As a former corporate paralegal at a law firm in Nashville, I know that the day you plan for is not always (read: very rarely) the day you have. I worked on an extremely busy deal team, so some days it felt like deals materialized out of nowhere and needed to close immediately. On other days, projects would pop up that were more internal in our clients’ organizations. This post aims to lay out some of the strategies I used to organize my day in hopes that some of you reading will be inspired to try some out! 

The foundations of a successful workday

Have a dedicated working space

If you work in the office, this is a no-brainer. You can customize your space to help you be as productive as possible. However, if you work from home, you may find there’s a little bit of work in your home life and a little bit of home in your work life. This can contribute to the feeling that you never really leave work, and it also may be hard to truly hone in on your work during the day. Setting up an office or even just a table that you only use for work can go a long way toward improving your focus during work hours and improving your relaxation after hours.

When you find something that works, stick to it:

With all of the resources out there providing options meant to improve your organization (like this one!), it is tempting to try them all out. It’s so important to keep your eyes on the prize and remember that completing your work on time, avoiding mistakes, and beating the wire deadline are the goals. So, if you find a method that clicks, stick with it even if it’s not the flashiest and most interesting option.

While this is by no means a comprehensive list, these are some of the methods that were most useful to me during my long days of general corporate and transactional work. 

Make a list

This is no ordinary master list, it can be organized in any number of ways depending on your workload. Some days it may make sense to organize the list by the attorney who assigned the task while other days it may feel more helpful to organize the list by transaction. Regardless of how the list is organized on any day, there are a couple of constants:

• Color code: Not only does this make your list a little more fun to look at, it also gives you an at-a-glance understanding of how much is left to do for a certain category of tasks.

• Cross tasks out immediately after completing them: Don’t forget to cross out each task with a black Sharpie (the bigger the better) just for the oomph and sense of accomplishment!

• Re-write the list every day with your most urgent tasks at the top: Things move so quickly and your priorities will change so often that it’s a best practice to re-write your list first thing each morning.

• To-do, done, and waiting: If your firm is anything like mine was, there were whiteboards everywhere. I split my whiteboard into three large sections: to-do, done, and waiting. The waiting section was the most important because as a paralegal, a lot of times when you complete one task, it is not ready to be moved to the “done” section of the board. Sometimes your part is done, and you commence waiting for additional information (or for signatures to be returned, or for clarified instructions… you get it). While the initial task is complete, it still belongs on the whiteboard in the “waiting” section. The waiting section ensures that once you’ve kicked part one of the task off your plate, you don’t forget that you’re still waiting for the go-ahead from another party.

• Folders in your inbox: Nothing made my heart drop faster than an email from an attorney asking if I had seen their email from two weeks ago and if I had completed the task they assigned me. The best way to ensure you don’t lose any emails is to organize your emails into folders. Your folders can correspond to clients, deal teams, or even individual deals. Set up your keywords, make some rules, and feel confident that you won’t lose any emails to the abyss that is the Outlook search function.

While this last one does not make my official list, it did become a habit that I picked up throughout my years as a paralegal - bring a pen and notepad with you everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Bring it when you’re making a coffee, when you’re taking a mental health lap around the floor, and when you’re running over to the help desk because they have the best snacks. You never know when you’ll run into a team member in the kitchen, in the elevator, or in the cafeteria and the sight of you will remind them that they meant to email you about a task earlier in the day. 

Organization is both essential and subjective

While there is no one correct answer, and what works best for you might be a combination of several strategies, it’s important to remember that organization is key. As you can likely deduce from my list, I do not thrive with electronic to-do lists, but maybe you do, and that is amazing! Try something out, decide how it feels, and move on to the next if it’s not right. And always remember to share the wealth - the paralegal down the hall is probably trying to find a method that works for them, as well.