by Neil Pedersen
In January’s Orange County Lawyer, I acknowledged the serious danger zone in which we find ourselves working as lawyers, at risk to depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and even increased risk of death, and advised readers on three ways to reduce stress.1 The causes of these risks are many, as are the steps we can take to alleviate or minimize those risks. In this second article, I will address four more ways to clothe ourselves in protective armor, in the form of lifestyle changes, professional activities, and attitudes that we can use to fend off the debilitating effects of professional stress.
Gain Control of Your Time
Stress, at its core, occurs when we feel as though we have a perceived lack of control over the events in our lives.2 While some events in our professional life do occur outside of our control, carefully planning how to use your time and managing interruptions in your daily routine can strongly enhance your sense of control.
Every attorney should make an effort to learn more about effective time management techniques to take control of their most valuable asset—their time. From organizing your day through effective list making, taking control over your workspace to avoid clutter, intentionally managing predictable interrupters in the office, to learning how to manage the phone and other technology in your life to make them efficiency devices, not efficiency drains, time management techniques are a critical part of stress reduction through the control of your most valuable asset.
Without regularly using time management techniques, your day and all of its interruptions will cause you to feel like you are in a small boat on a large ocean, being swept here and there by the winds and the waves. Take control of those things you can control and your stress levels will ease.
Learn to Engage In Problem-Focused Decision-Making
How we approach our day-to-day tasks can actually affect our stress levels. We all have duties that come along that are more unpleasant or are less rewarding than others. It is our tendency to work on projects that we enjoy or that might bring us greater immediate benefits, and push aside the jobs that involve less fun or more discomfort, regardless of the priority level those jobs may actually hold in our daily routine. The following example will demonstrate this.
You agreed to work on a low-bono case for a client who is somewhat abrupt and can get downright demanding of your time. This is your least favorite client and you do not like dealing with him, but you believe he has merit to his position and you have agreed to assist him. The other side has served discovery on your office and you need client input to complete your task. With most other clients, you would have called them within a few days of getting the discovery documents to gather the necessary information. However, for this client, you keep putting that call off, from one day to the next until, finally, you are down to the last several days before responses are due. As each day passes, you are feeling more pressure about the pending task and approaching deadline. Yet, you dread making that call that you know will be somewhat unpleasant and difficult. Eventually, the stress has reached such a high level that you force yourself to make the call and you get the information. After the call, you wonder why you ever waited so long because the call was nowhere near as unpleasant as the stress you have been feeling for over a week regarding the call.
We cope with stress in many ways. Many of us tend to use avoidance as a coping mechanism. We somehow convince ourselves that as long as we leave our head in the sand, the problem will go away. However, that kind of coping mechanism simply leads to greater stress. “Avoidance coping creates stress and anxiety, and ravages self-confidence. It is a major factor that differentiates people who have common psychological problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, and/or eating disorders) versus those who don’t.”3
In a problem-focused coping strategy, the goal is to identify the source of the stress or problem, and then eliminate that source of stress along with the stressors themselves.4 When the stressors are within your control to address, problem-focused decision-making is the optimal way to keep your stress levels lower.
An example of this approach is to identify those tasks on your plate for the day, and attack the least enjoyable, least profitable, and/or most distasteful jobs first. Like ripping off a bandage quickly, get it over with quickly. Do not let the anxieties over the task fester. A colleague of mine, Steven G. Hittelman, calls this concept “doing the worst first.” By doing the worst first, you eliminate days of built-up stress over a task that is never as bad as we might allow our minds to think it is. When you make your daily task list, start employing a worst-first dynamic and see how much better the rest of the day and the rest of the week will feel.
