DF Thread Forum

[zot1]

But you get fancy dinners delivered to you...

Yeah DF, is it really THAT bad?

30 dollars of pasta pushing ur guts makes it worse.

Okay but at least you're not a roofer working in Arizona over the summer.

I did some roofing in Arizona during a summer years back. It's hot as hell but there's really no mental stress. I liked it better than a mind numbing office job I had previously.

Great! Now I've become part of the problem.

I was making fun of the "well, at least biglaw is better than X" mentality. But I see that mentality is so strong in this forum, people didn't get that. My bad.

[zot1]

money without free time is useless.

[kcdc1]

Why?

cause I can turn 30 billable hours into a whole week in the office til 11pm.

Have you thought about changing up your routine? I find that getting in early (7:30ish) helps me. I think it's half that I feel like shit, so I don't have an interest in fun things like surfing the web. The other half is that I hate waking up, so if I went through that, I really ought to get some work done.

[run26.2]

Why?

cause I can turn 30 billable hours into a whole week in teh office til 11pm.

This. The problem is, once you get into a habit like this, it doesn't matter if it's 30 or 50 hours of billable work. You're still in the office until 11 pm every night.

[jbagelboy]

This actually worries me more than anything. I am really good at buckling down for a couple weeks at a time, i.e., for finals, and then doing next to nothing the rest of the semester. I've realized I go either like 20% or 200%.

I was the same way. The transition to working at a law firm—where you have to bill all your time—is brutal.

I mean, the ability to go at 200% for a couple of weeks is still valuable. The problem is learning to "coast" at 75% instead of 20%. I'm four years in, and I still haven't shed all of my bad procrastination habits. Procrastinating is massively self-destructive when you're at a law firm.

Ugh. This is going to fuck me more than anything. Even during my summers after getting an assignment I'd test the waters, then dick around for a few days, and then crack down and butcher something decent out in advance of the deadline. But I can't work at a consistently strong pace. Both my senior thesis and law school note were completed in a series of all nighters.

Fuckkkkkk my life.

[Glasseyes]

This actually worries me more than anything. I am really good at buckling down for a couple weeks at a time, i.e., for finals, and then doing next to nothing the rest of the semester. I've realized I go either like 20% or 200%.

I was the same way. The transition to working at a law firm—where you have to bill all your time—is brutal.

I mean, the ability to go at 200% for a couple of weeks is still valuable. The problem is learning to "coast" at 75% instead of 20%. I'm four years in, and I still haven't shed all of my bad procrastination habits. Procrastinating is massively self-destructive when you're at a law firm.

Ugh. This is going to fuck me more than anything. Even during my summers after getting an assignment I'd test the waters, then dick around for a few days, and then crack down and butcher something decent out in advance of the deadline. But I can't work at a consistently strong pace. Both my senior thesis and law school note were completed in a series of all nighters.

Fuckkkkkk my life.

Yep, this is exactly me. Every LRW assignment resulted in an all-nighter, no matter how many promises that I'd start and finish earlier.

Are there drugs that help with this? Adderall helps me focus for an hour, then I get tweaky and even more easily distractible. I feel like I need to be brainwashed into someone who enjoys working

[itbdvorm]

This actually worries me more than anything. I am really good at buckling down for a couple weeks at a time, i.e., for finals, and then doing next to nothing the rest of the semester. I've realized I go either like 20% or 200%.

I was the same way. The transition to working at a law firm—where you have to bill all your time—is brutal.

I mean, the ability to go at 200% for a couple of weeks is still valuable. The problem is learning to "coast" at 75% instead of 20%. I'm four years in, and I still haven't shed all of my bad procrastination habits. Procrastinating is massively self-destructive when you're at a law firm.

Ugh. This is going to fuck me more than anything. Even during my summers after getting an assignment I'd test the waters, then dick around for a few days, and then crack down and butcher something decent out in advance of the deadline. But I can't work at a consistently strong pace. Both my senior thesis and law school note were completed in a series of all nighters.

Fuckkkkkk my life.

Yep, this is exactly me. Every LRW assignment resulted in an all-nighter, no matter how many promises that I'd start and finish earlier.

Are there drugs that help with this? Adderall helps me focus for an hour, then I get tweaky and even more easily distractible. I feel like I need to be brainwashed into someone who enjoys working

It's a variation of the roofing muscles story.

