Episode 70: You Can Track Hours And Still Stay Human

The billable hour can feel like a constant judgment on your worth, your pace, and your future in big law. I want to flip that script. If you’re a lawyer or legal professional trying to build a sustainable practice, the goal isn’t just to “hit your hours” and hope you can do it again next year. The goal is to track your time in a way that supports your career, protects your energy, and keeps you human.

I talk through the core habits that make timekeeping less stressful and more accurate, starting with real-time daily tracking so your timesheet doesn’t turn into a weekly crisis. From there, we get honest about boundaries, especially when work is tied up in identity and ambition. I share how I protect sleep, why deep work blocks matter, and how boundaries help your future self show up with better focus and mood.

We also dig into ruthless prioritization, realistic monthly and weekly targets, and the hidden power of delegation and team management. If you’ve been dreading work, skipping breaks, or feeling constantly behind, I offer a simple reset that can start with five minutes and scale up to a full day. If you want practical attorney wellness strategies that fit real law firm life, subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review so more lawyers can find it.

Find out more at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilystedman/.

Transcript

Welcome And Purpose Of The Show

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to The Grace Period, where we get real about attorney mental health and well-being and pull back the veil on the high-stakes world of big law. I'm your host, Emily Logan Steadman, a commercial litigator, partner, and someone who believes there's always room for a little more grace, even in a high-stakes profession. On the grace period, I share real stories from my own journey in big law and invite you behind the scenes, past the billable hour, and to talk about what it means to stay human, even in a demanding field. Whether you're a lawyer, a legal professional, or someone trying to find your footing, this space is for you. Let's pull back the curtain, start the conversation, and find our grace period together. Disclaimer, the views and opinions shared on this podcast are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect those of my firm or any organization. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not legal advice and listening does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Why The Billable Hour Stays

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Welcome to episode 70 of the grace period. Today I want to talk about how to build a sustainable practice around the billable hour. Now, a lot of this is going to restate and recapture everything I've talked about on the first 69 episodes of the grace period. But I think these things are worth revisiting. Whether you're someone new to the podcast and just picking up an episode randomly here or there, or you're a longtime listener and you've listened to every episode. I think this is important because the billable hour isn't going anywhere. We can talk about AI, we can talk about what clients want. But for example, as a commercial litigator, if I want a court to pay my fees, I'm going to have to bill my time so that I can turn in a timesheet that that court can look at and deem my rate and my work reasonable. So even as we change the badge of productivity because AI is going to revolutionize that, or we switch to alternative fee arrangements because our clients don't want to pay us by the hour anymore and they're demanding that more and more, most of us in big firms or in private practice generally are still going to be tracking our time. So my goal is to help you and help remind myself that tracking your time doesn't have to be this boogeyman. And you can choose how to work with it so it supports your career and doesn't

Sustainability Beyond Hitting Your Hours

SPEAKER_00 1:37

sabotage it. Early in my career, I thought making it year over year just meant hitting my hours, hitting my metrics, hitting my numbers. But real sustainability is about protecting your time, protecting your energy, protecting your physical and mental health, and making room for growth. It is about thriving, not just surviving. It's about building a practice that we actually enjoy. So here are some things that I try to keep in mind daily and which help keep me grounded.

Track Time Daily In Real Time

SPEAKER_00 1:57

One, track your time daily, track it in real time. Don't let your time pile up, log it as you go. Keeps you honest, it reduces stress, it helps you spot where your time and energy is actually going. If you do not track your time in real time and enter it daily, you lose hundreds of hours a year. Or you're overestimating, which borders on unethical.

