There are moments when you realize you’re not in control of your day anymore. You’re reacting, responding, putting out fires, and somehow convincing yourself that this is just part of being a successful lawyer. I’ve been there, and if you’re honest, you probably have too.
That’s why I was excited to bring Sarah Tetlow back on the show. She’s one of the few people in the legal space who truly understands how lawyers operate day to day, and more importantly, how they get stuck. What she shared in this conversation is not theory. It’s practical, tested, and frankly, overdue for most lawyers to hear.
Sarah’s philosophy is simple. If you don’t design your day, someone else will. And in law, that “someone else” is usually your inbox, your clients, or your colleagues.
Why Lawyers Feel Busy But Not Productive
One of the biggest misconceptions I see, and Sarah reinforced this, is that being busy equals being productive. It doesn’t.
Lawyers are drowning in work, emails, and responsibilities, yet many end the day feeling like nothing meaningful moved forward. That’s not a workload problem. That’s a prioritization problem.
Having a lot to do is actually a good thing. It means you’re in demand. The issue is when you’re not the one deciding what gets done.
If you’re opening your laptop and immediately reacting to whatever is waiting for you, you’ve already lost control of the day.
Productive lawyers step back. They look at everything on their plate and make intentional decisions about what matters now, what can wait, and what shouldn’t be on their plate at all.
That’s the shift from reactive to strategic thinking.
The Hidden Cost of Treating Everything as Urgent
Another area where lawyers get crushed is urgency.
Everything feels like an emergency. Every email, every call, every request demands immediate attention. But most of the time, that urgency is manufactured.
Most emergencies are not real. They’re patterns you’ve allowed to develop.
If you respond instantly every time a client reaches out, you’ve trained them to expect it. If your team interrupts you constantly, it’s because there’s no system guiding how and when communication should happen.
This is where boundaries come in, not as a way to push people away, but as a way to create consistency.
You need to define what actually qualifies as urgent in your practice. Then communicate it clearly.
Otherwise, you’ll spend your entire day reacting to things that feel important but aren’t actually moving your practice forward.
Your Inbox Is Running Your Practice…And That’s the Problem
Let’s talk about email, because this is where most lawyers lose the battle.
If your inbox is dictating your priorities, you’re not managing your time. Your inbox is managing you.
Your inbox is not a to-do list. It’s a triage system.
That means every email should be evaluated, categorized, and either handled, delegated, or scheduled. It should not automatically become the next thing you work on.
When you treat email as immediate action instead of organized input, you create constant interruptions. That destroys focus and makes deep work nearly impossible.
The lawyers who get ahead are the ones who control when and how they engage with email, not the ones who respond the fastest.
A Simple Habit That Changes Everything
If you’re looking for one practical change that can improve your productivity immediately, this is it.
End your day by deciding what matters tomorrow.
Not ten things. Not vague ideas. Three specific priorities.
Write them down before you wrap your day. That way, when you start the next morning, you’re not guessing or reacting. You’re executing.
When you start your day with clarity, you build momentum. When you don’t, you drift into distractions and other people’s priorities.
This is a small habit, but it creates a massive shift in how you operate.
What’s Your Biggest Mistake?
This is always one of my favorite questions because it cuts through everything.
For Sarah, the mistake wasn’t a tactical failure. It was something deeper.
She spent time in a role that looked fine on paper but didn’t feel right. The work was steady, the environment was solid, but something was missing. She wasn’t fully engaged, and she wasn’t showing up as her best self.
That realization pushed her to make a change and build something aligned with what she actually cared about.
I’ve been there myself. I chased scale, revenue, and growth in a way that made me miserable. When I stepped back and simplified, everything changed.
The takeaway is simple. Sometimes the issue isn’t your time management system. It’s the situation you’re in.
If you’re not aligned with your work, no productivity hack is going to fix that.
Final Thought
You don’t need more hours in the day. You need more control over how those hours are used.
That starts with better decisions, clearer priorities, and the discipline to stop reacting and start leading.
Stop letting your day happen to you. Start designing it.
That’s how you BE THAT LAWYER.
Connect and Learn More
Sarah Tetlow (Firm Focus):
Website: https://www.firm-focus.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/firm-focus-llc/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Firm-Focus-2133715496717831/
For more information about taking your law practice to the next level, please email me directly at [email protected].