Although I am disciplined, sometimes I can be a truly prolific procrastinator. This trait was obviously at odds with an important personal goal: graduating from law school. To make sure that this bad habit didn’t derail my academic progress, I had to take a brutally honest look at some of my daily habits and make some basic life changes. I offer these somewhat simple lessons to those who may aspire to similar goals, or anyone who struggles – as I still do – with procrastination.
I have always loved making lists –a to-do list can be a great way to keep all your tasks in order, but sometimes I find them totally overwhelming. But then—eureka!—a couple of my law professors passed along great pieces of advice. The first was to write down absolutely everything you have to do (e.g., get out of bed, eat, go to class, study—you get the idea, and yes, this includes everything), so if all else fails you still have something to cross off at the end of the day. Hey—humble accomplishments are better than none at all! The second piece of advice was both the best and the most painful: figure out which item on your list that you want to do the least and do that task first. Painful. But both of these practices, while seemingly silly or bothersome at times, ended up helping me quite a lot.
Then I began paying more attention to time. I don’t mean schedule. I mean I started noticing that there were certain times of day where I just seemed to be able to get things done. I’d never noticed that this time of day for me was morning until I was in law school. I mean, I have a hard time even having cogent conversations with anyone before about 9 a.m. But one day (before noon) I realized that writing was much easier in the early morning than in the afternoon – when I tended to be most productive with more communicative tasks. So I started scheduling my writing tasks for first thing in the morning. When I was able to, I liked scheduling tricky hearings that would require me to be at my communicative best later in the morning or in the afternoon. It worked, and I became more productive and felt smarter about what I was doing.
The morning writing thing made me realize that I could be really productive if I started right in with other things the moment I got up. So I have. For example, I even recently started running in the mornings. Running (ever) is something I never thought I would want or be able to do. But once I made the decision to try it out, I decided to use some of the previous practices to help me stick with it. Because I know that I am oddly productive in the morning, I decided to start my runs early. As I mentioned before, I am only vaguely mentally functioning before 9 a.m. so I made sure to lay out my clothes and shoes by my bed the night before my first run. When I woke up in the morning, I was able to get out the door and start running before my brain fully woke up. I know it sounds mindless, but in a way that’s just the point—and it works!
In law school, I also made the magical discovery that productivity was exponentially more elusive for me when I hadn’t slept for the last twenty hours and had consumed close to my body weight in candy. This led me to the somewhat obvious realization that I just needed to take better care of myself. Sleep deprivation and a bad diet should never be confused with heroically hard work, no matter what it may seem like. I began reminding myself to breathe, drink water and eat a vegetable or two occasionally. I felt better, and performed better. Finally, I learned that persistence doesn’t always pay off, and it isn’t always a good thing. Staring at the same case or legal brief, the same sentence or the same legal term of art for hours on end in the hopes that some flash of brilliance would come was a little like waiting for Godot. When I was truly stuck and my internal wheels were spinning uselessly, I’d know it was time to take a break. Then my fresh eyes would inevitably be able to untangle a tricky analytical point or move through a statute with ease. It was simple but amazing how much difference just stepping away for a while could make. I made it through law school, even did pretty well and enjoyed the experience most of the time. The beauty of what I learned about how to get by is that these are things anyone can apply to almost anything in life, including work. And I have. I am more productive, healthier and happier in my work thanks to these simple skills I used during law school. So if you’re looking for ways to be more productive and you’re tired of self-help chatter, try starting by just taking a look at how you do things, and when you’re at your best and worst. You may be as surprised, as I was, to find some shockingly helpful insights!
[Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.]
