Stress Reduction Strategies for Legal Professionals

Do you need some help in changing habits to reduce stress? In this episode, Tyson discusses the importance of stress reduction and shares practical tips for managing stress in the legal profession and as a business owner.

Tyson talks about the various ways to reduce stress as well as some things he has implemented. One of his tips to reducing stress is the method of box breathing. Box breathing involves inhaling for 4 seconds, holding your breath for 4 seconds, exhaling for 4 seconds and then holding your breath once more for 4 seconds. What this does is help center yourself and reach a state of calm.

Another tip is to turn off notifications. People are on their phones way too much and get distracted by all the apps. It can cause a lot of stress and many people can become addicted. Tyson suggests doing this as it allows you to control the flood of information that gets to you. You can control the amount and when you absorb it.

One final tip is to schedule your workouts. Realistically, if you do not schedule it, it's not going to happen. Scheduling it allows you to proactively plan and stay accountable to yourself. If you decide one day you are not in the mood to workout, schedule that time frame for a walk around the neighborhood or around the office.

Take a listen to learn more tips on how to reduce stress!

Episode Highlights:

• 2:04 The technique of box breathing for stress reduction
• 4:47 Have you turned off notifications to reduce stress?
• 5:35 The importance of scheduling workouts

🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube here.

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Transcripts: Stress Reduction Strategies for Legal Professionals

Speaker 1 (00:00:01) - Run your law firm the right way. The right way. This is the Maximum lawyer podcast. Podcast. Your hosts, Jim Hacking and Tyson Metrics. Let's partner up and maximize your firm. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (00:00:24) - Hey, it's Tyson back for another Saturday episode. And today I'm going to focus on an essential, yet often overlooked aspect of the legal profession and being a business owner. And that is stress reduction. And I'm going to give you some tips in our five minute episode here. And so here we go. Before we kick off, though, I do want to take a little bit and do a little bit of a personal sharing. I think that's an order over the last couple of years, I've, you know, focused a lot more on self care and, you know, myself mentally, both physically and mentally. And, you know, if you look back a few years ago, I was probably drinking too much. I was definitely eating too much. I wasn't focusing on myself at all.

Speaker 2 (00:01:09) - I was working too much. I wasn't taking the time I needed, wasn't taking the vacations I needed, wasn't taking the time off that I needed. And so I was I was experiencing the detrimental effects of that. And so over the last couple of years, we've really focused on that. Both Amy and myself, we focused a lot more on that, whether that's, you know, going to the gym regularly. I hired a trainer That was one of those things where I just I bit the bullet, spent the extra money and hired a trainer. That's made a significant impact getting, you know, Amy and I both on the same page. For those of you who don't know, Amy's my wife. And so we both made this commitment together and we both did 75 hard together. And so having a partner to do that was was really, really important. And I think if I'm being completely honest, if it if I did not have her next to me to really onboard with the whole thing, I wouldn't have done it.

Speaker 2 (00:02:04) - I wouldn't have I probably would have just kept doing what I was doing, which is not great. And in whether it's, you know, cold, plunging or even we even have group yoga at the firm, one of our employees is a Yogi and teaches yoga every other Tuesday. So things like that that have had a really positive impact on my stress levels and overall overall well-being. And that's really what led to this episode. So hopefully you get some things from it. I'm not going to cover everything, but I am going to cover a few things that I think are really, really important. If you do have a topic that you want me to cover on these episodes, though, I'd love for you to to share with me and just text me at 314501 9260 and I'll be happy to cover it if I can get to it. But let's get to today's episode. All right. One of the easiest and simplest ways that I control my stress throughout the day, and I'm giving you some simple things because I think that they're easier to implement.

Speaker 2 (00:02:59) - Right. And the first one is the breathing. It's the power of breathing. And the first thing I'm going to talk about is box breathing. And that's I'm going to do a I do a variation of this. But box breathing is something from the Navy SEALs and it's a technique to refocus and reduce stress. So what you do is you inhale for four seconds, you hold that breath for four seconds, and then you exhale for another four seconds and hold it once more for four seconds. So repeat until you achieve that sort of state of calm. Okay. And so my variation of that is, is what I'll do is I'll actually breathe in for ten, I'll hold for ten and I'll breathe out for ten. And sometimes I'll even force myself to try to go up to 20. Now, I'm not saying you have to do that, but is it is one of those things where that breathing technique is something that can really help me recenter. And something else I've talked about when it comes to Jason Selleck is he does talk about doing that centering breath, too.

