Life is busier than ever these days.
Most of us have a ‘to do’ list longer than the length of our arms with constant matters clamouring for our attention. It can all be very overwhelming, with the legal profession being no exception to the rule as the pressure to produce results for our firms and our clients continues to rise.
However, whilst too many of us begrudgingly accept that this helter-skelter living is just the nature of modern life, others are finding this growing pressure is having a catastrophic effect on their work, health and home life.
As it is Mental Health Awareness week, perhaps it is an opportune moment for us to really look at how we can stem the tide of this modern day epidemic of mental illness triggered by a feeling of lack of control over workloads.
Recent figures illustrate that stress is definitely having an impact upon our health.
In 2015/16 the Health and Safety executive reported 11.7 million working days were lost due to mental health related issues.
Closer to home, a 2012 survey of the profession by Law Care, which supports mental health in the legal community, showed 50 per cent of the profession felt stressed and that 19 per cent were suffering from clinical depression.
To add to this, the Junior Lawyer’s Division of the Law Society, recently published a survey showing 73 per cent of young lawyers felt their employers were not doing enough to assist with stress.
So what can be done?
Of course, the topic is a truly enormous one, but certainly alleviating the problem before it starts having an effect, seems a sensible option.
Preventative measures, where the issue can be promptly dealt with long before an individual becomes another sad statistic, seem a sensible course of action.
We believe that management of time is key to managing stress and is a tool, if applied well, that can prevent a once-able individual descending into the mire of under-performance. With this approach in mind, we have designed a course which focuses upon time management efficiency and how this life skill can have a positive impact upon mental health.
Our programme has been designed as a tonic for modern day ills. Using both practical and interactive methods the course is designed to ensure that those attending learn vital skills to consistently maintain high levels of productivity and effectiveness, which they can use every day to maximum efficiency in the workplace.
We trust and hope that this opportunity to learn about how to become a more efficient and effective legal professional, whilst developing a better state of mind, will be too good an opportunity for you to pass up.
We want all legal professionals to know that we are here and ready to address this.
We need to come together as a legal community and raise awareness of mental health issues in our industry. Prevention starts with detection and although attitudes towards mental health are changing, it’s never too late to take a bold step forward now and make a difference to your own mental health and the success of your career and business.
For more information on our Time Management course, please click here.