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I’m a first/second year corporate associate who has been struggling to stay organized. I feel like I’ve picked up a few things that help over the past year, but I sometimes find myself getting overwhelmed and struggling to keep track of everything that’s outstanding. Do you have anything that has been a game changer and helped you stay organized when things are crazy?

I’m not in biglaw anymore. I have my own firm. I wasn’t really thinking about tech that much when I was at the firm. But at my firm, it was so outdated and there are tons of apps that can help out here.

If your firm allows, you could ask to install an app like Todoist. It’s a checklist that recognizes plain English and is incredibly helpful for keeping me on track.

There’s other things out there like Asana and Clickup. Not sure if your firm allows third party apps like this though.

This might sound obvious, but at least for me it wasn't.

I'd try to think of the closing/signing checklist as much as a tool for yourself as it is something to be circulated to the other side/senior associates/partners.

I'd try to update it every day just to help you keep track.

Also sometimes I would make an shorter/punch-list version for myself with references to the latest relevant correspondence for each deliverable. You can even imbed the relevant emails in the word document itself.

Also circulating an updated checklist regularly to your team internally both makes you seem like you're on top of your shit as a junior and also genuinely helps you stay on top of things.

Finally, I'd try to save some relevant closing-related emails (e.g. instructions for a client to sign things) that can be tweaked/adapted for each deal, so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time.

very stupid/simple, but works for me: I only mark emails "read" when I've completed the relevant task. also send emails to myself to do shit

+1 to the signing/closing checklists being like, something for you, not just something you created b/c someone asked you to

While not exactly a game changer, I keep a sticky note (on computer, not physical) for each open deal, with stuff like billing code, entities and roles, and outstanding tasks I’m responsible for.

Use your inbox as your to-do list and only move emails to a different folder after you've finished.

LBJ's Hair wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 7:39 pm

very stupid/simple, but works for me: I only mark emails "read" when I've completed the relevant task. also send emails to myself to do shit

+1 to the signing/closing checklists being like, something for you, not just something you created b/c someone asked you to

Thinking more about the closing checklist thing, I know people on tls tend to scoff at this stuff ("it's all mindless paper pushing, etc.") but I also actually think regularly updating it helps you understand the deal better, which in turn makes staying organized easier because you have more context.

Even at the most basic level, once you start thinking about, and eventually understanding, how all the documents and ancillaries fit together and what each of the parties' roles in the transaction is, it becomes easier to remember the status of everything because you're thinking about it in terms of a piece of the puzzle instead of a set of random documents that you don't know anything about that you're expected to constantly keep track of.

Not to say that it will ever become super thrilling stuff, but I feel like transactional work feels the most like mindless paper pushing when you're very junior and don't understand what's going on.

I keep an updated to-do list in OneNote (used to be in Notepad). EC/VC so kind of essential since you have a bazillion small tasks sprinkled around for all your general corporate clients amidst the deals and whatnot. Maybe less necessary but M&A folks that are only on a handful of big deals but imagine that in that case, you can simply be increasingly granular about your tasks for any given deal so should work.

I usually go through each day aiming to close out X number of items on the list and then run through my inbox at the end of the day to update it accordingly.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:02 pm

Use your inbox as your to-do list and only move emails to a different folder after you've finished.

This. It takes a while to get in the habit, but this has been the most effective system for me. I am generally able to stick to it unless I have multiple deals absolutely exploding at the same time, and even so, I still file and organize at the end of the very late night.

I find that folders just don't work for me. So much work to sort and then there's still way too much email in the folder to keep track of. I also have way too many unread emails. If I know an email needs a response, I flag it. When I need an older email, I use the search feature. I honestly wish folders worked for me but they just didn't.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:02 pm

Use your inbox as your to-do list and only move emails to a different folder after you've finished.

This. It takes a while to get in the habit, but this has been the most effective system for me. I am generally able to stick to it unless I have multiple deals absolutely exploding at the same time, and even so, I still file and organize at the end of the very late night.

Also an email inbox as a checklist person, but I'll also use tags to indicate whether they're to-dos with actual work, need responses, or are just pending requests where I need to check on some other moving part. When I get extremely busy I'll also throw on a label for "DUE TODAY" or something so that I can easily see what's actually urgent vs. what may be able to be done later/tomorrow/etc.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 05, 2022 11:45 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:02 pm

Use your inbox as your to-do list and only move emails to a different folder after you've finished.

This. It takes a while to get in the habit, but this has been the most effective system for me. I am generally able to stick to it unless I have multiple deals absolutely exploding at the same time, and even so, I still file and organize at the end of the very late night.

Also an email inbox as a checklist person, but I'll also use tags to indicate whether they're to-dos with actual work, need responses, or are just pending requests where I need to check on some other moving part. When I get extremely busy I'll also throw on a label for "DUE TODAY" or something so that I can easily see what's actually urgent vs. what may be able to be done later/tomorrow/etc.

Can I ask how you use the tags for that task? Is it just the "Categorize" feature on Outlook?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 05, 2022 11:45 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:02 pm

Use your inbox as your to-do list and only move emails to a different folder after you've finished.

This. It takes a while to get in the habit, but this has been the most effective system for me. I am generally able to stick to it unless I have multiple deals absolutely exploding at the same time, and even so, I still file and organize at the end of the very late night.

Also an email inbox as a checklist person, but I'll also use tags to indicate whether they're to-dos with actual work, need responses, or are just pending requests where I need to check on some other moving part. When I get extremely busy I'll also throw on a label for "DUE TODAY" or something so that I can easily see what's actually urgent vs. what may be able to be done later/tomorrow/etc.

I was seconded to an in house gig where all the lawyers used the flagging system to keep track of all of their tasks. I found it critical since I always had more "outstanding" tasks there than while at the firm, but they all had extended due dates. The flagging/to-do system in Outlook has the capability to add due date timelines, and I use that extensively. Then I use the colour coded system for various sub-flags.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 05, 2022 11:50 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 05, 2022 11:45 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:02 pm

Use your inbox as your to-do list and only move emails to a different folder after you've finished.

This. It takes a while to get in the habit, but this has been the most effective system for me. I am generally able to stick to it unless I have multiple deals absolutely exploding at the same time, and even so, I still file and organize at the end of the very late night.

Also an email inbox as a checklist person, but I'll also use tags to indicate whether they're to-dos with actual work, need responses, or are just pending requests where I need to check on some other moving part. When I get extremely busy I'll also throw on a label for "DUE TODAY" or something so that I can easily see what's actually urgent vs. what may be able to be done later/tomorrow/etc.

Can I ask how you use the tags for that task? Is it just the "Categorize" feature on Outlook?

Yep! I’m a person that does well with color codes, so orange is “to do”, yellow is “to do today”, blue is “respond”, and purple is “pending” (pending is usually something where I need to follow up on something or send something but don’t have all the information yet and don’t want to forget)

I find outlook's "tasks" tab very helpful, because you can drag-and-drop emails, files, etc into tasks - helps me stay organized.