I received a new project yesterday. It looked daunting: preparing and filing an entire patent application for a technology I wasn’t particularly well acquainted with, but know well enough that I recognize the technical field is fairly crowded and thus the specification needs to contain plenty of contingencies, to be filed in a week. That meant that I had about two days to work on it, three business days if we expected the client to drag their feet with respect to some additional documentation we need for filing. For perspective, I expect to spend roughly a week on preparing an application in a field I’m relatively acquainted with. And yet, I knew that I could not let the firm down; they were counting on me, putting their reputation on the line for me to be able to prepare this application for a longstanding client. Thankfully, I thought, I have the weekend between now and day three, so I can commit my Saturday to it.
I tackled tasks for other projects on my docket so they wouldn’t distract me as I was working on the application. Then, just as I was getting ready to dive headlong into the big project yesterday, my computer screen died.
The remainder of the day went to saving computer. And a tele-meeting while I was still working on it. And panicking about my computer dying on me. And getting compressed air to fix it. (And trying to find a dozen eggs while I was out. And, after failing thrice, trying to get a sandwich with eggs on it instead – and failing at that as well because they, too, were out of egg.) And, and, and. Long story short, the innards are clean and the computer is up and running better than it has been for the last several months, but it took time.
Just as I was preparing for bed a little after midnight, I open up my phone to adjust my alarm clock for a little more than six hours later. As I saved my alarm edit, an email came through regarding the work I do on something with a 0900 deadline every weekday: more to do than normal, please work on it ASAP. I was beat, so, in my weakness, I gave it up to God and crawled into bed, allowing the thoughts about the meeting I had in the morning, which posed a significant conflict to my ability to get that done, just swirl about and curl loose knots in my grey matter.
This morning, I was hailed before I could get dressed: the house I live in had been burglarized. There wasn’t much I could do about it, if anything, but it was clearly distressing, especially because people were in the vicinity while it was happening, they just didn’t realize it until later. But I had a meeting to get to, and work to do, and a docket to clear so I could thoughtfully and thoroughly prepare the application now pending on my docket.
I jump on to my computer, now late for my meeting, and load up alternative pages with the work for the deadline this morning. Good meeting; I only half attended mentally because I was busy meeting the aforementioned impending deadline. And the email I received after midnight? It had a follow-up attached to it pleading for notice about whether or not I would be able to help meet the deadline. Thankfully, I noticed it (and the explanation of the importance of meeting the morning deadlines, which I had heard previously and completely understood) after the deadline; otherwise, I would have likely snarkily responded that I can help but I’m too busy replying to an email instead.
Again, as I’m opening up files to jump into this big project, I get a phone call about another project that needs immediate attention to assuage the fears of a client. Yeah, no. So I had to explain to a seasoned attorney that I had to put the immediate, hard-external-deadline project ahead of the (likely unfounded) fears of a client regarding a transaction that we don’t even have half the necessary documents for yet.
Are you still tracking? It’s barely mid-morning, yet I already need a nap.
I log into my work email to discover an automated email sitting in my inbox: I was supposed to have a ready-to-file draft prepared for, and sent to, the client today. So that Saturday I was counting on to make a Monday deadline? Yeah, no, I don’t get that. Head spinning, I grab my tea and finally jump in.
Reviewing the task, I notice that it’s a lot of, effectively, copy and paste followed by substantive review to ensure compliance with domestic rules and practices. It’s not drafting from scratch. It’s not even drafting from an invention disclosure form. They basically did all of the substantive work; I just have to make sure it complies with the domestic regulations and advise to anything that doesn’t. The task just got phenomenally easier.
A few hours in, I hit a snag and call the paralegal for the project for help asking about differences between templates.
“I got X done, Y done, and Z done… Now I just have to do is A, B, and C.”
“Oh, no, no. I do A, B, and C; there’s a shortcut for those with a program we use.”
“Oh.”
“Yep. Though, I do think you should look at M and Q. Did you do that yet?”
“Ah. M. Yeah, that’s just making more work for ourselves; we can change it later if we need to, but it should be fine. As for Q… I’ll take a look at that now. Sweet! This looks like fun!”
“This is how you want to spend your Friday night?”
Q ended up being a short and relatively stimulating task which I was so invigorated by that I sent an excited text to a friend: I got to do lawyering today! It was super cool. And I kept seeing my name attached to documents, not just the names of the attorneys I’m working with. I still energized by the experience!
The project that I was so concerned about ended up taking less than a day’s work. And the client wasn’t even ready with the additional documents that we need, so it didn’t actually have to be done until Monday, maybe even Tuesday.
My last 24-hours have consisted of many, many molehills which I have consistently made mountains of. I still have tasks that, at the beginning of the week, I was hoping I would have done by now, but I don’t need to fret about them. I can calm down a bit because what needs to get done will get done.
Give it to God: He never disappoints.
