The art of snoozing and time management

As I have explained before I am a lawyer and although it is something I worked very hard to achieve I bizarrely forget that I am. You see the thing is when you plan to become a lawyer you kind of think that when you finally become one your whole life will change. First of all you will suddenly develop a maturity you never had, you will be stylish and look like Ally McBeale. You will be full of energy and have a real sense of purpose. You will sympathise when necessary and you will show strength of character when faced with what you blattantly can see is an injustice. You will probably regularly attend the gym and will be super organised and a whizz at time management.

The reality however is that you are exactly the same as you were before but people's expectations of your knowledge and ability increase. As for time management I am still useless. My main problem is the mornings. It's not because I don't wake up in time... actually who am I kidding? It's because I don't wake up in time! I snooze alarms for over an hour. One goes off at 7am (I groan and turn over)and the other at 7.10am. This is torture but one I have to put myself through. If I get out of bed by 8.20 I know I'll be late. Most mornings I get out of bed at 8.25am. When I was training and working in a firm I was lucky enough to live 15 miles away and on a very unreliable bus route. This meant I always had an excuse for being late for work. However I knew that people (you know the ones - the ones who get into work for 8.15am for no apparent reason... they are also the ones that never yawn in work and they always have their own mug for tea, teabags in a container in their desk and various treats of a low fat variety to eat during the day) generally didn't appreciate the fact that I was late. Truth was I could get the early bus and sleep all the way as I normally did anyway or I could get the bus that got me in after 9am and sleep all the way. The later bus allowed me to have an extra half hour in bed... you do the math!

When I went for my job interview for my first job as a qualified lawyer I arrived 45 minutes late for the interview due to bad traffic and not leaving myself enough time. They were very sympathetic to this and offered me the job anyway! My view from then on was they knew exactly what my faults were and they were prepared for me to be late every morning. And I was. Again I had an excuse because I lived 46 miles away. When I moved to the town where my firm was however it became a little more difficult to explain myself. Particularly when there was another woman who worked for us who was always late but she was also a darling of the company and everyone she worked with. She would come in with her basket on her arm and would hand out various vegetables that she had picked that morning. So she got away with it. I started to get noticed. When I pulled into the car park I knew how late I was by whether there was a parking space and whether or not the other late woman was already parked.

Imagine my alarm when this firm decided to send me on a time management course in London. The course started at 10 am so I knew I had to wake up early. Not to mention the fact I had to get the train which took about 2 hours and I had to find the venue. As I stormed through the door of the course where other simiarly useless time managers were seated and had arrived on time... I was roughly 2 and a half hours late! The course leader had the cheek to then seem disgusted! But I hadn't even done the course yet so how could I be expected to be a good time manager?! I was brazen in my lateness and sat down as they discussed how we all needed to allow ourselves enough time to get places. I spent the rest of the day pinching myself and drinking strong coffee in order to stay awake. I then left early (My god people don't judge me I had a train to catch!) with the time management course notes under my arm. I then fell asleep on the train and when I changed trains somehow managed to leave the course notes on the train. For the rest of the 2 years I worked at that firm I remained truthful to myself... I continued my late arrival and continued to deal with it in a brazen way! What other option did I have? If a time management course couldn't even inspire me or save me I was doomed to be a late arriver!

It is not that I like to be late or even enjoy rushing to catch planes, trains, arrive on time for a friend's wedding or generally being cursed until I arrive. I have every intention when I go to bed to be up on time and to be sitting at my desk before 9am. However as I struggle to wake up for the first hour of the day everything takes longer. I think this is a disease or certainly a condition and one which I can't control. Other people have other problems. But as I struggle to make up the time I've missed by being late I actually reckon I am more efficient at work... certainly in the moments I am not fighting sleep. This is because I am always behind schedule and revising lists that I have written to compensate for my late arrival! I even go to bed making plans in my head for things that I will do when I wake up early and have extra time... however I have never done any of those things but it doesn't mean I never will! I'm hoping that as I get older I will start to suffer from that whole wake up early, funny how I only need 4 hours sleep as I get older thing! That way I will have plenty of time and I will manage it well! Until I get older however you all just have to bear with me. I will be late... I even set my watch so that it says it is five minutes later than it is in a bid to scare myself when I look at the time. However the only thing this does is make me take the five minutes off and then think to myself it's ok I've got at least another five minutes!

We are always told life is too short and that we shouldn't sleep our lives away but if you like to sleep and you love a little snooze in the afternoon (for 20 minutes but you wake 3 hours later) then so what? If that is how you work, accept it... it's not fun fighting sleep all the time but for some us it is a reality! It's not professional, it's not lazy, it's not boring... it's just a love of sleep... it's just me! I'm sorry but when I'm old perhaps I will be living on just the 4 hours a night and then you will all be wishing I will just shut up and go to sleep! Alternatively I might be the old woman who drops off mid conversation and not realise... Who knows? Whichever one it is I just have to accept it...snoozing and me is the best combination!