5 Ways Lawyers Can Be More Productive

If your days feel busier than your billing reflects, non-billable tasks might be the culprit. 

In a recent survey, attorneys reported working 48 hours a week, but only 36 of those hours were billable. That means about a quarter of the week (25%) goes to administrative work that never sees an invoice. 

Productivity is about maximizing the value you deliver in the hours you bill. It’s turning more of your workday into billable time, not just working more hours. 

List-making and caffeine alone won’t cut it. To increase profits, keep your sanity, and get more billable work done, use these proven lawyer productivity tips.

1.Embrace Legal Technology to Save Time

The fastest way to be more productive is to stop doing everything manually.  

Technology designed for legal workflows can reduce handoffs, rework, and errors that come with managing every process by hand. The most helpful tools pull daily work into one place so you spend less time managing the practice and more time practicing law. 

Legal tech can help you save time by: 

• Centralizing client and matter details: Use legal CRM tools to keep contacts, documents, notes, and tasks tied to the matter so you can answer questions fast without digging through email threads. 
• Capturing time in real time: Try cloud-based time-tracking software with one-tap timers for quick time capture during calls, emails, and drafting so small billable moments don’t vanish. 
• Standardizing repeatable work: Speed through tasks and processes you repeat for each client with software that offers built-in templates for engagement letters, fee agreements, intake forms, and routine filings. 
• Showing important data at a glance: Platforms with clear reporting and dashboards allow you to track what’s overdue, what’s stuck, and what’s ready to bill so you can act before revenue slips. 

When your systems are connected, you spend fewer minutes switching tabs, hunting for information, and recreating work you already did. 

2. Automate Routine Legal Tasks to Boost Efficiency

Automating routine back-office tasks gives you more time for real legal work. Every admin step you remove is billable time you get back. 

Workflow automation helps you build repeatable processes that match how your firm actually works. Define the steps once, then let the system keep things moving: assigning tasks, triggering the next step, and keeping deadlines visible. 

That kind of consistency pays off fast. When work happens in the right order every time, deadlines stay on track, details don’t fall through the cracks, and billing keeps pace with the work. 

Start by automating processes and steps that increase law firm efficiency fastest: 

• Custom workflow triggers: Automatically assign tasks when a new matter is opened (intake steps, conflict checks, deadlines, document requests), so nothing slips through the cracks.  
• Dependent task logic: When work in one area finishes, the next task kicks off with deadlines and owners already set.  
• Repeatable matter templates: Apply the same workflow to similar matters so your team follows a consistent path every time.  
• Centralized task and deadline visibility: See work progress at a glance without manually checking multiple schedules, tools, or spreadsheets.  
• Reminders and status updates: Keep clients and colleagues aligned without extra email threads or screen checks. 

By running more administrative tasks on autopilot, you eliminate the chore of manual updates and oversight. Let tools handle reminders, document templates, and billing triggers so you can focus on client work. 

Spend less time on admin and more time on clients. 

See how CosmoLex’s built-in workflow automation saves hours each week. Get a personalized demo today.

3. Track Time Accurately and Effortlessly

When only 36 out of 48 hours in a lawyer’s workweek are billable on average, timekeeping is the simplest way to see where your day is really going and how much value you’re actually capturing. 

The goal of legal time tracking is to catch the work that usually slips through the cracks: quick client calls, “just one email,” reviewing a draft, updating a file, prepping for a hearing, coordinating with staff, and follow-ups that keep a case moving.  

Those small moments add up fast, and when they aren’t recorded, they aren’t billed. 

Even if you’re using a flat fee or alternative billing arrangement, tracking your time still matters. Knowing exactly how long tasks take helps you price work confidently, spot scope creep early, and see which matter types are actually profitable. 

