One Lawyer’s Perspective: Getting organized in the morning

There are so many ways to get organized.  Software technology creates all sorts of lists, tasks, categories, tabs, flags, reminders…and on and on and on.  But sometimes it is easy for a lawyer to get lost in all the various tools which allow for organization.  Picking one tool, adding a process and sticking to it is the key.  I’ve tried lots of different organizational techniques.  With 300+ emails hitting my inbox every day, I am one attorney who sometimes wants to wave my arms in the air and say “give up.”   We use Basecamp as our extranet tool.  For the next couple of weeks, I’m going to recommit to Basecamp and simply load up my global to-do list on all projects, open each project that needs attention today as a new tab, and work through the list.    To the extent I see things in my email or other documents which create task categories or tasks, I am simply going to dictate those into the extranet for handling.  Using Basecamp to store, organize and work the relevant tasks of THE day will be my life for the next week.  I’ll let you know how it goes. 

How do you get organized given a major data overload we all experience?