Counting

I recently started keeping track of the hours I spend on law during the week, mostly as an external enforcement mechanism for getting more done. I generally set a 2 (or 3, or 4, or 5) hour timer and pause it every time I need a break. And I seem to need a lot of breaks. Mental breaks, food breaks, go-for-a-run breaks . . .

It usually takes me much longer to run out the timer than the actual time counted.

I was pondering on that a while ago. Why is it so hard to sit and plow through the research and reading and writing I have to do? After all, that’s what I used to do in college.

I could probably come up with multiple reasons: a different level of mental challenge, the availability of distractions, the numbing effects of reading legal analysis . . . But whatever the case, it’s hard. I seem to run out of day so much faster than I run out of work to do.

That said, the countdown is on: four more weeks of class, three finals, two papers, and one law student who’s almost halfway through school.