How many times did you run to the grocery store without a list only to find that you buy what you don’t need, forget what you do and resort to calling home every few minutes to find out what’s in stock? You’re more likely to be stressed, confused and overspend which is exactly what happens when you run your law firm without an effective system in place to stay on top of your work. 

Welcome to Gimbal’s Tip of the Week, where you get practical, actionable advice you can use right away to start building a more productive and profitable legal practice.

This week’s tip: You can’t only rely on memory, email or to-do lists to run your firm. In order to be successful, you have to establish an effective system that you can use to track the status of ongoing matters at your firm.

In the first tip of this series, we identified not delegating as the number one mistake lawyers make in their practice. Not having a system in place is the second biggest mistake we see most lawyers making.  

With a simple, visual system you can stay on top of your legal work and supervise work-in-progress that has been delegated. These systems work so well because our brains process visual information 60,000 times faster than text, and 90% of the information transmitted to our brains is visual. They’re easier to use and less stressful than that 5-page to-do list.

This week’s action item: Research the various matter management systems available and choose the one that best fits the needs of your practice. Consider factors such as the size of your firm, your budget and whether your team operates in the same office or remotely.

Popular options include Asana, Trello and Microsoft Project. We’ve had great success using Trello but you can use any management system you like.

Not sure how to set one up? Our Matter Management Masterclass will teach you everything you need to know.

Legal professionals who implement a simple, visual system manage projects and tasks with less effort and stress. Put simply, they’re much more likely to operate more efficiently, provide timely feedback and achieve success in their firms.

Find out about the other mistakes lawyers make and how to overcome them in our newest Gimbal Guide: 5 Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Practice and How to Overcome Them.

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