October 2004

The Stressless Practice of Law

by Karl Zeiger

The law is manned (or is it womaned?) by an all-volunteer army. Those who have chosen to be involved should be able to achieve a large measure of satisfaction and enjoyment. The law can be pursued while experiencing inner peace. This is not a lazy, "hippy" concept. On the contrary, the stressless practice of law is a productivity concept. Productivity is more fulfilling and peaceful than laziness. Having one's responsibilities completed is less stressful than having unfinished duties screaming at you by night.

The stressless practice of law involves changing some attitudes and taking certain actions. The attitudes create a calm mind and are vital. This is a profession involving the mind. The actions eliminate stressors that would otherwise interfere with the mind.

Attitudes for the Stressless Practice of Law

Be yourself.

Practice law in a manner that fits you. Be yourself. This is not an acting business. This is a credibility business. There are many who see this opposite. There are CLEs on acting for the jury. Sincerity and credibility will prevail over phoniness, and so it should be.

Take a nonstraining approach.

Flow with the work rather than straining and striving. Think of the law as an art form. It certainly is not science. A pilot does not strain. He does not struggle down the runway with the plane on his shoulders. He relaxes, focuses his mind, and pushes a few correct buttons. Great musicians and painters do not struggle and strain — they flow. So it should be in this field. It is okay to have adrenaline, to get excited, to get enthusiastic — just not stressed. You cannot get the load off your back by panicking; you can only make it heavier.

Calmly deal with adversaries and clients.

The law may be the only major learned profession in which a practitioner often has an adversary. A surgeon does not have an adversary at the operating table trying to block his every move and make him look like a fool. This is good, but it is not our plight. There are other learned professions and there are other adversarial professions. The law has both dimensions. Accept this fact. Get comfortable with it. Get along with opposing counsel. Be courteous. Beat your adversary — beat them badly — but be courteous, calm, and fair.

Get along with clients. Be patient and kind to them. School them on realistic expectations. Call them with news before they call you for news. Don't work for clients you can't get along with. This is people work. Accept some people challenges but not ones that tear you up. Beware of clients who are pursuing the matter "for the principle of the thing," because they are really saying they are willing to take an irrational course of action to obtain vengeance.

Keep calm and stick to the issues when dealing with people, no matter how much of a buffoon the other person is being.

Be on or off duty.

Live in the moment. Focus entirely on what you are doing. This will produce good-quality work and make it impossible to worry about the future or feel guilty about the past. Don't bring your home life to work unless it makes you exceedingly happy. Don't take your work life home, even if it does make you happy. If you are at work, it is because you chose to be there. You could be anywhere else. If you are at work but your mind is elsewhere, leave and find your mind. If you are off duty and your mind is at work, leave and go to work. Don't muddle in the gray zone.

Avoid mental blocks.

Do not be intimidated by large stacks of paper, an adversary, a client, a massive work load, or anything else. This being a thinking job, your mind cannot afford to be intimidated or overwhelmed. Often a seemingly daunting project needs only one simple decision and significant progress has been made.

Be optimistic.

Expect good news. Make good things happen. Give yourself permission to have fun working.

Appreciate that this is easy work.

The law is difficult work in the sense that some people aren't capable of doing it. For those who are capable, a sense of gratefulness comes with realizing that it is relatively easy work. It is done inside in a comfortable environment without the winter sleet or the overbearing summer sun. There is slim risk of injury. It is better than breathing black dust in an oxygen-starved coalmine, wrestling with vats of melted steel, breaking down drug dealers' doors, swallowing flaming swords, or being an assistant to yourself.

Do quality work.

If each day is a masterpiece, there is nothing to fret over. You have done everything that can be done, and there is a deep satisfaction that comes with that, win or lose.

Actions to Take for the Stressless Practice of Law

Schedule wisely.

There are a thousand things you could be doing. Spend your time on things that matter. Don't try to do everything at once. You can't do all the work today, so don't put it all on your schedule for today. That only produces anxiety.

Set aside uninterrupted blocks of time devoted to key matters. Consider using a teacher schedule. A good teacher goes into class and focuses solely on that subject that session. There is no worry about all the other matters which must be attended to. They will be handled in their time. Schedule loosely, getting a few major things done in a day. It is superior to spinning out of control in a quagmire of petty matters. Budget time. You budget money and you budget calories. The same discipline must be used with time. Do not let projects expand beyond what is appropriate. If you have more money than time, use some of the money to buy some time. Hire quality help. If you have more time than money, use some of the time to earn some money.

Insulate yourself from the phone sometimes. This allows uninterrupted heavy work, not just phone scrambling. Do be available to the phone other times, especially at known hours. This helps prevent phone-tag inefficiencies.

Set aside time to think. This is a thinking profession. A lone good idea can be life altering. Don't let superficial scurrying take over and force you out of the quality analysis which must be done.

Take charge of your schedule. Control it, rather than allow it to control you.

Procrastinate negative matters such as worry and fear. When one of those rears its head, keep focused and promise yourself a monumental fear session at some later time.

Schedule a freelance day where you can work on whatever you like. Or schedule a freelance hour every day where you can do that. Establish an hour each week to work on fish cases, no matter what. As John Grisham has pointed out, fish cases are those projects that sit in the corner and never get worked on. They begin to rot and smell. They do not get better with age. They are never going to rise high enough on the priority list to get worked on or they would have already done so. These cases are quite stressful because they produce considerable guilt and anxiety. A dedicated time for them will eliminate them.

