Episode Description
Is your calendar punishing you? Discover the Life-First Framework that’s helping solo attorneys reclaim their time while increasing productivity and profits. In this episode, we’ll tackle the uncomfortable truth about how your calendar reveals your real priorities—and how a simple shift can transform both your practice and your life.
Lauren introduces you to her revolutionary Life-First Framework, a practical system that prioritizes your foundational needs first, relationships second, and strategic work third. You’ll learn exactly how to:
- Block your non-negotiable personal needs first (sleep, exercise, meals)
- Protect sacred time with the people who matter most
- Strategically schedule your highest-value work during peak energy hours
- Create themed days to eliminate decision fatigue
- Build in buffer time to handle genuine emergencies without derailing your week
She shares the raw truth about her breaking point and how completely redesigning her calendar helped her work fewer hours while making more money and never missing important family moments again.
This isn’t just theory. You’ll get the exact blueprint Lauren used to cut her working hours to less than 30 hours per week while increasing revenue and client satisfaction.
Ready to stop surviving and start thriving?
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Episode Resources
Get my free Life-First Calendar Template!
Episode Transcript
LAUREN: [00:00:00] Your calendar should look like the life you want, not a punishment you’re serving. Welcome to a different practice. I’m your host Lauren Lester, and I’m passionate about helping solo attorneys build thriving practices. After starting my own solo firm, straight out of law school and building it to a successful practice that earns well over six figures while working part-time, I’m here to share the tools and strategies that made it possible.
Think of this as grabbing coffee with your work bestie while learning everything they didn’t teach you about running a business in law school. Pull up a seat and get ready to build a different practice. Hey everyone, welcome back to a different practice. I’m so glad you’re here today. Are you ready for this?
Today we are going to completely flip your approach to time management. I recently heard Robin Arone say something that really hit me hard. She said, the way you spend your time is who you are. Think about that for a second. [00:01:00] If I were to look at your calendar without knowing anything about you, I could get a crystal clear picture of what’s truly important in your life.
Put another way by James Clear in his 3, 2, 1 newsletter quote. The more control you have over your attention, the more control you have over your future, and it starts with having enough courage to protect your time. It’s so easy to say, yes, we want to be agreeable, helpful, liked. That’s how time disappears and attention becomes fragmented.
Not in big chunks, but in a thousand small concessions. What you trade your attention for is what your life becomes. So what would your calendar tell me? Would I see that your health matters to you? That your family is a priority or what? I see what I see on most solo practitioners calendars that work trumps everything else.
Here’s the real question we’re getting at today. If your 90-year-old self could look at your calendar right now, [00:02:00] what would they tell you to spend more time doing? And does your current schedule reflect that wisdom? Today we’ll explore how reversing the way you schedule your time using my life First framework can actually make you more productive and less stressed about your practice.
This is important because as solos, we need to face the hard truth. If we don’t protect our time, no one else will. Not Our clients, not opposing counsel, not staff, not even our family. Sometimes. They all assume your time is infinitely available unless you decide otherwise. I learned this lesson the hard way and it nearly costs me my health.
My relationships, and ironically, the very practice I was working so hard to build, but a simple calendar revolution changed everything. And today I’m gonna walk you through how you can make that same exact shift. Robin’s quote resonated with me because it’s brutally true. Your calendar isn’t just a schedule, it’s a reflection of your actual priorities, [00:03:00] not the ones you claim to have.
So let me paint a picture for you of where I was three years ago. My calendar looked like a game of Tetris gone horribly wrong. Client meetings were stacked on client meetings. Admin work was squeezed into lunch breaks and emergencies derailing. Everything happened on what felt like a daily basis. I was scheduling work first and then letting life get any of the leftovers.
Really the crumbs. To be honest, I’d blocked out Monday through Thursday for work stuff, and then I’d wonder why I wasn’t seeing my kids and partner as much. Why I wasn’t sleeping well and why I couldn’t remember the last time. I didn’t feel the constant pressure to be working during every free moment that I had.
Here’s what this approach does to us. First, we get physically exhausted. I was running on fumes and just bare bones, grit. Second, we become deeply resentful. For me, I would look at my calendar and feel nothing but dread. I resisted getting outta bed in the morning [00:04:00] because I just wanted a few more minutes of avoidance.
And third, and this really is the kicker. We actually become less productive because burnout destroys our focus and our creativity. If you’ve been around for a minute, you have heard me tell this story, but the breaking point came when I had to hide in my young daughter’s hospital room to deal with a client, quote, emergency that came up at the last minute.
