![]() Use a set time system, such as the Pomodoro time management technique. A late lunch? A midday workout? Set a Timer. On the flip side, if you seem to have naturally unproductive times - a lag in the afternoon, for example - see what else you can put there. If you seem to have naturally productive times every day, protect that time by avoiding scheduling meetings and more. Then sit down after a few days or a week of doing this and see what it is that you’re doing with your time, and where you’re losing it. You may also want to keep a “real time” tracker on paper for a few days on paper - set up an Excel spreadsheet that starts and ends whenever you want to finish your day, maybe in 15 minute increments, and manually write in what you’ve done with your time (including things that don’t make it into your billable report, like “got snacks, talked to _” ). It can be a time waster itself, though, if you go in to look at your reports/categorize etc. I still use RescueTime to track where and how I’ve spent time. I’ve also started using Evernote to clip (and file) articles that I want to read eventually but have no immediate application to my life, such as Tim Ferriss’s recent “ definitive list” of the resources for how to write a bestseller. A lot of my time was wasted online by reading articles - I’m not sure if it’s a new feature, but I’ve recently become aware that I can hover over an article link, right-click, and save it to Pocket (without opening up the article in my browser at all). I also have Morphine set to stop me from going “down the rabbit hole” with particularly sticky websites - you know the ones, where you go in to read an article, and suddenly realize two hours have passed? BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, Jezebel, Mashable, and a few others are all limited to eight minutes per day, total.Ĭorollary: Avoid getting sucked into articles, and otherwise handle information overload. I still use this daily! Facebook seems to be a particular time suck for me (I have clearly “liked” too many publications’ pages because I barely see any news from actual friends in my newsfeed), and I have Morphine set to redirect me from Facebook after one minute every hour. If you can’t avoid the Internet, use Morphine or another blocker. My husband and I text throughout the day, but we don’t really have a running conversation. Reassess the usefulness of online chatting services.įor the most part, I have refused to use these for years - they were just way too big of a time waster for me. I haven’t read Getting Things Done in a few years, but I believe the advice there is to put a “2 minute” rule on email - if you can reply to it within two minutes then do it immediately, otherwise save it for a specific time in the day. I’ve recently started using Mailbox and love it, but it only works with Google email addresses (or businesses using Google Apps). Adopt a system to keep your inbox clear of clutter. This depends on your job - for some people you can limit it to 12 PM, 3PM, and 6PM, and be done with it. ![]() Choose set times to look at (and respond) to email throughout the day. If it’s every one minute (which I think was the Outlook default, at least a few years ago), change it to 15 minutes - you may also want to consider turning off notifications (such as dings or bells) that new email has arrived. Check and see how often your computer is “fetching” new emails. Great question! I haven’t been in a billables environment for a while (and even then, my firm had no required minimum), but time management is something I still struggle with daily, so I’m curious to hear what readers say. I recognize that this question is geared toward the lawyers who read your site, but maybe others have similar goals/requirements that they have to satisfy? What do people do to stay continuously motivated and productive? I swore this year would be different, but it seems I am back to my old ways. Would you consider doing a post on billable hours – specifically, what people’s minimum requirements are, and how they go about meeting and/or exceeding those minimums? My firm requires 2000 hours and I had a horrible time last year just making the minimum. Here’s Reader T’s question on managing time: How do you manage your time, either to meet billable minimums, stay motivated and productive, or to fit everything into your life? (Do check out this cool billable hour spreadsheet tool.) February is time management month - and we haven’t talked about how best to manage your time in a while.
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