Meet London and Bailey

This week, the focus shifts from individual clean-up to team-based email workflow.

Meet London, the lawyer, and Bailey, the legal assistant. Parker and Bailey support London’s legal matters. The team works well together.

But during their weekly team meeting, they realized that their inboxes reflect too many informal processes. Assignments, document reviews, approvals, scheduling, filings, and follow-ups are often handled by email—but not always in a consistent way.

The 60-Day System

Week Two is about building an internal folder system that supports how a legal team actually works.

The goal is to create folders, rules, and automation that help London, Parker, and Bailey manage internal legal work more clearly, including:

• Assigning work on client matters

• Scheduling matter-related events

• Tracking documents that need lawyer review

• Managing approvals before filing or sending documents

• Supporting associates who need lawyer review before filing under their own names

• Reducing internal email clutter while protecting important legal work

Two Key Objectives for Success

Everything in this challenge flows from two foundational commitments.

Organize your email system by

• Using folders

• Conversation views

• Rules

• Filters, and

• Automation.

This structural change ensures that your inbox is easier to identify and process, so the right messages reach you at the right time.

Set the Inbox Up for Success

Commit to spending no more than one hour a day reviewing email. You can break that time up into four 15 minutes in the morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. During each review, every email receives a 15-second decision: Delete it, Delegate (Forward) it, or Do it. Email review becomes a scheduled activity rather than a constant interruption during your day.

Build a New Email Habit

02

01

This week is about creating the internal email process in which a senior lawyer, paralegal, legal assistant, and associates communicate. The process will include the goal of efficiently managing their email inbox.

Build the Habit. Reduce the Noise. Take Back Control.

Week Two: Build the Internal Process Folder System

This Week, Focus On

1. Understanding what will be communicated via email among the team

2. Using a consistent format that is informative of the activity necessary

3. Organizing emails in action folders

For further assistance, Download and print the Common Mistakes to Avoid in Week Two

Day 9

Identify the Team’s Internal Email Workflows

Today, begin by identifying the recurring internal processes that happen through email by the team. All members of the team should ask: “What types of emails do we send to each other every week?”

Common legal team email workflows may include:

• New matter assignments

• Task aassignments from lawyers to support staff

• Task assignments from senior lawyers to associates

• Requests for document drafts

• Final approval before filing, sending, or serving documents

• Calendar and scheduling requests

• Filing instructions

• Client communication preparation

• Associate document review requests

• Follow-up on open items

Finally, these workflows should be organized into categories; such as:

• Assignments

• Scheduling

• Document Review

• Filing / Sending Approval

• Client Communication Review

• Waiting / Follow-Up

Action Step:

Use a shared document or instant messaging system to create a list of the team’s most common internal email workflows. Organize the workflows into five to seven categories.

DAY 10

Create the Internal Process Folders

Today, each team member should create folders or subfolders that align with the team’s categories. These folders help team members quickly identify what requires action, what is pending, and what has been approved.

Remember, folders are not for long-term email storage. They are used to organize the inbox until the related task is complete; then the email should be archived or deleted.

For the six categories established on Day 9, each role may organize folders differently. For example, London may place Filing / Sending Approval folder under Delegated It, while Bailey may place it under Do It. London may also choose not to create a Scheduling folder if scheduling emails are routed to Delegated It or a related subfolder while awaiting Bailey’s “Task Completed” response.

Action Step:

Create additional folders or subfolders or current folders to your teams’ email communications structure.

Action Step:

For all new emails, conduct your one-hour a day scheduled email review. Use the 15-second decision rule and move the email to one of your five core folders (or subfolders).

DAY 11

Create a Simple Naming Convention for Internal Email Subjects

Today, the team should establish a consistent subject-line format to make emails easier to identify, search, and route.

Consistent subject lines improve the effectiveness of rules and filters while helping team members quickly understand the action required before opening an email.

When defining subject-line conventions, keep the subject line unchanged throughout the workflow so conversation or thread view can group related messages together. For example, if Bailey sends an email with the subject “Document Review Needed,” London should not change it to “Document Review Completed” when replying. Altering the subject line can split the communication into separate threads, making it more difficult for team members to track the discussion. Therefore, select subject-line text that are informative in the original and reply emails.

