How to help your legal staff be more productive by NOT multi-tasking

I'm not a big fan of multi-tasking, and it's one of the things I often discuss when I'm writing or presenting on the issue of productivity. But today I came across an article in The New York Lawyer with a bit of a different twist on the issue of multi-tasking. In "Multitasking is a Misteak," the Assistant at Law talks about why expecting your legal staff to multitask hurts your practice.

Essentially, you don't want your staff to try to multi-task for the same reasons you shouldn't multi-task - it doesn't work and it is counter-productive. You can help make your staff more productive by reducing multi-tasking expectations.

The Assistant at Law says, "Staying focused is a perpetual struggle for legal assistants...[and] in fact, there is no such thing as multitasking at work. There are only interruptions that result in confusion and details slipping through the cracks in concentration."

To complicate matters further, many legal assistants, secretaries and paralegals work for several attorneys at once and each of those attorneys has their own work style, priorities and expectations. 

So how can you, as the lawyer, help your staff multi-task less and focus more? I encourage you to read the whole article (you may need to be a subscriber to read the article), but here are some tips from the Assistant at Law:

• Don't use email if you want an immediate reply - email is an interruption and it's not productive to expect your staff to be constantly email and trying to decide whether or not your email is urgent. If you need a response right away, pick up the telephone or go to see them personally;
• Plan your work appropriately, especially if you're delegating work to a staff person who gets assignments from others as well. It's impossible for staff to appropriately prioritize and effectively complete work if you're always working on a last minute deadline;
• Delegate effectively to the staff person most suited to the task at hand (for more on delegation, see my posts, Do Something! Delegate Effectively - Even if You're a Solo and Do Something! How to Delegate Effectively, Part II);
• Train your staff for the position and the tasks you expect them to complete;
• Create standards for how work is to be completed to ensure consistency of your work product and make life easier for your staff;