My daughter was 13 months old, and instead of being a mom and comforting her while she was sick. I was balancing on the edge of a cold bathtub whispering into my phone to hide from her. And honestly, probably from myself, what I was actually doing. I knew something needed to change. Either I was gonna break this approach to practice, or the practice was going to break me.
So what was the first step I took? I cleared my calendar and I started over from scratch with what became the life first framework. So let me introduce you to this framework that [00:05:00] saved my sanity and my practice. The Life First framework is built on the three Ps, personal people, productivity. The first P personal is your foundation, and it is non-negotiable.
These are the basic human needs that keep you functioning as a healthy, thriving person. Without them, quite frankly, everything else falls apart. So here’s how I did it. I took a blank weekly calendar with blocks for each hour from 12:00 AM to 11:00 PM I filled in my personal needs first. For me, that looks like sleep from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM because if I don’t sleep well, I am as effective as a broken clock.
I got two minutes a day. That’s good. Next is slow mornings to wake up. That for me is from six to 7:00 AM. I give myself space to start the day, right? Workouts went in from nine to 10 every weekday after I dropped my kids off at school. Lunch is each day from one to 2:00 [00:06:00] PM and then I have wind down time from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM because for me, good sleep requires a transition, and reading every day brings me joy.
So you might be thinking, well, how obvious is this? But ask yourself, are these actually protected blocks on your calendar right now, or do you do what I did? Three years ago and say, I will get sleep. Say I will take a lunch, but then sacrifice them for just one more email or one more client call, or 10 more minutes of drafting that document.
These aren’t, if I have time activities, I. These are the immovable foundations of my week. They get the premium real estate on my calendar, and they’re color coded for me. I use blue so that they stand out and I know that this is my personal time. Okay, the second P is people. This is for the relationships that give your life meaning and purpose.
What’s the point of building a successful practice if you never get to see or spend time with the people you love? So [00:07:00] on my blank calendar, after I filled in the personal blocks, I added mom time. 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM This is sacred morning time with my kids. I get them up, I help get them ready. I make them breakfast, I take them to school, and I’m able to wish them a great day.
Then I have dinner and family time during the week from 5:00 PM the kids come home from school, see my spouse. We make dinner, we have time together, we play games, we do puzzles. Whatever it is, there’s no exceptions there. That’s my sacred family time in the evening. Then I have a lunch date with my partner every Friday so that we can stay connected and for me, weekends are open and free family time.
So I don’t schedule them as specifically as I would do the work week, but this is a work free zone for me. On the weekends. I need the break from work. I need to have that downtime. I need to recharge. And so weekends are very sacred, special time, and I make sure that whatever goes on the calendar, on the weekends fits within this priority of the people in my life and spending time with them.
[00:08:00] I also go through and block out vacation time, actual disconnected, real vacation time, months in advance. I usually do this during the holidays for the following year. So this past holiday I sat down, I blocked out six full weeks spread throughout the year. I. Taking them completely off something I would’ve found impossible to do using my old work first system, because work always got the priority.Now I know when I have these vacation weeks blocked off and I can plan for them to make the transition to vacation and back from vacation as seamless as possible. So for me, the people blocks on my calendar get color coded in green to remind me that they are about growth and connection. So when a client asks, can we meet on Thursday at 5:00 PM the answer is simple.
I’m not available at that time, but I could do 2:00 PM on Wednesday or 11:00 AM on Thursday. There’s no explanation needed. Alright, now we’re to the third of the three Ps productivity. [00:09:00] Only after your personal and people priorities have been locked into your calendar. Does the third P come into play?
Productivity is where your work fits in, but remember, it’s strategic work, not just a general block of time for frantic busy work. So how I broke down my productivity blocks, where as follows, I tracked my energy levels and so I know that I am sharpest and have the most energy, usually from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM.
So for me, those hours are kept for deep work. Things like case strategy for complex matters, drafting comprehensive or more lengthy documents, creating systems that help automate my practice. Maybe thinking through and developing new service offerings, things like crafting, marketing messages, things where I really have to hunker down, turn off all of the notifications, really get into the weeds of something and think through it.
That kind of. Deep work that we all have. So knowing that knowing when I had those energy levels and could pour into that [00:10:00] type of work, I broke down my productivity time into three subcategories. So I have deep work, those high value activities that require full focus and they help move your practice forward.
