The days of one secretary/one lawyer are pretty much behind us. Nowadays, two, three, and even four secretaries per lawyer are the norm. So how do you keep up with all those deadlines, meetings, filing and cases?

Hint: It’s probably the first application you open after logging on to your computer every morning.

Microsoft Outlook is a real workhorse when it comes to keeping all those irons in your fire from overheating. Use it creatively, and your stress level will plummet, and your lawyers will wonder how in the heck you became so efficient.

To get you started, here are some of my Outlook organization secrets:

CALENDAR

• I calendar extensive follow-up ticklers for myself. Anytime I send surface mail and expect something back from the recipient, I calendar a follow-up. If my boss is headed out of town in a couple of weeks, I put in a reminder for 2 days before the trip to confirm arrangements and assemble his itinerary packet. For upcoming depositions and hearings, I calendar 3 or 4 days ahead to check with him as to whether he needs any preparatory materials I haven’t thought of. (No use asking any earlier than that; I won’t get an answer.)
• Whenever my boss has a meeting at a location where he’s either never been or goes infrequently, I generate a direction map, convert it to PDF and attach it to his calendar entry for said meeting. That way, when he asks me for a map as he rushes out the door, I don’t have to scramble.
• When my boss receives a meeting notice by e-mail (rather than as a meeting request) and needs the meeting manually added to his schedule, I drag and drop the e-mail to his calendar. A new appointment window opens, with the e-mail duplicated in the text box at the bottom. Any subsequent e-mails relating to or rescheduling the meeting, I add to the appointment as attachments. Thus, I never waste time second-guessing myself as to where I got the information.

INBOX

• In my inbox, I have a folder called “Cases,” which contains a subfolder for each matter I work on. For the really active cases, the case folders may be further subdivided by topic or document type as needed. Every case-related e-mail I receive goes into these folders; they’re marked as unread until they’re processed for filing. (Flagging would also work for this, but I like being able to see, without opening the folder, how much e-mail filing I have to do.)
• My inbox also contains project folders for non-case-related items I’m actively working on or tracking: upcoming trips, items to be docketed, any papers or articles my bosses are writing, etc. I name these folders using a leading zero — i.e., “0 Los Angeles 7/5-8/07″ — to anchor them at the top of my folder list. Lower-priority or longer-term projects get a leading “1.” Any e-mail related to a project gets dumped into that project’s folder (and marked unread if follow-up is needed).
• If something needs to go into a case or project folder and I don’t have it in an e-mail, I e-mail it to myself, and into the folder it goes.
• To keep my inbox from getting too cluttered with all those folders, I have yet another folder, titled “To Be Archived.” It holds folders for closed matters or finished projects that aren’t yet old enough for archiving.

An added bonus to this organization system is that it keeps paper from piling up on my desk. Paper doesn’t exist unless and until paper is needed.

So what tips can you add to my list?