You are not just busy.
You are overextended.
You are managing complex matters, thinking five steps ahead, giving feedback, drafting, responding, checking, fixing, and trying to focus somewhere in between.
Most lawyers do not have a time management problem.
They have a prioritisation problem disguised as professionalism.
The real issue? You are spending too much time doing things you are good at, instead of the work you are meant to be doing.
High Achievers Get Stuck in Low-Leverage Work
In legal practice, it is easy to become the person who “gets it done.” You are competent. Efficient. Reliable.
But competence can be a trap if it keeps you anchored to tasks that someone else could and should be doing. When you prioritise according to habit instead of strategic value, you risk over functioning in low-leverage areas while under-investing in the high-value thinking that truly requires your expertise.
The Competency Filter: A Cognitive Approach to Prioritisation
The most effective way to prioritise legal work is not urgency.
It is alignment with your unique zone of competency.
Ask yourself:
- What work requires my legal expertise, discretion, or strategic judgment?
- What work could be done by someone else, with guidance or training?
- What work am I doing simply because it landed on my desk?
Urgency is temporary.
Competency is structural.
When you build your priorities around where your mind creates the most value not just where it solves the most problems you protect your cognitive energy, your strategic output, and your professional growth.
Why You Resist This Filter
- False Efficiency
You can do it quickly, so you do. But speed is not the point, impact is. - Internalised Responsibility
“If I don’t do it, it might go wrong.” This fear keeps you trapped in micro-management and reactive mode. - Validation Through Volume
High-output lawyers often equate task completion with value. But productivity without strategy leads to depletion without advancement.
The Real Cost of Misaligned Priorities
- Cognitive fatigue from switching between high and low-value tasks
- Reduced deep work time for analysis, drafting, or advocacy preparation
- Slower career growth from lack of visibility in strategic work
- Underdeveloped teams who are not given the space to learn
- Professional stagnation masked by relentless busyness
You cannot scale excellence if you are the bottleneck to your own value.
Strategic Time Management Starts With Priority Filtering
Here is how to apply the Competency Filter to your work:
- Audit Your Weekly Workload
For each task, ask:
- Did this require my legal mind?
- Could I have trained or delegated this?
- What work never gets done because I am stuck in the weeds?
- Identify Your High-Competency Zone
This is the work where your:
- Experience improves outcomes
- Discretion affects risk
- Legal thinking adds strategic value
- Delegate Outside Your Zone
Administrative tasks, routine follow-ups, and repeatable processes should be streamlined or transferred. Delegate early not after you have wasted energy preparing to do it yourself. - Time-Block for Thinking
High-competency work requires uninterrupted focus. Protect it. Block time daily or weekly where your best thinking goes uninterrupted. - Refuse Urgency without Alignment
Not all urgent tasks are important. Triage by asking: Does this require my level of competency or just my availability?
Final Thought
Great lawyers do not just get more done. They get the right things done and know what to leave, delegate, or redesign.
When you align your time with your true competency, you protect your cognitive energy, increase the quality of your legal thinking, and create space for the work only you can do.
Prioritisation is not just a productivity strategy.
It is a professional discipline.
If you want to master the Competency Filter and create high-performance time structures in your firm, our Ultimate Time Management Course for Lawyers will give you the tools, neuroscience, and systems to protect your most valuable asset your focus.
Discounted rate for firms — book a session to discuss here: Book via Calendly
Learn more about the course: The Ultimate Time Management Course for Lawyers
