THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
July 1, 2011 | 25
BUSINESS
CAREERS
The issue of time management comes up more often
when I am working with my
clients. If you don’t have effective systems to manage your
time, you won’t be that keen on
adding time to your schedule
for business development and
marketing your practice. Not
only that, you won’t be maximizing your billable time. As
lawyers your time is everything.
You get pulled in multiple directions all day long. So it’s even
more important that you
become effective at managing it.
Here are some of the tips I share
with my clients.
Start your day with intention
As soon as you get to your
office take a few ( 10) minutes to
look at your day and prioritize
THE COACH
GARY
MITCHELL
your tasks in a list. Make sure to
refer to this list throughout your
day (especially when all the distractions come at you). When it
appears everything is a priority,
take a second look—use your
prioritized task list as a guide.
Block time into your calendar
for business development
efforts and stick to it. It’s more
important to do some on a regular basis than none at all.
end your day with intention
Before you leave for the day,
take the last few minutes to
review your task list. Did you
get everything done you needed
to? If not, how is that going to
affect tomorrow and the rest of
your week? How does it affect
your clients? Do you need to
make a quick phone call or send
an email update to a client to
let them know you won’t make
that deadline? It’s very import-
ant to keep them up to speed
and if you are running behind,
be honest about it. Most of the
time, they will appreciate of
your honesty. And always be
planning. Always be reviewing.
It will keep you focused and on
track.
on a weekly basis
Get yourself into the habit
every Friday afternoon to organ-
ize your office and desk. If files
are all over the place, take a few
minutes to organize them.
Think about walking into your
office on Monday morning to a
clean and organized environ-
ment. How will that affect the
way you start your week?
Set deadlines for all tasks
No matter what the task, a
discovery meeting or a trial you
are preparing for, a contract
negotiation, mediation or arti-
cle to be published or a seminar
to present—get in the habit of
setting your deadlines for com-
pletion two days ahead of time.
If you can set it even earlier, do
it. This will give you the luxury
of time. What this does is
invaluable.
In-house Counsel summer edition out now
The Canadian Corporate Counsel Association’s (CCCA) 2011 In-house Counsel
Barometer asked Canadian in-house counsel recently:
What are the corporate strategic issues with which the general
counsel in your organization is involved directly?
enterprise-wide risk management
57%
59%
regulatory compliance
49%
56%
Strategic development
48%
49%
Crisis management
38%
37%
mergers & acquisitions
23%
39%
Human resource management
18%
19%
Corporate financial budgeting
18%
8%
Succession planning
8%
7%
other mentions
4%
3%
Reported by general counsel
Perceived by non-general counsel
A legal role
And which of the following roles do you feel best describe the
majority of work you do as part of your role as in-house counsel?
61%
An advisory role
25%
29%
54%
A management role
10%
21%
General counsel
Non-general counsel
Find more survey results in
our summer 2011 issue of
In-house Counsel, available in
this issue of The Lawyers
Weekly.
PLUS
+ CIVIL WAR
The Canadian Corporate
Counsel Association vs. the
Canada Bar Association
+ OFFICE SPACE
A look at the offices of Trent
University’s legal team
+ ADVERTISING
Advertising pitfalls all in-house
counsel should be aware of
VERSION
See the
WAVEBREAKMEDIAMICRO / DREAMSTIME.COM
DIGITAL
Thinking generally
about the
services supplied
by outside
counsel to you or
your organization
over the last year,
would you say
they have
exceeded your
expectations, met
your expectations
or fallen short
of your
expectations?
Fallen short
of expectations
15%
www.lawyersweekly.ca/IHC
exceeded
expectations7%
78%
met expectations
