10 Simple Productivity Hacks for In-House Lawyers

One of my most recent books is on productivity for in-house lawyers.[1] Ironically, the book is over 400 pages long so it may not be the most productive use of your time to meander through it looking to pick up a useful nugget or two. At 400 pages it does make for excellent protection against stab wounds – just in case you may be loitering about in a place where stab wounds are likely (and you have a copy of the book duct-taped around your torso). I call this “Thursday” here in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex… Damn. Off on a tangent again. Sorry about that. Let’s get back on track, if you’re still with me (though I wouldn’t blame you if you have left the scene of whatever word crime this missive has turned into so far). Anyway, I was speaking a couple of weeks ago in Chicago and someone at dinner started asking me about the productivity book. Specifically, they asked me about my “favorite” tips, i.e., of all the tips and hacks in the book which ones do I rely on the most or use every day? I rattled off a handful just as the main course was set before us. But all through the rest of the dinner I was thinking about their question. And by the time people started to head back home, to the hotel, or to the knife-fight infested Loop area, I had a pretty good list in my head. And thus today’s “Ten Things” topic was born. Here are my ten favorite simple but high-impact productivity hacks that can help you have a more productive day, week, or month. Nothing fancy. No complicated systems. Just simple, repeatable habits that can reduce the many sources of “work friction” that keep you from getting more done:[2]

1. Calendar blocking. If you think about it, your calendar pretty much controls your day, i.e., where you need to be and what you are doing at any given time is generally set out for you. All you need to do is show up to the meeting, call, video conference, lunch, or whatever somehow made it on the list. Yet for many of us, there are usually a few chunks of white space showing throughout the day. We typically look at these windows as time to actually get shit done. Others look at these blanks as times when you are available to help them and – depending on how your email/calendar system is set up – will not hesitate to stick something on your calendar (see my “Ten Things” post on “Escaping Meeting Hell”). Eventually, it dawned on me that I can set my own meetings – with myself – in those blank spaces. In other words, it is okay to go ahead and block chunks of time on your calendar for specific projects (deep work), email review, organization, or for just “thinking” about stuff (and underrated task in my opinion). You may not be able to block big chunks of time immediately but look out ahead a few weeks when your calendar is not as full and start nabbing slices of time with yourself in June or July before someone else nabs it. Then use those blocks of time to be productive. For more on calendar blocking and why it is so effective see, Time Blocking for the Win!

2. Checklists and templates. If you have been reading my blog for a while or have seen me speak (and not left the room screaming), then you know I am a huge fan of checklists and templates. Nothing helps you get work done faster than a good template or checklist. Why? Because having to ask yourself if you have “forgotten” anything while completing a task is a big time-waster. A checklist ensures that you hit all the steps needed. A template ensures consistency and speed. Even better, a checklist is super easy to create. A template may take longer, but once it is done it become a fantastic time-saver as well. For a detailed discussion on how to create checklists, see my “Ten Things” post on “Creating Checklists.” For more on how to create a good template, see Contract Templates and Standardization: Building an Efficient Contract Creation Process. You can also find great templates on Practical Law (Thomson Reuters), Practical Guidance (Lexis/Nexis), Business in a Box, Legal Templates, and DocuSign, among many sources. You can even ask outside counsel for templates or your network of in-house lawyers (who are usually more than willing to share). No matter your source, you must customize the template to your company’s business, i.e., you can rarely just nab a template from a third-party source and use it “as is.” You still have to do some work. For more on the power of checklists see, Can the Practice of Law be Reduced to a Checklist?[3]

3. Bullet points. No one wants to read your boring ass memo. That may sound harsh, but it’s true. Hell, you probably don’t want to read your boring ass memo any more than you want to take the boatload of time necessary to write it. Your business partners are busy, just like you. Long emails with long paragraphs slow them down. Worse, they obscure your point, assuming you buried one somewhere in that mound of words. Want to get more done as an in-house lawyer? Use bullet points! For example, instead of this typical lawyer bullshit:

