Oct 2, 2026 · 5 min · 3 segments
***The benefits of creative practice for lawyers aren’t based on the size of your commitment or what you produce. The benefits come from repetition — consistently showing up, even for five minutes at…
Most lawyers I talk to about creative practice say some version of the same thing.
That sounds great.
I'll start when things calm down.
I get it.
Legal practice runs on bursts of intensity.
In your busiest times, and let's face it, that's most of the time, it's hard to imagine adding one more thing, even something restorative, to an already full plate.
So the plan then is to wait for a quieter month, a finished trial, a slower season.
Once things settle, you tell yourself, there will be time and energy for the painting, the guitar lessons, or the garden.
The problem is that things rarely settle for long.
Waiting for the right moment to begin a creative practice usually means never beginning one at all.
I understand the instinct because it's the same one that shapes so much of how lawyers work.
We're trained to commit fully or not at all.
If you're going to do something, you do it properly, with the right amount of time and focused attention.
Half measures feel like a waste of the effort it took to start.
So a creative practice made up of 10 scattered minutes here and there can feel almost pointless next to the idea of a real hobby with real hours set aside for it.
But that instinct is getting in your way.
The benefit of creative practice for lawyers doesn't come from the size of the commitment or, as I said in last month's article, the polish of your final product.
It comes from repetition.
Researchers who study habit formation find that consistency, not intensity, is what makes an activity automatic.
In one widely cited study out of University College London, Researchers tracked how long it took participants to build a new behavior into their daily routine to the point that it happened without conscious effort.
The median time to reach that point, called automaticity, was 66 days, though individual results ranged widely depending on the person and the behavior involved.
Across the research, one pattern held.
simpler, smaller actions became automatic faster than larger, more demanding ones.
That finding tells us, if your goal is to make something stick, a small, repeatable action beats a large, occasional one almost every time.
Fifteen minutes of sketching three times a week will become part of how your brain works, far faster than a single, ambitious Saturday spent trying to master watercolors.
Most lawyers I talk to about creative practice say some version of the same thing.
That sounds great.
I'll start when things calm down.
I get it.
Legal practice runs on bursts of intensity.
In your busiest times, and let's face it, that's most of the time, it's hard to imagine adding one more thing, even something restorative, to an already full plate.
So the plan then is to wait for a quieter month, a finished trial, a slower season.
Once things settle, you tell yourself, there will be time and energy for the painting, the guitar lessons, or the garden.
The problem is that things rarely settle for long.
Waiting for the right moment to begin a creative practice usually means never beginning one at all.
I understand the instinct because it's the same one that shapes so much of how lawyers work.
We're trained to commit fully or not at all.
If you're going to do something, you do it properly, with the right amount of time and focused attention.
Half measures feel like a waste of the effort it took to start.
So a creative practice made up of 10 scattered minutes here and there can feel almost pointless next to the idea of a real hobby with real hours set aside for it.
But that instinct is getting in your way.
The benefit of creative practice for lawyers doesn't come from the size of the commitment or, as I said in last month's article, the polish of your final product.
It comes from repetition.
Researchers who study habit formation find that consistency, not intensity, is what makes an activity automatic.
In one widely cited study out of University College London, Researchers tracked how long it took participants to build a new behavior into their daily routine to the point that it happened without conscious effort.
The median time to reach that point, called automaticity, was 66 days, though individual results ranged widely depending on the person and the behavior involved.
Across the research, one pattern held.
simpler, smaller actions became automatic faster than larger, more demanding ones.
That finding tells us, if your goal is to make something stick, a small, repeatable action beats a large, occasional one almost every time.
Fifteen minutes of sketching three times a week will become part of how your brain works, far faster than a single, ambitious Saturday spent trying to master watercolors.
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