How much time do you waste looking for documents each day? And what’s the cost of that time in dollars and frustration? If you’re the average attorney, it turns out to be about 39 minutes – which comes out to about 162 hours per year. And the cost? In dollars, it’s easy to calculate (at the equivalent of $300/hr, it’s $48,750). In frustration, it’s higher blood pressure, compromised concentration, increased risk of blown deadlines, and reduced job satisfaction.

Now multiply these costs by the number of people in your firm – or at least by the number of people who support you directly – and you can see that the negative impact of tolerating poor filing and organization is huge.

So what’s the solution? The first step is to do what one of my clients did last week: sit down with your lead assistant and identify the main trouble spots where documents (paper or digital) typically get stuck or lost.

How, when and where do docs pertaining to client work get handled — where do they get stuck? Someone’s desk? In an overflowing inbox? In a massive pile on a chair? In a file folder with a name that doesn’t accurately describe its contents? In the wrong subfolder on a shared drive?

And how about non-client work? Bills, research, equipment leases and warranties?

Think through the circumstances that give rise to the experience of not being able to find something you’re looking for. It’s almost always a result of one of these conditions:

• Not having the right infrastructure in place (filing drawers and cabinets, in- and out baskets, proper network directory folders, etc)
• Not having clear protocols and procedures for how, when and where documents get routed
• Lack of following the rules once they’re established**

Make this meeting a top priority for this month. Set aside an hour to start the process. It’s one of those classic “important but not urgent” tasks that you’ll never get to if you don’t make it happen. But when you do, you’ll create strong and lasting improvement in your practice. You’ll be more productive and profitable, and you’ll enjoy greater peace of mind.

** The problem of wasting time looking for things pertains not only to documents, but to books, desk items such as staplers, office supplies, etc. As grandma actually used to say, “a place for everything, and everything in its place.” It’s up to you to make sure that you and everyone with whom you work knows where that place is, and abides by the rules governing you set up for what goes where.