GTD for Lawyers Help Needed

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BWaltrip1981

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Fellow GTDers and Lawyers. Want to speak with another attorney or get advice on an issue I have. I am a trial attorney who has three staff and three other attorneys. My oversight of other attorneys is not exorbitant (maybe 30-45 minutes a day meetings to review their work or questions), but I manage the small firm so I handle all the business related aspects in addition to my own caseload.

Unfortunately, I am endlessly stuck in the "Clarifying" stage and struggle to get to the actual Next Action items. Part of this is the volume of emails I get that require more than 2 minutes to respond. I can generally keep up with the less than 2 minute emails, but once I have to deal with emails that generate next actions or take 10-15 minutes to respond, I get bogged down and can't get to the actual legal work of drafting, etc.

I have tried to process my "inbox" to 0 every 48 hours, but not sure that is realistic. For example, I did so over the past weekend and Monday at 8:00 AM, I had 37 new emails in the inbox. (I had hoped/planned to come in and get started right away on next actions). Over Monday and Tuesday while trying to also complete next action items, I got that down to 22 on Tuesday night. I awoke to over 40 emails again this morning.

I am trying to determine how long I need each day to "Clarify" work, and I'm beginning to think I need at least two, maybe three solid hours a day to handle 2 minute emails and Clarify work. Couple this with my court schedule and other firm responsibilities, and I'm not sure how much time is left for actual Next Actions related to my specific cases. (drafting Motions, etc.). I have a great staff who keeps me on top of documents I need to review and file, but I'm sort of stuck at this point.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I do use the @_____ to help breakdown my emails. Maybe I'm missing something.
 
I'm not an attorney, but I can say that one thing GTD is very good at is showing you if you are overcommitted! So that's something to think about. If you are managing the firm, acting as lead to other attorneys AND trying to manage a caseload I am going to take a guess and say you potentially have too much on your plate. I have heard that those in the law are some of the most overworked...
Clarify really depends - some things I can clarify in a few seconds. Others take longer. Perhaps consider How you clarify? Are you overthinking things?
A few "hacks" I use are:
1. Rip through the easy stuff first, get it clarified and organised onto your list
2. Stuff that needs (a lot) more thinking - I take that as the next action instead of taking ages clarifying one thing - if it's that complex, I need to capture the thinking step separately
3. Delegate delegate delegate
4. I sometimes use priority lists. Not canon GTD, but occasionally I'll go "ok what's actually urgent and important" and focus on getting those clear. Stuff that can wait, waits, sometimes even going into someday / maybe - I have three levels of SM which basically translate to Soon, Possibly, and Eh, Maybe one day.
5. Timeblocking can help - I can put an hour aside and whizz through 2 minute actions. Then another hour clarifying, another hour doing actual work, maybe 30 mins inbox reduction. This can help to keep lots of things moving and stop you getting bogged down.
6. Get someone to do your filing!
 
Thanks for posting. And good on you for implementing GTD. I've know some lawyers who decided before trying it that it couldn't work for them. I respect you for giving it a try.

One thing that may or may not apply: Use a timer for the two-minute-or-less stuff. Often when people are getting started they underestimate how long stuff takes. The timer will help you calibrate. Yes, it may mean you have longer lists. But you will also spend less time getting to zero, and have that fantastic feeling of knowing you are a "consistently gets in to zero" person.
 
BWaltrip1981 said:
Fellow GTDers and Lawyers. Want to speak with another attorney or get advice on an issue I have. I am a trial attorney who has three staff and three other attorneys. My oversight of other attorneys is not exorbitant (maybe 30-45 minutes a day meetings to review their work or questions), but I manage the small firm so I handle all the business related aspects in addition to my own caseload.

Unfortunately, I am endlessly stuck in the "Clarifying" stage and struggle to get to the actual Next Action items. Part of this is the volume of emails I get that require more than 2 minutes to respond. I can generally keep up with the less than 2 minute emails, but once I have to deal with emails that generate next actions or take 10-15 minutes to respond, I get bogged down and can't get to the actual legal work of drafting, etc.

I have tried to process my "inbox" to 0 every 48 hours, but not sure that is realistic. For example, I did so over the past weekend and Monday at 8:00 AM, I had 37 new emails in the inbox. (I had hoped/planned to come in and get started right away on next actions). Over Monday and Tuesday while trying to also complete next action items, I got that down to 22 on Tuesday night. I awoke to over 40 emails again this morning.

I am trying to determine how long I need each day to "Clarify" work, and I'm beginning to think I need at least two, maybe three solid hours a day to handle 2 minute emails and Clarify work. Couple this with my court schedule and other firm responsibilities, and I'm not sure how much time is left for actual Next Actions related to my specific cases. (drafting Motions, etc.). I have a great staff who keeps me on top of documents I need to review and file, but I'm sort of stuck at this point.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I do use the @_____ to help breakdown my emails. Maybe I'm missing something.
Click to expand...
@BWaltrip1981

Very initial thought:

Perhaps or more adamantly 'simply' Delegate for necessary/needed Clarification?