You can build these "muscles" up over time, but it's tough. Dedicate yourself to grinding for a week, see if it helps.

But once you get gaps between projects, the muscles can atrophy. Which mine sure did.

[monsterman]

This actually worries me more than anything. I am really good at buckling down for a couple weeks at a time, i.e., for finals, and then doing next to nothing the rest of the semester. I've realized I go either like 20% or 200%.

I was the same way. The transition to working at a law firm—where you have to bill all your time—is brutal.

I mean, the ability to go at 200% for a couple of weeks is still valuable. The problem is learning to "coast" at 75% instead of 20%. I'm four years in, and I still haven't shed all of my bad procrastination habits. Procrastinating is massively self-destructive when you're at a law firm.

Ugh. This is going to fuck me more than anything. Even during my summers after getting an assignment I'd test the waters, then dick around for a few days, and then crack down and butcher something decent out in advance of the deadline. But I can't work at a consistently strong pace. Both my senior thesis and law school note were completed in a series of all nighters.

Fuckkkkkk my life.

Yep, this is exactly me. Every LRW assignment resulted in an all-nighter, no matter how many promises that I'd start and finish earlier.

Are there drugs that help with this? Adderall helps me focus for an hour, then I get tweaky and even more easily distractible. I feel like I need to be brainwashed into someone who enjoys working

Omg this. Every semester I tell myself I will outline throughout the semester and yet I do nothing until right before finals. Also interested in the drugs part haha.

[A. Nony Mouse]

The thing that's the worst about "wait till deadline, kill self to crank out product" is that you're so wiped out from the process that 1) you associate working with utter misery (as opposed to moderate drudgery) and 2) you can't bring yourself to do more serious work until you've had a recovery period. Both of these things make normal work patterns really really hard.

(i am familiar with this behavior even outside biglaw.)

[DELG]

Being too busy to procrastinate is hell too though so you can't win.

[run26.2]

This actually worries me more than anything. I am really good at buckling down for a couple weeks at a time, i.e., for finals, and then doing next to nothing the rest of the semester. I've realized I go either like 20% or 200%.

I was the same way. The transition to working at a law firm—where you have to bill all your time—is brutal.

I mean, the ability to go at 200% for a couple of weeks is still valuable. The problem is learning to "coast" at 75% instead of 20%. I'm four years in, and I still haven't shed all of my bad procrastination habits. Procrastinating is massively self-destructive when you're at a law firm.

Ugh. This is going to fuck me more than anything. Even during my summers after getting an assignment I'd test the waters, then dick around for a few days, and then crack down and butcher something decent out in advance of the deadline. But I can't work at a consistently strong pace. Both my senior thesis and law school note were completed in a series of all nighters.

Fuckkkkkk my life.

There is an additional issue to it just being consistent strong pace. When you've procrastinated, and then something important and unexpected comes up, you can be in a real squeeze. For me, this generally induces enough fear to get started on things early. But, then again, even those efforts can be derailed by unexpected events.

Most likely, you'll just get to a steady state of busy and things will procrastinate on their own because a partner or client expects (demands?) you do something else first. In short, procrastination tends to creep in more if you are less busy, unless you completely ignore something until it's too late to do well. In that case, your going to be in bad shape.

[1styearlateral]

Are there drugs that help with this? Adderall helps me focus for an hour, then I get tweaky and even more easily distractible. I feel like I need to be brainwashed into someone who enjoys working

Adderall XR is a miracle drug. For people without ADHD/ADD, you can be productive all day.

[kcdc1]

The thing that's the worst about "wait till deadline, kill self to crank out product" is that you're so wiped out from the process that 1) you associate working with utter misery (as opposed to moderate drudgery) and 2) you can't bring yourself to do more serious work until you've had a recovery period. Both of these things make normal work patterns really really hard.

(i am familiar with this behavior even outside biglaw.)

Yeah, this is a major problem, but it's not a biglaw-specific problem. Counter-intuitively, gov't jobs can be especially miserable for procrastinators.

[Glasseyes]

this generally induces enough fear to get started on things early.

This is my only hope. 1L year was significantly "better" than 2L because fear was the primary motivation. I used scare quotes cuz that sounds like an awful fucking life.

[CaptainLeela]

Welcome to TLS

[Desert Fox]

this generally induces enough fear to get started on things early.

