10 Incredibly Useful Time Management Skills for Lawyers

How can you bill more hours while juggling non-billable work – without burning yourself out?

You CAN get more done in less time while having time for family and life outside of work. I often work with lawyers and once they start implementing the right strategies, everything changes.

And today, you’ll get the most effective time management strategies for lawyers you can use today to improve your productivity and work smarter, not harder.

Ready to get started? Let’s go!

Time management for lawyers

Track your time
Prioritize the right tasks
Block time
Eliminate the wrong things
Delegate effectively
Set realistic deadlines
Manage interruptions
Establish boundaries
Manage emails
Use these productivity tools

Why is time management important for lawyers?

Did you know that 86% of lawyers work outside regular hours to finish their tasks?

Unsurprisingly, this leads to seriously stressed-out lawyers and attorneys – two-thirds have experienced burnout. The legal industry isn’t exactly known for its work-life balance and less than half (49%) of legal professionals are satisfied with it.

At the same time, 82% of people don’t have a time management system in place.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

By learning to manage your time more effectively, you can meet and exceed your billable hour quotas, stay organized and on top of your casework and client communication, and ensure administrative and routine tasks get done.

You’ll…

And away from the office, you’ll have more time for your family, hobbies, and self-care, while earning more.

I used to work 80+ hours a week in corporate America, which led me hospitalized with an stress-related illness. But using the systems I’ll talk about below changed everything and I was able to not only regain my health, but also work less and earn more.

Want to learn how I did it?

Then keep reading.

How do you become more productive as a lawyer?

You might be thinking, “Okay, this sounds good – but I’m so busy I don’t see a way out!”

Let me tell you about my client Tim, a well-known attorney who felt the same way.

When he found Lifehack Method, the system I’ve developed, he was working long hours trying to grow his practice.

As a last-ditch effort to overcoming his poor time management habits, he joined our Lifehack Bootcamp… and it changed everything.

By the end, he’d built systems that saved him two hours each day, created more than 100 new SOPs, and even franchised his legal practice!

You can do it too.

Here are the best ways to improve time management for lawyers.

1. Track your time

As a lawyer, you already track your time.

But I want you to track your time in and out of the office with a time audit.

I do this with every client and they all see remarkable results.

For two weeks, keep a diary of how you spend every hour of your day in half-hour blocks.

Sounds simple, right?

It is – but it’s also the best way to find out how you spend your time.

By the end, you’ll know exactly where your time goes, what gets your attention, and what you need to change to reclaim your time.

My client Margie is a GREAT example of this. Like Tim, she’s a successful lawyer who struggled to catch up on her work and had no time left for her husband or hobbies.

She just wanted five hours back.

But when she tracked her time, she found that she spent 11 hours each week reading the news! She took back those hours and used them for things that really mattered.

Hear more in this video:

2. Prioritize tasks

When you have a million things on your to-do list that all need to get done, it can be nearly impossible to figure out what you need to do first.

That’s where leverage comes in.

When you leverage your tasks, you figure out what you can do right now to make everything else easier.

The instinct is to “warm up” by completing the small tasks first – but that’s NOT the way to do it. The truth is, those urgent tasks will never stop coming.

And by focusing on them, you’re just procrastinating on the bigger and more challenging tasks. Eventually, you’re going to run out of time.

So choose the one priority with the most leverage each week and finish it by Tuesday. That way, you can use the rest of the week to handle the smaller, less important tasks.

This one trick will make you feel like you’ve moved your life forward in a HUGE way. 🚶

Carey and I discuss how to leverage your tasks and offer examples in this video:

How do you choose which tasks to leverage, though?

With the Eisenhower Matrix, a system that helps you organize your tasks by how urgent and important they are.

Divide your existing tasks into four different boxes (as shown below). Your most important tasks are those that are both highly important and highly urgent. Get those done first.

Then, move on to tasks that are highly important but not very urgent.

Tasks that are not important and urgent or not important and not urgent are tasks you can either delete from your to-do list or delegate.

And when you’ve figured out the tasks you need to work on, write them down!

Effective to-do lists can increase your discipline and ease your stress and anxiety – if you’re writing them well.

That means:

Using the 1:4:5 rule – 1 important task, 4 mid-level tasks, and 5 simple tasks
Writing tasks with actionable verbs
Breaking each task into subtasks

Learn more in this guide.

3. Block time

With so much to do, it’s tempting to multitask.

And sometimes, you’ll even feel like you’re getting somewhere doing it!

But here’s the hard truth.

Multitasking doesn’t work because it doesn’t exist.

When you multitask, you’re actually just rapidly switching between tasks. And, as studies show, costing yourself precious time and increases the likelihood of making a mistake.

So start working on one task at a time by setting aside focused blocks of time. 🗓️

Our Sticky Focus Game is great for this.

You just write your tasks on sticky notes, set a timer, and see how many stickies you can get through. Chances are, you’ll surprise yourself!

Learn to play in this video:

Task batching is another quick way to improve time management for lawyers.

Why?

Because every recurring task can be batched with at least one other.

And task batching increases your engagement and makes it easier to get into a flow state.

If you can, batch certain tasks by day. For example, hold client meetings on set days so that you can do more deep thinking on other days.

4. Eliminate the wrong things

The single biggest mistake I see my clients make when they first come to us is focusing on the wrong things.

All too often, they focus on getting the smaller things done first so they can focus on the bigger, more important things later (as I mentioned before).

And they’re working quickly!

But they’re not working effectively.

And if you’re being efficient without being effective, what’s the point?

So one of the key elements for your as a lawyer is knowing what to focus on and eliminating everything else.

I always recommend that my clients determine what really matters with the “Champagne Moment” exercise. 🍾

Think about what’s on your to-do list for the week. What would you be so happy to finish that you would buy a bottle of champagne on the way home?

