Law Have Mercy!
Law Have Mercy! isn’t just about the law anymore—it’s about life, business, health, and everything that sparks curiosity. Join Personal Injury Attorney Chaz Roberts as he dives into candid conversations that mix legal insights with lifestyle tips, entrepreneurial wisdom, and personal growth. From breaking down complex legal issues in simple terms to exploring the challenges and triumphs of health, business, and beyond, Chaz brings his unique perspective and passion to every episode.
Whether you're here to learn, laugh, or find inspiration, Law Have Mercy! has something for everyone. Just remember: the opinions of our guests are their own, and nothing on this podcast is legal advice or creates an attorney-client relationship—it’s all about entertainment, exploration, and empowerment. Let’s make it fun!
Law Have Mercy!
Five Game-Changing Life Hacks
Have you ever felt like the productivity advice you hear is all fluff and no substance? You're not alone. This episode cuts through the noise to deliver five transformative life hacks that require no supplements, cold plunges, or 4AM wake-up calls.
Drawing from nearly 16 years running a successful law practice while raising two energetic boys and training for marathons, Chaz reveals the practical strategies that have genuinely helped him maintain productivity and avoid burnout. He starts with arguably the most impactful change anyone can make today—limiting phone usage through intentional boundaries. Using the Opal app to restrict social media access has restored hours of productive time each week and improved his mental clarity.
Next, Chaz tackles our collective addiction to news consumption, explaining how constant exposure to "breaking news" creates anxiety without adding value to our daily lives. He shares his alternative approach to staying informed without sacrificing peace of mind. The discussion then shifts to his sacred Sunday morning routine and how this simple habit creates the perfect transition between weekend relaxation and Monday productivity.
Perhaps most valuable is Chaz's perspective on outsourcing tasks you dislike. He challenges listeners to calculate the true value of their time and recognize when delegation isn't just convenient—it's economically smart. Finally, he reveals his systematic approach to weekly planning that eliminates the mental load of juggling commitments.
What makes these strategies powerful is their simplicity and immediate applicability. Try just one for two weeks, and if it doesn't improve your life, discard it. But if it works, double down and watch how small, sustainable changes compound into transformational results. Which of these five hacks will you implement first?
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This show is co-produced by Carter Simoneaux of AcadianaCasts Network, Chaz H. Roberts of Chaz Roberts Law and Kayli Guidry Bonin of Beau The Agency, and Laith Alferahin.
Hey, this is a cool episode I'm really excited about. I'm gonna do something a little bit different. I'm gonna do five life hacks that have actually helped me tremendously and I wanna share them with you. Let me say this up front I'm not a life coach. I'm not selling you supplements. I'm not gonna tell you to wake up at 4 am and take an ice bath. That's not my style.
Speaker 1:But, as you know, I've been running a law firm for 15, almost 16 years. I raised two very energetic boys that are completely different. I've trained for marathons, I'm doing marathons and I've kept my life running and avoided total chaos. I fill a lot of buckets in a lot of different areas, and these are some of the things that I've learned along the way that have helped me. I call these life hacks. So today I'm going to share five simple things that have made my life smoother, more productive, less stressful. These are five real, no fluff life hacks that I use every single week. You don't need to buy anything from me, you don't need to take cold plunges, but I promise you, if you pick one of these and stick with it, your life will get better to some extent. If you pick all five man, you're going to be an animal.
Speaker 1:The biggest thing that has made a tremendous difference in my life has been limiting my phone usage. Now, think about it. I have every excuse in the book that I can use to stay on my phone all day. You know, social media is the killer, but one of my primary areas of getting my word out is using social media like Instagram, facebook, tiktok. By the way, if you don't follow me on all those apps, please do at Chaz Roberts Law. But look, I go on there to check my posts for the day. Luckily, I have people that post for me. I create the content, but they posted for me. So sometimes I want to check and see if anyone wrote me a comment that I need to respond to, or see how we're doing, see how the posts are doing, and three, four or five minutes later, I'm doom scrolling, I'm learning out workouts, I'm looking at running videos, I'm looking at what other law firms are doing. Next thing you know, I know what Donald Trump's doing. I mean, it's just the craziest thing, and I think the algorithm is actually built to do that to force you into a hole and keep you on the platform as long as possible so they can sell you other things and sell you on their products, and you've all seen how like effective TikTok shop is. You've seen how Facebook is gives you exactly what you want when you need it or when you when they think you need it, and a lot of times they're right.
