Ed. word: That is the newest installment in a collection of posts on motherhood within the authorized career, in partnership with our buddies at MothersEsquire. Welcome Sonya L. Sigler again to our pages. Click on here in the event you’d prefer to donate to MothersEsquire.
Within the first 4 articles of this collection, we explored how noticing your vitality, shifting your mindset, aligning your decisions, and constructing intentional each day practices create a powerful basis for self-care. Now, we flip to the last word act of self-care: proudly owning your time.
Time is your most treasured, non-renewable useful resource. Defending it isn’t elective—it’s important. With out boundaries round your time, even one of the best self-care intentions collapse underneath the load of different folks’s expectations, infinite consumer calls for, or your individual inner stress to do extra.
Time is of the Essence
Over the previous couple of years, after dropping a number of shut family and friends members, I’ve come to understand simply how fragile and finite time actually is. None of us understand how lengthy we have now.
That realization modified every thing for me. I made a aware choice to reside life “full tilt”—leaving nothing on the sphere, embracing alternatives, and designing my days as deliberately as potential, as a substitute of residing reactively.
Proudly owning my time turned a non-negotiable act of self-care.
Rethinking Time: Fluid, Not Fastened
Early in my authorized profession, I didn’t have a lot management over my time (learn: virtually none). Like many legal professionals, I labored inside inflexible buildings—monitoring time in six-minute increments, adhering to ‘9–5’ kind schedules (and past), and reserving weekends for catching up on sleep or getting ready for Monday, or extra seemingly, an ‘pressing—needs to be carried out now’ undertaking. Time wasn’t mine to handle; it was accounted for, billed, and dictated by consumer wants and expectations.
In-house life supplied a bit extra respiratory room, however even then, the enterprise prized fixed availability and visual productiveness. The concept of self-care—if it existed in any respect—match into no matter minute gaps have been left over.
Over time, I noticed I didn’t need to reside by another person’s clock.
When my boys have been younger, I reorganized my work round what mattered most. I labored early mornings after which once more after their bedtime. I aligned my time round their sports activities, faculty occasions, and on a regular basis household life. Now, as worldwide consumer wants and time zone variations dictate, I may match early morning on the weekends when the home is quiet (apparently, I’m the one morning individual in my family).
This fluid method to time permits me to reside extra absolutely—each personally and professionally. It isn’t about working much less—it’s about working in a different way, with extra intention.
Time isn’t simply one thing to trace or invoice. It’s a device you possibly can design round your actual priorities—when you give your self permission to take action.
Quiet Time is Productive Time
One of many smartest boundaries I set was constructing quiet, restorative time into my days. It doesn’t need to be lengthy—typically it’s fifteen minutes to journal, stroll, or just sit and replicate.
In a career that prizes fixed output, it’s simple to undervalue stillness. However quiet time isn’t wasted time. It’s the place strategic pondering occurs. It’s the place creativity refuels. It’s the place your thoughts resets from the relentless calls for of emails, conferences, deadlines, and consumer wants.
Scheduling quiet time, and treating it as non-negotiable, helped me work extra successfully. It allowed me to behave with readability as a substitute of reacting from overwhelm.
Built-in Residing and Journey
One other boundary I redefined was how I approached work journey. As an alternative of isolating myself in lodges, I stayed with family and friends each time potential. I mixed enterprise journeys with private connection—sharing meals, catching up, or just being current.
I additionally in-built small moments for myself—an artwork exhibit, a brand new espresso store, a scenic drive—even when it meant including an hour or two to the journey.
This follow remodeled journey from a drain right into a supply of renewal. It jogged my memory that work and life aren’t two separate tracks. They’re deeply intertwined, and considerate boundaries assist combine them in ways in which gasoline, reasonably than deplete, your vitality.
Setting Your Personal Boundaries with Time
Proudly owning your time begins with setting clear, protecting boundaries—with work, with others, and with your self.
When my calendar turns into too crowded, I begin blocking devoted “deep work” time for drafting or writing. I deal with these blocks identical to consumer conferences—protected, scheduled, and non-negotiable. The end result? Sooner turnaround on substantive work and much much less psychological exhaustion.
Once I transitioned into consulting, one of many boundaries I set was round consumer response instances. As an alternative of feeling pressured to reply instantly to each e-mail or name, I set the expectation upfront: “I purpose to return calls inside 24 hours.” Clear, respectful communication gave me house to prioritize with out feeling responsible—and it helped my shoppers belief that they might at all times get a considerate, well timed response reasonably than a rushed one.
Minimizing task-switching and scheduling the kind of work that matches your individual vitality profile can maintain you targeted and productive.
Listed here are just a few methods which have labored for me and others I work with:
- Be intentional about conferences. Set most well-liked instances for consumer or inner conferences, and defend focus hours for substantive work.
- Say no or “not now.” Each “sure” takes time from one thing else. Select deliberately.
- Use time blocks. Use blocks of time for related duties, like returning consumer calls, or calendaring. Block out deep work/drafting durations.
- Construct in buffers. Block out journey days, comply with up time after conferences, or restoration time after main deadlines.
- Shield your quiet time. Schedule pondering and restoration time in your calendar like every essential assembly.
- Redefine productiveness. Relaxation, play, and strategic reflection are simply as essential as consumer work.
- Launch inflexible expectations. Give attention to outcomes reasonably than working based on another person’s schedule.
Time is just too treasured to spend it reacting or surviving. Boundaries let you design your days with care – defending time for deep work, restoration, creativity, and connection.
Closing Ideas
Proudly owning your time isn’t only a productiveness hack. It’s a profound act of self-respect, particularly for us as legal professionals after we spend a lot time in reactive mode.
If you defend your time, you defend your vitality. You defend your focus. You defend the folks and passions that matter most.
Self-care isn’t one thing you squeeze in across the edges of another person’s agenda. It’s how you reside.
Shield your time, and also you defend your life.
This text is the final in a five-part collection on self-care for authorized professionals, in recognition of Psychological Well being Consciousness Month.
Sonya L. Sigler is a lawyer, creator of 30 Days to Higher Self-Care, and wellness advocate who helps busy authorized professionals construct sensible habits that help lasting success—personally and professionally.
