To Do or Not To Do
by Cathy L. Ribble
The season is upon us! You know — the season of fa-la-la-la-la, holiday decorations, greeting cards, family parties, gift buying, travel plans, winter snow storms, and year-end business. The list goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on….too much to do and not enough time. If you make it to January 1, then your knee deep in a different set of tasks headed into tax season.
So what is a smart attorney or paralegal to do? Organization is key, but who has time – or money — right now to implement complicated practice management software?
SOLUTION: Pick one of these quick, easy and inexpensive online task management solutions. Register for a free user name and pick a password. Then start listing everything congesting your over-crowded mind. Start with just the basics by listing the task and assigning a deadline. That’s it!! You can expand your vision and develop a more-rounded solution when the time crunch has eased.
- RememberTheMilk.com: This solution has been specifically recommended for attorneys in several American Bar Association articles, and it is often referred to as RTM (if that milk thing bothers you). It fits the above-mentioned criteria, but can be further expanded by building as many different lists as you can dream, assigning deadlines, priority levels, repeat intervals, tags and reminders. The free version will get you started, but you might need to upgrade to a paid version to get the full mobility you want.
- Todoist.com: Easy integration with Gmail and Outlook, browser plugins and mobile access are all features which might lure you to consider this solution, but I suspect that the ability to create sub-tasks might be the one that snags you. “Big things are composed by smaller things and smaller things are done by action.” A call to action for incremental steps is critical to seeing completion of that large project. You also might get a few more options on your reminders.
- Toodledo.com: Sub-tasks are also available here along with many options for customizing the alarms and reminders you want. Folders, tags, contexts and sub-tasks help you zero in at the desired overview level. Create your hotlist and analyze details to most efficiently complete similar tasks. Set your alarms and reminders for email, iPhone, Twitter or sms. This tool will also let you import tasks from other lists you have already created.
- Todalist.com: Making your list and checking it twice to see who is naughty and nice? This one might be for you! This handy tool’s claim to fame is being the easiest web-based to-do-list-maker. Make as many lists as you want, keep them or hand them out to your helpers.
- Egretlist: This i-Phone app is ideal for those of you having a love affair with Evernote. Your to-do list syncs with Evernote to keep all your notes, memos and lists in the same place under the umbrella of one system.
Before you commit 100% by investing lots of time and energy, it is always wise to test the tool on a couple of projects. If you see that it is making a difference in your perspective and the management of your workload, then go a little deeper. If not, then try a different tool until you find the one that fits you like a glove.
Cathy L. Ribble is a senior level litigation paralegal who decided in 2009 to offer virtual services to U.S.-licensed attorneys when she founded Digital Paralegal Services. She is certified by the National Association of Legal Assistants as an Advanced Certified Paralegal in the area of Trial Practice. She matches attorneys looking for virtual paralegal support with NALA-certified paralegals by practice area and geographic location.
Post Date: December 13, 2011
Introducing Guest Blogger Cathy Ribble – “Virtual Paralegal Partnerships: What Solo Attorneys Need to Know”
By Cathy L. Ribble, ACP
Cathy L. Ribble is a senior level litigation paralegal who decided in 2009 to offer virtual services to U.S.-licensed attorneys when she founded Digital Paralegal Services. She is certified by the National Association of Legal Assistants as an Advanced Certified Paralegal in the area of Trial Practice. She matches attorneys looking for virtual paralegal support with NALA-certified paralegals by practice area and geographic location.
Cathy contributed to NALA’s 2010 Career Chronicle with her article Could You Be One? Virtual Paralegals. She has been featured in Texas Far Journal’s Testing the Waters: Is It Time to Try a Virtual Legal Assistant? Paralegal Today’s Freelance Freedom, Carolina Paralegal News Virtual Paralegals Becoming More Common as Profession Grows, Practical Paralegalism’s Top 50 Twitter Feeds for Paralegals, ParalegalGateway’s Toolbar for Paralegals under Paralegal Tweeps and Paralegal Blogs, and The Paralegal Mentor’s Virtual Paralegal Interview Series.
Solo attorneys throughout the United States are hearing the terms virtual paralegal and virtual legal assistant for the first time. Today’s economy and the desire to keep a home-office practice are leading many solo attorneys to seek more information about virtual support.
What is a virtual paralegal? Read more
Post Date: November 29, 2011
Leveraging Dictation Technology to Save Time and Overhead
Lawyers used to dictate drafts of correspondence and documents for their assistant to transcribe, in order to improve their efficiency over handwritten drafting. As word processing software became more user-friendly, however, lawyers began doing more and more of their own typing. Most found it easier to draft when they could immediately see and edit their work product. Today both solos and big firms save on overhead by using fewer, and sometimes less skilled, administrative assistants, which increases the need for lawyers to type more.
Some of those cost savings may be illusory, however. Read more
Post Date: June 3, 2011
Choosing Law Practice Management Software
In a previous post I discussed some benefits and drawbacks of investing in law practice management software. I shared my opinion that all lawyers, including solos, can benefit from practice management software because, properly used, it will significantly improve your efficiency and organization. I also warned, however, that the learning curve will first slow you down. You will probably incur additional costs for training and for consulting to get the program configured to fit your needs and to coordinate with your other software and hardware.
Now that you are considering whether to take the leap, this post will address some of the questions you may have, and point out others that you should investigate in your decision process. Read more
Post Date: April 6, 2011