For those that have read the “About” page on our site or follow us on social media, you know that my “day job” is “practicing” as an estate planning and probate attorney.  My goal with the Ultimate Legal Pad was to create a simple, effective, and standardized system for taking notes that was easily adaptable to all professions -- not just lawyers.  After working with various layouts/prototypes, I landed on the Ultimate Legal Pad which I am honored to say many of you are using today. As a user of the Ultimate Legal Pad, I’d like to share with you 3 ways the Ultimate Legal Pad has improved my practice:

1.   Keeping track of my time.  For lawyers and other professionals that bill by the hour -- time is money.  Many lawyers (including me) get into the [bad] habit of keeping time records everywhere -- on sticky notes, notepads, Dictaphones etc.  With the Ultimate Legal Pad, I find it very useful to be able to go back through my notes and look at the bottom of the page to see how long I spent on a particular action.  For professionals that aren’t tied to the billable hour, the time field on the Ultimate Legal Pad can help you gain a better understanding of how long you spend on particular tasks.  Keeping track of this overtime can help you analyze ways to increase productivity.

2.   Planning and implementing next steps/follow-up date.  It’s easy to focus on the details of a meeting/call. It’s also easy to get lost in those details and forget about what the task at hand is.  Having preformatted “Next Steps” and a section for a “Follow-Up” date forces me to think about what needs to happen, by who, and when.

3.   Creating easy to read digital files of my notes.  A phrase I have heard from many lawyers is “my office is trying to go paperless.”  Trying is the key word in that sentence. Whether your office is or isn’t close to being paperless, scanning notes from the Ultimate Legal Pad to a client file for review later has been great.  It’s nice to to pull up notes on my computer and quickly review the layout for the information needed. It also helps my staff quickly locate notes because they can review the preformatted sections to determine whether the notes are relevant for any tasks they are responsible for.

Now that you have read about some of the ways the Ultimate Legal Pad has helped in my practice, I want to hear from you.  How has the Ultimate Legal Pad helped you in your particular profession? Send us an email at hello@ultimatenotepads.com or message us on Facebook or Instagram and let us know 3 ways the Ultimate Legal Pad has helped you.  We’d love to feature your story on our blog and on our social media channels.  

I look forward to hearing from you and thank you for your support.