Time Management

With my new position, I am really struggling with balancing my schedule and not burning out.  There are so many people who need legal assistance and only so much time in a day.  And prior to this I really haven't had much of a schedule to manage (at least a schedule that I could control).  In my last position, it was only a couple appointments a week at most.

I sat down with my executive director on Tuesday to discuss my problem and we had a good brainstorming session.  I also briefly talked to a former colleague and attorney who told me that it takes practice.

So here are some thoughts and I encourage any other suggestions.

If a hearing is scheduled for 2:00 p.m., I need to not attempt to do charging conferences at 1:30 as well and see if one of my colleagues is available to attend those charging conferences.

I would like to structure my schedule so that I am only providing legal information on legal matters besides restraining orders only a couple of times a week.  Ideally I would like to set up a schedule where these appointments are scheduled at a certain time every week (every Thursday evening and Tuesday mornings) and only agree to see a set number of people each week.

I need to make sure I'm doing adequate screening over the phone so that I refer cases that are beyond me to an attorney right away.  I think I do this pretty well but it something I need to keep in the back of my mind.

I need to block of some time soon to organize my office and set up a better system for keeping track of current clients, resources, etc.

I also hope that my supervisor can find a legal advocate who I can connect with for more ideas.

Well, that's a start.