6.1.26 Hours
June 1, 2026 -- there's something about starting a new month on a Monday and a clean slate for this month's hours requirement.
My firm expects partners to track 2400* hours all in--a mix of billable and non-billable (investment, productive)** time.
May was a big month, so I got ever so slightly ahead.
This month, my monthly target is 195 hours.
When I look at June's calendar, I see two half working days. I don't see (for now) any zero hour days, and I'll have lots of weekend days to catch up as needed.
That's 21 days or
9.3 hours on full working days and
4.6 hours on half working days.
Not so bad in big law terms.
When I hit my daily goal, I'll hold steady the next day, the rest of the week, and/or the rest of the month.
When I miss my daily goal, I'll add hours to the next day, over the rest of the week, or the rest of the month.
When I exceed my daily goal, I'll subtract hours from the next day, over the rest of the week, or the rest of the month--or I'll hold steady, banking hours and building a cushion.
This method, coupled with tracking my time as a go each day and entering my time daily, allows me to know where I stand and take breaks guilt free.
I've also coupled this, more recently, with a monthly review of my monetary metrics, which matter as much (if not more) than my hours as I grow as a partner.
Now, off to it. 🔥✌🏻♥️
*Within that 2400, partners set a billable target. What matters alongside billables? All other metrics: monies clients actually pay for my billed time, collections on the matters/clients I manage, collections on the new files a proliferate for existing clients, collections on new clients I bring in.
You want a holistic picture.
My goal? To try to show an incremental increase in my economic contribution year over year, while anticipating outliers in either direction.
**Trackable time that is not billable, but is an investment in your career or otherwise productive = mentoring, business development, networking, community and civic involvement, board work, administrative tasks, client work that you do not bill, professional development.
It is anything you do to further your career, your firm, your colleagues, your community.
It is worth tracking and entering this time for at least two reasons:
(1) it shows your firm that you're not twiddling your thumbs when things are slow (and there will be slow times) and
(2) it shows your firm you're invested in your whole career, something that is required to grow and sustain yourself in this field.
Now, yearly, I feed my non-billable time into our firm's secure AI and have it help me explain the ROI on all that time, so that I can advocate for myself during my review.