matter what their occupation, who isn’t time-challenged and overscheduled. I rarely hear anyone ever use that phrase that was common in my childhood, “Oh, we’re just killing time.”

Perhaps the most significant observation from Ms. DeShong was that time is the one thing we all do receive equally. We all get the same 24/7. It is up to us as to how we use it. Sometimes it may seem that we have no choice about the use of our time, but we always do. It may just be that the desire to quit working on that brief that is due today and go fishing is tempered by our desire to continue to have a license to practice law and have clients who pay for our services.

For the lawyer, time management is a critical issue. When you waste a half a day, you have effectively shut down your business operations for that period. If you waste time in the office regularly, you can have significant problems. On the other hand, no one can function in an office environment without wasting some time.

Time management is more properly the subject of an entire book, rather than a short article in the Oklahoma Bar Journal.

Your attention is directed to a pair of older, established books, while noting there are many books on this subject.

The Time Trap by Alec MacKenzie. There have been over one-half million copies sold of this publication. Mr. MacKenzie focuses on “the 20 biggest time wasters,” including inadequate planning, attempting to do too much, the inability to say “no,” inadequate controls, too much travel out of the office, inadequate staff, drop-in visitors, management by crisis and more. (Am I the only one who sees himself more than once in that list?)

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Mr. Covey suggests that you recognize that there are tasks which are urgent and tasks which are important. A law practice has dozens of tasks which must be accomplished daily. Even something as simple as filing an entry of appearance becomes urgent when the deadline for filing is today. You may find yourself trapped into doing urgent tasks all day without ever having a chance to get to the tasks that are very important but not urgent, such as marketing, contacting referring attorneys and former clients to thank them, or designing more efficient office systems.

This month I’ve updated a paper I give out to many new lawyers on time management. I do not have all of the answers and this is certainly not comprehensive, but it should provide some food for thought. You’ve hopefully read some of these ideas in this space before. For more food for thought, see our time management article index under the Management Assistance Program section of the OBA Web page.

1. Goal setting. Several times a year, one should take the time to set both short-term and long-term personal and professional goals. It is impossible to succeed until you have decided on what you are trying to accomplish. You should plan for where you want to be in one year, five years and 10 years and then review your prior goals to see what progress you are making towards them and where there is room for improvement.
2. Daily planning. Allow 15 or 20 minutes per day at the beginning of each day to plan what specific tasks will be accomplished that day. Here’s where we try to minimize Covey’s “urgent, but not important” tasks by delegation or other techniques.
3. Organization. Every attorney already should keep a “things to do list” on the desk or computer. Try to shorten that and give yourself a daily set of goals by distilling the list to a five or six item “must do today” list and then prioritizing these items.
4. Procrastination is a difficult enemy to overcome. One form of procrastination is to put off unpleasant or difficult tasks by clearing up a bunch of minor tasks that can be done within a few minutes. The danger is that the end of the day comes with no progress on the large task. Try to focus on doing your most difficult task as soon as you get to the office each morning. As my assistant, Sharon Dotson, wisely says, “If you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, nothing worse will happen all day.”
5. Self-study. Consider spending one week recording every minute of your office time, including trips to the restroom and personal phone calls and drop-in visitors. You may be surprised at how much time that you are wasting each day and the mere fact that you are recording wasted time makes you likely to waste less time.
6. Plan your errands smartly. Sometimes it seems I spend most of my so-called spare time running errands. One law office management consultant suggested that one important time management technique was to pick a dry cleaner, gas station and grocery store that were all on the way to and from work.
7. Schedule time to work. Try to schedule blocks of time without interruption in your office for lengthy projects that require thoughtful focus. Consider marking off two mornings a week from your calendar for interruption-free work time. You might also consider advising your clients that you return phone calls for example, between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. each day. Once you tell them that, however, you then have to be faithful in returning phone calls during that time period.
8. Delegate effectively. Lawyers can be among the world’s worst in failing to appropriately delegate projects. Hire good employees and trust them with important assignments.
9. It is important to learn how to say NO in a warm and graceful way to the many requests that you will have from schools, community groups, civic groups, religious groups and the others depend on voluntary help. There is no doubt that many of these are beneficial and worthy projects. Remember Abraham Lincoln’s adage that all a lawyer has to sell is his time and advise. Agreeing to serve on yet another committee is pulling more inventory out of your store that cannot then be sold to customers. (Note: This of course should not apply to OBA
   opportunities for service.)
10. Try to avoid telephone tag as much as possible. See if your opposing counsel has an e-mail address and regularly checks his or her e-mail. If you can leave a voice mail message, then leave a detailed message instead of just “call me.” Of course, some matters do require discussion and are not handled well via e-mail or voice mail.
11. Always try to have reading material or other projects with you so that you can effectively utilize unexpected delays (such as waiting for your turn in court or at a doctor’s office). Law practice-related magazines with short articles are great materials to carry in your briefcase for such situations.
12. Try to keep a positive mental attitude no matter how stressful your day-to-day practice becomes. A good sense of humor is essential for relieving stress or breaking the tension during difficult situations. Consider following adage: don’t sweat the small stuff. Constant worry about every single aspect of your life will soon make you a miserable person and a less effective lawyer. This does not mean that you can ignore a crisis or a deadline, but your efforts are better directed toward working on the project than worrying about it.

My assistant Sharon and I hope we’ve given you a few things to think about for this month. Perfection isn’t the goal here, but improvement is.

Originally published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal August 13, 2005 - Vol. 76; No.22