July 7, 2006

Rhythm of the Lawyer's Day

I'm not complaining that I'm busy at work. I like having a full docket and a lot of things to do. I like the work I'm doing. But it's amazing how, like my last three legal jobs, all the work seems to stack up towards the end of the day. It's usually pretty slow in the mornings, unless I'm in court. Gradually, the pace picks up as phone calls get returned and work gets completed and sent to other people and returned to me. Finally, at some point I'm handling five or six cases at once, each with a different person and each with a problem that they think (sometimes correctly) requires immediate attention.

This keeps up until five o'clock, when people go home and the work comes to a deflating stop. Sometimes, when there's a lull in the madness, I'm tempted to just sit and wait for the next shoe to drop rather than start a new project, and whether I do or not, I'm never disappointed. The rhythm of my typical work day is like Ravel's Bolero -- things get faster and more intense as they proceed until finally everything comes crashing to a sudden, cacophonous stop at the end.

Is it just me? Is this something that I'm doing with the way I manage my work day? Or are your days at work like this too, Loyal Readers?

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