It’s a warm day here – 40° just now – and so I’m getting the tram to St Kilda for a swim while there’s light.

I felt a pang of guilt before I left the office. My brain kept saying –

I could work till 10pm. I could get a lot done in those 3 hours.  I could draw a long-outstanding Statement of Claim, for instance, or wade through a particularly intractable set of medical records.

Yes, I could have.  But I did this for much of my earlier career and I know where it ends.  It ends with evenings where you really just sit in your office browsing Twitter or playing YouTube videos and getting less productive and more demoralised.

So one evening off won’t matter.  I had one yesterday because I was knackered after yesterday’s County Court matter.  I went for a great run at St Kilda and came in today feeling like a new man.

There’ll be plenty of late nights this year.  I have a lot of files and no shortage of deadlines.  But I do think it helps to remember that late hours are the scythes of legal practice.  Use them shrewdly and effectively and you’ll cut swathes through your work.  Overuse the and all you’ll do is blunt their edge.