“Proceeding under the proposed structure entails a multiplicity of interrelated and, in certain respects, indeterminate risks, including, without limitation, potential exposure under applicable privacy, data protection, and related regulatory regimes, which exposure may arise from, inter alia, the collection, processing, transfer, storage, or other handling of personal or sensitive information in a manner that could be deemed noncompliant with governing statutory, regulatory, or common law requirements. Such risks are further exacerbated by the dynamic and, at times, internally inconsistent nature of applicable legal frameworks, the prospect of divergent interpretive positions among relevant supervisory authorities, and the absence of uniform enforcement standards across jurisdictions. Moreover, any such noncompliance, whether actual or alleged, may give rise to administrative, civil, or quasi-criminal liabilities, including fines, penalties, injunctive relief, and reputational harm, the scope and magnitude of which may be difficult to ascertain ex ante. In light of the foregoing, and without limiting the generality thereof, it is imperative that any implementation of the proposed structure be preceded and accompanied by the adoption, maintenance, and periodic reassessment of comprehensive compliance protocols, technical and organizational safeguards, and risk allocation mechanisms designed to mitigate, to the extent practicable, the foregoing exposures…”[4]

Write this:

Regarding the proposed structure:

Key risk: potential exposure under privacy laws.
Why it matters: could trigger regulatory scrutiny.
Recommendation: proceed only if X and Y are implemented.

Clear. Fast. Actionable. And much faster to write. Your business partners will love you for it. They may even host a parade in your honor. Which would be pretty cool if you think about it.[5] Parade or not, bullet points force you to clarify your thinking. And they make it much easier for your audience to understand what you’re saying and what they need to do next. Most importantly, they save a ton of time. For more on bullet points see How to Write Powerful Bullet Points.

4. Quick Steps. Using Quick Steps in Microsoft Outlook can help in-house lawyers to reduce (or eliminate) repetitive tasks while responding to email.[6] Sadly, much of an in-house lawyer’s day involves dealing with a steady flow of oddly similar requests, e.g., contract reviews, “quick” legal questions, lunch orders, and more, where some type of quick acknowledgment or standard reply can help build trust with the business and (importantly) keep work moving. However, even short replies can add up to meaningful wasted time and distraction that pulls you away from focusing on valuable deep work. Quick Steps solve this by bundling common actions, like replying with standardized language, into a single click or keystroke – saving you an incredible amount of time responding to email over the course of a week, month, or year. For example, creating a Quick Step to acknowledge receipt of a legal request ensures that your business partners get an immediate response while giving you time to properly prioritize and schedule the actual work. This improves efficiency and productivity and helps set expectations through a consistent response. Here is how to set up a Quick Step in Outlook (with a shortcut key and “tooltip”):[7]

Go to the Home tab in Outlook.
In the Quick Steps group, click Create New.
Name your Quick Step (e.g., “Acknowledge Legal Request”).
Under Actions, select Reply so it automatically replies to the selected email.
Click Show Options to expand additional settings.
In the Text field, paste or type your standard response:

“Just a quick note to let you know I have your request. I will get back to you asap with any questions and/or an estimate of when I can get your request completed.”

To add a shortcut, use the Shortcut key dropdown and choose a combination of keys (e.g., CTRL + SHIFT + 1) that you’ll remember and use frequently.
To add a tooltip description, find the Tooltip text field and enter a short explanation of the Quick Step: “Acknowledge legal request and set timing expectations.” This text will appear when you hover over the Quick Step, making it easier to ensure you are using the right one.
Click Finish to save.

Once configured, you can simply select an email and trigger the Quick Step via your shortcut keys or a single click, allowing you to respond almost instantly saving yourself time and wear and time crafting the same response over and over again. There are many things you can do with Quick Steps besides creating standard responses (though I find that to be a huge time saver for me). For more on how to create a Quick Step generally, see this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3dW7cqkHrs.

5. “Top Three” list. I suspect your “to-do” list is pretty long. And it feels good to tick things off the list. But most of the time that is false productivity. Why? Because ticking off things that you can do does not always correlate with working on things you should do. What you should be working on are things that drive value for business and align with its strategic and business goals. This means you need to spend some time thinking about what’s really important, i.e., you need to prioritize the right things (see my “Ten Things” post on “How to Prioritize Your Work”). What prioritization means for in-house lawyers is that you are directing most of your time (but not all) to the most important things on your list. Once you have identified those critical tasks, you need to be a real hard-ass about picking the three most important for you to focus on today. That’s right, start each day with a to-do list of three things. If you have identified the right priorities, then you will spend a big chunk of your day making progress on things that matter and that is the hallmark of productivity. A list of three is focused, manageable, and simple to do (once you get in the habit). It becomes your north star for the day, and even if you don’t get to all of the items on the list (or any of them), that’s okay because you can roll them over to tomorrow and keep chipping away – a little bit of progress is better than no progress (i.e., the power of little things)! I have been using a list of three for years and it truly works. For more on creating a to-do list of three, see The 3-Task Rule: The Simple Productivity Hack That Changed My Life in 2025.

