Lawyers have a reputation for working long hours and working late into the night. Working on the weekends has become standard in our industry. This grind can bring with it generous financial compensation, promotions, etc. However, long hours come with a price. Missed recitals, ball games, and date nights can and do happen when we work extreme hours. Here are some ways I have discovered to work fewer hours, make more money, and, most importantly to me, never miss family events.
Distractions mean longer hours in the office. Constant email interruptions, unscheduled phone calls, and idle watercooler chitchat seriously add up over time. These are hours and hours of time that you can never get back and that largely contribute to the reason why lawyers find themselves working insane hours. Distractions must be reduced and eliminated if you want to work less. To limit distractions, I strongly recommend checking email no more than twice per day. Turn on an automatic email responder that says you may not be able to reply to the email for 24 hours due to the number of emails you receive per day. I also recommend you not take unscheduled phone calls. Those constant, random phone calls destroy your focus and are a large reason why lawyers must stay so late at the office. You should also limit office small talk as much as possible. All of us have experienced someone popping into our office and saying, “Hey, do you have five minutes to go over XYZ?” Those five minutes always turn into 25 minutes. So, instead of losing those 25 minutes again and again, have office hours for when people can come into your office. This will allow you to focus more on your cases without these interruptions, which only serve to extend the workday.
The key to being maximally productive is to do as little as possible. Instead of doing 100 things each day, you should be doing ten. This frees you to do the work that truly matters and that moves you forward professionally. I strongly suggest doing an 80/20 analysis of your cases and your clients. The Pareto Principle, also referred to as the 80/20 rule, states that 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your efforts. That means that just 20 percent of cases will bring you 80 percent of your revenue. The key, then, is always to focus on your best cases and your best clients. Most attorneys instead have this backward, leading to unnecessarily long hours. Looking at what you must do and what you should not do in the context of 80/20 is a complete and total game changer.
Delegating goes hand in hand with the 80/20 rule. You should delegate as much of the busywork as possible (the 80 percent) to your staff. I suggest looking for additional things to delegate each day. Remember, your staff is there to help you, and that is why you pay them. Instead of thinking, “I am the only one who can do this [insert task], so I will just do it myself,” think instead, “How can I delegate [insert task] to someone who can do it 75 percent as well as I can.” Whenever you delegate anything though, be very clear about how the work should be done and what the finished product should look like, and give a specific deadline on when you need the work completed. Many lawyers are unable to delegate because they don’t hire team members to help them. Many are hesitant to take on payroll because they see it as an expense. But when you hire someone, you are making an investment. You are buying your time back, and that is an investment that compounds over time.
I can tell you from personal experience that if you do these things on a consistent basis, not only will you be able to work less, but you will actually make more money by doing only the work you should be doing as an attorney. If you have other ideas and tips when it comes to working less and earning more, please email me at [email protected] because I would love to hear from you.
