When I was starting out as a trainee solicitor, one of the hardest concepts to grasp was the idea of time recording. Many professionals convert their time to invoices by noting how long a required action took, and then charging for it based on their hourly rate. Although I regard the tool as archaic and I no longer use it myself, the years of training taught me to regard every minute as potential and to value all minutes equally. It also showed me that time management is an exact science and not an art.

If you ever get to the end of the day, week or month and wonder where it went, you can use the lawyer’s time recording strategy to your advantage. You can reverse engineer your time management by planning your day in advance to the minute. Unless something genuinely unanticipated has occurred (note, very few things qualify for this) I am always on time. I know the time I have available and I allocate exact minutes and precise times. The key is to be realistic and accurate about how long something will take.

In order for me to meet my financial targets as a lawyer, there were key distinctions I had to learn:

1. Chargeable work over non-chargeable work. In business this means you have to prioritise the money generating work over everything else. When we have several pulls on our time, we must be strict in focusing on the tasks which will directly convert into money for the business. You can only work on the business, if there is a business to work on.
2. Optimistic time management is still ineffective. It does not matter why your time planning was wrong, the end result is the same. Being late demonstrates that you cannot do basic maths.
3. Lag time is real. If you fail to account for the minutes in between the tasks, you are going to fall behind really quickly. You are not a robot, give yourself room to manoeuvre.
4. Time spent is only potential until the money is in the bank. You cannot pay the bills with potential.
5. Busy is not the objective. Your goal is not to use every minute. It is to complete the tasks that need to be completed. If you have not completed the important things, it is no compensation that you have a sense of accomplishment from the less important things.

This week, start to notice where you are misjudging your time management. What is it that throws you off track?

• Failing to account for transition time
• Allowing others to hijack your minutes
• Prioritising the trivial for a sense of accomplishment
• Not working your way backwards through your day before you begin
• Flitting between tasks without fully completing anything.

As always, I love to hear your thoughts and insights. I read every message – feel free to connect with me.