Time is a lawyer's commodity. Or rather, it is how most lawyers quantify their expertise. How successful you are as a lawyer depends fundamentally on how you use your time and there is a direct correlation between how much value you can extract from your time and your profitability. Most lawyers must record how they spend their time on a daily basis and regularly have to justify their use of time to clients, the court, or their employers.

Managing Partner's new report entitled Making Every Six Minutes Count explains why lawyers should look more objectively at how they spend their time and how principles of time management can make an enormous difference in a profession which is now at its most stressful and intensive.

The more efficiently and effectively you use your time, the more successful your practice will be.

Topics Covered in this report include:

+ Defining time management and in turn self-management;
+ Why time management is a small investment for a big return;
+ Effective working environments and how they are conducive to better time management;
+ Streamlining office functions to enable more focus on critical work;
+ Efficient planning of working hours;
+ The differences between 'time management' and 'time leadership;'
+ Prioritizing tasks and dealing with overwhelm;
+ Delegation as the single most effective way to instantly get more time;
+ Practical tips on how to recognize and overcome procrastination habits;
+ The impact of communication and managing interruptions;
+ Work life balance and why it is so elusive for lawyers;
+ Managing clients more proactively to provide a more efficient and effective service;
+ Finding time for business development and networking;
+ Stress Management for Lawyers; and
+ The impact of time management on personal development and career planning.

The report also features real-life accounts of the key challenges faced by a range of lawyers - from trainees to managing partners, and from sole practitioners to in-house legal advisors - providing you with insight into the common pitfalls and successes of those who have mastered time management and are currently using it to their advantage.

Your book is BRILLIANT! I have taken loads of tips from your book and today gained 2 hours more billable time in the same working day. Amazing! I'm making my juniors read it when I've finished. I have also been able to delegate more which is definitely working. It is kind of common sense but the problem is that as a lawyer you get so immersed in law and cases that you need reminding of the basics. I think the book is inspirational and in a way empowering. Every morning the first thing I do is put on my email and it stays on. I have never thought "why do I do this" and it honestly never occurred to me to turn it off. All lawyers are the same and you need to go back to basics now and again and your book does just that.
Clinical negligence partner
Hertfordshire

CATRIN MILLS studied English and Related Literature at York University before taking the CPE and LPC at the College of Law, York and London, respectively.

Catrin trained at City firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain and spent five years there as an employment lawyer, representing employers and employees alike.

Catrin moved to McKeowns in St Albans in 2005 where she set up an employment department. Catrin grew her team to 10 lawyers in three years whilst running her own caseload of high-profile employment matters. Catrin specialised in representing lawyers and other professionals in employment disputes.

Catrin now provides individual coaching to lawyers (The Lawyer Coach) and writes a popular blog providing time and stress management tips for the legal profession, and regularly speaks on topics such as the challenges facing working mothers.http://thelawyercoach.wordpress.com