For all attorneys, and many businesses, missed deadlines are the dagger constantly hanging over their heads. There’s nothing guaranteed to keep us up at night like the thought of “what if I’ve missed a deadline and I don’t even know it.”

Managing deadlines is a major focus of every business, but how deadlines are managed are unique. Here are some of the ways that law firms, and businesses in general, are trying and failing to manage deadlines:

The Sticky-Note Method

This ranks as one of the worst ideas ever, but for small organizations it’s surprisingly common. The person writes a note to themselves on a sticky note, or a pad of paper, or in a notebook, thinking “I have to get this done.”

The sticky note, however, provides no context to the work, and it still requires precious brain space to keep up on it. Simply writing down “file motion to dismiss for Jones case” doesn’t tell you when your deadline is, what the case involves, and what work will need to be done to complete the task. You have to keep all that information in your brain and hope the sticky note jogs your memory.

“Oh I’ll remember this,” you think.

Yet, a month later, as you scan through your pile of notes, you find yourself thinking “What the hell is this?”

The Checklist Method

Only slightly more advanced than the sticky note is the checklist. While in some contexts a checklist can be great — like when you have a few tasks that can be completed in a single day—but for complex work involving deadlines and creative thinking, a checklist can become a mental block to work.

My tiny cactus will keep me on track.

There are two types of checklists. First is the typical “long list” style where you just keep adding work. Your Microsoft Outlook to-do list can look this way if you’re not careful. Items get endlessly added on and anything you skip might never be done.

The more advanced type of checklist is the dynamic checklist. Like the Bullet Journal of techie fame, the dynamic checklist moves uncompleted tasks to new pages. Each day you make a list and add on anything that didn’t get done yesterday. However, your checklist can soon become overwhelming, filled with multiple all-day tasks that you fear you’ll never be able to complete. Decision fatigue sets in, and you freeze up.

The Email Method

Email is so appealing because it lets us shift information out of our brains and onto somebody else. There’s also some data that says that emailing can become a compulsive habit.

But the reality is that email also lacks a system for organizing the information you pass along. It’s still just sticky notes, but in digital form. As soon as the essential email slides off the front page of your inbox, there’s little chance you’ll find it again.

Emails still give us plenty of room to miss deadlines, and only provide a digital trail to show where things went wrong.

The Boss Method

It’s not uncommon for overwhelmed business owners to try and hire their way out of this kind of trap. Get an assistant and give the work of organizing to them.

But if all you do is pass sticky notes to each other, this doesn’t really change anything does it?

No, the Boss Method can lead to the same problems, and more. If your employees aren’t able to manage the tasks that you couldn’t, then the odds of missing a deadline only go up the more people are involved.

This is similar to what happened in the Virginia case. The courthouse clerk waited till the due date for filing to inform the law firm that the filing fee was $2 short. The due date. Literally the last possible day. The attorney, probably not realizing the clerk was so irresponsible, and probably not taking the time to check the file to see when the due date was, simply mailed a check. Mailed it.

You can’t rely on the skill or willpower of others to get you through.

The O’Reilly Method

Frustrated and burned by these other methods, it’s common to see the Bill O’Reilly sentiment of “F**k It, We’ll Do It Live!”

You’ll recognize this frustration when your inner monologue says “That’s it, I’ll just do it. I’ll manage it myself. I’ll make the time. We’re never missing a deadline because I’ll be running the show.”

But people who do this either run out of willpower, or fall victim to the Pareto Principle: spending 80% of their time on tasks that simply don’t add value to the company.

Willpower will not save you. It will either burn you out or make your firm stagnate.

So What Should We Do?

We’ve all done stupid things when it comes to managing tasks and deadlines in our businesses. What is the most effective way to do it?

The truth is that, while there is no perfect system to manage deadlines, and human error will always exist, developing an efficient shared system for managing data and tasks is possible.

The first step is to find a system that encompasses your business needs. If you’re dealing with deadlines you need a piece of software that can let you operate based on that information. Task management applications are a great solution for businesses that have many tasks and have to operate within deadlines. Check out Asana, Basecamp, Filevine, and others.

But having the software isn’t the same as having a system. So the second step is to jump in, with both feet, and create a system for your team.

For example: you might train your team to always make a note of the next deadline on a case every single time a piece of correspondence comes in. That becomes part of their job. It becomes automatic. It might be enough to prevent you from mailing a check when the deadline is in hours, not days.

You might set up automated systems for each new “job” you work on. For example: whenever a new case comes in to your law firm, your software should automatically assign certain tasks to key members of your team.

Basically, embrace becoming a cog in the machine.

The benefits to embracing shared routines are numerous. Surprisingly, it actually makes teams more agile and flexible, more able to adapt to unexpected change. Like language, once you’ve learned how to speak it, it can be adapted to an infinite number of circumstances, and even expanded in ways you never envisioned.

Of course, the moment you pass a sticky note to your co-worker, you destroy all your hard work.

I haven’t actually read this article, I just want one simple tip.

If this is you, here’s your tip: Turn your business into an automated process. Don’t wing it. Don’t rely on notes, checklists, and emails. Have a system for every stage in your work flow. Setting that up will prevent your team members from becoming micromanagers and turn them into producers.

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