People previously carried paper daily planners with them everywhere. They had deadlines, tasks, and more carefully penciled into the planners. No meeting was set or deadline agreed without a check of the person’s hard-copy calendar.
Theoretically, in this digital age, our computer or phone calendaring systems should be serving the same functions. However, so many law students admit they do not calendar anything or, if they do input deadlines/events, they never look at the calendar later.
Here are some tips on using a calendaring system:
- An old-fashioned daily planner may be the best choice. It physically reminds you of the day’s events, tasks, and deadlines. Most planners have daily and monthly calendars in them as well as task lists.
- If you are some type of digital calendaring system, take the time to learn its bells and whistles. What features does it have for repeating events, color coding events, reminder notifications, alarms, and more?
- No calendaring system works if you do not use it/look at it. Start a habit of checking your calendar multiple times each day.
- Check all of your law school course syllabi and enter all deadlines for the semester to avoid surprises.
- Consider setting artificial deadlines to work toward at least two days before the actual deadlines. You then can use the final two days for editing or completing minor tasks.
- For a large project, make a “to do” list of all the tasks needed for completion. Then schedule those tasks throughout the days before the deadline. By spreading the work throughout the time available, it will be less stressful and allow for more reflection time.
Learning how to manage time, organize work, and meet deadlines are all skills that are essential for practicing lawyers. By developing these skills in law school, our students will have less culture shock when they move into the legal workplace. (Amy Jarmon)
