Working in a billable hour model warps your view of time.
Working in a billable hour model warps your view of time.
We already get so much messaging about time and productivity before we even make it to the practice of law. (How old do you think you were the first time you heard “Time is money”?)
We have been taught that our time is a commodity. One that should be traded or used in very specific ways. Traded for money. Traded for success. Traded for prestige. Used to add specific kinds of value to the world.
Then, if you become a lawyer who bills hours, you learn to further commodify your time into 6 minute increments.
And immediately that becomes all that matters.
Indeed, as an associate, the hours you bill are the main measure of your success. Sure, sometimes other metrics are included. But the hours are always a metric that matters.
You start to see your only value, or at least your main value, as the time spent billing.
And the longer you stay in the model, the more entrenched this belief comes.
Intellectually, most of us understand there is value in non-billable time (both at work and outside of work). But that internalized ethos of the billable hour creates an underlying current of discomfort that often leads to us overworking, neglecting ourselves, and unable to turn our brain off outside of work.
Measuring our entire life in those 6 minute increments. And being anxious any time we perceive we are wasting those .1s.
I don’t expect the billable hour is going to go completely away any time soon, particularly in BigLaw, even though I have seen some shifts since my career started.
And even if you leave the billable hour model, that mindset - that ethos - often still lingers.
It makes it very difficult to create a career and a life that feels good.
But you can.
Through awareness and insight, thought and emotion work, and specific actions (like implementing boundaries).
You have to get clear on your current beliefs about your time and your value, shift those beliefs where possible, learn to manage your emotions, and take actions to create the life that you actually want.
The result? The billable hour won’t define you. The billable hour ethos loses its hold. You go from miserable to fulfilled. You spend your time in ways that are meaningful to YOU, not someone or something else.
A ❤️ note to you: If you’re ready to start feeling better about your time and your job, send me an email or sign up for a free call with me at jenndealcoaching.as.me/consult.
