Balancing day to day activities is always a struggle for many people globally. For me, the challenge is enormous and sometimes overwhelming particularly because am a full-time lawyer, part-time student, engaged and babysitter for a grown girl. Till recently I was a junior lawyer at Cravath, Swaine and Moore Law Firm in New York City. Three weeks ago I was promoted to a senior lawyer with the prospects of being a full partner by an early age of 35 years. My busy day starts at 4:00 am where I take around one hour to meditate, exercise and read the latest news and blogs. After breakfast, feeding my cat and checking on my college going Sister Alice I leave the house mostly at 5:30 am to beat the New York traffic. I am in the office usually at 6:30 am. I start my working hours by checking emails and letters from clients. At around 7:30 pm every morning we have a routine briefing meeting. Researching relevant legal materials, providing legal advice to clients, preparing legal documents and interacting with computers are my primary duties. Due to the promotion providing consultation services, staffing organizational units, mentoring juniors and performing administrative tasks are now part of my job description. With all these duties I leave workplace at 5:30 pm. I video call my fiance who works in Georgia for around 30 minutes. Our wedding is due in eight months, so I meet the wedding planner thrice a week. At around 6:30 pm I attend a two-hour lecture for my masters class. I am back at home by 9 pm. I prepare dinner for my lazy sister and me. The supper is ready by 10 pm. I use the dinner time to catch up, advice and mentor my sister. By 11 pm I have washed the dishes and feed the cat. Between 11 pm and 12 am I read and reply text messages from my drug-addicted brother who is constantly asking for money. A few minutes past 12 a.m. am in bed ready to sleep.
Time management is an essential component for time-saving and succeeding in all sectors of life. To help me manage and balance my personal, academic and professional life I had to use time-saving techniques. First, I decided I would read blogs and news while in traffic. Reading while on the bus gave me a few extra minutes in my busy morning routine and I use the minutes to exercise/meditate more or bond with my sister and care for the cat. Second, now that am in a senior position at work I delegated some duties to the junior staff, for example, preparing legal documents and researching legal materials. Now I focus more on administrative and staffing work hence I can leave my office earlier. I hired a professional event planner to handle my wedding arrangement. I dont have to be there physically for the arrangement to continue. I spare a few minutes on the weekends to get the updates from the event planner. I have more time to video call and communicate with my fiance. Hence our affection for each other is getting stronger. When I was a junior lawyer, I was always late for the class which made me miss some important topics, and this reflected in my results. Now am always among the best and first students to arrive in class. To save more time I talked some sense into my sister, and she agreed to cook every weekday except on the weekends. This saved me an extra hour to do work related tasks and study. I even have more time to bond with my sister, dog, and even text back my brother. I am planning to take my brother to a drug rehabilitation center where we will be visiting him on the weekends. Rehabilitation will save my brother and save me time and headache. After all these changes I sleep before 12 pm sometimes as early as 10:30 pm. Lengthy sleep makes me refreshed and productive. I am happy with my life because everything is manageable, easy and enjoyable.
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