Very few types of lawyers spend more time on the phone than personal injury attorneys.
Even the smoothest personal injury claims require lots of back and forth and great communication between medical providers and attorneys. If either of those things are missing, the difficulty—and duration—of the job increases.
Fortunately, technology and some simple organization strategies make it easier than ever before to cut back on time-sucking administrative tasks.
Here are 5 tips to reduce phone calls, boost productivity and simplify your workday without sacrificing quality for your clients.
1. Block Off Administrative Tasks
Many parties are involved in a personal injury claim, and all of them must be kept in the loop. It’s no exaggeration to say that you can easily lose a day making phone calls if you aren’t careful.
This is true with any job, really. But there’s a lot more at stake for lawyers than in other professions.
Did you know one study found that 2 out of 3 potential employers say that quick replies via phone or email help them determine who to hire? [1]
Whether you’re looking for a job or not, the point stands: an attorneys’ time is sought after, and punctuality is rewarded. But that doesn’t mean you have to be at the mercy of a telephone ring eight to ten hours per day. In fact, you shouldn’t be.
Organizational psychologists have found that professionals who task switch and multitask are generally less productive.
A solution is to block off administrative tasks like making phone calls. Once in the morning, then again in the afternoon. However you do it, do all the communicating you have to at one time. And when you’re done, put your phone on Do Not Disturb.
This meets your clients and bosses halfway. You’re still punctual and accessible, and you don’t have to constantly think about your phone going off.
2. Do The Hard Tasks First
Getting the day’s most difficult tasks done first is another simple productivity tool for lawyers.
Popular books on productivity like Eat That Frog say that doing the tough stuff first helps eliminate procrastination and increase motivation throughout the day.
By completing difficult tasks (eating “frogs”) first, you get things done when you have the most energy. Even if you spend the same amount of time on your work, the rest of the day is bound to feel easier. Here’s why this is important:
- Studies show that starting a task earlier in the day helps you process it quicker—meaning you get the information out of your head, declutter your mind and create room for other important data. [2]
- Studies also show that the average professional’s most productive hours are between 8am and 2pm. [3] For many people, any tasks performed after the “afternoon crash” are often a wash.
Whether phone calls are your most difficult task or it’s something else doesn’t matter. Try checking off the hard things first so that you have juice for the rest of the day.
3. Increase Billable Hours For Personal Injury Attorneys
Making a conscious effort to increase the number of billable hours you or your law firm offer seems like a no-brainer. After all, more billed hours equals more money for your business.
As logical as that is, it doesn’t mean that all personal injury attorneys—or any type of lawyer really—does it that effectively.
Studies vary, but check out these sobering statistics on how lawyers waste time when they could be making money:
- A 2017 study found the average lawyer bills less than 30 percent of their work day. [4,5]
- Another study found that most lawyers work at least three hours for every two that they bill—and that most would need to work 7.5 hours of overtime each weekend to make up for this financially. [6]
You get the point—most lawyers could do better when it comes to billable hours. But how?
Well, what gets measured can be managed. So whether you’re part of a large team or you operate on your own, start tracking where your time goes. Ask your employees where they see their time getting wasted.
From there, set a personal or organizational goal around how many billable hours you’ll schedule each day. Then design the rest of your schedule (including phone calls) around it.
Working this way, you account for the most important task—the activity that’s keeping the lights on—first. Plus, you get to have valuable discussions about how long other activities are taking, how valuable they are to your business, etc.
4. Use Time-Saving Apps/Tools
There are many productivity and organization tools and applications that lawyers can use.
Online lawyer productivity tools you might use include:
- SelfControl– Blocks websites from your computer for a set amount of time.
- Evernote– Great for note-taking, including video and audio notes.
- Slack- Easy communication tools for messaging.
- TomatoTimer– Helps you apply the proven time-management Pomodoro Technique (work for 25 minutes, break for 5).
- ToDoIst– A simple tool that lets you organize and virtually check off the day’s activities. Free forever with some premium features.
There are quite literally hundreds of other tools, many of which will work for you based on the type of legal work you do, the clients you serve and how big your team is.
5. Store Information All In One Place
Speaking of the specifics of the job, personal injury attorneys can especially reduce the number of calls they take by keeping information accessible and organized.
After all, a large chunk of those time-sucking phone calls you’re making are probably in search of missing documents.
Many lawyers use cloud-based services like Dropbox to store and share information between parties. But it’s not the easiest tool to share with tons of different people. And using Dropbox can be risky for lawyers.
A secure online portal like ShareScape, on the other hand, could be a fantastic solution for your personal injury practice.
Instead of filing through documents or exchanging emails back and forth, ShareScape provides secure and easy record sharing for attorneys and medical providers. All in one place—and the more medical providers and lawyers who use it, the easier it becomes for everyone!
Request a demo and see how ShareScape can save personal injury attorneys time and reduce the number of phone calls you have to take!