Just wanted to check in with you all to let you know I’m not dead, haven’t forsaken this blog, and am not completely off the radar. Unfortunately, this has been one of the worst months ever. Not in terms of business, but in terms of my personal health and that of my family.

In the middle of December my son came down with his first-ever ear infection (why don’t they warn you how bad those things are?), and then as he was getting better my wife threw out her back. So for three weeks I was in charge of the house - taking care of the baby, walking the dog, shuttling my wife to and fro, and trying to keep a lid on business. Luckily, with a third wave law practice I was able to do most of my work in the evening hours. My clients, for the most part, didn’t even realize something was amiss.

This past Saturday my wife was finally able to pick up the baby and resume some of her normal routine around the house. Finally, things were getting back to normal (or what passes for normal around here).

Not so fast, cried the heavens. I was leveled by a cold that left me in bed for three days straight (with the exception of some court appearance, none of which I was able to hear or see due to my affliction).

I will be crawling back to bed now, and hope to be back this coming week. Get ready, because I’ve had a lot of time on my hands to think up some new, great ideas to make your 200 a profitable one!

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I must have been living under a rock. I confess, it was a stupid oversight on my part. I’m talking about Pandora, a terrific service of the Music Genome Project. The GMP has analyzed an absurd amount of music, capturing the details of 400 attributes of each song. Pandora takes advantage of this indexing by asking you to enter the name of a favorite artist or song, then matching your tastes to create a customized music station. You get to rate each song that plays, and Pandora adapts to your likes and dislikes over time.

For example, I’m a big Dar Williams fan. I also happen to like Oingo Boingo. Totally unrelated artists, but Pandora came through like a champ for me. I’ve not only heard “The Babysitter’s Here” and “Elevator Man,” but also a number of other great artists with similar musical styles.

It’s totally free, and your stations are saved in your account so you can access the system from any computer.

Check it out - you’ll be glad you did!

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Grant Griffiths recently wrote a terrific article on the virtues of going PaperLESS. Grant is one of my favorite Mac-using solo practitioners (aside from Gene Melchionne and David Baker, of course) and has an excellent blog called The Home Office Lawyer.

I’ve been a home office solo for a few months, working away from the mayhem of downtown and the high rise office towers of lower Manhattan.  Working from home forces you to be incredibly efficient; reducing dependence on paper allows a lawyer to leverage technology and office space without sacrificing quality of work product.

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I’ve begun packing for my big move to the world of the virtual law firm, and it’s turning out to be far more interesting that I would have otherwise guessed.

For starters, this afternoon I realized that I have one lonely box of files to cart with me.

Wait, what? One box of files?

Yup, just one box. And it isn’t even full.

Everything is saved on the computer system. Every note, every memo, every pleading. It’s all there. The only “wet ink” stuff I keep are the original petitions for my open files - the rest of it gets scanned and given back to the client.

That leaves me with a problem. Well, three problems. I have three filing cabinets that are being used for storage right now. They’re filled with wires, old keyboards, stacks of office supplies from days gone by. I’m not leaving them with my landlord, bu I’d really like to put them to good use. If you know of any not-for-profit organization that is willing to come by and pick it all up from me, please drop me a line.

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I came across Toggl, an online time tracker that I really like. Toggl’s purpose is simple: to time the number of billable hours you spend on a client project.

Once you register (for free), create a new project for a new client, and “toggl” the on button. Toggl starts tracking the time spent in real-time, right in the web browser. Hit stop when you’re done. Toggl will put together reports - PDF or CSV - for invoicing your clients.

I’ve been using it for about a week now, and it works exactly as advertised. Incredibly simple, wonderfully useful. Check it out, and enjoy.

Source of post: Lifehacker

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