Create, Nurture, and Use Your Support Systems
As attorneys we have available to us many support systems—family, friends, mentors, peer-partners, and institutional support. Each provides a very important part of our strategy to avoid becoming one of the statistics discussed in Part One of this article. “A strong social support network can be critical to help you through the stress of tough times, whether you’ve had a bad day at work or a year filled with loss or chronic illness. And the lack of social support can lead to isolation and loneliness. Since supportive family, friends, and co-workers are such an important part of your life, it’s never too soon to cultivate these important relationships.”5
Emotional support is a vital aspect in dealing with our stress. A 2015 survey found the average stress level for those with emotional support was 5.0 on a 1 to 10 scale (10 being higher stress), compared to 6.3 for those without emotional support to help them through stressful events.6 Other empirical studies have demonstrated the critically important nature of support systems on our health. A study from the University of Utah found that emotional, tangible, and informational support all helped lower blood pressure when individuals were faced with short-term stressors.7
Another study that analyzed 148 smaller studies showed a definitive finding that social support is heavily linked with health and well-being. In examining the link between social support and mortality, the research found a surprising 50% increased likelihood of survival for participants with stronger relationships. This finding remained consistent across age, sex, initial health status, cause of death, and follow-up period. Research has documented many physiological and mental health benefits of social support, including improved immune, cardiovascular, and neuroendocrine function; positive adjustment to chronic disease; decreased depression and anxiety; and effective buffering against the negative effects of stress.8
“Stress management is, in fact, one of the great gifts of friendship.”9 One 2009 study found that people with the fewest friendship connections were those most likely to be dealing with depression, anxiety, and heart disease.10
One of the problems in our profession is that the practice of law, starting with the beginning of law school and carrying into the first several years of practice, tends to separate us from our support systems. We tell law students to tell their friends and family goodbye for the duration of the law school experience. Then, upon starting practice, the pressure of business practically dictates that we not engage in the same social activities we enjoyed before we entered the profession, and limits the time available to nurture prior relationships or generate new ones. Solo and small firm practitioners, and even those working in large law firms, can feel a form of isolation caused by the time pressures of our duties. This social isolation has been associated with greater risk of poor mental health, cardiovascular health, and a lessened ability to cope with stress.11
It is important that we understand the importance of this aspect of our lives, then create and nurture a strong social support system. “You don’t need a huge network of friends and family to benefit from social support, however. Some people find camaraderie among just a handful of people, be they co-workers, neighbors, or friends from their church or religious institution, for instance.”12 “Researchers have found that having even one close friend that you confide in can extend your life by as much as [ten] years,” says sociologist and relationship coach Jan Yager, Ph.D, author of Friendshifts.13
“Taking the time to build a social support network is a wise investment not only in your mental well-being but also in your physical health and longevity. Start making more friends or improving the relationships you already have. Whether you’re the one getting the support or the one doling out the encouragement, you’ll reap rewards.”14
Remember to Exercise Your “Life Is Too Short” Rights
Too many attorneys, when faced with highly stressful conditions, simply bear them in silence. Angry or disrespectful clients, unreasonable or uncaring bosses, poorly chosen practice areas, or working environments that bring no joy to the workday experience are situations that many attorneys experience on a day-to-day basis. These situations lead to feelings of unhappiness and dissatisfaction, and eventually turn into depression and despair. There is a reason we attorneys have the highest rate of suicide.
It is important to understand that we have rights: I call them “life is too short” rights. Life is too short to put up with untenable circumstances. You need to make good decisions about your daily existence, and that consists of excluding people and circumstances from your life that create inordinate stress. If you have a client that is making your life miserable, you can ethically disengage from that client under most circumstances. If you have a boss or work environment that is causing you undue stress, you need to consider looking for work elsewhere. Here in California, if your commute is unbearable, find a closer job. If your practice area is not satisfying you, there are literally dozens of other practice areas.
Money should not be the force that pushes you into depression and despair, yet we tend to allow it to do so. Take a pay cut if necessary. Your physical and emotional well-being is far more valuable. Life is too short to suffer long term. Exercise your “life is too short” rights if you need to.
Conclusion
There are literally dozens of additional things that can be done to protect ourselves from the debilitating effects of stress in our lives. Try some of these practical tips. But also do not be too proud or too busy to seek out the assistance of a professional to assist you in identifying and dealing with your stress. If you take control of your life, you can avoid being one of the statistics.
ENDNOTES
Neil Pedersen is an attorney with over thirty years of experience and the Principal of Pedersen Law, A Professional Law Corporation, a small firm in Westminster, California. Pedersen Law is dedicated to the representation of employees in discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour, and leave issues. In addition, Mr. Pedersen is a member of the Orange County Bar Association Lawyer Well-Being Committee. He can be reached at npedersen@pedersenlaw.com.