Speaker 1:So social media has some benefits. It keeps you up to date and up to speed on your friends and loved ones. It helps my business. It helps educate me. I've learned a lot of good stuff from virtual mentors.
Speaker 1:But it is a dark hole that kills your productivity. It takes you away from work. It takes you away from meaningful thought. It takes you away from your family time in the evenings, it takes you away from running or working out, and you just live vicariously through other people instead of actually doing the thing. So I have limited my access to social media, and that has made me so much happier. I don't have FOMO that I need to be doing something or be somewhere else.
Speaker 1:I'm living in the moment and the thing that I found that has helped me is the Opal app O-P-A-L Opal app and what it does is it blocks social media or whatever app that I wanted to block for certain periods of time. I have a work time setting on it and it prevents me from getting on it during work hours. I have one hour that I can get on any social media platform within a 24-hour period. So when I wake up and I get moving around, I'll play around on Instagram or TikTok and it's entertaining, and in the evening I'll have a little bit of time. But it prevents me from getting on the app during the day and it says cool little messages that refocus you. It's kind of sarcastic at times it kind of gamifies it a little bit. You can track how little you're using your phone compared to the following day or the following week and they'll tell you. It'll add 5, 7, 10, 15, 20 years to your life from not scrolling. So my number one life hack is limit your phone usage and I would highly recommend that you use an app to do that. I've tried other things. I've tried hiding my phone, I've tried locking my phone. I've tried all kinds of things. The app is the best way. The second life hack is stay off of the news. How many people do you know stay on Fox News 24-7 or CNN 24-7, and they get Apple updates and they found out that there's a hurricane that may come three weeks from now and they see that Ukraine just had an arms deal with USA and you see that the Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire is imminent and Israeli ceasefire is imminent and you see that Iran just off the dictator None of that stuff in the big picture will affect what you are doing today.
Speaker 1:To be a better human being, to be a better person for your family, to be a better person at work, to be healthier, to be wealthier, to be more complete. It is addictive. Bad news sells. If it bleeds, it leads. Bad news is addictive. You never see much good news on the news. It's bad news and that's for a reason, because people care about bad news. It hits something in their brains that makes them react a certain way, but really it's a dopamine hit and it's not positive, it's only negative and it puts you in a state of unease and it puts you in a state of hopelessness.
Speaker 1:If you're staying at home just watching what the migrant crisis or the end of Now I'm not saying you shouldn't be educated with geopolitics and what's going on in the world and that may help you make better decisions along the way, granted, but if you get obsessed with it, you stay in a state of hopelessness and unhappiness. You are not optimistic. You are not thinking about how to move your business forward. You're not thinking about how to move up within your business. You're not thinking about how to get yourself healthier. You're not thinking about how you can make your kids a better human being. It's a state of hopelessness and pessimism, because that is what being fed to you. It's just the same problem with social media as it is with the news Highly addictive and not much good comes from it. It's a huge waste of time. We decided as a family that we would not watch the news.
Speaker 1:I do have ways of educating myself. I limit myself in a short block where I have to physically read what is going on in the world and, trust me, I get everything I need to know. But I'm forced to read, I'm forced to do the work and go seek it out, instead of just being force-fed and just being in a comatose state watching the breaking news. The breaking news there's always breaking news. Chaz Roberts has very little control over what's going on in Ukraine and Russia right now. Okay, so why should I spend hours upon hours wasting my time thinking about it or walking around hating other people because they're on the other side, or it's a political thing. It's a useless endeavor. Limit your news. Find something else to do with your time. Force yourself to read the news instead of watch the news. All right, shifting gears a little bit on life hack three I run early on Sunday mornings.
Speaker 1:I know what you're thinking, chaz. Here we go with the running again. All right, but hear me out, it doesn't have to be running. It could be swimming, bike riding, weightlifting, a walk, walk in your dog, walk through the park. Do something early on Sunday mornings. And that's going to have a twofold effect. Number one you are going to get in better shape on a Sunday morning instead of going to eat donuts or sleeping in. Number two is going to force you to stay in on Saturday nights.
