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Everything always takes me so long to do :/
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It’s not what you want to hear, but medication will fix this issue.
Edit: Just read your follow-up about this being a stamina issue, so not sure any of what I typed out is still useful but ah well.
Are you in Big Law? 45hrs/week, especially as a young attorney, seems high. I seem to alternate between extremely productive weeks (45+) and extremely painful weeks (dragging myself to 40), because I work best under pressure. I still struggle & everyone’s experience is different, but here’s what I found helps me:
(1) Capture ALL of your time. Don’t try to estimate later. Use a timer. I won’t even start reading an email until my timer is running.
(2) Try to take note of when your attention is at its peak & when it crashes. I’m best midday & in the evening, but 3pm-6pm is hit or miss. To the extent your schedule is flexible, work around those times. Even if your schedule isn’t flexible, try to save some of the easier tasks you can do on “auto-pilot” for the times when your focus is at its lowest.
(3) If you work best under stress or deadlines, try to build internal/artificial deadlines in to keep you on track. You don’t necessarily need to *convey* these deadlines to anyone (in case you don’t meet them), but I find it helps to tell myself “{Partner} is going to be disappointed if they don’t get {this assignment} by {this time},” etc.
(4) Try whatever means necessary to avoid doomscrolling, even if it means blocking or deleting certain apps during the week. I’ve learned the hard way I can’t take a “quick break” to check TikTok. Before I know it, I’ve lost 20-25 minutes of work & I come back with less focus than I started with.
(5) Take care of your body. Try to move around during the day & get some proper fuel. I used to chase dopamine & reward myself with junk food as a ‘treat’ for working - until I realized that consuming massive amounts of caffeine, carbs & sugar wasn’t actually helping me in the long-term.
I’m sure there are those managing their ADHD much better than I am though, so I’d love to hear others’ tips and tricks.
Great advice about noticing what time of day I’m laziest. That’s not a lifestyle management technique that’s ever been necessary as I’ve always had a 1000% flexible schedule with not that much work, but now that you’ve pointed it out, seems really helpful. Tips and tricks is the name of the ADHD game, and these are good ones. Thank you for taking the time to write these up
How early do you start in the day? Norm in NY is 10am and I found it was impossible to finish a full day before like 11pm. I’ve started at 8/8:30 now and since there are way fewer emails around that time, I’m able to finish 8 hours at a reasonable time
I start like 9:30 but my main partner sends emails at wacky times so it doesn’t matter lol. Do you find you have more stamina starting early?
That expectation is low if you’re at a firm. You’ve just got to power through. If you won’t take medication or can’t, then you may have to work different hours. Maybe later in the evening or at night, but it doesn’t sound like you are able to do 8-5.
Do you mean 45 billable hours a week? If so that’s absolutely not low and I’d actually say it’s unusually high as a minimum expectation. In the short term, definitely get an earlier start to the day. Establishing a morning routine has helped me get in a good amount of productive hours in the first half of the day. Long term, look into lateraling.
Yep, 45 billable. Definitely a non lifestyle firm but hey that’s who offered me a job ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. What do you like to do in your morning routine? I would say I certainly have room to improve in terms of optimizing mornings for my brain :). Thanks for the suggestions!
From the minute I take my meds, I have about 5-6 hours of solid hyper focus before frying out. I then take a 1/2 hour to hour break. After the break, I spend an hour or two leisurely knocking out small tasks. This system pretty consistently gets me 7ish billable hours per day. The reality is that some days I’m fully done after six hours, but it’s much better than being barely productive all day and billing 3-4 hours. I intentionally schedule two late workdays per week, and also put in at least four hours every weekend, to make up for short billing days.
What do you mean by late workdays? Thanks for responding!
OP here and to clarify I mean it’s a stamina issue :)
I am working on this myself. One thing I do it have three projects for the day and switch every hour.
Medication makes it easier. If you don’t want to use meds, then sleeping 8 hours, eating healthy, exercising, and creating systems to be organized is all you can do.
There are some really helpful comments here. But I came to suggest you lateral when you’re able. 45 hours/week is 2,160 (“graciously”assuming 4 weeks off for vacation and holidays). Even with medication, a good workout routine, and lots of tips, I could never bill that much.
In office, it takes me about 11 hours to bill 9, on a good day. Add in a 30-minute commute each way, and that is 60 hrs/week. That doesn’t include networking events, CLEs, going out to lunch with colleagues, dr. appointments, dropping the kid off at school, preparing meals, or exercising.
Some folks are more efficient with their time, and I have more non-billable obligations than an associate should. But just cleaning out email each morning, bathroom breaks, and a sad desk lunch are like an hour.
Plenty of firms have requirements in the 1,800-1,900 range. Look for those.
Give up your weekends, take break, start early. Work for 5hr from 8am and then take a break till 8pm or so.
Start early. Figure out a personal time window in the middle of the day where you take 1-1.5 hours to turn your brain off. This can be a run and shower or a commute or something like that. Dinner is max 1 hour, maybe half of it is working. Put in 2-3 hours before bed.
Another poster had a similar idea as you re the break and I think it’s a very good point. Definitely something to start thinking about although hard with RTO, sigh. Thanks for the suggestion!