Compiled by Sarah Halverson
TDCAA Communications Director in Austin
Without exception, when we at TDCAA ask people who attend our conferences what kind of training they’d like in the future, the answers are about handling heavy caseloads and managing their time. While we can’t magically make all crime disappear, we can publicize how several prosecutors across the state keep track of deadlines, complete tasks, and stay on top of their workloads. Read on for their best tips for doing a hard job well.
Tara Avants
Assistant Criminal District Attorney in McLennan County
One of the great things about being a prosecutor is that our days are unpredictable. As we all know, one plea agreement or reset case can shift the entire day’s focus. I realized within a few weeks that my to-do list would rarely be completed by the end of the day. I now have a “running to-do list” specific to each case that I’m actively preparing for trial, along with a to-do list for projects that do not have an urgent deadline. These lists keep me organized and help me to manage which tasks are currently the priority.
Erik Nielsen
Assistant District Attorney in Travis County
It’s nothing earth-shattering, but my shortcut to time management is that my email inbox doubles as my to-do list. First off, it’s usually how people request actions from me, so I don’t need to retype it out. Also, it comes automatically dated so I know when the task was assigned. Plus, in our database (TechShare) there is a hyperlink to my email address with the cause name/number/etc. auto-filled in the body of the email, so it’s easy to initiate the email without having to type all of that necessary information myself.
If something important gets too far down the list, I can always resend it to myself so it pops back up in the more recent items. And the satisfaction of moving an email out of my inbox into the general folder seems to be the digital equivalent of crossing something big off a written to-do list—in some cases, it’s absolute bliss.
Calli Bailey
Assistant Criminal District Attorney in Collin County
I should start by acknowledging that I am very much a Type A (bordering on OCD) person. I’ve made lists for years. I am organized. I am not a procrastinator (at least 90 percent of the time). I am not going to “put off tomorrow what I can do today” because it just adds to the to-do list. I’ve also always said that there are two types of people in the world when it comes to time management and organization: those who can’t stand the red badges on the Messages, Phone, and Mail icons on our phones and must clear and sort them, and those whose personal email accounts have 5,000-plus unread messages. I can’t even fathom the latter.
But as I entered the professional world—and frankly, as I inherited more supervisor-type responsibilities and also became a mom—the regular to-do lists just weren’t working for me anymore. I used to pride myself on “making a mental note” to do that later and actually doing it, but I don’t have the brain capacity for that anymore. (That was hard to admit in writing.) I also used to keep handwritten to-do lists or stickie notes all around my office, but who wants to admit that the longer the sticky note and the list sit there, the more we look past it?
So today I live and die by the calendar and reminders apps on my smartphone, which is basically attached to me every hour of the waking day as an extension of my arm. Calendar events must include alerts that annoy me as they fan across my screen or stay stuck on my locked screen until I clear them. Same thing with the reminders app. These alerts force me to consciously address them at the time and date I had previously set, or I can consciously choose to reset them for another time and date. Examples of things that go on the calendar include filing deadlines for cases set for trial or indictment deadlines for inmates in custody awaiting grand jury. A reminder alert on my separate app may include that I need to call this person back, discuss a certain situation with my supervisor, or prepare my summary and indictment for grand jury next week.
If I take the time to actively look at my calendar and place my to-do list and reminders at dates and times where it is feasible or realistic for me to accomplish them, then it helps me manage my time better. Much of this is probably something you already do here and there, but consider whether you were like me and you had to come to the harsh realization one day that the sticky notes or mental notes just weren’t cutting it anymore. Make your smartphone good for something other than just doom-scrolling or texting. Make it your virtual assistant that will alert you repeatedly until you actually accomplish your task.
Will Hix
Assistant Criminal District Attorney in McLennan County
The first time that I shifted into an assignment where management of the docket for a court rested with me, it felt overwhelming. Over and over people (bosses, court staff, and judges) would tell me how many “cases” there were on the docket. What I quickly realized is that how many “cases” there are is not a useful metric to track in terms of the overall workload. I transitioned to tracking how many “unique defendants” had charges pending in the court I oversaw. By altering my focus to a better data point, focusing aggressively on the unique defendants with the most charges pending first, we were able to reduce the overall “cases” pending in the district court by over 50 percent in under two years.