Be early on deadlines so you can work on what you want to, not what you have to.

Use a short list.

Use a small to do list. This is relaxing and it forces you to select something important to work on. Button up your work at the end of each day so you are not carrying a sort of debt load into the next day which will destroy that day's productivity.

A small list takes pressure off. It provides a sense of ease. There is less paralysis. The feeling of being overwhelmed disappears. It forces focused work. One wise decision is better than frantic floundering. As basketball Hall of Fame coach John Wooden has pointed out, "Don't mistake activity for achievement."

Keep up with yourself.

Establish a proper pace. Estimate how long you will practice law and establish a fitting pace. You can work long hours with no vacation for a year or two. If you are going to last for 30 or 50 years, you must plan your pace accordingly. That, or you will expire before you retire.

Keep up with this day even if you can't get to your backlog. The work can be done much more quickly while it is fresh, rather than after it is rusty and dusty, and the issues, facts, and strategies have been forgotten.

Do something important early in the day.

Make one key call or one major decision early. It does not have to require a lot of work. Then you will be productive and happy. While you bask in the glow of victory the rest of the day, the momentum creates more momentum.

Remove unpleasant tasks.

Deal with dreaded work as soon as possible so it doesn't fester and pester. Instead of carrying a daunting project for a year, complete it in two months. Instead of dreading a small action for the entire day, knock it out in the first 15 minutes. Then work on more pleasant tasks the rest of the day. If certain functions are unpleasant, work around them as much as possible. If you don't like the phone, send letters, have your assistant do some of the communication, have face-to-face meetings. There are alternate ways to accomplish most lawyerly functions.

Establish a purpose.

Meaningfulness gives peace. A sense that you are working on something significant provides fulfillment. Find a meaningful purpose. Making money, or even earning money, is not enough. Focus on serving people.

Minimize unfinished work.

Unfinished work screams at you, unless you don't care. Unfinished work is characteristic of this profession. Some work may be finalized today but the vast bulk of it continues until tomorrow or down the road. The work is never all finished at one time. It is a juggling act. It is not like being a truck driver who is done when his load has been delivered. It is not like being a waitress who has no unfinished work when the café closes for the night. Don't worry about the pile of unfinished work. Indeed, don't worry about anything. Instead, focus on the task at hand. Otherwise, the pile of unfinished work will get larger and you will have grounds to worry.

Identify your stressors.

If you feel anxiety or dread, identify where it is coming from, then remove it. Some examples are deadline pressure, burdensome workload, not knowing procedures, difficult clients, difficult adversaries, disorganization, unfinished work, ethical queasiness, boss problems, employee problems, unpleasant subject matter, schedule problems, excessive hours, personal problems, imaginary problems, baseless fears, meaninglessness, communication problems, etc. They can all be eliminated successfully. Do not let the stress build. Defuse it immediately. Stress creates more stress.

Utilize momentum.

If you are working well, don't stop. Seize this opportunity. Match your moods to your work. If you feel like talking on the phone, use this hour to knock out your calls. The deep analysis of the law needs to be done another time, when that mood strikes.

Establish a pleasant work niche.

Find a type of law, or a sub area, that you enjoy. One of the beauties of the law is that there are so many niches; the law encompasses the full spectrum of life. There are a thousand types of legal jobs. Some are fitting for you and some are not. In finding the right niche, consider why you are in this profession.

Use premium staff.

Work with only the finest staff. Don't fool with fools.

Reward yourself.

When you have successfully completed some work, or even accomplished a significant step forward, reward yourself. Do this in a manner that reduces your stress. This might be just a small break for some reading or a walk at the park. It costs a little time, but it will generate more success. It is cheaper than a nervous breakdown, a physical collapse, psychotherapy, or a dissolution. Celebrate even hidden victories, such as routine matters that you consider automatic. Celebrate victories of omission. There are negative activities and temptations from which you have refrained this day. Perhaps you have used no drugs today, nor did you during the previous 10,000 days. Just because you are good at this does not mean you aren't achieving a daily victory.

Savor your successes but wallow in defeat only briefly. A boxer cannot mope in the corner after a devastating round but must quickly prepare for a successful next round. So it is with lawyers.

Exercise.

The mind can't outdo the body for long. If you are not a sports person, find some pleasant exercise and view it as an art form. Besides the health and emotional benefits, the self-discipline gained is immediately transferable to the practice of law.

Be organized.

Establish systems and actually use them. You can't live in peace and be in frantic disarray simultaneously. Allow the work to flow forward smoothly.

Establish boundaries.

Avoid taking on responsibilities that belong to others. Especially don't bear those burdens emotionally. Take care of your own responsibilities and let others handle theirs.

Don't say yes to commitments when you want to say no. Decline cases you know aren't viable, even though you feel sorry for the person and can't bear to say no. You will do more harm than good. As former U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root said, "About half the practice of a decent lawyer is telling would-be clients they are damn fools and should stop."

Select your case load.

Accept only work that you can feasibly do. If you go to a restaurant where they give you a table but can never produce any food, you would be displeased.

Improve daily.

Every day you become a better person or a worse person. You appreciate or depreciate. Appreciate.

Appreciate your situation.

Many young people dream of a completed education, a good career, a house, and a spouse. Many have realized those dreams. But there is still no inner peace. Enjoy what you are doing. You are living your dreams.

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Karl Zeiger practices in Puyallup.

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