4 Strategies to Ease the Guilt When You’re Crazy Busy
By Paula Davis-Laack • July 28, 2015 •Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life
Keeping busy at all costs is the cultural status quo, but the drive to do more is impacting our families, our work, and our health. The result of being Addicted to Busy is not only a lack of time, but also exhaustion, anxiety, guilt, fear, social comparison, inauthenticity and physical illness. I am keenly aware of the price of crazy busy as the constant drive to achieve and push to fill my plate with degrees, accomplishments, board positions, awards, and “things to do,” led me to burnout during the last year of my law practice. The so-called mid-life crisis is…
Can Women Have It All? 6 Questions You Should Ask Instead
By Paula Davis-Laack • September 06, 2012 •Balancing Private and Professional Life
It’s been a couple of months since Anne-Marie Slaughter’s controversial article appeared in the Atlantic. In that article, Ms. Slaughter argued that women still can't have it all for a variety of reasons. As I thought about her article and read many of the responses to it, it occurred to me that there is something missing from this conversation. We’ve managed to reduce a complex amalgam of issues to a yes or no question. As you progress on your work/life journey, ask yourself these six questions to gain clarity and deeper self-awareness. How do you define “having it all?” To…
High-Achieving Women Need More Than a Bubble Bath
By Paula Davis-Laack • December 19, 2011 •Writers in Residence
A few weeks ago, I reconnected with two outstanding women. The first, a human resources executive I know from a law firm I worked at; and the second, a talented attorney I worked with several years ago. We caught up with each others’ lives, and I told them about my next business venture. I told them how frustrated I felt about the quality of resources available to high-achieving women looking for practical strategies for dealing with stress, burnout, and work/life issues. I explained that much of what I find either borders on therapy or is what I call “fluff.” Very…
7 Strategies for a Healthier & Happier Thanksgiving
By Paula Davis-Laack • November 19, 2011 •Writers in Residence
You’ve been traveling at a hectic pace this year, but you are fast approaching the day when you can take a pause and reconnect with friends and family. Here are seven strategies for a healthier and happier Thanksgiving:Grab the good stuff. Thanks to the negativity bias, human beings are predisposed to notice and remember the bad stuff that happens during the day. Positive interactions abound, but you often fail to remember them. At the end of each day, name several good things that happened and why those good things were important. This exercise only takes a few minutes, but studies…
5 Strategies to Stop Procrastinating
By Paula Davis-Laack • October 14, 2011 •Writers in Residence
What are you procrastinating about right now? A brief you need to write? An outline you need to prepare? A difficult conversation you need to have with someone in your life? Starting an exercise program? For me, the thought of having to sift through this mish mash of random notes, research I need to read, and articles I need to file sitting on my desk has me stopped in my tracks. In addition, I’ve been talking about writing a book for, oh, well over a year now, and it has yet to really be started. Procrastination might feel like a…
The Work/Life Balance Myth
By Paula Davis-Laack • September 29, 2011 •Writers in Residence
Wake up after too little sleep, think about exercising, hit the snooze button, drag yourself out of bed, wake up the kids for school, start the coffee, take a shower, wake up the kids again, make breakfast, pack lunches, read email, quickly kiss your significant other goodbye, answer emails and deal with the first crisis of the day on your way to the office, get to the office and realize you’re not going to have the day you thought you would, answer emails from clients who want their documents today, not tomorrow, draft documents, prepare for trial, make a…
Find Your Strong: 8 Ways Attorneys Can Perform at Their Best
By Paula Davis-Laack • August 19, 2011 •Writers in Residence
I love the phrase “Find Your Strong.” It reminds me to keep going when I feel like quitting, to keep up with my new running routine so that I can stay in shape, and it evokes an aura of confidence and resilience that I want not only for myself, but for all of you too. That phrase has become my mission; but what does it mean to “Find Your Strong?” What are its components? This is an overview of a model I’ve developed based on my own experiences and the research I’ve reviewed, which is intended to open multiple pathways for you…
Does Optimism Belong in the Legal Profession?
By Paula Davis-Laack • July 28, 2011 •Writers in Residence
“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” William Arthur Ward Do you roll your eyes when you hear the word “optimism?” I used to. Looking at a situation with a glass-is-half-full mentality is a great way to go through life, but come on, is it really a realistic way to think and to act? If law school taught us nothing else, it was how to think like a lawyer - how to look critically at a set of facts and analyze arguments and language. While thinking like a lawyer helps win trials…
Will You Be There for Me When Things Go Right?
By Paula Davis-Laack • June 20, 2011 •Writers in Residence
How many of you received good news recently? Did you share it with someone? What was their reaction? These seem like odd questions, but your ability to build stronger relationships of all kinds depends on how you answered. When it comes to analyzing the quality of relationships, the focus is often on how you react or respond in times of distress or when things go wrong; however, research by Dr. Shelly Gable at UCLA shows that how you respond when things go right is as vital in terms of creating and maintaining good relationships (both at work and at home)…