Then because we’re a law firm and we work with people, right? We have people work that we have to do to be productive. So that’s client meetings, networking, maybe team interactions, and then third admin work the necessary but not urgent tasks that just keep things running, right? They keep the train moving.
So knowing those three subcategories under my productivity blocks. Deep work people work, admin work. I used a themed day approach to kind of maximize the structure for work. So on Mondays, for me, it is deep client work strategy and planning. I don’t have any client meetings on Mondays. It really allows me to take the full day to dive into those different projects or client matters that I really need to focus on.
Then the theme for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Is all about people. Client meetings [00:11:00] are clustered late in the morning and in early afternoons, and then in the late afternoons. My brain is just kind of done and needs sort of tasks that I don’t really have to think too much about. I have some admin blocks and lastly, Fridays.
That’s for joy. Work like this podcast. I don’t have any law firm work for the most part that I do on Fridays. That’s my day to really pour into the projects that bring me the most joy. So once I had this general structure, I applied it to things like my online calendaring system. I went through and said, you know what?
Instead of allowing for. Client meetings on Mondays. There’s no more meetings on Mondays. Here are the blocks based on this themed approach when I’m gonna have that people productivity time, and now going forward when I have client meetings, consultations it, they were falling into those blocks that I had set up.
And now at the beginning of each week, sort of knowing this general structure that has been put in place, client meetings are falling into the right time [00:12:00] blocks where they should be. I go through those. Deep work time blocks in the morning and I specify exactly what I’m gonna work on based on the needs of the week.
So for example, maybe for this week, Tuesday’s deep work session is gonna be drafting the Jones’ Estate Plan. And then maybe Thursday’s deep work session, which has been blocked off. So it’s been kept sacred. I just don’t quite know yet what I’m gonna need to do during that time period. But I take a look at my caseload and I say, Thursday is gonna be a research day on this jurisdictional issue.
The time blocks give you the space that you need. They hold that boundary. They make sure that you have the time to work on things that are most important that you need to do. But then each week you’ll obviously pick the specific things that you’re going to be working on. So can you guess what happened when I started scheduling with the three Ps and this Life first framework?
Well, my revenue increased while my working hours decreased. When I stopped [00:13:00] frantically reacting to every new request that came in hello email, and started intentionally focusing on the right things at the right time when I could be most productive, my productivity skyrocketed. Remember I did all of this because I was at the breaking point of I can’t run my practice the way I have been running my practice.
My time feels completely out of my control. I am just a slave to it. I don’t have time for the things that are most important in my life. This is one of the things I did to avoid closing down the practice altogether. But here’s the counterintuitive truth that I discovered in this process. Constraints actually create focus.
When I know that I have two hours to handle admin tasks before my people time kicks in, all right, I gotta go pick up my kids. I magically get three hours of work done in those two hours because that urgency creates clarity and it eliminates procrastination. That happens when my time just kind of feels unlimited, or I don’t [00:14:00] have a focus.
I just have these two hours and. Who knows what I’m gonna do. Maybe I’ll click over here and check this email. Oh, what’s going on on LinkedIn? Oh, I forgot to do that. Let me go over. Wait. That’s when I get to the end of the two hours and I think, oh, I’ve done nothing. I’ve wasted that time. Now I have to go pick up my kids.
Now all I’m thinking about is, oh, I’ve meant to get those things done to keep the practice running. I have to run these invoices and I have to update these templates. And now all I’m doing while I’m with my kids is thinking about that and then working on it late at night, and now I’m not sleeping as much.
And then the cycle just keeps going and going. For me, when my client meetings got batched into specific time blocks, those Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, late mornings, afternoons with a buffer in between each meeting, that helped me prevent the mental whiplash of jumping between different matters with no transition time.
And as for emergencies. Let’s be honest. We all have them and they’re going to happen. That is a real fact of running a law firm. But what I love about the Life First framework for your calendar is it doesn’t ignore [00:15:00] emergencies. The difference is now that you don’t automatically override. Everything else because an emergency came up.
Instead, you can build in that flex time into your weekly schedule. Maybe it’s three to four hours across the week that can absorb unexpected, urgent matters without dismantling your entire week. When you block your productivity time without any buffer or without any of this flex time, one little thing that comes up is gonna throw your whole day off, and then that snowball effect is going to happen.
The other thing too about emergencies that I think is important to note is that 90% of them, maybe even 95 of emergencies aren’t actually emergencies. They’re often because somebody else had poor planning, they had anxiety, or they procrastination turned the thing into an emergency that’s now being pushed on you.
