Today we’re talking about how batching your work can actually slow you down. I know…it seems totally counter-intuitive. But completing a whole stack of work before passing any of it on actually slows you down. And that’s the last thing you want.

Last week, David talked about a mindset switch that will make delegating work much more effective.

Before we jump into this week’s tip, I’d like to invite you to a FREE WEBINAR we’re running today at noon, and again tomorrow at 3 p.m. EST. We’ll be exploring delegation strategies and key processes you need to put in place in the bookends of your law practice. Reserve your spot today.

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So, back to batching.

Think about a task that you do repeatedly. Maybe you review all your pre-bills at the end of the month. Or you do all your expenses on the last Friday. Or you review and sign invoices in one big batch.

Most of us believe that working through the stack all at once, and then passing the completed stack on to whoever needs it next, is the most efficient way to do the work. But it’s not. You need to think about the OUTCOME you want.

Let’s take a real-life example: Bill review

One of our client firms wanted to send invoices out more quickly.

After time closed for the month, Finance would print the pre-bills and deliver each lawyer a stack of pre-bills to review. Lawyers would spend about a week working their way through their stacks and return the stacks to Finance, who would then process them.

Here’s how it actually worked: Partner 1 got a stack of 75 pre-bills. She sat on them for a few days, because the was tied up on something. Eventually, she reviewed each one and put it back in her stack. It took her a few days, because she got busy again and didn’t get through them all in one sitting. When she was done, she passed the stack back to Finance.

Pre-bill number 1 had been sitting in the stack, waiting for days, while she reviewed the other 74.

BUT remember the firm’s desired outcome: get each bill out as soon as possible.

Now imagine Attorney 1 gets her stack and doesn’t batch it. Instead:

• She reviews her first pre-bill and immediately sends it back to Finance.
• Finance processes it and gets the invoice out, while the attorney works her way through her stack, sending each pre-bill back to Finance as soon as she’s finished.
• She gets interrupted half-way through, but pre-bills she’s already reviewed have gone back to Finance, been processed, and sent out.

And that’s not even considering how much faster the entire process would be if the pre-bills were generated, reviewed, and returned electronically (which is what they eventually did).

This is what we call single-piece flow. Rather than batching, a document, or expense form, or conflict check, or pre-bill gets reviewed and processed completely as soon as it’s ready.

The next time you sit down with a batch of work, think about this example. If you can, pass your finished work along as soon as it’s done, rather than putting it back in your pile. It will absolutely speed up the flow of work through your practice.

And that’s it for this week’s tip. Join us for our FREE WEBINAR, and then come on back next week for more tips.

Thanks a lot everybody! See you next week.