Hi Cece, I'm incredibly impressed with how you were able to work a full-time job at a Big Law firm while also lecture at Yale (I suffer from procrastination every weekend). Can you share how you time manage / stay motivated? Additionally, how do you stay organized on your tasks and to-dos?
- Lily
Calendar, calendar, calendar! I try to sit down for an hour before every week (it used to be Monday mornings; now it’s Friday mornings) and plan the following week or two weeks, depending on how much visibility is typical in whatever I’m doing at the time. (In biglaw, it would typically only be one week. In self-employment, it tends to be two weeks.) Bullet journaling frustrated me and felt like it took too long, so I came up with my own modified system:
Weekly to-do list. I write down all of the tasks I need to get done that week in a list and then allocate those tasks among the days of the week, leaving the day I teach free from biglaw tasks because I know I’ll be focused primarily on teaching tasks.
Time-box the tasks into my calendar. I then translate those tasks into boxed-out slots on my work calendar, to ensure that I’m giving myself time on my work calendar to get things done.
These strategies are illustrated in this video, which includes demonstrations of how I shorthand symbols to myself and move unfinished tasks to the next day when I need to. Note that you will likely need some trial-and-error before you figure out what system works best for you!
When it comes to staying motivated, I am a huge believer in (a) only saying “yes” to activities that you can commit to and (b) necessity being the greatest motivator. I live in abject fear of disappointing others and letting others down, which is terrible in many ways but also helpful in ensuring that I get things done. I also think it’s beneficial to keep in mind for yourself what the ultimate goal of whatever you are doing is—Financial security? Down payment on a house? Curating the friend group of your dreams? A new bag or candle?—and keeping a picture or symbol of that goal in front of you at all times. Being able to remind yourself of what you are working towards is the strongest motivator there is—and if you aren’t quite sure yet what you are working towards, I’d encourage you to journal or make a vision board and clarify that end goal for yourself. It’s hard to be motivated without strong and clear internal motivation, and only you can provide that.
One last thing—a procrastination solution that really helped me was to force myself to “eat the frog first,” i.e., complete the task that I am most likely to procrastinate on first thing in the day. I often find that breaking the seal on that activity helps me with procrastinating less overall.
P.S. I also went on an 80% reduced-hours schedule when I started teaching, to accommodate my teaching preparation, travel, lecturing, and grading demands, so I wasn’t “full-time” in biglaw while teaching. My predecessor managed to still work 100% biglaw hours while teaching, though, but I honestly can’t imagine how she did it—I think she’s superhuman and probably a much more efficient person than I!
Have a question for Cece? Submit it here