6. Check email at set times. Checking email at set, designated times rather than constantly monitoring my inbox has been a game changer. It has vastly improved my productivity by protecting uninterrupted blocks of my time for higher-value work. It can do the same for you! By batching email review into scheduled intervals (for example, 800 am, 1000 am, 100 pm, 300 pm, and 500 pm), you can triage email more efficiently, respond in a more thoughtful and comprehensive way, and avoid the multitasking hellhole that opens up when you let constant review of email fragment your day and your time.[8] Batching also provides for better prioritization, as you can evaluate issues together rather than linearly and reactively over the course of the day, making it easier to distinguish truly urgent/important matters from routine requests. In return, you get more time to focus on the work you need to focus on, i.e., analyze contracts, assess risk, and provide nuanced counsel to the business. The result of all this batching stuff is a more thoughtful workflow where you have more opportunities to deliver strategic, high-quality legal guidance. Try it for a week or two and I guarantee you will be shocked at the increase in your productivity by not letting the email monster control your day.[9] To help you get started, it is okay to post an “out of office” message that says something like this:

“I am checking email at set times throughout the day. I will respond to your email as soon as I can.”

This helps set expectations in a world where many in the business expect you to respond within seconds of them sending their email.[10] A message like this also reduces anxiety from your business clients by making it clear that you are not ignoring them. For more on the benefits of email batching see, Here’s Why Batching Emails Beats Continuous Checking and How to Check Your Email Only Three Times a Day.[11]

7. Be the gas pedal. Adopting the mindset that legal is the “gas pedal” of the business and not the brake can significantly increase the productivity (and impact) of the in-house legal team by reframing its role from gatekeeper and problem spotter to the enabler of business momentum. When in-house lawyers approach their work with the goal of facilitating progress rather than finding reasons to stop it, they naturally focus on solutions, speed, and practicality. Instead of defaulting to “no” or escalating every potential risk like it was a law school exam and they are gunning for an A, they work to find the path forward, propose alternatives, and tailor advice to the company’s risk tolerance and business goals – understanding that legal risks rarely outweigh the risk to the business of not achieving its goals. Adopting a “we are the gas pedal” attitude reduces friction with business partners, shortens decision time, and minimizes the godawful back-and-forth with the business about crap that doesn’t really matter and eats up valuable time. A “step on the gas” mentality also builds trust between company lawyers and their business colleagues, i.e., we are all on the same team with the same goal. This can lead to internal clients seeking to engage the legal department earlier in the process – when issues are easier and faster to address – because they are much more confident that the legal team is there to help them, not punish them or throw up roadblocks. Over time, a proactive, business-oriented approach allows legal teams to handle a higher volume of work more efficiently while delivering more strategic value, ultimately making the entire company move faster with greater confidence. Say it with me, “Be the gas pedal, not the brake!”

8. Don’t offer deadlines. This one may surprise you, but it shouldn’t. As lawyers, we are conditioned to provide timelines to clients, e.g., “I’ll get this back to you on Monday.” Guess what, dummy? If you propose getting something back on Monday, you are probably working over the weekend. Even worse, there may have been no reason to do so. Your business partner may have been happy with Tuesday or even Thursday. But, since you were kind (dumb) enough to volunteer Monday, why not Monday? Simply put, offering deadlines usually creates unnecessary pressure on you and locks you into commitments at the expense of more important projects. Instead of volunteering, do the following:

Ask when it’s actually needed.
Understand the business context (e.g., how important this is to the business and what happens if it doesn’t get done immediately).
Then set a realistic deadline.

In my experience, when you go through these steps you typically find, it’s not as urgent as it seems, the deadline is flexible, and the business will be just fine if this project takes a few days or a week to get done. This, in turn, helps you avoid overcommitting (and then working late or over the weekend to meet that commitment), reduces stress (and everyone benefits from that), and – most importantly – allows you to maintain (some) control over your workload. And, when you do commit to a deadline, you are far more likely to deliver on time. Here is a great article on why arbitrary/false deadlines cost the business far more than they help, The True Cost of Unrealistic Legal Deadlines.

