Life Outside the Law
You Do Have Time! by: scott r. mote, esq.
One of the most popular “excuses” we hear at the Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program is “I don’t have time.” Yes, I understand that lawyers are busy, but it seems like this phrase has become an excuse for many things. “I don’t have time to take care of my mental health. I don’t have time to talk to a therapist. I don’t have time to exercise. I don’t have time to get a physical. I don’t have time to send my mom a birthday card.” The truth is, every person has the same amount of time; it’s the way you use it that makes the difference. Consider some of these tips on how to better manage your time.
Audit your time
In a quest to get more sleep and focus more on her health and well-being, my wife Gretchen, also an attorney, recently conducted a time audit that she compared against the schedule she thought she was following. She tracked every minute of every day of what she did for one week. This wasn’t a rounding up exercise, such as “from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., I read the paper.” This exercise focused on what she did every minute. At 8 a.m., she walked out to get the paper. At 8:01, she noticed that some of her flowers were starting to wilt, so she removed the faded flowers from the plants. From 8:08 to 8:15, she realized she needed to water her plants, so she went inside and filled her watering can, went
70 | Columbus Bar Lawyers Quarterly Fall 2020
