How I Make Time for Myself as a Lawyer

Self-care is key, but how can I actually make sure I implement it?

Over the years, I have had a mix of busy eras:

• Full-time law student, working part-time, and part-time blogger era.
• Law graduate, working part-time, and part-time blogger era.
• Full-time working law graduate and part-time blogger era.
• Full-time working lawyer and part-time blogger era.

I have been asked now and then how I am able to manage a lot of things, and still have time for myself. Because yes, even though I can get busy with work or study, I still manage to do my weekly solo dates, weekly self-care nights, and daily intentional me-time.

Let me say that I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve that I’m going to share in this blog post. I will be sharing 5 things that have helped me make time for myself as a lawyer (which were also things that have helped me during my law student and law graduate days).

Let’s get into this.

1 – Have a morning & night routine

You can’t always control what happens during the day. Sometimes, you can’t even control how much work you need to get done. However, you can control how you start & end the day.

For the morning routine, you can pick different habits that make you feel great in the morning. For example, my favorite habits include reading, journaling, and going on my morning walk.

So, if I end up having a long workday, that’s okay because I already had some time to myself in the morning.

It is similar to the night routine. You also have control over how your day ends, regardless of how the day goes. You can pick habits that you can do at night that can help you wind down and have that “me time”. This is as simple as taking a nice shower, watching a comfort show, or making a little dessert.

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RELATED: How to Build a Productive Morning Routine

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2 – Have something fun to do after work every day (even in small ways)

I make this a non-negotiable as well. It’s not always a “big” thing that I have to do every day. The fun things I plan for myself can be as big as going to a local comedy show, to as small as watching a comfort show at home. Regardless, it is something that I look forward to.

I even have a list of different self-care ideas if I get stuck on what to do (LINKKK)

By having something to look forward to, it makes it much easier to pull through on that time to myself and my life outside of work.

3 – Keeping Weekends Strictly Work Free

So far in my career as a lawyer, I have never had to work on weekends (and I’m keeping it that way!).

The weekends are when I go to church, have church activities, family time, and most importantly… time to myself.

How I see it is that the key to not burning out is to make sure that you rest and take a break before your body forces you to. It’s similar to your cell phone battery: you need to charge your phone before the battery dies.

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RELATED: How to Be Unproductive

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4 – Planning My Day

Planning my day has been my productivity game changer for years. As someone who is a lawyer and also runs this personal development blog, planning my week on my Google Calendar is a weekly necessity.

It allows me to block out my time and schedule in my work sessions, self-care, and everything else in between. Without planning and structure, it would’ve been much harder for me to balance everything.

5 – Boundaries

I understand that as a lawyer, there will be times when you have no choice but to work overtime. However, I also know that it’s also up to me to stay true to my boundaries and ensure that I don’t burn out.

I will work overtime when it is completely necessary. But, I do know myself more than anyone else that if I feel that I need to take a break (and I’m about to burn out), I will stay true to my boundaries and not work overtime and just go home.

So yes, while it is necessary to work overtime, I need to make sure that I give myself a break and rest before my body forces me to against my will.

Take a SMALL STEP

Small steps if you would like to follow some of these tips to make time for yourself in your life:

1. List your morning & night habits.
2. Create a list of fun things to do after work so you have options.
3. As much as you can, make weekends work-free.
4. Plan the day ahead, even if it’s just a to-do list (instead of a schedule).
5. Write a list of 2-3 personal boundaries that you will keep in mind.

To Wrap Up

Overall, even though life can get busy with work, I know that as long as I have my routines, have something to look forward to throughout the week, plan ahead of time, and stick with my boundaries, I can guarantee I’ll always get intentional time to myself.

It all starts with the small steps! (P.S I actually wrote a book about it, which you can check out and purchase on Amazon for only $11.99 AUD as a Kindle!).

In the meantime, don’t forget to make time for yourself today <3

-Lauren 🙂

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