I found that when my clients and colleagues understood my availability boundaries. Somehow [00:16:00] magically they became better at planning ahead, or at least if they didn’t, they understood that I would get to it when I next had time to get to it. I wasn’t going to drop everything right in this moment because their procrastination became my emergency.
I. One client I had who used to have weekly emergencies when I implemented the system, she suddenly found the ability to consolidate her questions into a scheduled meeting that I set up with her once she realized that my time wasn’t infinitely accessible, that I wasn’t going to just drop everything.
And she later even told me that she appreciated that change in my structure because it actually made her more organized when she was in the habit of just sending questions or having things that felt like emergencies pop up and having to send them over and got a response from me. That was on me. She got used to that, right?
I helped build that habit. And so being able to break it and tell her, Hey, I really wanna make sure that I have the time dedicated to your [00:17:00] matter, to be able to answer your questions in depth. You know, it’s really hard for me. I feel like I can’t give ’em the level of service that they need when they’re just kind of flying at me during the week.
Let’s set up this call so that we have these scheduled meetings where we can go through everything that really helped her stop and think. Okay, first of all, I can’t send this to Lauren right away because our meeting isn’t, you know, for three days and second, it gave her that pause to say, is this really even an emergency?
Or Maybe I’ll try something myself to answer this question or to figure out this small thing. And so it really gave her more autonomy over her case as well. So what has been the best part of using my Life First framework for my calendar? Well, I now work about 28 focused hours per week. I make more money.
My clients are happier and I haven’t missed a swim lesson, a school recital, or a date with my partner in over a year. I would hope that if my 90-year-old self could see my calendar now, that she would nod with approval because it finally reflects who I truly want to be. [00:18:00] I am not just an attorney, although I love being an attorney.
It’s an important part of my life. I’m a whole human who wants to have a rich, meaningful life beyond just my work. We are multifaceted beings and really our calendars should reflect that. So remember that quote from Robin from the beginning. The way you spend your time is who you are. So let me ask you, is your calendar telling the story of the person you want to be?
Or is it telling the story of someone who’s letting life happen to them instead of designing it intentionally, you now have the exact blueprint for this calendar revolution with the life First three Ps, but information without action is just entertainment. So here is your challenge for this week. Take 30 minutes, schedule it right now.
If you can pause the episode, go put it in your calendar and come back. Take those 30 minutes to redesign your calendar using the Life first three P approach. Think of it as a message to your future self about what truly matters, and it may take you some time to actually implement [00:19:00] it. You may not feel the true effects until months out, because I know that our calendars can be booked out that far.
But taking that first step today, you will move in that direction. And to help make this even easier for you, I created a ready to use template that you can print out and fill in today. Simply go to a different practice.com/calendar to get your life first calendar template for free. That’s a different practice.com/calendar.
Once you’ve got your blank calendar, whether you use my template or not, block off your time using the three Ps. First, personal time, block out your non-negotiable personal needs. First, sleep, food, personal care, exercise, hobbies, quiet time, whatever it is. Second. People time, block out time for the relationships that matter most.
Then third, with your remaining time, optimize your productivity, identify your peak energy hours, and use them for deep work as much as you can. Create [00:20:00] themed days or focused blocks for different types of work and let client meetings and admin time fill in around those priorities. If you’re ready to take this seriously.
I wanna see the proof post a picture of your new calendar, blurred if needed for privacy, and tag me on Instagram or LinkedIn at Ms. Lauren Lester. That’s Ms. Lauren Lester. I’ll personally respond to each post so that I can celebrate you planning your time around your life first. This isn’t just about work life balance, which sounds nice, but I’m not trying to pit my life against my work.
It all has to happen. This is about intentionally designing a practice that serves your life instead of consuming it. This is about sustainable success that doesn’t come at the cost of everything else that you care about. I know you’ve got this until next time. Keep building a different practice. Thanks for joining me on another episode of a different practice.
[00:21:00] If you found value in today’s conversation, subscribe to my Solo Success Lab newsletter where each week I test and share what actually works in solo practice. Sign up for free@adifferentpractice.com slash subscribe. Wanna help other lawyers transform their practices too? Follow the show. Leave a rating and share this episode with someone who might benefit.And if you’re ready to take your practice to the next level, download my free guide to the six pillars of optimization@adifferentpractice.com slash optimize. I’ve distilled nearly a decade of experience, including all the mistakes and victories into the essential elements every successful law firm needs.
I’ll see you next time, and until then, keep building a different practice.