In law school or anywhere for that matter, there is a general habit of grumbling about work.

Hearing signs such as “I have the shitload of work”, “I’m swamped”, etc etc is so common that the common man who says and hear this stuff daily has stopped taking note.

It is like work and whining go together. The outcome is that many a times we do real crap work, that shows its effect on career/ grades/ life. It doesn’t look like a good bargain from any end. You are all the time brooding about the work, and it is not like all this grouching is making you do Einstein quality work or the awesomest thing under the sun. Why be a part of such a bad bargain?

Have you ever thought of the ways that can possibly make you enjoy your work and do awesome stuff? Have you thought of how not to squelch yourself under the debt of work that you do not enjoy? Maybe you have, maybe you have not. I have been thinking about since a while now and tonight while tossing and turning and trying to sleep, I had my eureka moment, I guess I know what is it, in exactly my way. Read on to know about it.

Be Original:

Reading up or assessing some sample before you get on with a task is all good. But it wouldn’t do just to emulate it. An epicure does not just try out the finger licking food she tasted somewhere else, she adds her own twist to it and makes a new tale out of it or well, say derives a new recipe all together. The topper of your batch does not just read all the essays and papers on the topic of his project and copy paste it, she analyzes in her own way.

Bottom Line:

Maybe I came up with shoddy examples, but the bottom line is, be original with your work and don’t dread experimentation. Till the time you are trying to scale up to somebody’s else’s standard, more often than not you will always fall an inch or two short. And it will make you very unhappy with your work.
Work for yourself: Have you heard this song, Wall of Fame? There is a para in that song that goes something like this- “You could be the hero, You could get the gold, Breaking all the records that thought never could be broke. Do it for your people. Do it for your pride. Never gonna know if you never even try, Do it for your country, Do it for you name,Cause there’s gonna be a day, When you’re, standing in the hall of fame, And the world’s gonna know your name.”
That is precisely my point, do it for your name, do it for your pride, do your work for yourself and you would certainly do a good job. The professor has nothing to gain from your project or grades, he already has his share of piled up degrees, even your parents are not asking you to study so that you run their life for them, you need to study or build your career just for yourself. If you are working and getting paid for it, it is just for you. If you are not liking it, don’t do it. Whatever you do, do it for yourself. As Ayn Rand aptly said, “I swear- by my life and my love for it- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine”
Work with real deadlines- Not the one you are blah about. Set deadlines and be serious about it. “He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the busiest life,” said Victor Hugo.

You know there is actually nothing more to it unless you want to lug a particular work for the time of a lifetime, work with freaking deadlines, that’s it!
Bird by Bird- Normally known as one thing at a time. As Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird wrote,

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother’s shoulder and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

The moral of the story is, if you sit wit a pile of clothes and try to arrange all of them at the same time, only one thing would happen, you will make a fool out of yourself. Do all the work you are supposed to do one by one.
Work- whatever your definition of it might be, can be fun, if you just do it your way, and follow my way 😉 Feel free to share your ways of enjoying and doing awesome work.