Where did your day go?

Log in to listen to this article

Time-sensitive emails. Legally mandated limitation periods. Court dates. Client meetings. Drafting. Like many lawyers, Heather MacDougall juggles dozens of competing priorities — and that makes time management paramount. While a strong memory and a few sticky notes get many students through law school, that approach doesn’t cut it in a busy practice.

Heather MacDougall

“People pay a lot of money for what we do, and you don’t want to come across sloppy,” says MacDougall, a civil litigation and employment lawyer at Nelson, Watson LLP in Guelph, Ont. 

“You don’t want clients perceiving that something’s rushed … not done with the full attention and care that it could be given.”

Then there’s the personal stress created when you lose track of files, scramble to meet deadlines, or fail to respond to important emails. 

“You pay a huge price in terms of your peace of mind and your enjoyment of life if you don’t have effective systems in place,” says Paul Saunders, a partner and chief strategy & innovation officer at Stewart McKelvey in Halifax.

Building systems — and buffers

So how do you keep everything on track? 

“The answer to that question doesn’t start with the app. It starts with the person,” says former litigator Paula Price, who heads up Vancouver’s Uplevel Lawyer Coaching and hosts The Joyful Practice for Women Lawyers podcast. 

Some people need visual cues, such as wall calendars and paper to-do lists. Others go fully digital. Whatever the approach, an effective system tracks case files, tasks, and deadlines so you know what you need to do and by when. 

The other key is allocating enough time for each task, including time for clients, colleagues and opposing counsel to respond to your requests. Even if you don’t bill by the hour, tracking your time helps you estimate how long a particular job will take — and can provide surprising insights into how you spend your day.

Of course, urgent things can crop up at the last minute, your laptop can crash, and what you thought would take three hours can end up taking six. Building buffers into your calendar ensures these hiccups don’t derail your week. 

Managing energy and distractions 

To get the most out of your day, think about managing your energy levels, as well as your time. For example, MacDougall saves substantive work like drafting for daytime, when her brain is sharper. If she knows she’ll need to catch up on work after the kids have gone to bed, she makes sure it’s tasks like responding to emails that don’t require her to be at the top of her game. 

Price recommends creating routines for how you start your day, the way you draft an argument, and how you respond to emails. This not only saves time but also conserves precious brainpower for other tasks. She also suggests breaking your calendar into time blocks, including ones for focused work. 

This has been a game-changer for MacDougall. Recently, she began limiting client calls and meetings to the first three days of the week, reserving Thursday and Friday to work on files. 

“That’s a very different headspace,” she says.

“I can put music on, and I can just get into what I need to get into without being interrupted.”

And to limit interruptions from colleagues through the day, consider setting “office hours” when your door is open. 

Prioritizing and delegating 

It’s easy to get caught up in distractions that don’t move the needle forward, but the more deliberately you prioritize your work, the less you’re playing whack-a-mole. Saunders recommends spending most of your time on tasks that are important but not urgent, so that you deal with them before they become urgent.

Saying no is also crucial because taking on something when you’re already stretched will compromise the quality of your other work. When you can’t say no to a more senior colleague or major client, Saunders suggests saying “yes, if.” Yes, you can do it if the deadline isn’t so tight. Or if you can put other projects on hold. Or if you can delegate a portion of the work.

Delegation is also a skill worth learning. Many lawyers feel it’s easier to do a task themselves than to spend time briefing someone and then ensuring their work is up to standard. Instead, consider that time an initial investment will pay off as their skills grow. Saunders’ rule of thumb is to delegate a task when there’s someone who can do it 70 per cent as well as you. 

A slightly different approach is to look for people who complement your strengths. 

“If you’re a really good initiator and you’re not a very good planner, you want to couple up with a really good planner,” Price says. 

Progress over perfection

No one manages time perfectly, so stop beating yourself up if you struggle. 

“Poor time management is not a moral failing,” says Price. 

“You just need better systems.” 

Paula Price

What about those who procrastinate? That’s very human too, especially when there’s no urgent deadline or when a project is big and daunting. 

“I would dial the volume of that message up for any lawyer who has challenges when it comes to executive function, including lawyers with ADHD,” Price says. 

She suggests breaking tasks down so they’re less intimidating and picking one step you can take to move the file forward. 

Finally, remember that even with the best time management and productivity systems, there’s only so much work you can achieve in a day. 

“Effective time management is just like all things: it’s about trade-offs,” Saunders says. 

“You can’t optimize for all things all the time.”