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| Time
Management Article by Micheline Egan Communications Trainer for the legal profession Are you the kind of solicitor who brings work home in a briefcase? No, I hear you answer. Well then are there ever times when you’re trying to sleep and files flash through your mind? Do you sneak into the office before other staff, stay later or work weekends? How does this make you feel? Tense, frustrated, tired and probably afraid of making a major mistake. Time is a major resource for any solicitor. We all get 168 hours per week. Making good use of your time isn’t simply a matter of working hard at being organised. The secret of good time management is recognising that many things are urgent but not everything is important. Clarifying what’s important is the first step. And this step takes time. Are you clear about what your goals are in life? If you had an extra two hours in every day, would you spend it on more work or save it for an enjoyable activity? Did you once have a plan to take a half-day off every week? But somehow with the pressure of work you have let it slip? Managing time is about working smarter not harder. A recent survey in London showed on average most office workers spend 17.5 days looking for paper. Could you do with some help in cleaning your office and sorting out some paperwork? Up to 80% of what you read is unimportant. Be ruthless, have a policy of reading once and deciding whether to deal, dump or delegate. Get rid of miscellaneous trays on your desk. They only cause heart attacks when you find something that should have been dealt with months ago. Be vigilant also about the amount of time you spend at meetings. Always request a time frame, try and hold the meeting when it suits you. Bring participants back on track if they move off the point. Close the meeting at an agreed time. And if you can’t get people to leave your office, get up and walk towards the door! Remember that NO is a complete sentence. Look for ways to say no objectively. People accept an objective response rather than a subjective one. And always buy time if you feel caught on the hop. “I’ll check that out and get back to you”, is a great time buying technique. Knowing what you want out of life and identifying what makes you happy are the building blocks to putting first things first. After you take some time to think on this subject, and follow it up with some changes, you'll be amazed by how much time you can claw back for yourself. So now, if I offered you your weekend’s back and a half-day off mid week, what would you do with that time?
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