For one to be successful in their career they have to achieve some type of balance between it and their family life to improve their overall quality of life. Lawyers and people in general are not meant to be robots and work 24/7, no matter how smart and dedicated they are, because they will burn out and it will lead to a poor career and family life. It is important to understand that in order to achieve success in work life balance you have to prioritize tasks as they change and be able to shift commitments fluidly.

With the advancement of technology, it is important to understand that lawyers do not have to commute to a traditional office anymore, but could potentially conduct their practice from anywhere in the world with great efficiency.

 

The following tips will allow all lawyers to find a healthy balance that works for them.

 

Learn to use technology

Technology in the workplace as a lawyer gives us an extreme advantage to easily and efficiently organize tasks, make face to face calls, work from home, and have access to millions of data entry workers online. The experts at https://www.clio.com/practice-types/family-law-software/ believes that having proper software can help streamline all administrative work required for a law practice. This includes storing and sharing information as the cases progress and promptly allow your clients to check for updates.

Additionally, you can access the information that is stored in the cloud from anywhere in the world and set privacy boundaries for sensitive information. This helps save time because you do not have to communicate 24/7 with your clients to update them. Having a good work-life balance we need to ensure that time is not wasted doing menial tasks.

 

Limit non-essential activities

It is important to analyze all your daily activities and eliminate or prioritize the important ones from the not so important ones like browsing the internet, social media, or your email. This allows one to be more productive and reduce the amount of time they spend at work.

 

Establish boundaries

Technology is both a gift and a curse because it has allowed lawyers to remain tuned into their work 24/7 and take their work home outside of regular business hours. It is important to tell yourself what your work hours will be, keep phones and work computers separate from your personal ones, and mute all notifications outside of work hours.

 

Learn to say no

It is crucial to say ‘No’ when given more tasks than you can handle as a lawyer. If you are a young lawyer refusing to take on more tasks could be challenging because you do not want your supervisor to think that you are lazy. However, you must tell them to understand that the more tasks you take on the less productive your work will be from feeling stressed and overwhelmed. As a result, this stress could be brought into your family life and destroy it.

Scheduling

It is truly overwhelming to have tons of work within a day or week. The key to a productive yet balanced life is to properly plan your work to be more efficient. It is essential to schedule all tasks that you need to do as soon as you receive them, so that you do not lose track and start to properly prioritize their importance. This will help you save time and ensure your work does not over extend to your private time.

 

Communicate needs

Having fluid communication channels with your managers or clients is key to ensuring a proper work life balance is achieved successfully. You need time to unplug in order not to become overwhelmed. Knowing what your needs are in the planning stage and communicating them to your boss or client will definitely help in accomplishing tasks quicker. Sometimes, it is a good idea to simply tell your boss that you are overwhelmed, so that they can make the judgment of rearranging priorities and tasks by maybe assigning the work to someone else or arranging more admins to help you out. 

Therefore, similar to developing any new habits, it is important to understand that following the above six tips will not be easy. They each require time and dedication until you become good at them. At the end of the day as long as you understand that a healthy family life will lead to a healthier work life than accomplishing the following tips such as learning to say no, efficiently using technology, communicating needs, and scheduling will lead to you having more time for your family.