Finding Time For Self-Care
Legal professionals often tell me they are too busy to make time for self-care. One attorney I talked to had only ever taken one day of PTO, even though his benefit package include 2 weeks. Often, the same typical reasons are given, including tight deadlines, billable hour requirements, the competitiveness of the field in general, etc. Yet perhaps by reframing the discussion as maintaining your ability to be an effective attorney can help legal professions find the time and can help the profession as a whole be more accepting of self-care time.
Rest and recovery are essential for anyone in any field. Athletes need time for their bodies to rest and recover due to their often grueling training schedules. Students have holidays and breaks in their school schedules. Even the Supreme Court breaks in between terms. Legal professionals should be no different.
Our profession can be demanding. It can wear down the best of us and lead to burnout. Rather than addressing these issues with better self-care, too many address it with drugs or alcohol. And too often the profession turns a blind eye to the self-medication happening within the field rather than evolving and accepting self-care as an important need.
Within the field as it exists today, there can still be time for self-care. Implementing standing desks, walking on your lunch break or taking the stairs instead of the elevator can help with exercise as a form of self-care. Setting hard and fast times to end your work day and maintaining at least one weekend day as a rest day can also be beneficial.
Having discussions about your expectations for when you are not working with your supervising attorney can also be a critical part of protecting time for self-care. We get it, it can be intimidating having that conversation. Yet you are the most important asset you have and you owe it to yourself to have that conversation. It can also be helpful to point out that it also benefits your firm or employer because rest and recovery can help maintain your ability to be an effective advocate.
We get that finding time for self-care can be time consuming. If you want help brainstorming how to work self-care into your schedule, know that our peer-support program is available. Email info@thelegalmindsociety.org for more information.