Litigation

How to Be More Productive as a Lawyer

By Evan Schaeffer

From the American Bar Association: "Law Hacks: 101 tips, tricks and tools to make you a more productive, less stressed-out lawyer." Some examples:

21 Do the thing you dread the most first thing each day.

22 Break big tasks up into small chunks. Writer Gina Trapani of San Diego wrote her book of productivity tips, Lifehacker, in 60-minute chunks. ?I?d set a kitch­en timer and write like hell till the bell rang, and then I got up and took a break ?no matter where I was,? she says. ?It?s amazing how a ticking clock can keep you on task and focused.?

23 Calculate filing deadlines and keep track of multiple court schedules with shareware like DateCalc 1.2 or CSC Date Calculator 2.1. The software counts days between dates or measures days from dates. They can save both time and embarrassment.

24 Stop wasting so much time read­ing blogs and watching YouTube.

I suppose it's okay to violate #24, at least for today. Meanwhile, the ABA has opened up its ABA Journal for free access--be sure to take a look. 

Full post as published by The Illinois Trial Practice Blog on December 27, 2007 (boomark / email).