Given your parameters sounds like your "Waiting For" might be a very desired Long(est) List?

As such, seeing the Waiting For emails located in staff name's files containing the ''subject line accuracy' email bi-sent to them and self
Perhaps the 'accurate subject lines' in the email file will also function as an Agenda list when appropriate?

Clarify by simply asking the best suited staff member to do the initial imperfectly good "Clarification" to start-&-keep the ball moving?

Very high probability you will receive sufficient Clarification for very low cost 'leverage' with a very low 'more work/blow-up' risk?

Secondarily, the Clarification request MIGHT also included the desired Outcome [when some how already self-evident] or perhaps even request a what a desired Outcome could be?

Hopefully the above herein makes sense
 
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All great points. Definitely noted in just two days that many "2 minute" emails actually take about five minutes. I also created a Read/Respond for those emails that take more than 2 minutes but don't require other Next Actions. Trying to implement time blocking to figure out how much i REALLY need for Responding to greater than 2 minute emails and how Urgent/Important they are.

And yes, overworked are most attorneys. Its been a three year process of cutting back, and cutting some more, and cutting again. Thanks again for all the pointers.
 
BWaltrip1981 said:
. . . . Definitely noted in just two days that many "2 minute" emails actually take about five minutes. . . .
Click to expand...
Good for you! This is one of two places that I've saved a lot of time over the years, by recalibrating my sense of how long two minutes really is. It helps to objectify that with a timer every few months, especially if getting to zero seems to take longer than it used to.

The other place is in the review. When I let myself get caught in doing during the review, I can realize that I'm only halfway done with the review, but it's been 90 minutes already. Anything on my lists is by definition more than two minutes, so there's no reason to get into doing instead of reviewing, unless I'm okay with a long review. I find that the win from completing the review is worth far more psychological points than the possible win from getting snagged in the doing of a longer-than-two-minute action.
 
Hi
BWaltrip1981 said:
Fellow GTDers and Lawyers. Want to speak with another attorney or get advice on an issue I have. I am a trial attorney who has three staff and three other attorneys. My oversight of other attorneys is not exorbitant (maybe 30-45 minutes a day meetings to review their work or questions), but I manage the small firm so I handle all the business related aspects in addition to my own caseload.

Unfortunately, I am endlessly stuck in the "Clarifying" stage and struggle to get to the actual Next Action items. Part of this is the volume of emails I get that require more than 2 minutes to respond. I can generally keep up with the less than 2 minute emails, but once I have to deal with emails that generate next actions or take 10-15 minutes to respond, I get bogged down and can't get to the actual legal work of drafting, etc.

I have tried to process my "inbox" to 0 every 48 hours, but not sure that is realistic. For example, I did so over the past weekend and Monday at 8:00 AM, I had 37 new emails in the inbox. (I had hoped/planned to come in and get started right away on next actions). Over Monday and Tuesday while trying to also complete next action items, I got that down to 22 on Tuesday night. I awoke to over 40 emails again this morning.

I am trying to determine how long I need each day to "Clarify" work, and I'm beginning to think I need at least two, maybe three solid hours a day to handle 2 minute emails and Clarify work. Couple this with my court schedule and other firm responsibilities, and I'm not sure how much time is left for actual Next Actions related to my specific cases. (drafting Motions, etc.). I have a great staff who keeps me on top of documents I need to review and file, but I'm sort of stuck at this point.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I do use the @_____ to help breakdown my emails. Maybe I'm missing something.
Click to expand...

Hi BWaltrip1981, fellow attorney here (commercial litigation, arbitration), also in a smaller firm/boutique setting, also partner/managerial function, and GTDer since a long time ago.

For me, GTD is a central part of making this very demanding profession barable, even enjoyable. When David's book came on the market in 2021, Stephen Chakwin, attorney and columnist, named it "A system for sanity". That was, and is, still spot on.

When it comes to the challenge of taming your inbox, I hear you. Processing needs time, far more time than one expects at the beginning. Processing a la GTD forces you to be honest with each and every item that enters your life, and inbox. No leaving it in the in-folder, no "having a seond look later". That's hard, but still wholesome.

GTD puts an analytic lens on your commitments. With most of lawyers or consultants, it may uncover the sad truth that one is (maybe only slightly) overcommitted. This can be solved through delegation, being more selective with new cases, or looking for ways to optimize how stuff is handled (can someone pre-screen/pre-process emails for you that is trained in GTD? can you delegate more work? can the "actionable/non actionable"-filter be more rigurous?).

All of this is hard, but a worthwile journey. And a lifelong path to mastery.

I would love to continue and expand the dialogue, here or in a call, if you like.

Best regards,
Sebastian
 
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