October is ADHD Awareness Month. Struggling with priorities is just one of many symptoms -- and is worth attention regardless of a diagnosis. Our organization has been answering questions about lawyer well-being since 1978. In our Q+A blog post series,…
Resilience is a critical skillset for lawyers, law students, and judges. Don't wait to start building yours. Resilience is the ability to persevere through adversity and come out stronger than you were before. Adversity is par for the course of…
It can feel difficult to avoid burnout in the legal profession -- focus on the essentials to find a sustainable pace. . . . A post on our Mass LOMAP Blog directs here to our Well-Being/LAP Blog. Click here…
Setting boundaries is an important skill to prevent burnout, especially in the legal profession. Start practicing the 3 steps below if you find it difficult to say NO. Setting boundaries is challenging for almost everyone. We've provided general guidance…
Kimberly Y. Bennett, Esq. shares the shifts lawyers need to make for a rewarding, sustainable law practice — in 30 minutes or less — in this installment of Webinars for Busy Lawyers. It’s time to break the law. Old law is a…
The average human spends almost half of their waking hours thinking about something other than what is actually happening, according to a Harvard University study. HOW IT HELPS. Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment, intending to be…
Unless you’re one of the rare lawyers already advanced in practicing self-care, you probably think a digital detox can wait — and anyone waiting for your work product can’t. Find out how to get off the path to burnout before…
In the life of a new associate at a medium or large law firm, it is not uncommon to sacrifice time with friends and family in favor of working long hours each day, working into the evening or on weekends at times when looming deadlines approach, and work with multiple superiors (partners and senior associates). In addition to the challenge of learning new aspects of the law, managing your time to complete the volume of work assigned to you, and trying to maintain your personal life in some fashion, the challenge of saying “no” becomes one of the most common sources of stress among new associates.
One of the best uses of your time and energy, in service of your mental health, is to create and maintain healthy boundaries in all aspects of your life. Many of us are guilty of living our lives (professionally and personally, in whole or in part) within the confines of limitations. Limitations are the point at which you cannot do more or an external restriction prevents you from doing more. For example, you’re working late into the night and falling asleep at your computer (biological limitations), your neighbor asks for your help carrying a heavy box upstairs but you are not home, a client wants to schedule an urgent meeting but you are scheduled to be in court at that time.
One of the helpful strategies to improve your productivity and reduce procrastination is to effectively use your “power hour”. The power hour is the time of day (which could actually be multiple hours) that you feel the most energy, the most focus, and can be the most productive. The idea of using your power hour is to identify when it is and plan to work on the most difficult tasks of the day during that time. This works out the best when your power hour is at the beginning of your day so that you can ride the wave of productivity the rest of your workday. But what is one to do when their power hour is at the end of their workday? Or even worse, what if it is during off-work hours?