Back at It — And It’s About Time

It’s been a long time …

Well, at least it seems like a long time since I last updated this blog. My inner narcissist wonders if anyone has noticed or, worse, cared.  My external realist tells me to get a life.

So, to get this reboot started, let’s talk about time.  Of course, the granddaddy of marking time just occurred (Happy 2019!), but the nature of time and our perception of how fast or slow it seems to pass has long interested me.  I wasn’t much for physics in school, but I think we can sum up the science of time with “it marches on.”  Plus that whole relativity thing.

If you’re like me, though, you more often think about time in the context of how much of it you don’t have.  My wife found a little plaque that she placed on the windowsill above our kitchen sink that states rather succinctly, “Never enough time.”  Simple yet profound.  As it stares you in the face while rinsing the dishes, it’s both affirmation and condemnation.

In the legal profession, time is the currency upon which many fortunes have been made.  Despite what you might be reading in the papers, the billable hour isn’t dead and it won’t ever be.  “How much time will that take?” is often just another way to ask how much something will cost.  When it comes to evaluating productivity, lawyers are almost always judged on how many hours they bill. We are captives of the clock.

Other parts of our lives are now measured by the minute.  My so-called smartphone now delivers a report to me weekly on how much screen time I’ve had.  It’s up one week, down the next.  I’m not sure what it all means, either.  But now there’s one more measurement of how time passes in our lives.  Only time will tell if that’s a good thing.

Even our language has decided that time has intrinsic value, if only by the words and phrases we use when talking about it:  how we “spend” time, if something is “worth” our time, how we “waste” time, how we can “save” time, time is “money” and so on.

Aging lefty that I am (and not talking about what hand I use to write), I still internally recoil when using monetary references when discussing time. Placing that kind of value on time actually devalues it.  In more ways than one, time should be priceless.  (This thinking both propelled and helped extinguish the whole “quality vs. quantity” argument when it came to parenting, by the way.)  But we still have to live in the real world, don’t we?

If you’re a profligate (but often penitent) procrastinator like me, time is both the enemy and the enabler.  Other people realize this about you, too.  My smartypants wife gave me a mug this Christmas that announces proudly, “I put the PRO in procrastinate.”  Haven’t yet used that mug – guess I’ve been putting it off!  (nyuk, nyuk)

As a deadline looms for any professional procrastinator, the adrenaline surge to beat the clock is as addictive as any narcotic.  And, sadly, sometimes just as damaging.  Being late has its obvious personal disadvantages, especially when you miss your morning train, like I did a couple of weeks ago (it was early, I swear!).  Reputation and relationships can suffer.  Never enough time.

In communicating with an individual or a crowd, how I manage time is usually paramount.  How much time do I have?  Do I need to get to the point, or is a more leisurely or thorough approach acceptable or appropriate?

Bringing it back to the blog, I’ve decided that I need to make time in my life for more reflection, more writing, more exploration of the dusty nooks and crannies of my noggin, some of which may benefit from a good cleaning while others just need a little bit of organization.  The rest probably could use some re-decorating.  Oh, and more exercise… The I-just-turned-50 crisis and all …

If you’re game, and have the time, I’m going to keep blogging about many of the same things I’ve covered previously:  legal marketing, communication, creativity, and a bunch of other related (or perhaps unrelated and seemingly random) topics.  I’ll try to be helpful and limit my opinions to things that matter to me.  Some posts will be better than others, as is the nature of things.  But I promise to keep being thoughtful and, I pray, not ponderous.  Maybe toss in a joke or two, even.

I hope it will be time well spent.