Tasks and deadlines: prepare your firm's working week
A deadline list shows what is approaching, but not always what needs doing today.
A deadline list shows what is approaching, but not always what needs doing today. Annalise's tasks and dashboard help organise matter follow-up. Connect every date to a concrete action and a responsible person to make that overview useful.
Separate deadlines from preparation
A hearing may require several steps: obtaining evidence, reviewing a draft, confirming a meeting and preparing the file. Record these as separate actions with suitable internal dates. A lawyer must determine and verify procedural deadlines under the applicable rules; entering an event in a calendar does not establish that its date is legally correct.
Make tasks executable
Prefer “request the signed agreement from the client” to “progress the matter”. Add the case reference, expected result and required material. Distinguish an action that can start now from one awaiting an external response. A status should explain what is missing rather than merely colour a row on the dashboard.
Run a weekly review
Compare approaching dates with outstanding documents and approvals. Check the connected calendar and identify matters with no next action. Allocate work while allowing time for review before delivery. At the end of the week, close genuinely completed tasks and reschedule those whose context has changed.
A dashboard directs attention. Its reliability depends on keeping information current and having a person verify the dates that commit the firm.
ANNALISE
A deadline list shows what is approaching, but not always what needs doing today.