I’m going to offer different advice than most of the advice you see here. I’m a litigator, but also spent some time as an M&A associate as a junior.
I don’t try for inbox zero and I don’t sort things into matter folders. I tried that when I first started out, but things were either out of sight, out of mind or I’d get behind and eventually lose emails to the firm retention policy.
Here’s my system now. Junk/newsletters get deleted ASAP. Things on my to do list get marked as Unread. Emails I don’t need to reference again are marked Read. Everything stays in my inbox until the end of the month. In my inbox folder, I have subfolders for each year and sub-subfolders for each month. At the end of the month, everything I received or sent gets dropped into the folder for that month. Then I make liberal use of the search and sort functions if I need to find things again. This works for me because I’m more likely to remember WHEN I worked on a particular matter than anything else.
If you do want to use matter/deal folders, I recommend you set up your rules to send copies to the folder, not clear your inbox entirely. I have a junior associate right now who regularly misses important emails because she has everything sorted into matter folders and forgets to check them. Or she forgets that she has to manually refresh her folders when checking email on her phone.
Also, as an associate, you usually can’t do the whole “only look at an email once” thing. You’ll often need to do some research or complete some work before you can reply. But! If you’ve been asked to handle something by email, I beg of you, please reply “will do” when you see the email (even if you’re not going to “do” right away) and then immediately put that item on your to do list so you don’t forget. I keep trying to pound this into my junior’s heads. Your senior associates/partners need to know that you’ve seen the email, even if you can’t give a substantive response right away. You’re a star associate if your response is “Will do. Can I get this to you by [time]?”
Similarly, you may be CC/BCC on an email that actually has tasks for you or is something you need to keep track of. For example, you may be the person collecting final signature pages for the team but only be CC on the emails circulating them. Or a partner may reply to an email you were CC on, leave you in CC, but ask you specifically to handle something. Do not assume an email not directed TO you has nothing important for you.
Also, the volume of emails during a deal is insane. During a closing once, I got 600 emails in an 8-hour period. If you’re not careful, you’ll spend your whole day checking email and not actually get any work done. Deals have more urgency than most litigation, so you probably can’t do what I do: turn off all your email notifications and only look at your inbox every couple of hours. Find a system that keeps you in the loop but doesn’t prevent you from working.
I don’t try for inbox zero and I don’t sort things into matter folders. I tried that when I first started out, but things were either out of sight, out of mind or I’d get behind and eventually lose emails to the firm retention policy.
Here’s my system now. Junk/newsletters get deleted ASAP. Things on my to do list get marked as Unread. Emails I don’t need to reference again are marked Read. Everything stays in my inbox until the end of the month. In my inbox folder, I have subfolders for each year and sub-subfolders for each month. At the end of the month, everything I received or sent gets dropped into the folder for that month. Then I make liberal use of the search and sort functions if I need to find things again. This works for me because I’m more likely to remember WHEN I worked on a particular matter than anything else.
If you do want to use matter/deal folders, I recommend you set up your rules to send copies to the folder, not clear your inbox entirely. I have a junior associate right now who regularly misses important emails because she has everything sorted into matter folders and forgets to check them. Or she forgets that she has to manually refresh her folders when checking email on her phone.
Also, as an associate, you usually can’t do the whole “only look at an email once” thing. You’ll often need to do some research or complete some work before you can reply. But! If you’ve been asked to handle something by email, I beg of you, please reply “will do” when you see the email (even if you’re not going to “do” right away) and then immediately put that item on your to do list so you don’t forget. I keep trying to pound this into my junior’s heads. Your senior associates/partners need to know that you’ve seen the email, even if you can’t give a substantive response right away. You’re a star associate if your response is “Will do. Can I get this to you by [time]?”
Similarly, you may be CC/BCC on an email that actually has tasks for you or is something you need to keep track of. For example, you may be the person collecting final signature pages for the team but only be CC on the emails circulating them. Or a partner may reply to an email you were CC on, leave you in CC, but ask you specifically to handle something. Do not assume an email not directed TO you has nothing important for you.
Also, the volume of emails during a deal is insane. During a closing once, I got 600 emails in an 8-hour period. If you’re not careful, you’ll spend your whole day checking email and not actually get any work done. Deals have more urgency than most litigation, so you probably can’t do what I do: turn off all your email notifications and only look at your inbox every couple of hours. Find a system that keeps you in the loop but doesn’t prevent you from working.