Boundaries That Protect Your Energy

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Next, boundaries. Boundaries are hard for me. I love work. Work is my identity. I wouldn't call myself a workaholic anymore, but it's a huge part of who I am. It's very important to me to work hard and have something to show for it. But I cannot do that year over year if I do not block time for deep work, if I do not block time for taking breaks, if I do not block time for life outside of work. So on any given day, that might mean protecting evening time. But if I have to work on the evenings, it might be protecting weekend time. It's protecting time for non-negotiables. For me, that's sleep. I take my sleep very seriously. I am not a night owl. My brain does not work into the evening. So I protect that time and then I get up really early on days I need to and take advantage of that time when my brain works best. Boundaries help you protect your energy and they protect you for your future self. Your future self and ultimately everyone around you will thank you if you practice boundaries because ultimately you'll be in a better mood and you'll be better satisfied at work if you stick to boundaries that help you do what you need to do and survive sustainably for the long term.

Prioritize Ruthlessly And Defuse Fake Emergencies

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Next, you must learn to prioritize ruthlessly. Not all work is equal and not all work is an emergency. You need to learn, you need to ask yourself what can wait and what can't wait. You need to learn to distinguish between what's a real emergency and what's a fake emergency so that you can focus on what actually moves the ball forward for your clients and your practice. This allows you to say no or not yet when you need to, and it allows you to have honest conversations with your clients and those you report to about your capacity and about deadlines.

Set Realistic Targets For Steady Growth

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Next, set realistic goals. For me, this looks like setting monthly and weekly hourly targets so that I can bank hours when I can, so that I have a cushion when I have slow periods. And it allows me to accept that there are going to be periods where I'm just working more and more and I'm busier than others. This also isn't just about billable hours. You need to set realistic goals around all your metrics, how much money you're bringing in the door for work you've done, how much money you're are how many files you're managing, how many clients you're bringing in. None of this is just a switch you flip. It all builds on itself over time. One thing I love about my firm is that for partners, they really focus on steady incremental improvement on your economic contribution year over year. It's not about blowing it out of the water year over year. Why? Because that's not sustainable and it's not always repeatable. You need to have steady, realistic goals when it comes to both your billable hour targets and your personal and professional goals

Delegate Better And Lead Your Team

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generally. Last, you must learn to delegate and to manage teams. Don't try to do it all. You can't do it all. Share the load, trust your team, help others grow. It's good for you and it's good for your firm and your teammates. You need to read books on managing. If you don't have real-world experiencing managing peers and managing others, go out and seek out resources to help you learn how to do it. It will pay off dividends in the long run and it'll help people, it will help you build loyalty with people and others that you report to and who report to you. I lean on systems and habits. I have opening and closing rituals for my workday for weekly reviews and using technology, including AI, to streamline tasks. Regular check-ins with myself and my team help me course or correct before things go off the rails, and they help me regroup when things do go off the rails.

Red Flags And A Simple Reset Plan

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Red flags in this career is if you're dreading work. A red flag is if you're skipping breaks. A red flag is feeling or being constantly behind. If you are feeling that, it's okay. It's normal, it happens to all of us. Those feelings will come and go. But if you're feeling those right now, I encourage you to take five minutes to an hour to a whole day to reset, ask for help, rebalance your workload, reprioritize your to-do list, and revisit your goals. Sustainability isn't a finish line, it's a daily practice. It's about building habits, protecting your energy, and giving yourself permission to not just take breaks, but to constantly adjust along the way. This episode, I think, really captures a lot of the foundational efforts you must learn to do if you're going to be on the path to partnership, which we've talked about over the last several episodes. But it also captures building a sustainable practice, whether you're partner or not. Whether you go in-house, become a judge, become a consultant or a coach. If you're a high achiever and you have big goals, no matter what your what that goal is, all of these things will help you get there in a way that you enjoy and in a way that is sustainable.

Season Finale Takeaways And Goodbye

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Thanks for joining me on this episode of the Grace Period. It is the last episode of season seven. I'll be back in a couple months with season eight. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other. Remember, you don't have to choose between your well being and your ambition. By setting boundaries, building supportive supportive habits, and giving yourself permission to pause, you can thrive in law and life. All of this is our path to our grace period. Disclaimer, the views expressed here are solely my own and do not represent the official policy or position of my firm or any organization. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only, not professional or legal advice. Listening does not create an attorney client relationship.