New Year, New Billable Hour Goal

January 2, 2025 -- the first business day of the year, so you know what time it is: my first billable hour check in of the new year.

My firm expects partners to track 2400 hours a year.

This is a mix of billable time (client work) and non-billable or investment time (mentoring, networking, DEI, recruiting, business development, professional development, firm work, administrative time, etc.).

As I start fresh, my goal is simple: 200 hours a month, each month, for the next 12 months.

When I look at January, I see one half-billing day (yesterday--I didn't plan to and did not bill a full day, but I worked some) and 22 full-billing days.

200 ➗ 22.5 🟰 8.9 hours on full-billing days and 4.5 hours on half-billing days.

When I bill more, I'll:

🔁 bank the extra hours, creating a credit I could use in future, slower periods; or

🔁 bill less the next day; or

🔁 bill less over the course of the rest of the week; or

🔁 bill less over the course of the rest of the month.

If I bill less, I'll:

🔁 add the missed hours to tomorrow's goal; or

🔁 spread the missed hours over the rest of the week; or

🔁 spread the missed hours over the rest of the month; or

🔁 give myself a break, since it is only the first month of the year and knowing sprints and long days are 100% in my future.

Tracking my hours this way--coupled with my daily, real-time tracking and time-entering habit--keeps the billable hour boogie man at bay.

Tracking and billing our time is just part of the job--it is that simple.

Yes, it is not natural or intuitive to monitor every action in 6-minute increments, but: If you create a system and build a habit, it doesn't have to be hard or a chore. It can be just a fact of life--you can move on from begrudging it, from complaining about it like so many are wont to do.

Now, off to bank those hours.

🔥❤️✌🏻