Andrea Westerfeld
Assistant County & District Attorney in Ellis County
For me, everything goes into my Outlook calendar, whether personal or work-related, so I can see at a glance what’s going on and where any conflicts might pop up. Everything is color-coded so I can easily tell what is a deadline, court appearance, meeting, etc. Everything also gets a reminder set to make sure I don’t forget about it. Some things I might want a reminder just the day of, while others I set a reminder days or a week out to make sure I am reminded in time to work on it. I use the Outlook calendar for all of this because I can access it on my phone as well, whether in court trying to set a new hearing date or at home trying to schedule a trip.
But in addition to all of my digital reminders, I also heavily use Post-It notes to write down specific tasks that crop up so I can have them laid out on the desk in front of my computer monitor. That keeps a visual reminder, and balling up the note and throwing it away is much more satisfying than a check on a to-do list.
Joshua Sandoval
Assistant Criminal District Attorney in Bexar County
Whenever I am working with new prosecutors or with members of my team, I encourage them to set measurable goals. Take your to do list and convert it into a collection of manageable goals. Instead of telling yourself, “I really need to work on my aggravated robbery case,” consider saying, “I am going to print out defense motions on my aggravated robbery case and respond to them Tuesday afternoon.’
The benefit of adopting a goal-centered mindset is that work is clearly identified and the success (or lack thereof) can be quantified. Specificity helps keep us focused on a task at hand, and creating measurable goals helps us to chart our progress. Used in tandem, these two tools can help us to work more efficiently and maximize our time.
Kristin Burns
TDCAA Domestic Violence Resource Prosecutor
I’m currently listening to an audio book called Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. The idea is that humans have only 4,000 weeks to live, and the author’s pitch is that, with this terrifyingly, insultingly short amount of time, the real measure of any time management technique is whether or not it helps you neglect the right things.
For me, even before this startling realization that I only have 4,000 weeks to live on this lovely planet, I had to accept the absolute set-in-stone fact that the to-do list will never be done. It’s hard for perfectionists like me, and so many prosecutors, to accept—we love to check things off the list—but it’s the truth. The list will never be finished. There is always more to complete tomorrow and the day after and the day after. And that is OK. It doesn’t make you a failure!
That said, for the things that need to be done, I love a good old-fashioned Post-It note. There is nothing fancy about it. When I was a prosecutor, I carried a notebook or yellow pad with me in docket and made notes to myself with things that needed to be done on cases in court. Then when I got back to the office, I finished as many of those things as could be done right then and there (making notes in Odyssey, our case management software, of course).
For the things that couldn’t be done immediately, I wrote myself a reminder on a Post-It with the defendant’s name and the task, which was my daily reminder that the task was still pending. Once it was done, I could throw that note away. Nothing fancy here—just a Post-It note. The goal was to remove all the Post-Its by the end of the week. (Sometimes they were gone, but most weeks they were not.) I also used this method for returning phone calls or contacting victims. Really, any “to-do” note or list will work. I’ve come to find out there are digital versions of my old friend the Post-It note—check out an app called Todoist if you’re into the digital version.
Ryan Calvert
First Assistant Criminal District Attorney in McLennan County
You cannot die on every hill. Only two types of cases exist in the world: 1) those cases you really need to try and 2) every other case that you need to find a way to resolve. If you are trying a case over very minor conduct or over a marginal disagreement about punishment, you may be wasting time and effort that could be better spent elsewhere.
That said: You have as much right to a jury trial as the defendant does. If there is a case you want to try and the defendant previously rejected a reasonable plea offer, you are under no obligation to re-extend that offer or to make a new one. Get in there and be a trial prosecutor.
Editor’s note: We’d like to hear other people’s tips for good time management! Please email yours to the editor at [email protected] so we can publish another article on the topic in a future issue. Everyone who submits a tip will receive some TDCAA swag as a thank-you.