9. Align on risk tolerance. Here’s a real time waster – spending time on risks the business doesn’t care about. In-house lawyers who only think of “risk” in legal terms are (a) not particularly effective as in-house lawyers and (b) are likely wasting precious time spinning up on issues that could be easily resolved if you know the company’s position on that risk. In other words, understanding the company’s position on risk scales you because an in-house attorney who is closely aligned with the company’s risk tolerance can operate far more efficiently as their advice is calibrated to the organization’s real-world business needs and priorities, not abstract legal “zero risk” perfection. Instead of overanalyzing low-impact risks or defaulting to the typical uber-conservative positions,[12] knowing the company’s risk appetite allows you to quickly distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable exposure, freeing the business to move forward and saving you valuable time. Alignment on risk also reduces back-and-forth redlines on wording the business is otherwise fine with, minimizes unnecessary escalations, and builds trust with internal stakeholders who learn that the legal team is practical and seeking to enable the business, not obstruct it. Here’s how to get alignment on risk:

Meet with your internal business partners and key business leaders to understand how they view risk in the context of growth, revenue, and strategy.
Review how the company has handled legal risks historically to identify patterns in acceptable versus avoided risks.
Work with stakeholders to define what levels of legal, financial, and reputational risk are acceptable in different scenarios.
Build relationships with operational teams to understand their goals, timelines, and pressures.
Frame your advice in terms of impact on revenue, cost, and operations rather than purely legal issues.
Develop playbooks, templates, or decision frameworks that reflect the agreed-upon risk tolerance.
Revisit alignment regularly as the company’s strategy, market conditions, or leadership priorities evolve.
Keep this motto close at hand: Legal Does Not Run the Business.

This is all more impactful if you do this exercise as a team vs. something department attorneys do in isolation. For more on this see Risky Business: Aligning the Legal Department with the Company’s Risk Tolerance Levels.

10. Use AI. As you all know, I am a huge fan of AI. I believe all in-house lawyers can significantly boost their productivity by using AI tools as a force multiplier, i.e., treating AI like a highly capable, always-available junior associate or intern. For example, AI can quickly draft contract language, summarize lengthy agreements, flag potential risks, conduct preliminary legal research, create negotiation playbooks, and generate first-pass analyses, allowing in-house attorneys to move dramatically faster through routine and repetitive tasks. This saves time and enables in-house counsel to spend more of their time on strategic advice and judgment, stakeholder counseling, and high-impact decision-making. You know, the fun part of the job! However, like a junior team member, AI output requires careful review and supervision. Lawyers must validate the accuracy of the output, ensure the advice aligns with the company’s risk tolerance, and (critically) apply their own legal expertise and business context before relying on or sharing the results. When used correctly, i.e., the “smart intern” model, AI tools become a way to streamline workflows, reduce turnaround times, and elevate the overall impact of the legal department. Here are just some of the productivity boosting uses of AI for in-house legal teams:[13]

Contract review and redlining: Generate first-pass edits, compare against company standards, and flag deviations from preferred terms.
Playbook creation and enforcement: Draft and refine clause libraries and negotiation guidelines that reflect the company’s risk tolerance.
Issue spotting in business initiatives: Rapidly assess new products, partnerships, or marketing campaigns for legal and regulatory risks.
Summarizing complex materials: Distill long contracts, policies, or regulatory updates into concise, business-friendly takeaways.
Internal client support: Draft quick, plain-English answers to recurring questions from sales, HR, procurement, and product teams.
Regulatory tracking and analysis: Monitor changes in laws or enforcement trends and translate them into actionable guidance.
Litigation and investigation support: Organize facts, summarize documents, and assist with early case assessments or internal reviews.
Workflow automation: Streamline intake, triage, and routine approvals (e.g., NDAs, vendor agreements) to reduce turnaround time.
Checklist creation: Generate tailored due diligence, compliance, or deal-closing checklists for different transaction types or risk levels.
Term sheet drafting: Produce clear, business-aligned term sheets that reflect standard positions and key negotiation points.
Brainstorming and scenario analysis: Explore alternative deal structures, risk mitigations, or negotiation strategies quickly.
Presentation development: Draft slides for internal trainings, board updates, or executive briefings with legal insights translated into business language.
Policy drafting and updates: Create and revise internal policies (e.g., data privacy, employee conduct) in line with evolving laws and company practices.
Training materials: Develop practical, role-specific guidance and FAQs for business teams.
Email and communication drafting: Craft clear, concise communications to stakeholders explaining legal positions or decisions.
Knowledge management: Organize and synthesize institutional knowledge into searchable resources for the legal team and broader company.
Self-directed learning: Use AI to quickly get up to speed on new legal domains or business concepts (e.g., understanding a regulatory regime or how to read financial statements), with the caveat that key points should be verified before relying on them.

