Activities to help you set priorities for how to spend your time

Amidst the geysers of work you face as an in-house lawyer, how can you turn the tap a bit and deal with the most important tasks and problems? Here are some ideas culled from various sources.

1) Think in terms of your cost to your company per hour and the value of the task
2) Track your time on activities and review the data
3) Keep to-do lists with priority codes
4) Develop brief action plans
5) Ask clients to rank what’s important to them
6) Keep in mind your professional and departmental goals, especially long-term
7) Know your limits and don’t over-promise
8) Delegate where possible (See my post of Aug. 28, 2008: delegation within a law department with 14 references.)
9) Manage interruptions (email, IM, calls, visits)
10) Schedule your time effectively.
11) In Stephen Covey’s terms, don’t let the urgent drive out the important.