to take care of one's duties and responsibilities, to organize one's affairs(Get one's ducks in a row and have one's ducks in a row are American idioms, the origin of these phrases is murky. One possible origin is a lawn bowling game that was popular in the 1700s, which involved setting up duck pins, obviously, in a row. Another possible inspiration for the term get one's ducks in a row is the way in which tin ducks are lined up in a shooting gallery. A third possibility comes from actual ducks and the way in which ducklings line up when following their mothers. At this time, the earliest found reference to ducks in a row, meaning to organize one's affairs, comes from The Plaindealer in 1889. grammarist.com)
grammarist.com)