If you want to track time more accurately, start with these practical tips: 

• Track time as it happens: Start a timer while you work to track in real time so billable moments don’t rely on memory.  
• Capture time on the go: Use a mobile timekeeping app to log time from court, client meetings, or anywhere your day takes you.  
• Switch tasks without double-billing: Start a new timer when you pivot to a new task with tools that automatically pause the first timer so entries stay clean.  
• Backfill missed work quickly: Log time manually for tasks you completed earlier, then review the entries before you bill.  
• Batch time weekly: If you prefer end-of-week entry, batch-enter across matters instead of recreating your whole week one entry at a time.  
• Tie expenses to matters in real time: Log hard and soft costs as they happen and link them to the right matter to reduce disputes and missed reimbursements.  
• Move from time to invoice faster: Use integrated time and billing software so you can generate accurate invoices without retyping or spreadsheet cleanup. 

Real-time tracking helps you capture short calls, document drafting, and client interactions that often go unbilled. The right tools make this effortless and integrate directly with billing so you stay productive and maximize your law firm’s efficiency.

4. Enhance Client Communication and Responsiveness

Client communication is a productivity lever. Every unclear update creates follow-up emails, every missing document creates delay, and every “quick check-in” breaks focus and slows down real work.  

When communication is simple and centralized, cases move faster, clients feel taken care of, and your team spends less time re-answering the same questions. That’s exactly where a client portal makes a measurable difference. 

A client portal gives clients one secure place to communicate with your firm, so messages, documents, and payments stay connected to the matter instead of scattered across inboxes.  

If you want to use a client portal to make communication more productive, focus on these best practices: 

• Share documents in one place: Only upload and share files through the portal so everything stays secure and attached to the right matter for easy retrieval.  

• Use two-way messaging that stays organized: Keep conversations in a web-based messaging system that logs communications to the matter record.  
• Let clients view and pay invoices online: Reduce back-and-forth invoice questions by letting clients pay online through the secure client portal.  
• Cut email ping-pong: Move routine exchanges (document requests, basic updates, invoice questions) into a structured portal flow so your day isn’t dominated by back-and-forth. 

When you have systems in place to support responsiveness and keep client interactions on track, communication starts supporting productivity instead of interrupting it. 

5. Link Your Legal Billing and Accounting Workflows 

Billing shouldn’t be the bottleneck that stalls law firm efficiency. But it often is: the end-of-month scramble, the missing time entries, the invoice revisions, the “what did we forget?” checks, and the cleanup that drags collections out even longer. 

Friction between legal billing and accounting doesn’t just cost time. It delays cash flow, creates more back-and-forth with clients, and steals attention from legal work.  

The most productive firms treat billing as a continuous workflow, not a monthly event. When billing and accounting live in the same system, time flows into invoices, invoices flow into payments, and payments flow into clean books.  

You spend less time fixing problems and more time getting paid. 

Use these billing and accounting habits to speed up invoicing, reduce errors, and keep revenue moving: 

• Generate multiple invoices in one click: Use bulk invoicing to create multiple invoices at once instead of building them one by one. 
• Send payment-friendly invoices: Offer online payment options like credit cards and ACH, with secure payment links and client portal access. 

• Standardize bills with UTBMS codes: Use UTBMS-compliant billing to keep invoices consistent and reduce disputes. 
• Keep accounting in the same system: Use integrated legal accounting and billing tools so billing entries flow where they belong without re-keying or spreadsheet workarounds. 
• Pull transactions automatically: Use bank feeds and electronic statement imports to reduce manual entry and keep books current. 

When you build these steps into your routine, billing stops feeling like a monthly disruption. You’ll invoice faster, collect sooner, and close the books with fewer surprises. That frees up time and mental bandwidth for higher-value work and a more productive, profitable practice. 

Turn Busy Days into Billable Progress with CosmoLex 

The real answer to how lawyers can be more productive: maximize your billable momentum and minimize interruptions. 

When you embrace tools built for law firms, automate routine tasks, track time as you work, centralize client communication, and streamline billing and accounting, you stop losing hours to admin churn. You spend more time practicing law, stay ahead of deadlines, and keep revenue flowing without an end-of-month scramble. 

CosmoLex brings these productivity boosters together in one easy-to-use practice management platform. From built-in workflow automation and time tracking to legal billing and accounting, every feature is designed to help your firm streamline the way work gets done.  

If you’re ready to work more efficiently and capture more value from every day, start with a personalized demo or try CosmoLex free for 10 days now.