Speaker 1:I religiously run on Sunday morning and I'm telling you this is a life hack within a life hack, because it gives me so much clarity on Sunday to wrap up my week and run and think. But number two is I do it with friends and that's like a cup of coffee, that's like a nice dinner, that's like a nice lunch where I'm catching up with my friends. If you could find some friends to do this with on Sunday mornings. That's fine. My wife and kids sleep in. They spend their own time watching Sunday morning cartoons or sleeping in with a dog or just easing into their day. Daddy is getting his run in.
Speaker 1:I could go on a long run. An hour, two hours, two hours of great physical work while everyone else is sleeping. I'm not bothering anyone. I'm not taking away from my kids time. I'm not taking away from my work time. I'm not taking away from anyone's time. I am doing something for me early on Sunday mornings and getting it in. I'm having my bro time, I'm having my workout time, I have a nice breakfast. We actually do cold plunge.
Speaker 1:I was clowning around about cold plunges early, but I actually do my cold plunge and sauna time on Sundays and by the time I get home I am nice and refreshed and ready to go. I'm ready to take on the following week and everyone else was just sleeping or staying in the following week and everyone else was just sleeping or staying in and I didn't go out Saturday night to a bar or to a late dinner or to a late wedding or whatever, and it gives me a built in excuse. Hey, chaz, come meet us here and there. Come to the UFC fight. Come watch it. Nah, man, I got to run early Sunday morning. Who can argue with that? Who can argue with that? No, that dude's trying to go make himself better. Oh man, I can't believe you like to run that crazy. That's crazy that you're going around. How long, chaz? 10 miles, 12 miles, whatever? Hey, man, that's my prerogative.
Speaker 1:Sunday mornings have become sacred to me. It helps me recharge, it gives me clarity before the week starts, it builds discipline. It keeps me from going out Saturday night drinking and Keeps me from going out Saturday night drinking. If you run with friends. It's a more productive version of brunch or golf. It sounds small, but it resets my mindset every week. It makes me feel ahead of the game before Monday even starts.
Speaker 1:Life hack number four hire out the stuff you hate. I know what you're thinking, chaz. I don't have the money to do it, but I'm telling you your time is worth more than the money you're spending doing it. The number one thing is hiring someone to clean your house or cut the grass. But, chaz, I love cutting grass. I put my iPod on, or not my iPod? I'm showing my age. Right now.
Speaker 1:I put on a podcast, your podcast Law have Mercy. I'm like, oh, oh, then cut your own grass, bro. Cut your own grass, by all means. Listen to the Law, have Mercy podcast. I'm kidding, but some people do it to unwind the problem with that, and I talked to Kevin about this. The problem with that is when it rains eight days straight and you're forced to cut your grass and weed, eat and blow. That's a three-hour endeavor.
Speaker 1:And maybe you didn't feel like it because you wanted to bring your kids to the park, or you wanted to go to New Orleans to the Audubon Zoo, or you wanted to read a book that you've been reading about, or you wanted to prepare for trial on Monday, or something. I promise you your time is more valuable. Leave it to the professionals. I tell my guy hey, I want the grass cut on Fridays, thursdays or Fridays, so I have a fresh yard for the kids to play on the weekend and I don't have to worry about it. And when you factor in what it costs for a lawnmower, the fuel, your time to get the fuel, the belt broke, you got to change your oil when you factor in all the variables that go into that, that is a lot of time that you're spending on your weekend when you should be recharging, resting, enjoying family time. Because we all work hard during the week. The last thing we want to do is spend our weekends doing the things that we should be hiring professionals to do is spend our weekends doing the things that we should be hiring professionals to do. If you factored in your time, what your time is worth, I promise you it's more than the $50 that it costs you to cut your grass. That's got three hours to cut your grass. Two hours, one hour 30 minutes. It takes time. Now, when I had no money and I had lots of time when I was young and a kid don't get me wrong I cut grass. I even cut grass for money. It's great.
