#7: On never “being off”

Do you ever feel like you are “never off”?

If that’s the case, you are not alone. Never being off is the problem that lawyers (whether they are solo practitioners, working in a law firm, for legal aid or in-house) have identified as having the most impact on their well-being in a recent NYSBA survey.

You work incredibly long hours and when you finally leave the office, you find yourself still thinking about work. Because you are more or less ‘on call’ all the time, because your to-do list is ever-growing and you never feel done, because your work environment is emotionally draining (maybe it’s highly competitive, maybe you’re working on a very contentious case, or the subject matter is distressing) and you find it hard to get the events of the day out of your head…

The bottom line is that the stress and the responsibilities that come with your job don’t magically disappear the moment you leave the office (or walk from your desk in the bedroom to the living room). Change needs to happen in the workplace to help lawyers have the work-life balance they need and I’m hoping that initiatives like the NYSBA recommendations will be successful in promoting it.

In the meantime, one thing you can do to switch off your work brain and make the most of your free time is to train your awareness muscle. This may come as a surprise but self-awareness is a trainable skill and yoga is a great way to exercise it. Increasing your self-awareness, that is to say your ability to recognize that you are having a certain thought or emotion as it is arising, will help you catch yourself every time you start thinking about work so that you can switch your attention to what you are actually doing: eating a meal, reading a book to your kids, catching up with your partner, walking your dog...