How can you balance the demands of running a business with the demands of practising law?
Finding the right work-life balance can be a lifetime pursuit. Finding a balance between the demands of running your business and practising law might also seem daunting.
Start with a time management plan
On any given week how much time do you have available for work? Now consider all the tasks that you need to accomplish – how urgent or important are they?
Make sure you have scheduled your trust account reconciliations, PII questionnaire (February), PC renewals process (May), end of month reports and quarterly or annual BAS and PAYG.
Can you (or should you) be delegating those tasks? Use time blocking techniques to allow you focused time for your tasks.
What tasks are you doing that could be automated? Could you set up recurring payments or direct debits for monthly accounts? Does your accounting package identify and categorise your expenses? Do you have legal practice management software for your practice? Are you fully using its functionality?
Set boundaries
Time blocking your calendar is an effective way of visually creating boundaries between work and personal life. Sometimes there may be matters which encroach on personal time, but by calendar blocking you are making a conscious decision to accept a matter.
If you have left a law firm where the measure of your productivity is billable hours, do not expect as a law firm owner that you will be able to achieve the same level of billable hours per day as well as manage your practice.
You need to accommodate for the demands of being a business owner, either though staff or outsourced assistance, or reducing your legal workload to a comfortable level to enable you to do both.
If you would like guidance in navigating the demands of running your own legal practice, reach out to the QLS Practice Advisory Service for a consultation. Do you have a Q&A for the Practice Advisory team?
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