Time Management When Working From Home (Due to Coronavirus)

Lots of people want to work from home, at least occasionally. For many lawyers, it’s pretty easy to do.  And, now with the threat of the new coronavirus causing quarantines, school closures and economic turmoil, we are even more likely to find ourselves working remotely. One of the challenges, however, is that reduced structure sometimes results in reduced productivity. So, this seems like a good chance to share one of my favorite time management techniques, which is specifically designed to help you to stay focused and productive throughout the workday. 

Take a piece of paper and draw four quadrants. At the top left-hand side of the page, identify the three most important things you aim to accomplish today.  These are the most high-value items or the most time sensitive. They can include big tasks like writing a brief or preparing for a pitch as well as smaller but highly important tasks such as following up with a prospective client. The point is to identify priorities, so limit this to 3 items. 

On the top right-hand side of the page, you put little things. Those items that you don’t want to forget about, such as calling someone back, picking up dry-cleaning, making a doctor’s appointment, having a quick conversation with a colleague…. These are the items that might not be the first level of importance or urgency, but for the sake your life and your work running smoothly you would like to get them done in the next few days.

Next is the bottom left-hand quadrant. This is where you plan your day. You include the meetings that are already on your calendar, slot in the priority items, and look for appropriate opportunities to take care of some of the little things. The goal is to come up with a plan for the day where you are focusing on your priorities in a way that is achievable. I recommend giving yourself at least 15 minutes for any specific phone call or email – even if you think it will only take two minutes.  If it is important enough to make your list, it deserves a 15 minute time block.  If it does in fact only take five minutes, you can experience the joy of getting ahead of schedule.

The final quadrant is where you track how you actually spend your time.  It can be helpful to think of this as a game. You set up the parameters of the game when you make the plan.  Then you try to win the game by accomplishing the tasks that you set for yourself.  The first time you do this you may notice that you vastly underestimate how long things will take, or the number of interruptions. Or maybe you forgot to schedule breaks. The next time you adjust.  For example, if you have a lot of unscheduled interruptions, you may want to schedule a six-hour day instead of an 8 or 10 hour day – simply to accommodate for the interruptions. This is a personal process. You just need to figure out what makes sense for you and your situation.

Here are 3 reasons that I think this approach to time management works so well. 

1. It Sets You Up to Win.  At the end of a typical day many people think, “I know I was working, but what did I actually accomplish?” Or even if you had an amazingly productive day, you can still feel demoralized by the mountain of things left undone. With the system I just described, it still takes genuine effort to win your day. It's a challenge, but it is possible, which is a lot more motivating than when you are feeling completely buried.

2. It Helps You to Optimize the Timing of Tasks. If you know that you need to call someone, you can think through in advance when the best time to reach them might be and put it in your schedule accordingly.  You can schedule easier tasks for the end of the day when you are mentally tired, etc.

3. It Helps You Stay Focused. I’m sure you have heard the Rita Mae Brown quote, “If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done.”  Deadlines focus the mind. Playing a game with yourself to see if you can finish that email or memo in the time you allotted helps you to be more productive.  

For law firm lawyers, you may be thinking, “I already track my billable hours. Isn’t that enough?” There are hundreds of ways lawyers track their time.   If what you are doing is working for you, no need to change it. But I talk to a lot of extraordinarily successful law firm lawyers who tell me that they get really annoyed with themselves for wasting time.  If you are super busy and productive this week go ahead and skip the planning.  But the following week when you have less billable work on your plate and are juggling a lot of management and business development responsibilities, that may be when you would find this type of structure more useful.  

One final point. Start fresh each day. Don’t just carry over undone items from the previous day. When you do that, it just turns into that same old never-ending to-do list.  If you would rather not throw out the list entirely, one approach is to keep your lists in a spiral notebook.  You start with a fresh page each day, but you also have the option of going back and picking up loose ends or tracking progress.  Let me know how it goes.