These 'time hacks' helped lawyer juggle practice with side business
A Michigan lawyer who wanted to grow his side business as the owner of a kayak rental shop learned that he could get more work done if he didn’t answer his emails right away.
Lawyer Chris Boyle got help from the Washington Post’s “timehacker project,” which matches readers with coaches to find time for their most important goals. Boyle co-owns a law practice in Port Austin, Michigan.
Boyle says he learned from coach Jill Farmer of St. Louis that, if your don’t answer email right away, some problems resolve themselves. “That was definitely true,” he told the Washington Post. “There were days I wouldn’t open my email until noon. I got so much more done.”
Farmer had advised Boyle to block out 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. each day to focus on his most important priorities. “In the past,” Farmer said, “he’s had a loose idea of what ‘needed’ or ‘should’ get done, and then e-mails, calls and new things coming in the door would get him sidetracked.”
Boyle also liked Farmer’s idea to pick a day to plan for the week ahead. He did his planning on Thursday evenings or Fridays, and then worked with his secretary to block time off for the big projects, either in his law practice or kayak business.
He also took Farmer’s advice to hire an expert to help him sync his technology so he would have access to everything on every device.
The biggest change, Boyle said, was realizing that change is possible. “I realized I’m not alone,” Boyle told the Post. “And that I was kind of stuck in certain ways, but that those ways could change.
