We’ve all made our New Year’s resolutions, and I suspect that they include plans and vows to be more productive at work and to increase your firm's revenue. It’s an admirable thing to want to do, but the devil lies in the details: how, exactly, do you do this?
But to complicate matters—because that’s the world we live in right now—January is arguably the busiest time of year for matrimonial attorneys, according to this article in the Reader’s Digest.
So, when you add these two things together, you can clearly see the need for some simple and powerful time saving tools that you can quickly and easily set up and use in your practice right now.
Here are four (4) of our favorites. They can all be installed without professional help, will sync and work on all of your devices, and will simplify your client and third-party communications.
#1 Text Replacement:
Typing routine emails, documents, and even instant messages takes more time than you may realize. If you could save a small fraction of that time each day, it can add up to hours of time every week. Text expanders let you type a complete phrase, sentence, or paragraph using only a few customizable keystrokes.
Example: “.dsac” becomes “Attached please find a draft copy of your stipulation of settlement. Please read it over carefully and let me know when you are available to discuss your thoughts, and for me to answer any questions or concerns you may have.”
#2 Email Templates:
Email templates are a more powerful version of a text replacement program. The better ones will allow you to save/insert subject lines, attachments, and recipients.
Example: You can write a standard email to a prospective new client with a subject line, text, and a client intake form. Or, an email notifying a client of a preliminary conference, deposition, or other Court appearance, and attaching your office's standard Q&A or instructions for these appearances.
#3 File Managers:
The free file managers on your computer works most of the time for most people. But for matrimonial attorneys who handle a large number of documents that come from a large number of places, downloading, filing, and managing them can take up a lot of valuable time.
A good third-party file manager makes all of this work simpler and easier.
Example: Your clients share their Google Docs, One Drive, and Dop Box files with your office. A better file manager will let you see and manage all of these services in the same place as your regular office files, download the contents more directly to your own system, and generally make document management smoother and easier.
#4 Supercharge Your Productivity with Sydan Divorce/Family Law Templates
If you really want to be more productive this year, then you probably should address one of the biggest time sucks in your office: drafting documents by finding a similar form, copying it, then pasting and editing, and then repeating the entire process. Again. And again.
For example: It usually takes about 3 hours to prepare an uncontested divorce package with a stipulation and children.
Sydan can do it in 30 minutes or less. Yes. Seriously.
Sydan is a complete set of automated forms and documents specifically formatted for New York divorce and family law cases. Click here to see a complete list.
Sydan eliminates the mind-numbing repetition of words, phrases, and basic client and case information that wastes hours and hours of your valuable time.
To see Sydan in action, click here for more information and a free 30-day trial.