Finding The 25 th Hour: Technology & Time Management Tools To Ease Your Pain

Our Agenda  Why Talk About Time Management & Technology  Is Your Bar’s Website Doing All It Can For You  Maximizing What You Get Out Of The Web  Remote Connectivity  Maximizing PDAs/Laptops  Managing Phones  Managing Meetings  Managing Paper  Managing Your Day  Managing  Selecting and Managing Tech Vendors

Why Talk About Time Management & Technology?  How Many Of Us Could Use More Time?  How Many Of Us Have Missed A Deadline?  How Many Of Us Have Forgotten A Task – Perhaps Right After The Phone Call?  How Many Of Us Feel Out Of Control Some Days?  How Many Of Us Could Provide Better Service & Be More Professionally Satisfied?

Think Of The Most Productive People You Know  Are They Really Smarter?  Do They Work Harder Than You, Or Just More Efficiently?  Or Are They Just Better Organized, Better Time Managers, And Maximizers Of Proven Technologies?

But Who Is This Guy From Indiana?  Lessons From Managing Technology At My Firm  Lessons From Managing My Own dot.com  Lessons From Service As 2002 President of Indianapolis Bar Associations

Is Your Bar’s Website Doing All It Can For You?  Do You Have A Site?  Is It Current?  Do Members Use It?  Who Is Responsible For Upkeep?  Is It A Stale Brochure Or A Daily News Source  Can Members Join/Renew On-Line  Can Members Register & Pay For Events On-Line  Is The Back-End Automated?

Your Website  How Is Your Traffic?  Do You Even Know?  If Not You Can And Should – Webtrends  IBA Statistics: 15,000 indybar.org Pages Viewed In December, 1900 Visitors Who Hit The Site More Than Once  Is Your URL A Logical & Easy One?  Are You Pushing Your URL As A Brand?  Are You Posting Your Own Digital Photos?

Getting The Most Out Of The Web Otherwise  Do You And Your Staff Use The Web Otherwise?  What Connectivity Do You All Have: T-1? DSL? Cable? Dial-Up?  Do You Open Several Browsers Each Day?  To Your Website? To Google? To Others?  Is Your Staff Using Bookmarks

Remote Connectivity  Do You Have Access To Office Today Remotely?  How About From Home?  How About Your Staff?  What Happens When Someone Is Out Sick?  What Are Your Options For Remote Connectivity?

Maximizing PDAs & Laptops  Paper Is The Evil Of Time Management & Productivity – Laptops & PDAs Are The Solution  Never Take A Paper Note Again – NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!  ALWAYS Have A PDA With Keyboard Or Laptop  Take Organized, Brief Notes – But Use TASK As Your Keyword, And Assign DATE And STAFF or VOLUNTEER For Accountability  Immediately After Meeting, Get Notes To PC, Calendar Dates & Tasks, & To Whomever Needs Them

More PDA Tips  UltraLight Laptops For Exec. Staff  PDAs For All Others w/Keyboard  Get A PDA With Combined Cell, , Contact Dbase  Sync Daily  Include Contact Info & Details In Appt Box

Managing Phones  Phone Calls Can Impede Good Time Management – But Sometimes There’s Still No Substitute For The Phone Call  But Most Bar Management Can Be Done By  Know Who Uses & Who Doesn’t  Force Your Leadership To  Make Daily Voic Messages

More Phone Tips  Invite Instead Of Voic  Try ing In Response To Phone Calls  Keep Vmail Box Clean – Don’t Store Things There  Listen To Vmail Only 1x  Check Vmail Over The Weekend

Managing Meetings  Meetings, Like Paper, Are A Time Management Black Hole  Avoid Meetings When Possible  Ensure Start & Stop Time and Agenda  Get Meetings Started On Time  Ensure Reminders Go Out 5 Days & 1 Day Prior  Consider PowerPoint For Your Agenda

Managing/Eliminating Paper  Avoid Paper Like The Plague  Stop Generating Paper  Don’t Paper File Things You Have Electronically  And Convert Paper To Electronic Medium When Keeping Something  Never Touch Paper More Than 1x, Certainly Not More Than 2x  Create Customized Post-It Notes

Managing Your Day, Week Month, Year, Life  At End Of Each Day Spend At Least One Minute Planning Next Day  Manage Others’ Expectations Of You Through Rule & Vmail Message  Schedule Workouts, Vacations, Doctors’ Appointments, etc. Well In Advance  Protect Your Mondays & Fridays So You’ll Keep Your Weekends

Managing  More On This From Me At 10 a.m., But For Now: Use Multiple Folders Use Multiple Rules Subject Lines Teach Staff Protocol

Selecting & Managing Tech Vendors  Big Is Not Always Better  Importance Of Relationships  Managing Costs

My 5 Closing Tips  Rid Your Office Of Paper  Let Your Bar Website Be Your Main Communication & Registration Vehicle  Don’t Give Out Your Bar’s Address Or Fax # Unless Asked (& Then Still Resist!)  Equip All Staff With PDAs With Keyboards  Learn How To Manage Before It Manages You

Questions?