My Two Cents: Your Tech Setup Can Be a Godsend When You Get Sick!

IS your tech stack nimble enough to handle when you’re sick and out of the office?

Last Monday, I tested positive for COVID. The Thursday prior to the test, I started to feel unwell. The next day was not a happy one. Production on the blog and podcast stopped. But more importantly, the law practice needed to be managed. Thankfully my tech setup helps me manage things...

It helps to have a good Client Relations Management program. I use Daylite. It's a Mac Based CRM that syncs nicely among all of my electronic devices and those of my staff. It allows me to see what deadlines in my calendar and tasks were upcoming and needed to be adjusted or absolutely needed to be addressed. Accordingly, I could adjust my law clerk's due dates and schedules.

Do you have a way to adjust your schedule quickly when you are sudendly sick at honme?

Through my calendar in Daylite, I can see what appointments I have scheduled. If I want to adjust those dates, I need to go into my online scheduling program, currently Acuity Scheduling (but I am thinking of switching to Calendly). From there, I can cancel appointments or reschedule them as needed. In the response e-mail noting the change of the meeting, I can provide a link to my scheduling program to offer the other party options for a different date that is mutually convenient. But before I do, I'll block off the days that I know I'll be recovering from COVID.

Your e-mail still needs to be triaged a bit. You have to look for anything critical that must be addressed. This is why I color-code my contacts when I first create them. All of my court filing e-mails are tagged red. As we all know, those are e-mails we don't want to miss, and we want them to stand out so that we are sure to address them. My client's e-mails are orange. Office e-mails are yellow. Personal e-mails are blue. You get the picture, and you can choose your own color scheme that meets your preference. But what do I do if I need to deal with these e-mails but at a later date? How do I quickly get inbox zero?

How do you triage your e-mail especially when you are sick?!

We all have the problem of wanting an empty e-mail inbox. I use a service called Sanebox. It is a very smart service that can be used on almost any e-mail platform. In my opinion, Sanebox pays for itself. It allows you to create "Sanelater" folders. These folders can be set to particular times and/or dates of your choice. Then at the assigned time/date, the e-mail(s) placed in said folder will reappear in your inbox.

So, if you know that you'll be returning to work on Monday, whether from being out sick or just the weekend is coming upon you, you can put the e-mail in a "SaneMonday" or "SaneNextWeek" folder, have it disappear from your inbox, and reappear on Monday. I have a "Sane5PM" folder for things I do not want to deal with during the workday, but I will need to address them later that day. I have a "SaneSat" for administrative work e-mails that I'll manage on Saturday.

The advantage of video conferencing while you are sick is you can turn off your video!

Sanebox is also really good at dealing with Spam e-mail. Sanebox allows you to put spam e-mail into its "Blackhole" folder so future spam from the sender will automatically go into it. Sanebox is pretty easy to set up and helps you find the wheat through the chaff.

In the virtual practice of law, video conferencing is great when working with other members of your team. But it is nice that you can turn the video off when you are unwell. So, I did not make everyone witness their boss sick.

The good news is, according to the CDC, I am back from COVID (sans some minor lingering effects). The not-so-bad news is that I have some work to catch up on. At least it's organized and ready to go. If your tech stack is not allowing you to adjust your work when life comes up, maybe it's time to look into something different?

MTC.