It's Wednesday, must write my blog!

I haven't blogged in a little while, not because I have been too busy or because I couldn't be bothered, (although both of those excuses have applied in the past), but because I have been having a bit of a quandary over the direction I should take with this blog.

I have, over recent weeks become aware of the sheer number of legal blogs there are being published already. Having spent some time trawling through a wide number of these blogs I have realised something.

Mainly, I know nothing about the law. I may be in the third year of a law degree and an enthusiastic student but my knowledge is so basic in comparison to that of many people already out there writing regularly that I feel, in many cases, poorly qualified to comment on the legal issues that are the current hot topics. Having spent some time reading the work of well known and notable bloggers such as Charon QC, Adam Wagner, Michael Scutt, Thelegalbrat, Legaleaglemhm et al. I feel somewhat humbled and think that perhaps rather than adding my own naive two pennyworth to the mix, I might be better off just sitting back and listening to what other, more learned contributors have to say.

I also have no real desire to just add to the general noise on the internet. If I don't feel that what I contributing is worth anything to anyone then I'm not about to simply post a blog considering the colour of the fluff from my navel. I don't want anybody to take the time to read something I have written, only to think "well that was pretty obvious/pointless". Part of my original motivation for starting a blog and becoming more active in the digital world was unashamedly to try and improve my on-line footprint in anticipation of sending out applications for training contracts. Writing a load of trite drivel simply for the sake of saying "I have a blog don't you know" doesn't strike me as a particularly good advert for my skills as a potential lawyer. I know that blogging is considered by many to be an essential part of personal marketing. I just have no real desire to market my own personal brand as a noisy upstart. Perhaps I am being a little over-critical on myself, but I feel it is important to feel comfortable with any image of yourself you decide to broadcast over the public media.

I know that for some people the desire to write and be heard is irresistible and I am not criticising anyone who is prolific with their blogging but I am coming to realise that for me, less is more. I would rather post half a dozen reasonable quality entries over the year than post a load of utter crap every week.

Anyway I intend to keep posting but I will make no apology for that fact that my posts may be sporadic and may not necessarily follow a particular theme or topic. I will post when I feel like saying something, not just because it is a Wednesday.

Turn off the computer?

Apologies for the gap in posting. I am afraid that is one of the symptoms of trying to juggle full-time work, part-time law degree, two year old daughter and life in general. The clocks going forward also meant that we lost a valuable hour this week! I know everyone says that if you have a blog it is vital that you update every week at the minimum but I am of the opinion that if you haven't got anything you really feel like sharing then why bother? Posting for the sake of posting is a bit like tweeting for the sake of making noise.


The last couple of weeks have been mainly taken up with putting together a research proposal for my dissertation next year. I am going to do it on the legal issues which arise from the increased use of social media in the workplace and having found a subject I am actually able to get excited about, (finally), I am really looking forward to starting on it.


Having got that out of the way it is time to knuckle down and really get revising for exams. Last year I was guilty of being decidedly casual about my exam preparation and my grades suffered slightly as a result. This years grades weigh heavily towards my overall degree classification so I want to aim for firsts across the board. I am acutely aware that competition for training contracts is so intense that, if I want to have a decent chance of breaking into the profession, nothing less than a 2:1 and preferably a first will do. I don't want to have spent years of my life and thousands of pounds to get a degree that will be of no practical use in getting me the job that I want.


If I going to achieve my goals I will need to be disciplined about distractions. I wrote a couple of months ago about the dangers of permanent partial attention syndrome. Between that and procrastination lies a recipe for disaster. I have always had an issue with putting things off till the last minute and that urge only seems to be amplified during revision time, so I have made a decision to turn off the computer when revising! I know it sounds drastic but I feel that in the interest of my future success I really have no choice. The temptation is just too great to check e-mails, have a quick tweet, follow a distracting thread on someone's blog or any of the myriad distractions that lie behind the screen of my laptop. So there it is, I am going to go cold-turkey from the pc during revision sessions. I'll tweet from my Blackberry to let you know how it's going.


If anyone has any other great tips for avoiding distractions during times when intense concentration is required I would be very grateful if you could pass them in my direction.