I don’t know why, but early in my career I discovered that managing time wisely would be very important for me. Since that time, I have read every article and book I found to get ideas and to figure out what combination of expert ideas would work best for me. Now that I coach lawyers I am frequently called upon to share my ideas.
Here are my Top 15 Tips for making time for client development.
- Discover and create a list of your top priorities in your life and career. Stephen Covey said it well: “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
- Create a written plan each year with the focus on your top priorities and the return on investment for the time invested.
- Break down activities on the plan into 90 days or 30 days.
- Create a plan for each week.
- Do high return on low investment activities early and often.
- Break down high return high investment activities into smallest activities and schedule them.
- Do low return and low investment activities only when you have time.
- Say no to low return and high investment activities.
- Repurpose content you have created. I took billable work and created articles and guides. I took articles and guides and created presentations.
- Figure out what time of day is best for you to do your client development activities. (For me it was early mornings on Saturdays and Sundays).
- Work with your full attention in segments. Many experts recommend 20 minutes segments. That was a good time for me. Read: The Single Best Time Management Tip Ever
- Delegate what someone can do better or more efficiently than you.
- Keep a journal of your client development activities, in part to figure out what has been the best use of your time.
- Make a list of client development activities you can do in 15 minutes or less.
- Make a list of client development activities you can do in dead time (e.g. waiting for a flight at the airport).