Resolutions for Lawyers - Day 2

Every time I see an advertisement for a time and billing "solution" for lawyers, it almost always has some variation on the theme, "If you could recapture just ___ more minutes per day, you would make $____ more per year."  When lawyers are tied to billing clients by the hour, so much of what we do (and how we are paid) depends only upon the time we spend that is directly attributable to a client's file.  And as the advertisement suggests, every extra minute we can recapture makes us more money.  Or does it?

Regular readers of this blog know that I am no fan of the billable hour, and apart from its destructive impact on the relationship we wish to have with our clients, billing by the hour has a more insidious effect on our business' bottom lines:  We fail to take the time to think about the business itself.  Every time I meet with other lawyers and share some of the ideas about how my partner and I are changing our law practices, they invariably ask, "How do you find time to think about all of this stuff."  Though I hold my tongue, I am thinking to myself, "How can they afford not to?"

That brings me to my resolution for the day:

Take 30 minutes per day to seriously think about your business.  Are you doing the work you like to do?  Are you working with clients that respect your efforts?  If you answer "No" to either of those questions, are there ways you can change your practice to get to where you want to be?

For those 30 minutes, get away from the phone and the computer, and commit to writing down 25 ideas.  File the ideas away, and look at them again at the end of each week.  Out of the hundreds of ideas you'll generate each month, there will certainly be a gem or two that will help you become the lawyer you want to be. 

Trust me, if you work on your business for a change instead of just for your business, you will reap amazing dividends for your practice and your life.

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Resolutions for Lawyers, Day 3

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Thank You, Fred Faulkner