Beth Worthy
9/10/2018
There are 24 hours in a day, 168 days in a week, 8,760 in a year, and never enough lawyers on hand.
It has been said that time is life's most precious commodity--and many people find it in short supply. This is especially true for legal professionals.
If only they could find a way to squeeze a few more hours out of their work weeks.
Now they can, thanks to the power of technology.
Here's a look at how enterprising attorneys are using innovative new tools to save a few hours each week:
Billable hours are the lifeblood of most law firms, which is why accurately tracking time spent on clients’ cases is so crucial.
It's also a process that's laborious, cumbersome, and incredibly time-consuming.
Many lawyers wait until the end of the workday or even the workweek to account for their time, but that can lead to mistakes or inaccurate tracking. It can also make the process frustrating.
Thanks to some new timekeeping apps, tracking your time simultaneously has never been easier. Apps such as Time Master, Hours Tracker, and iKeepTime make it possible for you to quickly, accurately, and easily track the time you're spending on each client, as you go. An exciting call analytics software, Phonexa, is also strongly recommended for lawyers to track and manage calls that they receive from their clients, resulting in saving their precious time.
Also Read: 3 Ways a Lawyer Can Benefit by Utilizing Transcription Services
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If you have ever tried to schedule a meeting among several busy lawyers, you know firsthand how frustrating it can be. The seemingly endless email strings. The voicemail messages. The declined calendar invites.
It all adds up to the painful process of attempting to schedule an appointment, and it wastes an awful lot of time.
Thankfully, there are apps available that take much of the pain out of this process. Doodle, for example, makes it possible for you to easily send a list of available time slots to invitees, who can then select the times that work best for them.
Calendly is another good one. It syncs directly with your calendar and allows people who want to schedule appointments with you to select times when you are available.
Access to your files matters. So does security. That's why many lawyers go to great lengths to carry their files around with them wherever they go. Sometimes it's in the form of piles of paper. Sometimes it's on an external hard drive and, increasingly, it's in the cloud.
Thanks to platforms such as Dropbox and Google Drive, you can now securely store, maintain, and back up your data on remote servers; this makes it accessible from anywhere, at any time, with internet access.
Not only does cloud storage allow you to access documents from anywhere, but it also allows you to share documents with colleagues, clients, or anyone else to whom you grant permission.
Cloud storage also allows you to collaborate with colleagues--in real-time--on the same document.
That is a real time-saver.
Sometimes saying it is more effective and efficient than typing it.
Being able to quickly and accurately dictate messages, letters, and memos can save you a lot of time. That’s exactly what transcription apps allow you to do.
For example, the Easy2Transcribe app from GMR Transcription can be downloaded on your smartphone, giving you immediate access to high-quality, secure Transcription services. It's convenient, incredibly simple to use, and it comes with a 99 percent accuracy guarantee.
When you don't have enough hours in a day to do it yourself, it's time to ask someone else to do it for you. There are many task-specific outsourcing legal transcription services available to help you assemble, review, submit court filings, proofread documents, and more.
Lawyers invariably feel hard-pressed for time due to the demanding nature of their profession. Being a legal professional, the above-stated tips can help you keep organized and manage your time more efficiently.
