I Don't Know How They Do It.

  For those of us who spend an enormous amount of time not getting much done, those of you who do are an endless source of fascination.  After a year in academia, I've found myself staring regularly and rudely -- even to the point of further incapacitation -- at the lives of heroically productive law professors: the academics who routinely teach a full course load, graciously handle administrative tasks, perhaps raise a few children, head to the gym each day, all while pumping out cartloads of law review articles, opinions-editorial, books, congressional testimony, &c.

  I want to interview all the Noah Feldmans, Elizabeth Warrens, and Lucian Bebchuks to ask about the minutiae of their weekly schedules.  Perhaps we could launch a C-SPAN show modeled on Brian Lamb's Booknotes to quiz the hugely prolific on their routines and follow them around for a fortnight.  Ideally, we could find answers to the eternal questions, such as: How does the laundry get done?  Who buys the groceries?  If you eat at home, how does the cooking and cleaning not obliterate the evening?  Have you ever watched a single television program in the past decade?

  I've heard tale told of certain tremendously successful professors who set a goal of writing 2000 words a day (and, based on their publication records, appear to reach it).  The idea is mind-boggling to me.  Granted, first-year professors spend more time than most learning how to teach their courses but, when that burden diminishes, the administrative duties increase commensurately.  So I still have a very hard time imagining how to build a schedule that fosters such incredible productivity while tackling the mundane tasks required to keep one's household a going concern.

  So, how do they do it?  Perhaps very junior professors without children are willing to live a squalid lifestyle of pizza & ramen.  Perhaps very senior chairs can afford housekeepers and the retinue to sustain a fully supported lifestyle.  Perhaps colleagues of a certain generation have extraordinarily accommodating spouses.  What can the rest of us do?