This one question will help you focus on the right things so you can work efficiently AND effectively.

Carey talks about how to create a Champagne Moment in this video:

5. Delegate effectively

Delegating specific tasks is one of the best ways to leverage your to-do list as a busy lawyer.

Many clients push back on this and say they don’t trust anyone enough to delegate to or that it actually creates more work in the long run.

I hear you… But that’s a you thing.

You either hired the wrong person or set up the task incorrectly.

(It’s probably the latter.)

To delegate tasks well, you have to be clearer than clear in your instructions and take the time to walk them through the task, start to finish.

Carey explains more about how to delegate successfully in this quick video:

But don’t limit delegation to the office.

Outsourcing personal tasks like errands or laundry can save you time and money each month – I’ve been doing it for years.

6. Set realistic deadlines

📅Setting deadlines is a great way to overcome procrastination because they offer a sense of urgency.

But they have to be realistic.

If you set a deadline that’s too close, you set yourself up for failure. But you’ll lose that sense of motivation if it’s too far away.

And remember to give yourself a buffer! I’ll will tell you more in this video:

7. Manage interruptions

There’s NOTHING worse than getting interrupted while you’re working, right?

And I don’t mean interruptions by tech notifications or your phone.

I’m talking about the colleagues or clients who expect you to drop everything to help them or answer a question. 🗣️

Interruptions may seem small in the moment, but even the most minor interruptions can wreak havoc on your time.

Studies show that it takes 25 minutes to recover and get back to the task at hand.

But even then, the same study found that it takes 15 minutes to reach the level of concentration you’d reached before the interruption.

So, for the sake of your time, find ways to manage those interruptions or eliminate them altogether.

Here are the tips we swear by:

Work behind a closed door or face the other way to physically separate yourself from interruptions.
Create negative consequences and tell your colleagues how their interruption will impact you.
Put some unscheduled time in your calendar for unforeseen interruptions.

You can hear some other helpful tips here:

8. Establish boundaries

The average lawyer works 66 hours per week – that’s over 13 hours each day, not including weekends!

Here’s the thing about time management for lawyers.

Setting boundaries by communicating your schedule doesn’t make you any less successful or productive.

It just makes you less likely to overwork or burn out and more likely to have a better work-life balance.

But you have to establish firm boundaries and know when to say no.

9. Manage your emails

On average, we send and receive over 100 emails each day. 📩

And it is a killer of time management for lawyers.

But your inbox isn’t just another productivity problem.

It’s the sum of all of your productivity problems.

If you want to get on top of your time, you have to get on top of your inbox.

Here’s how to do it:

Don’t make email your primary source of communication. If every little task requires an email, your inbox will pile up QUICKLY. Instead, use purpose-built project management tools like Asana.
Set a communication policy that lets people know how and when to reach you in a way that works for both of you.
Create a clear SOP that includes a workflow and clear lines of communication.

Now, as a lawyer, you might never get to inbox zero. And that’s okay – but you can minimize it!

I tell all of my clients to start thinking of each email as a productivity fail.

Your ultimate goal should be to ensure everyone has what they need, right?

So, if you have to send or reply to an email, some part of that goal has failed. Work backward to figure out what it was.

I explore this concept more in this video:

10. Use productivity tools

Last but not least, productivity tools and task managers are a game changer.

Here are some to think about:

Clio: Legal project management tool for onboarding, case and matter management, and document management.
MyCase: Helps with case management, client communications, billing, and streamlining administrative tasks.
LEAP: Made for practice management and includes integrated accounting, document management, and legal publishing tools.
PandaDoc for Legal: Automates creating, approving, and signing proposals and contracts.

And, of course, Asana – the project management tool that we at Lifehack Method SWEAR by. Seriously, I use it for everything (and even launched an Asana Mastery course).

AI tools, like Lex Machina and Lexis+ AI, are also becoming increasingly popular.

In fact, studies have found that 51% of lawyers are using or planning to use AI in their work, most often for increasing efficiency, research, and drafting documents. While AI tools keep improving, you can already now use them to save hours of workload.

I talk more about AI here:

Time management resources for lawyers

Want to learn more? Here are some of the top resources.

Books

“Winning the Week: How to Plan a Successful Week, Every Week” by Carey and Demir Bentley. Our own book that shows you how to get control of your time and life.
“Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” by David Allen. A classic in the productivity space and a must-read for anyone who wants to learn how to manage tasks and projects.

Podcasts

Freedom Decoded: Listen to our podcast where we dive deep into a bigger productivity topic every month.
The Legal Toolkit: A monthly podcast for professionals in law practice management to discuss ways to improve legal practices.

Courses

Lifehack Tribe: A time management course for lawyers and other incredibly busy professionals, like entrepreneurs and CEOs. Get accountability, peer support, and coaching so that you can finally learn how to become highly productive.

Software

Clio Manage: A time tracking tool with legal timekeeping features.
Asana: A project management tool to keep track of projects and teamworks.

What’s next?

There you have it! The full guide to improving time management for lawyers and law firms.

Now you know the best time management tips for maximizing your billable hours, meeting client demands, and having time for the things you want to spend your time on.

That said, sustainable and lasting change requires a system and support.

And that’s what you get when you join the Lifehack Tribe, a members-only community that has helped thousands of people change their lives.

Our Lifehack Method system, which includes coaching and community support and accountability, helps you win back your time and lead a happier, more productive life. So that you can find more success, achieve your biggest goals, and spend more time on the things you enjoy!

So, if you’re ready to improve your time management and get more done in less time, you can join today for less than $7 per week!

Read more:

The Best Time Management Courses

How To Plan Your Week For Success

Top Time Management Skills for Consultants