CBA Record March-April 2022

LPMT BITS & BYTES BY ANNE HAAG Spring Cleaning

way we work has changed, and we might not need the same tools anymore. We have a clearer sense of our needs now than we did in 2020, so get rid of the things you know you don’t need anymore. Your State of Wellbeing Th is has been a challenging couple of years. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to wellbeing, but if you’ve been putting o ff taking a big step towards improving your mental health or breaking an unhealthy habit, now might be the time to make the leap. Th erapy is a great tool to help you self-re fl ect and take stock of what is and isn’t working in your life. Lawyers, judges, and law students in Illinois can access con fi dential therapy and other mental health services through the Lawyers Assistance Program. Take advantage of these services and take care of yourselves. If you don’t put yourself fi rst, who will?

A fter two years of unpredictable fl uc tuations in the way we work and live caused by the pandemic, you’ve probably accumulated a lot of mental and physical clutter. Th ere’s no time quite like spring to confront this buildup. Now is the perfect time to assess what is and isn’t working in your practice, your tech deck, your o ffi ce, and your state of wellbeing. Your Practice Is there a realm of your practice that stands out to you as needing some extra attention? Do you struggle with social media market ing and feel like you’re pouring time and energy into e ff orts that don’t seem to pay o ff ? Do you have a hard time keeping in touch with clients after their matter closes so that they remember you for future needs or referrals? Do you want to pivot practice areas? Identifying the areas in which you struggle is the fi rst step to resolving the problem points. Now is the time to take stock, fi gure out what is and isn’t working, and move towards a more functional (and possibly more fun!) practice. Your Tech Deck It’s a good idea to schedule annual time to examine your technology tools. Make sure you aren’t paying for subscriptions you no longer need or use. Do you hate your prac tice management platform? Take this time to shop around for a new one. Have you been meaning to organize your Outlook folders for ages? Use the spring-cleaning excuse to make it fi nally happen. Check to

ensure that there aren’t any redundancies in your tech deck and to ensure that what you’re paying for is really working for you. I also recommend doing a security audit at least three times a year. Go through your phone and see what apps have access to your location data, microphone, camera, and so on. If you’re using a password manager, run a security scan to see which passwords need updating or are being reused in multiple locations. Consider periodically updating your master pass word and passwords that might not be logged in your password manager, like the passcode you use to unlock your phone or laptop. Your O ffi ce Th roughout most of 2020, I hesitated to invest in anything beyond the most basic home o ffi ce supplies. I didn’t want to use my own money to create a home o ffi ce environment that I might not use beyond a particular point in time. But somewhere in the second half of 2021, I realized the home o ffi ce isn’t going away anytime soon. Even if you’re back in your normal o ffi ce, odds are high that you’ll continue to use a home o ffi ce setup with more frequency than you did before 2020. If you’ve been putting o ff an investment or an upgrade, now might be the time to go for it. It’s time to take stock of what is and isn’t relevant to your home o ffi ce or work o ffi ce setting. I’ve had a box of things from my proper o ffi ce sitting in a corner of my home o ffi ce for about two years now. Th e

AnneHaag is the CBA’s LawPracticeManagement Advisor, a certi fi ed crisis interven tion counselor, and a volunteer with Resilience as a trauma-informed ER advocate for sexual assault survivors.

40 March/April 2022