Time Waits for Nothing (Draft Three)

-- By JenniferAnderson - 25 May 2012

Intro

Within any career, facets of time can have an impact on the effectiveness of an employee. Time can determine how much time efficiently a person can complete an assignment, who that employee is able to interact with, or even how likely that person is to advance within their career. These constraints can create an even bigger challenge within the job of the lawyer. Lawyers have to worry about statute of limitations, deadlines for written assignments, and their ability to interact or connect with certain people. The importance of time was explored in an early class discussion of Lawyerland when Moglen posited that within the legal realm, time is one of the most important realms of legal media. This statement struck me; not only had I observed this within the limited exposure I have had to the legal community, I have also seen the ways in which it has impacted my personal and professional life. Looking at my life in terms of the opportunities I have had, the people I have met, and moving forward in my professional career that I have chosen for myself, the way in which I have consistently viewed time has been weighing on me. Entering a profession where time is both literally and figuratively of the essence, I have realized that not only do I have to begin to take these time constraints more seriously, but also that how successful certain aspects of my life will be, will be dependent on how wisely I use my time. Time (or at least our conception of time) places constraints on how lawyers and people in society operate. The concept of time can serve as an enabler and as an inhibitor.

In Light of My Law School Experience

As I step back and realize that I am done with my first year of law school, I realize that I am an adult. I am in professional School. I am now not only responsible for my own financial and personal needs, but also those of my clients. Even though I am placed in a position of power, I feel that I really do not possess a lot of power. Rather I feel like I am being impacted by time rather than controlling it. I have found that there is a tension in the two ways in which I view time. There is a tension between getting things (as in going through the motions) and doing things with purpose (with passion). The first is just following a specific structure. This utilizes efficiency and allows things to get done in a timely fashion. Just because you are in the motion of doing something does not mean that you will be doing that thing whole heartedly. Meeting deadlines and completing something in a certain fashion often comes at the cost of being able to application of creativity and imagination to the written assignment.

In undergrad, asking a professor for an extension on a paper was not frowned upon. In fact, it was something that was openly talked about without shame. If a student didn’t believe that they would be able to produce quality work within a specific time period, they should not be forced to do so. I remember I didn’t turn in a term paper until two months after the initial deadline, and I still received an A in the class. That’s not to say that I didn’t respect the deadlines that my professor had set for me. Instead I came to appreciate the pursuit of knowledge and gained confidence in the belief that there was a level of knowledge on a subject that I could reach before I was asked to produce a term paper. In looking at time; it had always been my philosophy that things will work itself out versus me finding the need to take advantage of time and using it to shape the outcome of events. Although I loved my undergrad experience allowed me to grow personally and professionally as an individual, Columbia Law School has shown me over and over again that this is not the way of the world and if I continue to view the world like this, there will not be much room for advancement. In order to achieve some “balance,” I have to reconcile the ways in which I used to view time with the new ways in which I am being asked to utilize time.

What does One Gain and Lose

Time as a concept is often taken for granted; how society tends to conceptualize time can often be more complicated. On the one hand, it does lead to perceived practical outcomes; people are more focused, work with more of a sense of urgency, and work becomes more efficient. On the other hand, it constrains what an individual can focus on. Sometimes precision has to be sacrificed because of the sense of urgency that is placed on something. Also, what can be focused on becomes much more limited. In order to achieve one, the other has to be discarded. Without a doubt, people who have come before questioned what their times mean, organized their time in light of the different constraints that exist, and impacted how people in the present reflect upon their time.

Thoughts Moving Forward

Time, and the constraints that it creates, does create a sense of order. Time forces people to structure their lives in a way that maximizes outcomes. However, time does create hard boundaries. It can become an obstacle to doing what one wants to accomplish. It would be difficult to think of a world where time and deadlines didn’t drive people to read enough for an exam, submit a paper by a certain time, or meet with someone about sensitive information as soon as possible.