Suggested Subject-Line Format:

[Matter Name] – [Category Type] – [Further Description]

Examples:

• ABC Corp – Document Review – Contract Draft

• Smith v. Jones – Scheduling – Deposition Dates

• ABC Corp – Approval –Client Letter

• Regulatory Audit – Assignment – Clients Documents

Action Step:

Action Step:

Determine standard subject-line phrases the team will use going forward.

For all new emails, conduct your one-hour a day scheduled email review. Use the 15-second decision rule and move the email to a folder or subfolders.

Create Rules or Filters for Internal Process

DAY 12

Automate internal email routing only after you have scheduled dedicated times to review the related folders and subfolders. For example, if you have a calendar block for reviewing documents from staff and associates, use that time to review the emails in your Document Review subfolder.

Once those review times are in place, begin using rules or filters to automatically route internal process emails to the appropriate folders as they arrive. This reduces the number of incoming emails that require an immediate 15-second decision.

Sample Rules:

• Emails from your team members with “Document Review” in the subject go to Document Review subfolder.

• Emails from your team members with “Scheduling” in the subject go to the Scheduling subfolder or go to the Waiting / Follow-Up subfolder depending on your role.

• Emails from your team members with “Approval” in the subject go to Filing / Sending Approval subfolder or go to the Waiting / Follow-Up subfolder depending on your role.

Action Step:

Action Step:

Create rules or filters for the internal folders created in your inbox based on the expected internal sender and agreed subject-line phrases.

For all new emails, conduct your one-hour a day scheduled email review. Use the 15-second decision rule and move the email to a folder or subfolders.

DAY 13

Review the Internal Process Folder System as a Team

Each team member should review the internal process email and folder system. The purpose of this review is to confirm that the folders match how the team actually works. If a folder is confusing, rename it. If two folders overlap in actions (like Delegated It and Waiting / Follow-Up folders), combine them. If a rule is routing emails incorrectly, revise it.

Team Review Questions:

• Are assignments easy to identify?

• Are lawyer review requests clear?

• Are approved items easy to find?

• Are scheduling and deadline emails being captured?

• Are associate review requests separate from other review requests?

• Are follow-up items visible?

• Are any rules hiding important emails?

• Is everyone using the same subject-line phrases?

• Are all folders and subfolders being reviewed due to a scheduled calendar time?

Action Step:

Unsubscribe to five to ten unwanted senders. (If you have over 500 emails in your inbox, unsubscribe to 20 unwanted senders.)

Action Step:

For all new emails, conduct your one-hour a day scheduled email review. Use the 15-second decision rule and move the email to a folder or subfolders.

Action Step:

For all new emails, conduct your one-hour a day scheduled email review. Use the 15-second decision rule and move the email to one of your five core folders (or subfolders).

Action Step:

Complete email-related tasks during the time specifically scheduled for that purpose. Once each task is complete, archive or delete the corresponding email.

Action Step:

Complete email-related tasks during the time specifically scheduled for that purpose. Once each task is complete, archive or delete the corresponding email.

Action Step:

Complete email-related tasks during the time specifically scheduled for that purpose. Once each task is complete, archive or delete the corresponding email.

Action Step:

Complete email-related tasks during the time specifically scheduled for that purpose. Once each task is complete, archive or delete the corresponding email.

Action Step:

Complete email-related tasks during the time specifically scheduled for that purpose. Once each task is complete, archive or delete the corresponding email.

Week Two Goals

By the end of Week Two, participants should have an internal email process system that helps the legal team work together more clearly.

The team should have:

• Identified recurring internal email workflows

• Created internal process folders

• Agreed on subject-line conventions

• Created basic rules or filters

• Built a lawyer review workflow

• Built a scheduling and deadline coordination workflow

• Reviewed the system together as a team

The goal is not just a cleaner inbox. The goal is a more reliable internal legal workflow.

Congratulations on completing Week Two of this 60-day Challenge!

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