Taming the Monster: The Lawyer’s Guide to Getting and Staying in Control of InPractice CT, May 2, 2013 Bill Jawitz Doug Brown

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3 Business volume increasing by 13% a year Personal declining by 7% (More people using FB, LI)

4 Key Strategies 1.Reduce Volume 2.Increase Quality 3.Manage & Organize 4.Teach Others

6 REDUCE VOLUME 1.Send less to get less 2.Use filters and unsubscribe 3.Use separate business and personal addresses 4.Educate top offenders 5.Dispense with internal “nicety” s

7 Why are you sending THAT message? Does the recipient need it? (minimize cc’s) Is the best medium? Assess last 50 sent s

8 IMPROVE QUALITY 1.Better subject lines 2.Better body content

9 Be descriptive and specific Change subject line instead of re-using an old Use suffixes and prefixes

10 “My follow-up from today’s call re: Jones v. Barnes strategy” “A quick question about your Smith deposition prep memo” “Need to settle on a date for our presentation”

11 Categories: – Action Needed – Information – Request – Confirmed – Delivery ACTION NEEDED: Schedule Jones deposition for next week DELIVERED: Baker summary judgment motion for your review

12 EOM (End of message) NRN (No reply needed) NTN (No thanks needed)

13  1 subject per message  Main points at top  1 thought per paragraph  Line breaks  Use bullets

14 1. Greeting 2. Action Needed 3. Context 4. Attachments 5. Conclusion

15 GOOD Subject: INFO - Reminder of 10am Meeting on 12.5 on the new doc management software. Hi Jim, We are meeting on Monday, December 5, at 10:00am in conference room A. We'll be discussing firm-wide requirements for use of the new HOTDOCS system. Please bring a first draft of the guidelines you want to include for your department. If you have any questions, call me at extension Mark BAD Subject: Meeting Hi Jim, I just wanted to remind you about the meeting we have scheduled next week. Do let me know if you have any questions! Best wishes, Mark

16 MANAGE & ORGANIZE Use three accounts (work, personal, commerce) Turn off all alerts

18 MANAGE & ORGANIZE Use three accounts (work, personal, commerce) Turn off all alerts Check only 3 or 4 times a day Set an inbox threshold that triggers cleanup

19 MANAGE & ORGANIZE Use templates Master the preview pane Get comfortable archiving Use and train your Spam filters Schedule time for weekly cleanup

20 TossReferActFile DeleteDoDelegateDefer

21 MANAGE & ORGANIZE Unsubscribe and block senders Master your View settings Use YouTube to find instructions Use a good IT person to optimize and sync your devices Learn and use rules

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25 TEACH OTHERS Identify top offenders (volume and quality) Model improved effectiveness Provide resources Be specific Propose incremental change

26 “If you’re OK with it, Alan, I propose we dispense with opening and closings when ing. It can take some getting used to, but I find it does save time. Let me know (I surely don’t want to offend... )”

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