Most people don’t stop at the end of the day say, “ok, today I spent .75 hours on this and .5 hours on that.” It just isn’t something we do. And yet, for most areas of legal practice, this is exactly something we have to do. When I was preparing to leave PBI, the first thing I did was figure out how I would keep my time. Except for a brief bit of freelance work, and a some minor practice work here and there, I never had to keep time, and I knew this would be an issue for me. I ended up deciding to go with Clio, but unfortunately, it isn’t a perfect solution.
While I like Clio and use its time keeping function when I know I am going to spend a lot of time on one particular project, it isn’t great for those quick phone calls or when I am jumping from client to client throughout the day. Fortunately, there is another solution.
Microsoft’s Journal
During the almost 13 years I have known Ellen, I have learned a lot from her. During the past 7 months, since we became partners,I have learned even more. And one thing I have learned about is that Microsoft Office has a really cool time keeping tool. This tool is capable of tracking time during which you use Office as well as helping you keep time manually. It is called Journal. I have only recently started using Journal, but I took Ellen’s advice on how to use it. When I start work in the morning, I open a bunch of Journal windows and I can easily jump from project to project without giving it much thought.
Microsoft explains how to use Journal on its site. Check it out.
For your version of Office, go into Outlook and hit F1 (help.) Type in Journal and you will find the instructions.