And this is only scratching the surface! Of course, proper use of AI tools by in-house lawyers generally requires enterprise level technology that protects the company’s confidential information and the attorney-client privilege. While there are lots of uses for AI that do not require confidential information, every legal department should have an AI use policy that sets out how and when AI can be used and which products are on the whitelist and which are not. For more on this, see AI Use Cases for In-House Legal.

*****

At the end of the day, none of these ten tips are particularly complicated or deeply original, and that’s the point. Productivity for in-house lawyers is rarely about finding some magical, complex system; it’s about consistently applying simple, practical habits that grease the skids, protect your time, and align your work with what actually matters to the business. Whether it’s blocking your calendar, using checklists, managing email more deliberately, or leveraging AI, each of these relatively small changes compounds over time into meaningful gains in productivity (and impact). You don’t need to implement all ten at once, i.e., pick a few, build them into your daily routine, and let momentum do the rest. As usual, the goal isn’t perfection; it’s progress. And if you can spend more of your day focused on high-value work that moves the business forward (and even leave the office at a decent time more frequently), then everybody wins.

Sterling Miller

April 30, 2026

I hope you notice the new and improved layout of the “Ten Things” website!

The Productive In-House Lawyer: Tips, Hacks, and the Art of Getting Things Done, is available for sale. You can buy it here: Buy The Book!

My newest book (number seven), More Slow-Cooker Savant, is out now! I think it has sold something like 30 million copies – if you round up. A lot. Join the cool kids and buy a copy right now!

My fifth book, Showing the Value of the Legal Department: More Than Just a Cost Center is available now, including as an eBook! You can buy a copy HERE.

Two of my books, Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel – Practical Advice and Successful Strategies and Ten (More) Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel – Practical Advice and Successful Strategies Volume 2, are also on sale at the ABA website (including as e-books).

I have published two other books: The Evolution of Professional Football, and The Slow-Cooker Savant. I am also available for speaking engagements, webinars/CLEs, coaching, training, pet sitting, bartending, and consulting.

Connect with me on Twitter @10ThingsLegal and on LinkedIn where I post articles and stories of interest to in-house counsel frequently.

“Ten Things” is not legal advice nor legal opinion and represents my views only. It is intended to provide practical tips and references to the busy in-house practitioner and other readers. If you have questions or comments, or ideas for a post, please contact me at sterling.miller@outlook.com or if you would like a CLE for your in-house legal team on this or any topic in the blog, contact me at smiller@hilgerslaw.com.

[1] But don’t forget about the new cookbook!

[2] And if not, I will refund 100% of the money you spent to access this blog…

[3] I’ll answer this: Yes. Yes, it can.

[4] It hurt my head to write this… and it made my beer taste bad.

[5] More so if they can get the Shriners to show up with their Fez’s and mini-bikes.

[6] There is a version for Word as well called Quick Parts. See How to Create Reusable Content with Quick Parts & Building Blocks in a Microsoft Word Document 2026.

[7] I use Microsoft Office products but there is almost always an equivalent for Google Gmail or Google Docs, etc. See Gmail vs. Outlook for Productivity: Which Email Workflow is Better?

[8] Damn. That’s a hell of a sentence. Feel free to applaud…

[9] Guarantee void in all 50 states and Luxembourg.

[10] And, if you feel it necessary, you can turn on alerts that will pop up/play a sound when someone on your “must respond quickly” list sends you an email. See Only Get Notifications for Certain Email.

[11] I don’t think three times a day works for in-house lawyers, but the article has some really good tips and pointers, so it was worth including.

[12] But if this type of approach appeals to you, may I interest you in a career at Big Law or the fast food service industry?

[13] I had drinks the other night with a friend and longtime general counsel who told me that for 2026 goals he tasked each lawyer in the department to identify by June 1 one important task that they can automate through the use of AI and by December they must be able to show the impact in terms of cost savings or other value that they were able to achieve by using AI in this manner. This is absolutely brilliant and a great way to get your teams to engage with AI. You will quickly find out who are the members of the legal team that are embracing the future and ready to move forward and which ones are going to go through the motions. The reality is you need the former and you probably cannot afford to keep the latter around for long. Thanks for sharing this, Andy!