Related Posts
How to manage 3 month of notice period?@
Community Builder
Additional Posts in Law
How competitve is a US district court clerkship?
How do you wind down after a rough day?
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
This is the bane of every lawyer’s existence. I have tried every process in the universe. None didn’t strikes as a pain in the ass.
The least bad method for me was starting a to do list for the next day before I shut down for the night. I kept it on my computer as a running word table that had two columns, one for the date and one for the task. I would print it out at the end of the day, after removing any completed tasks and adding anything new that had come in that day. I left it in the middle of my desk, so it was the first thing that I saw when I walked into my office. I would then use it during the day too prioritize tasks (by quickly assigning a one, two, three, four on the list at the beginning of the day), and used it to take notes of additional tasks that came up during the day. At the end of the day, I would delete the items that I had completed, type in the new ones that I had handwritten during the day, print a copy of the next days list, and file the used list, so I had it in the future if I got behind on time or needed to remember when I did a particular thing, or the phone number for a particular person. It usually took me about five minutes at the end of the day to update the running list and print it, and only a couple of minutes at the beginning of the following day to assign priorities based on urgency and complexity. I was also pretty deliberate about tackling my most important projects first thing in the morning, because I found that that was the time I was least likely to be interrupted and most able to concentrate for extended periods.
The function of including the date on which a task first entered the list was to poke myself in the eye over things that languished more than a few days. Everybody has nagging, lower priority tasks that need done, and knowing that you have been ignoring them for some extended period can provide a little extra motivation to finally finish them and get them off the list.
Good luck with this, as it will be a source of constant frustration for you throughout your career.
I have tried things for a decade.
What I now have is a weekly calendar with three columns. Today, this week, weekend/future. Tasks get added to either column and each day first thing. I double-check what is for today and it gets a number like yours. Each Sunday, same thing for the next week after the clean up of things left.
Follow-ups get dropped in a calendar invite for the specific day and those emails are sent out in the morning.
This does not actually become reality for a lot because life happens but as T1 said, the least bad system.
You have plenty of options to keep track of what you need to do. How are you planning WHEN you’re going to do it?
F
One Note is amazing and easy. They should pay me for all the recommendations. It's like a binder with tabs and pages in between. You can have a tab for each matter with a page for to do list with check boxes, a page to drag and drop emails and documents to reference, etc.....youtube tutorials can show you how to use it. It comes with Microsoft.
Adopting new habits can be difficult. Monday.com and Trello can be good tools. Even with those in place, I trust my post it's like my life depends on it. I jot down my intended tasks for the day and roll over whatever doesn't get done.
Came to suggest Monday.com too. I didn't start using it until a few years ago in house but wish I had it when I was in private practice.
F
f
F
Pro
Wow OP, everyone here is like… press F for respects. Myself included. Very few people actually have good advice on how to organize things. RIP.
If you are still wondering, one of the best ways is the way you have been doing it.... to a point. Write down all of the tasks you have to do - put a deadline on every task, even if it is arbitrary for that task. Then, every day before you start the day, you pick 3-5 things that must get done that day OR at the end of the day, you pick those 3-5 things
Each task could be broken down into its parts, and you can choose to do it that way as well. In pieces. I prefer not to use a program like Monday.com or Trello because they are usually meant for group tasks, and I am a solopreneur.
DM me if you want to chat about this - I teach it for a living along with Rainmaking
I've been a complex tort paralegal [among other things] in exes of 38 years. I organize everything in ONE EXCEL MATRIX.