Speaker 1:A lot of landscape guys make a lot of money, but they have the tools, they have the know-how, they have the fuel. It's called specialization. Hire out the stuff you don't like doing. There's people that change their own oil and I'm like, well, where do you dump the oil? I don't even know where you go about dumping the oil. I hate to hear the response. They kind of look away. I'm like man, I hope you're not putting it in the drain. Haircuts, that's an easy one, but doing your own nails dry cleaning, hire out the stuff you don't like doing A maid, someone who is a professional and can do a great job of cleaning your house.
Speaker 1:How does that elevate your whole family's mindset whenever your house is sparkling clean and smells good and everything's where it's supposed to be? For $100?, man, that would take you or your loved one four or five. It'd take a day of productivity to do that. Why don't we spend our time making money in the thing that we do for a living Practicing law?
Speaker 1:For me, regardless of where you are on the scale of money, there are things that you're doing that you can hire other people to do. It might be bringing your dog to get groomed instead of you spending a Saturday afternoon grooming your dog. They're going to do a better job and it'll be less money than when you factor in what your time is worth. Your time is not only worth what your hourly rate is. By the way, if you want to find out your hourly rate, take all your salary, your fringe benefits, everything you spend, everything you expense, multiply, take 2000 hours, take your annual actual rate divided by 2000. And that's your hourly rate of what your time is worth. Anything less than 25% of that should be outsourced immediately. Okay, hire out the stuff that does not bring you joy. You need to be spending your precious time with your family, making yourself better, educating yourself, getting healthier, getting wealthier outsource there's plenty of people that depend on that check of you hiring stuff out. It doesn't have to be an equal trade, right. You paying someone 50 bucks to cut your grass doesn't mean, oh, I'm giving away 50 bucks. No, you feed, you're helping feed a family and you're spending your time doing the things that you want to do. And while you're at work on a Thursday or Friday, they're cutting your grass. So that is perfect and your kids could play in the yard on the weekend.
Speaker 1:I am from Sicilia. I grew up cutting grass. I love cutting grass. I understand all the arguments against it, but I understand more than ever, at 41 years old, that my time is limited, my energy is limited and I want to spend all my time doing the things that I want to do.
Speaker 1:My final life hack number five is plan your week every Sunday. I used to come to the office on Sunday mornings just for 30 minutes to clean off my desk, to get ready for the week. I don't do that anymore. I clean my desk out on Fridays. But what I do is I use AI and I take every single calendar entry I have for the following week, monday through Friday, and I put it out on a schedule and I put it in a nice format that I can see, I hole, punch it, I put it in a binder and I carry it with me. I sit down and I print the calendar and I block off everything Workouts, family time, calls, focus time, even social time. I put in every entry of court dates and deposition dates and everything.
Speaker 1:And so at a glance I can see what I have in my week. I see where my open time is where I can be productive. I see where my open time is where I can chill out. I see if I can maybe go run to school and see my kids for lunch. I know when I could go take a nap. Yes, I take naps. Naps are very underrated. Sometimes at 3.30, 4 o'clock, 4.30,. I'll go take a nap to recharge for the afternoon, push, afternoon grind, to coach my kids or play with my kids and be a better father.
Speaker 1:So planning out my week allows me to see everything at one glance, to know where the holes, where's the arbitrage. Where can I fit things in? How strenuous is my week? What clothes do I need? What gym bag do I need to pack? What days am I wearing suits? What days am I being casual? What days can I spend at the office, where I'm not meeting anyone, where I can just spend time being a leader and move from person to person and give them a little bit of love?
Speaker 1:Plan out your week in advance on Sundays. Create a calendar, a document using AI, and look at it at a glance and you wouldn't believe how cathartic and fun it is to scratch off each thing day by day. As you knock out those tasks, the habit helps me spot overloads, fill in gaps and say no to things that don't fit. You won't wake up on Monday in a panic. You avoid the Sunday scaries because you started with a plan. So there you have it Five things that keep me grounded, focused and fired up. Control your phone. Ditch the news run early on Sundays. Hire out what drains you and plan your week before it starts.
Speaker 1:Pick one of these, try it for two weeks. If it doesn't help your life, scrap it. But if it does, double down. And if you got any hacks of your own. Shoot me a DM comment on this episode. Until next time, stay sharp, stay moving, stay in control. This has been Law. Have Mercy. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast. Join us on all the social media platforms. At Chaz Roberts Law Holler at your boy. Thank you guys.
