Working with Tasks
Tasks are where the actual work happens in Laminar. Matters track the big picture; tasks are the individual things that need to get done. If you only learn one part of Laminar well, make it this one.
Finding Your Tasks
Section titled “Finding Your Tasks”Click My Tasks in the sidebar. It’s your personal to-do list, in three views:
Ready: everything that needs attention now, meaning overdue tasks and unscheduled ones. Overdue items are highlighted.
Future: tasks scheduled for upcoming dates, out of your way until their day.
Completed: finished work, in case you need to look something up.
If Ready feels unmanageable, that’s a signal to schedule some items for later. The goal is a list that reflects what you’ll actually do today.
Creating a Task
Section titled “Creating a Task”From within a matter: open the matter’s Tasks section, click add, give it a title. It belongs to that matter and inherits the matter’s assignee.
From the Create button in the top bar: select “Task” and pick the matter.
Give it a short, specific, action-oriented title (“Order title search,” not “Title stuff”), confirm the assignee, and optionally set a scheduled date and description. No date means it lands in Ready immediately.
Working Through Tasks
Section titled “Working Through Tasks”- Open My Tasks, start with Ready.
- Pick a task and open it.
- Do the work.
- Update the status. Done? Mark it resolved and it disappears from your active list.
- Pick the next one.
The Task Detail View
Section titled “The Task Detail View”Header: the task number, its parent matter (clickable), current status, and assignee.
Description: context or instructions. Not every task needs one; complex ones benefit.
Notes: timestamped comments you add as you work. “Called vendor, no answer, will try again tomorrow.”
Assets: files attached to this specific piece of work.
Activity: the automatic log of everything that’s happened on the task.
Changing Status
Section titled “Changing Status”Tasks have short workflows; the default is just Unresolved and Resolved. Click the status indicator and pick the new one. The change saves immediately and is logged with who, when, and from what to what. You can move a task backward if something needs reopening, though that should be uncommon.
Reassigning
Section titled “Reassigning”Click the assignee on the task detail view and pick a different user or team. It leaves your list, appears in theirs, and the handoff is logged. Reassignment is normal as workloads shift; it’s the system working, not failing.
Adding Context
Section titled “Adding Context”Notes: type your update and press Ctrl+Enter (or Cmd+Enter on Mac) to post. Good notes are specific: “Left voicemail for client re: closing date, will follow up Thursday” beats “Called client.” Future-you will thank present-you.
Assets: drag a file onto the task or click the upload area. Uploads show who added them and when. Common uses: a PDF from an email, a scanned document, a screenshot.
Tasks and Matters
Section titled “Tasks and Matters”Completing tasks doesn’t automatically advance the matter’s stage. Those are separate decisions, on purpose: a lawyer might finish every task in a stage and still hold the matter because something doesn’t feel right. Tasks are the evidence; a person makes the call.
Keep titles action-oriented. The verb tells you what to do when you’re scanning 20 of them.
Schedule aggressively. If you can’t or won’t do it today, schedule it for when you will. A short honest list beats a long ignored one.
Don’t create tasks for the next five minutes. Tasks track work over time, not things you’re about to do anyway.
Sweep your unscheduled tasks weekly. Either give them dates or ask whether they’re still relevant.