Block the Time

Yesterday, I finally had time to really dig in on a matter--get my hands dirty, if you will. Deep work and flow, and it felt great.

I thrive when I have moments like that, but they are increasingly hard to come by.

So many of us--me included--feel like we have to give, give, give our time away and give, give, give our calendars to other people.

That is true, but only to an extent.

There is an art to being "reasonably available" and exerting control over your day.

For me, it looks like blocking off time when I don't want to have any meetings.

This does not work perfectly. Life and others' lives and requirements and expectations sometimes cause me to give up that time anyway.

But, the block on my calendar reminds me to think twice before giving up that chunk of time for something or someone else.

Lacking a sense of autonomy is a key driver in poor lawyer wellbeing. One way to start exerting more autonomy is to start controlling your calendar--to start making more intentional choices about when and why and how you schedule things (and emails).

And, of course, we're all human. No matter how diligent I try to be, I still end up with days like today--overlapping or back-to-back meetings because I forgot to pause and be intentional when saying yes to or scheduling meetings.

Here's to making better choices for tomorrow and the weeks to come.

✌🏻🔥❤️