This is my only hope. 1L year was significantly "better" than 2L because fear was the primary motivation. I used scare quotes cuz that sounds like an awful fucking life.

The worst part of being a procrastinator is that you get get the fear and then still don't work. Like I'll "need to work right now" an entire weekend and then start at 9pm on sunday night and then stay up all night. I ruined the whole weekend.

[krads153]

This is largely why I find biglaw to be like 2 billion times more work than law school.

Law school - do nothing all semester; cram 2 weeks before the final --> sort of profit

If you do that in biglaw, you'll be pulling late nights all the time and getting yelled at for not doing stuff ASAP...biglaw is perfect for the type A planners who like working ahead and getting things off their plate. If you're type B, but smart/good at taking tests, you're not going to go that far.

[A. Nony Mouse]

this generally induces enough fear to get started on things early.

This is my only hope. 1L year was significantly "better" than 2L because fear was the primary motivation. I used scare quotes cuz that sounds like an awful fucking life.

The worst part of being a procrastinator is that you get get the fear and then still don't work. Like I'll "need to work right now" an entire weekend and then start at 9pm on sunday night and then stay up all night. I ruined the whole weekend.

EXACTLY.

Leela, I'm still working on this, but something like the pomodoro method is helpful - setting small manageable goals and then enforcing breaks.

[CaptainLeela]

Welcome to TLS

[A. Nony Mouse]

The problem is that every time you get away with procrastination you teach yourself it works TOTALLY GREAT! Ugh.

[rpupkin]

this generally induces enough fear to get started on things early.

This is my only hope. 1L year was significantly "better" than 2L because fear was the primary motivation. I used scare quotes cuz that sounds like an awful fucking life.

The worst part of being a procrastinator is that you get get the fear and then still don't work. Like I'll "need to work right now" an entire weekend and then start at 9pm on sunday night and then stay up all night. I ruined the whole weekend.

This strikes way too close to home for me. Why do we do this to ourselves when it makes us so miserable?

The self-destructive tendency to procrastinate is fascinating. Maybe this is what it feels like to be addicted to drugs—compulsively engaged in a destructive behavior that you can't stop even though you know that you would be much happier overall if you did stop.

[run26.2]

this generally induces enough fear to get started on things early.

This is my only hope. 1L year was significantly "better" than 2L because fear was the primary motivation. I used scare quotes cuz that sounds like an awful fucking life.

The worst part of being a procrastinator is that you get get the fear and then still don't work. Like I'll "need to work right now" an entire weekend and then start at 9pm on sunday night and then stay up all night. I ruined the whole weekend.

This strikes way too close to home for me. Why do we do this to ourselves when it makes us so miserable?

The self-destructive tendency to procrastinate is fascinating. Maybe this is what it feels like to be addicted to drugs—compulsively engaged in a destructive behavior that you can't stop even though you know that you would be much happier overall if you did stop.

I think the adrenaline (or some chemical) kicks in at the point where we realize, I actually need to work on this now, or I won't finish, that allows the concentration level to rise to the point where you are both willing and able to work on it until it's done and do a good job. My take on it, anyway.

[ScottRiqui]

It's around $20/hr so it keeps food on the table until I go to law school. It's my good friend's company also and they're pretty well established so working 5-6 full days a week is generally the norm. It also helped that we didn't have much downtime this year because of the mild winter in Ohio.

Short term it's great, especially if it's steady work. I busted my ass on job sites, but I was also like an overgrown kid. Playing with power tools is fun. It's the long term part that doesn't work. My dad has done commercial HVAC work for the last 35 years, and he has gotten to the point where he has to have what is basically an apprentice who carries anything heavy for him because his shoulders are completely fucked. What's really sad about the whole thing is that he's really good at his job, and he loves it, but it is breaking him physically. He could probably go work for Trane or ITT tech or something, but he'd rather fix shit for real.

Yeah, there are definitely "young man's jobs" out there. In my teens and early 20s, I used to do car stereo and alarm installations. I loved getting to put neat systems into cool cars, and my coworkers were great. But at 45, the idea of lying on my back, half in and half out of a car with my head against the brake pedal while I'm splicing into wiring harnesses makes me hurt just thinking about it.

[JusticeJackson]

.

[smaug]

This thread is so, so true.