Beulah Blessing Law: The Important Value of Our Time
February 25th, 2025 by Mike Wells
Beulah Blessing, my fifth-grade teacher, never really seemed to care much for me. But I will always remember what I came to learn from her.
Beulah Blessing was a life-long teacher and a strict by-the-rules disciplinarian. The combination of my being some months younger than most of my classmates and being a knucklehead, too, contributed to her seeming to me to be on my case for most of that year.
Most of us who grew up going to public schools will remember that upper class students in the early grades (1-6) are generally chosen to be a safety patrol. You watch for road traffic to protect the student sidewalk traffic, and you got to start school a little bit later in the morning because of your duties.
The sixth graders were normally chosen as the patrol guards, but a few of us were chosen as fifth graders as well. In my fifth-grade year, our captain was a sixth grader, Jimmy Mincer (a very real person but not his real name). Jimmy was a leader, and he held sway on the chosen patrol students at the end of patrol duty about when we got to school to start the school day. Especially withthe fifth-grade patrol students like me.
Jimmy thought the decider of coming in to school "a little later" was the patrol captain. And Jimmy took, shall we say kindly, a liberal view of "when" the school day started for safety patrol students.
Ms. Blessing had little tolerance of this "coming in to school a little later" unwritten rule for patrol students the school principal had. I told Jimmy about Miss Blessing's attitude, and that I did not want to get a tardy mark. But the big-feeling sixth grader gave me a little chatter about "listening to MissBlessing." So, I took the line of least resistance and gave in.
Ms. Blessing called me up to her desk after an extended arrival time incident, and she told me I would get a tardy mark for that nine-week period, which went home to the parents/guardians, of course, to see. When she handed my report card to me after the nine-week period to deliver to my parents, she made a special point to tell me to be sure to tell my parents about my tardy mark. She took some delight in providing this time tutorial with that scrunched up "mean look" of hers. (Seeing it through the eyes of a ten-year old kid could have influenced how I remember it.)
It had its intended impact. I will not go into the details of that news. What I will tell you is I was never knowingly tardy for the rest of my school days. (Orsince.)
But this experience had a longer reach as it turned out than getting a tardy mark in elementary school. A clear understanding of the importance of how we manage this valuable but finite defining asset—time— only became more important as I got out into the adult world of work and life.
The truth is we are still being graded about how we use our time even though we are out of school. Just in different ways. And we all have our own JimmyMincers, too, telling us how to manage (or mismanage) this defining but finite asset that prevents us from using our time as efficiently as we can.
How we manage our time can be an exceedingly valuable asset
which can be harnessed to forecast positively our success. But we must figure out what habits we are going to keep and what we are going to give away.
In my career as a young lawyer, I had the good fortune of having some committee assignments with activities of the North Carolina Bar Association. The head of NCBA for many years was Allan Head. He had a particular belief in the importance of being on time, too, especially for lawyers. He used to say: "If you cannot be on time, be early." And he provided examples about this important rule.
Most of us in the business world have quantifiable goals regarding gross revenues generated, billable hours achieved, and new business/clients booked for future revenue. Getting it in the door is an important goal, but getting the work done in an efficient way requires an organized and thoughtful plan to use our time efficiently.
The lawyers who served the law profession writ large, whether with a large firm or a small firm, were well organized, focused, and highly attentive to this key concept: value fully your time. A measure of which is: are you on time?
Psychologists and other calibrators of important habits will tell you that one's failure to value time, and being on time fully, can often lead to struggles in your career and personal life. And they impair your ability to harness what may be your considerable talents to accomplish good things, and even hard things.
Experience confirms this. One statistically valid survey asks those you serve: what is a reasonable time for you to return a phone call? Those served say: within the hour. What do we say? By the end of the day. Which is part of the challenge.
Returning phone calls, emails and texts in a timely fashion, the public believes, is being "on time." And professional legal organizations, which have a finger on the pulse of this key function of process, validate that one of the complaints from clients is some lawyers do not return their client contacts in a timely fashion.
Time challenges are prevalent among us more than we realize. Studies show as much as 30% of people deal with stress-time related issues.(Including several lawyers and members of other professions.) And it can lead to chronic procrastination and even depression, lack of sleep, and negative moods.
The solution? Surprisingly, there are just a few time-efficient solid habit experts and personal experience suggests you keep and a few time-guzzling habits to give way.
- Be on time. We may not get any tardy marks on our report card when we have a bad habit of being late, but our grade in our community is not going to amount to much if the deciders of matters of business or community service feel you are not reliable. Being on time shows respect for others' time and it demonstrates responsibility, reliability, and dependability. And it is an important identifying sign of professionalism.It will mark you for the fast track.
- Return your phone calls/emails/texts promptly. Successfulpeople will tell you they cannot count all the business/clients they have gotten when the Jimmy Mincers they know did not call/follow up promptly on the previous calls they received.
- Delegate. Have a trusted person in your organization to follow up promptly if circumstances prevent you from doing so and have them set up a time which works better for you.
- Prepare a list of things to do and keep the completion of your tasks moving. How are you going to be able to prioritize the next steps if you do not have a complete list?
- Learn to say "no." You are going to have to learn to tell the JimmyMincers in your lane of life "no." Or "not at this time." And remember the time their projects take to accomplish is almost always more than anyone thinks.
- Long-term goals. All those reading this are individuals of notable talent. But our talent and natural skills are rarely the challenge. We really must face squarely this time issue and cordon off appropriately our time to address important goals in a disciplined way.
"One of these days is none of these days" is a snappy saying but it is not going to get you to anyplace worth going. Its traveling name, procrastination, can be and it often is the nemesis of all of us.
The solution? Do it now. It is never going to get any easier if you do not stare it down. It may be a dreaded phone call to return, or the plan to solve the problem is going to take some time to work through. But the solution to the task before you is not gaining any traction if you do not start.
Block off some time in the morning before your appointments and calls start. Work on the matter on a Saturday when you have more time.
But you must start. Find that uninterrupted block of concentrated time, whenever it may be. It can be in many ways the golden key to success for the busy working life of any of us.
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT LIFE ON THE WAY TO THE COURT HOUSE IS THIS:
Beula Blessing had it right, after all, although her delivery method of the result could have been better. Being on time is not only important, but also a definer of all these other time-priority matters. And they are a lot more important than what the Jimmy Mincers in our lives ask of us.
The very efficient use of this finite but disproportionately important asset, your time, is singularly defining, perhaps more than your other impressive skills. But we all must have a focused and disciplined plan to get it to the street. And it starts with being on time for various commitments, and these highly important appointments with ourselves to plan and organize our tasks appropriately.
I must tell you, however, I can still see in my mind's eye that scrunched up "mean look" of Beula Blessing from time to time. After all these years it still unsettles me. (But don't tell anybody.)
R. Michael Wells
Posted in: On the Way to the Courthouse