Manage Stress Now as a Law Student, Be a Happy Lawyer Later

You may be feeling stressed out now as a law student, and that’s completely understandable. You may also realize that as an aspiring attorney, you’re aiming to enter a profession that’s rife with stress. If you don’t want to consign yourself to endless cycles of stress and eventual burnout, you should consider working on work/life balance and self-maintenance skills right alongside litigation, legal analysis, and writing skills. That way, once you enter the profession as a lawyer, you’ll be prepared to engage with your clients and colleagues—not to mention your family, partner and friends—with calm, clear focus.

In the past ten years or so, there’s been an uptick in the number of books and other resources geared at helping lawyers manage stress and find balance in their hectic lives. One of the latest of these is Coaching for Attorneys: Improving Productivity and Achieving Balance [Find it]. Although the entire book is worth reading, law students may want to skip to the chapter on self-maintenance. Here you can find concrete techniques to address both physical and emotional/mental needs. Sure, yoga’s one of the suggestions. But there are others like practicing gratitude, journaling, laughing, cultivating your spiritual life, being in service, and keeping a dream journal.

If you’re stressed out now as a law student, take that as a signal that you should add work/life balance and self-maintenance to your learning goals, alongside bar classes. You’ll be doing yourself a huge favor in the long run.

For more suggestions on books from our collection on work / life balance, have a look at our Law Career Resources guide.