During my years as a practicing lawyer, I frequently witnessed (and experienced first hand) lawyers becoming overrun with non-billable administrative and firm-related tasks. It wasn’t only that these tasks were non-billable that was the problem. It was also the excessive percentage of time that they consumed out of the lawyers’ work days, which then had to be made up for in early morning, evening, or weekend hours. Think: committees of all varieties, planning social events, morale building, command performances at events to replace others who have bailed etc.
I came to affectionately call these tasks “firm housekeeping”.
My Own Housekeeping Experience
Let me share how I came to this awareness about firm housekeeping—a lesson I had to learn the hard way.
At a particularly challenging point during my law career, I started working with a productivity coach (shout-out to Ann Gomez at Clear Concept Inc.!). The first task she assigned me? List every single thing I was doing, day in and day out, that wasn't billable work, sleeping, or eating.
My answer was immediate and confident. "None! That's all I do—work, sleep, and eat!"
I was being, perhaps, slightly hyperbolic. But given the stress and resentment I was experiencing, I truly believed I wasn’t doing much beyond those three things. Ann, however, didn’t let me off the hook so easily. She pushed me to dig deeper, and together we identified 37 things that were eating up time in my life. Not all
37 were non-billable administrative and firm related tasks, but most were.
Of those tasks that were, some involved time spent on firm committees and internal administrative roles that people asked or instructed me to take on.
Others were tasks I took the initiative myself to do, because I thought they were crucial and they weren’t being done, and certainly no one discouraged me from doing them. But guess what? No one else was doing them because they weren’t actually essential in the minds of anyone but me. (Pro-tip: If no one else is doing it, it probably isn’t as important as you think and it certainly won’t be recognized or rewarded. Let it go!)
It had become abundantly clear that I was spending far too much of my workday time on these things, and it was actually holding me back because it was diverting my time, energy and attention away from what I really needed to be doing at that time to secure my longer term success in the practice - building my book of business, my profile and my network.
In the wake of that hard-won insight, I started to slowly transition away from spending my time on housekeeping work and toward spending it on activities that were better aligned with my goals and my definition of success in practice. It took months, but it worked. More importantly? It stuck.
How This Shows Up in Coaching
Given my own experience, it came as no surprise to me just how frequently this same problem surfaced during my business development coaching sessions with lawyers.
Often, the lawyers I coach are close to their wit’s end. They’re overextended and overwhelmed–yet they’re also often under-producing on billable hours and work origination. Having been there myself, and seen many others live that particular dream too, I’m in a good position to help.
As an exercise, I pass along what I learned from Ann, and ask them to put together their list of things they spend time on when they aren’t working billable hours, eating, sleeping or attending to family responsibilities. And then we spend what often turns out to be quite a bit of time shifting the center of balance so that their time, energy and attention are more consistently being spent on activities directly aligned with the highest priority goals facing them at their particular stage of practice.
Refocus Your Efforts
Being a team player and contributing to your firm’s well-being are laudable goals. But we all know that good intentions can sometimes lead to unintended and unfortunate consequences.
Having coached well over 1,000 lawyers, in this my second career, I can tell you that not everyone falls into the housekeeping trap. However, a decent number do end up shouldering a disproportionate number of non-billable firm and administrative tasks. While these things are important, being on multiple internal committees or handling multiple administrative duties “for the greater good” is not necessary and can actually be quite detrimental to a lawyer’s development in other areas.
My goal in coaching around this phenomenon is to help people look critically at how they’re spending precious time, energy and attention and to imagine what they could achieve if they redirected the hours spent on administrative tasks toward building relationships, expanding their networks, and developing new business opportunities.
The Elephant in the Room: Gender Disparity
I’m going to go on a bit of a tangent here to call out a particularly troubling aspect of this issue: the considerable gender disparity involved.
In my experience, women lawyers are often the ones who bear a larger measure of these internal, administrative, non-billable tasks. The knock-on effect is that they also experience a disproportionately negative effect on their business development success, their career progression and their opportunity to take breaks and find time for personal well-being–all elements crucial to maintaining consistent high performance.
Recognizing and addressing this disparity is crucial. All lawyers, regardless of gender, should have equal (and equally measured) opportunities to engage in high-impact activities that contribute to their professional growth, the firm’s success and their personal well-being. And no one should be subjected to the crippling effects of bearing a disproportionate amount of the firm housekeeping burden, just because they are “good at it,” “like it,” or “no one else will do it”.
This isn’t just my opinion, by the way. Research by McKinsey & Company in collaboration with LeanIn.Org has confirmed that women in law firms often bear a heavier load of non-billable work, including tasks like committee service, mentoring, and organizing firm events. Their research points out that, not only are these tasks not directly contributing to revenue generation, firm housekeeping is often undervalued when it comes to performance evaluations and promotions.
A Balanced Approach
Stepping away from housekeeping tasks doesn’t mean you need to abandon them in perpetuity. These tasks can always be revisited once your strategic objectives relating to building your practice into a successful business are on track. The key is to strike the balance that allows you to maximize your potential, achieve your goals, and find joy, meaning, and purpose in your practice. Your definition of balance will change at different points in your career and during different seasons of your life.
Steps to Optimize Your Workload and Focus on High-Impact Activities
Regularly Evaluate What is On Your Plate:
Make it a habit to consistently assess the current tasks and responsibilities that you have over and above your file workload. This could be a monthly, quarterly or semi-annual review where you take stock of everything on your plate.
Revisit Top Priorities For Your Practice:
Look back at your top priorities in both your business and career development - the ones that are most critical to your success right now.
Compare to Confirm You Are Focused on High-Impact Activities Aligned with Top Priorities, or Course Correct:
Confirm that your daily activities align with the achievement of those top priorities.
If not, plan for a pivot that will allow you to concentrate your time, energy, and attention on tasks that will have the biggest positive impact on your current top priorities. You can return to lower-priority tasks later, but for now, your focus should be on what moves the needle against top priorities.
Course Correction: Eliminate, Delegate, Streamline or Postpone Activities Not Aligned with Top Priorities:
Move lower priority tasks off your plate by asking yourself these questions:
Will doing this have enough of an impact to justify the time spent on it? Does it really need to be done at all?
You will be amazed how often the answer is no.
Is this something only I can do, or can someone else handle it, even if differently than I would?
You will be amazed how often the answer is yes.
Is there a faster, more efficient way to accomplish the same outcome with less personal time, using collaboration, technology, systematization etc.?
The answer to this is always yes. It might take some thinking to get there, but there is always a better way.
If I have to do it, and it has to be done the long way, do I really have to do it now, or can it wait?
Most often it can wait, but not always.
By the time you have run all the extra tasks you have on your plate through these questions, the list of things taking up your time will be a small fraction of what it was when you started..
By making these adjustments, you’ll not only enhance your professional growth but also contribute more effectively to your own—and your firm’s—success in the long term.
Ready to reclaim your time and refocus on what truly matters? Let's chat about how coaching can help you achieve your goals.
If this article sparked new ideas or insights for you, please consider sharing it with others who might benefit from rethinking their priorities. After all, sharing is caring—and it’s a great way to build your network!
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