Fail-Safe Concepts for Maintaining a Clean Desk and Office
These next two weeks I will be talking about two of my absolute favorite “administrative” tips for making your law firm operate more efficiently. You are probably asking how can someone have “favorite” administrative concepts for their law office? The answer is, I have trained myself in such a way that small victories become key reinforcements for getting the job done for clients.
These next two weeks I will be talking about two concepts for trying to get a “clean desk.”
On a day-to-day basis, one of my goals is to get as much paper as possible off my desk. As you know from reviewing my previous administrative systems, a copy of everything that comes in the office and goes out of the office, comes across my desk. Needless to say, that’s a lot of paper. I often joke with people about the large amount of paper that we use in our office, and one of my consistent comments is “don’t worry, I always plant extra trees on Arbor Day.”
I have developed are two systems that help me prioritize what is on my desk so that I can work on the highest priority item that I need to work on in order to get the task completed and get it off my desk and out the door. I think that I am probably one of the most “anal” lawyers that I know. You already know that I love organization. You also already know that I embrace slogans like “when the space is ordered you are free to live creatively!” Therefore, you should not be surprised that I have systems for trying to get paper off of my desk.
The first system that I have is a concept that is roughly modeled around a medical concept called “triage.” In a medical context, triage is used as follows:
1. A number one priority is something that is going to be fatal if it is not immediately treated;
2. A number two priority is something that can be delayed, but will get worse if it is not eventually timely treated; and
3. A priority number three is something that can be left until a later time because it will not get any worse over time.
Similarly in the law, this triage system can be stated as follows:
1. Priority Number 1 - Fatal Deadline or Damage Deadline;
2. Priority Number 2 - Deadline or Damage able to be postponed; and
3. When you can get to it!
Examples of this would be:
1. Priority number 1 - Statute of Limitations date or other due date;
2.Priority Number 2 - Opinion letter that has been promised and you are still within the time frame; and
3. Priority Number 3 - Discovery to be sent out for the other side to answer.
I am sure you can come up with lots of other examples that will fit into these categories.
Keeping this triage concept in mind, I have developed two systems for getting the paper handled and off my desk.
These two systems are:
1. Files marked “client,” “junk,” “personal,” and “administrative;” and
2. Files marked “circulation,” “file,” “process” and “pull.”
This week we are going to talk about concept number one and next week we will talk about concept number two.
I have asked my staff to organize my desk on numerous occasions. Often times this is done at least weekly. Additionally, when I am out on vacation, I find this system very helpful to be able to quickly get back into the work process flow after I have returned from vacation.
The concept is that every piece of paper on my desk that has come in while I have been out can be placed in one of four categories. As I mentioned above, those four categories are client, administration, personal and junk. Most of the things that are put on my desk come in the mail or go out in the mail. You will remember that we have a system that every time something comes in or goes out, a copy is given to the responsible attorney as well as the attorneys and paralegals assigned to the case. We use this as nonverbal communication system.
When I am out of the office, a copy of everything on every one of my client’s matters that has come in or gone out of the office ends up on my desk. In addition, the daily mail that is addressed to me or is about my clients ends up on my desk. When I do not have my staff sort all this paper, it literally can end up simply being placed on my desk and thrown into hodge pot.
One of the things I have asked my staff to do, is to not place things on my desk, but rather to put them in an in-basket that is at my secretary’s location. This way I can walk by her desk periodically and pick up what is in the in-basket. Once it is on my desk though, it is amazing how quickly the paper can pile up. I have trained my staff to be able to recognize what goes in what file and since I am going to review all the folders anyway, it really doesn’t really matter whether or not a potential mistake is made. Often times the paper is so voluminous that multiple manila folders with these labels on them need to be used.
You know that I have a system for returning phone messages that puts the messages in reverse chronological order. Remember that this forces me to try to work harder to return the older messages because I am returning the newest messages first. Similarly, I have a system for reviewing these folders and I review the folder first that I can go through the fastest, and psychologically this spurs me on to get to the file that will take the most amount of time.
I have found that the junk folder is the fastest folder I can go through. Therefore, I always do the junk folder first. It is absolutely amazing how quickly you can go through junk mail and simply put it in “circular” filing. Next, I go through either the personal or administrative file because, again, these are two files you can go through very quickly. Usually these items can be either quickly scanned and properly forwarded, filed, discarded or set aside to be reviewed at a later time.
I have now already cleared my desk of a tremendous amount of paper that has accumulated while I have been gone. Lastly, I tackle the client file that has a copy of everything that has come in and gone out of the office with regard to my client files while I have been out of the office. Again, it is very easy to scan these matters, and appropriately place notations on them for the people that have accomplished the task for you while you have been gone. You will remember I talked about this nonverbal communication system in an earlier article.
When you are going through the client folder, you can thank people for doing things, ask people to set up a meeting with you to discuss something, give them additional assignments with regard to the case, ask that a matter be filed, ask that a file be pulled, and any other task that you are trying to achieve. You can simply write on the copy you have in your hand and it becomes a memo to do some action.
Next week we are going to talk about the system for putting that information into some system to get it off your desk once you have reviewed it and made a notation on it.
I have found this system of trying to get things organized on my desk and by doing so, getting them off my desk to be very helpful. In the next section of articles that we have entitled “Getting the work done,” I will talk about some additional systems that utilize this triage concept.
I have involving manila folders with the words circulate, file, process, and pull on them. I know you will not be surprised to find out that there is a consistent theme through all these systems that allow for other people to help you organize the parts of your office that you need to deal with and to try to limit your involvement in matters to those things that uniquely only a lawyer can do.
Remember that non-lawyers can help you with a legal diagnosis, legal prognosis and legal prescription for treatment and in actually carrying out the treatment, but non-lawyers cannot independently make that diagnosis, prognosis or prescription for treatment. The secret is to have non-lawyers spend as much time as they need to getting you organized, keeping you organized and making the systems operate efficiently, and you will then limit your lawyer time to only those things that uniquely a lawyer needs to do.
We have a few more topics to talk about in the area of “administration” that is one of the five areas that make up every business in the world. Over the next weeks, we will finish the area of “administration” and start with “getting the work done.”
I simply cannot tell you how helpful all of these “administrative” systems are to me in my practice. I think I have figured out a way to minimize the task I need to do that are not uniquely needing to be done by a lawyer and have maximized my time to work on those things that only a lawyer can do.
By minimizing the amount of time you spend on things that are not unique to what a lawyer does, you get to spend all of your time doing the things that are fun in being a lawyer. You get to maximize your time to talk with clients. You get to maximize your time to write letters, pleadings and documents that only a lawyer can do. Simply put, you spend way more time doing the things you hoped you would be doing when you went to law school, and way less time doing the things that most lawyers dread.
Again, I suggest you simply start setting up these systems one at a time and see how they improve the efficiency of your law office and ultimately your quality of life. I look forward to talking to you next week about my other favorite system that probably is the single best system that I have ever set up, and in particular, for getting the paper off my desk.
Talk to you next week!
Jim Wirken is a civil trial attorney and the Chairman of the Board of The Wirken Law Group in Kansas City.