Do you remember life before email? Do you remember the practice of law before BlackBerrys? No doubt about it email, BlackBerrys, smartphones and texting all make our lives and practices a lot easier in many ways. Most attorneys live and breathe the dogma that email must immediately be processed and a response given. However, we cannot ignore the fact that our profession requires us to be both responsive and competent. Satisfying both of these obligations requires that we make technology our servant, not our master.
Implementing just one of these practices will help you be more efficient, more focused and more able to prioritize. We’re talking baby steps. Rest assured that you will fall down. We do, too. But we also recognize that when you have a system in place for dealing with the information flying at you from multiple sources, you free yourself to focus on higher-level tasks. Many studies have shown what should be obvious: Sifting through hundreds of emails is not the best use of your precious time.