Speaker 2 (00:03:56) - He says to breathe in for six, breathe out for seven. So breathe in for six, hold for two, breathe out for seven. And that's what he does. And that's part of his 100 seconds that he talks about and which I'll talk about another episode. I'm not going to get into the details of that, but the centering breath do not overlook it. Okay? I'm telling you, do not overlook it in the the box breathing technique is a really easy one, four, four, four. Just remember that four seconds. Tip number two is turn off the notifications. And this is an immediate way to cut down on the stress by and you're going to be able to control that flood of information that is coming at you on a regular basis. And I'm saying it's coming at you because you can't control it. You're just getting these notifications at random times. And so if you go into your phone and onto your computer and just turn off all the notifications you can, even on your iPhone change and I can get it, I can do a tech tip on this if you need me to just text me and if you want me to cover it.

Speaker 2 (00:04:47) - But it's one of those things where just go into your iPhone and you can control all the different apps. And if you if you do want to get certain communications from certain people, you can do that in the iPhone app. And I'm assuming you can do that with all of the Android apps and all the other apps out there, all the other phones out there. So make sure you go in there, you turn off those notifications and it's I can tell you, it is lowered my stress so much. And if you want more advice on the email part of it, listen to the episode on emails because that's going to that's going to help you out to. All right. And tip number three, and this is the third one I'm gonna cover three of three. It's to schedule your workouts. If you don't schedule, it's not going to happen. I'm just going to tell you, even if you are a gym rat, you go on a regular basis, put that time in your calendar, just go and put it on there because there may be a time where you just don't feel like doing it.

Speaker 2 (00:05:35) - Okay, put it on the calendar so that it's there. It's bookmarked. You know where it is. Everyone knows that those are your time for the gym. And it's the physical activity should be a non-negotiable. It's got to be a non-negotiable part of your day. So you need to block out that time. And even if it's not even if you don't want to go to the gym. Okay. I'm not saying you have to go to the gym. Block out time, though, throughout your week where maybe you go and you take a brisk walk around the office or maybe you go do some squats or maybe you do go with that, Do that gym session, that activity is going to get you moving. And no one can argue with the benefits, the scientific benefits of doing physical workout. So I'm not going to get into all those in this episode. Don't try to argue with me about it. I'm telling you, everyone knows that there are massive benefits, both mentally, mentally, emotionally and physically when it comes to doing the workout.

Speaker 2 (00:06:25) - So get it scheduled, put it on your calendar and I'm going to give you an extended tip on mastering your time. And as we know, in the business world and the legal world, time is it is money, but mastering your time, it's not about making money, okay? It's about achieving that work life balance that we talk about on a regular basis. And you're going to you need to use tools like calendar apps to schedule everything from client meetings to your workouts and and personal downtime. You want to make sure that you are mindful of your energy peaks during the day. So whenever you're scheduling things out. All right, so I talk about calendar in quite a bit and I do it another episode. But when you're you're scheduling out your items. So this is the bonus tip is be mindful of your energy peaks. I know that the best time my best thinking time is in the morning. So whenever Elizabeth schedules things for me, the thinking time is in the mornings. Any mindless tasks that I need to do, those are all pushed to the afternoon, so I am mindful of that.

Speaker 2 (00:07:28) - You need to be mindful of the same thing, those energy peaks because it's going to be able to it's going to affect the quality of the work that you do. So be be mindful of these high energy windows that you have because they are limited windows. You do run out of energy. We all do. So get that done. All right. So thank you for that. That's all I'm going to cover for today. So don't forget to join us next Saturday where we'll explore even more strategies and more five minute tips for you. But for this one, just remember self-care. It's not selfish, okay? I think it's viewed by many people as being selfish. But self care, it's not selfish. It's a necessity for being a resilient human being, for being effective lawyer and for being an effective spouse, parent, you name it. Friend. It's vital to life. So start implementing these quick tips and hopefully your stress levels will go down until next week. Consistent action is the blueprint that turns your goals into reality.

Speaker 2 (00:08:21) - So thanks for listening and I'll catch you next Saturday.

Speaker 1 (00:08:26) - Thanks for listening to the Maximum Lawyer podcast. Stay in contact with your hosts and to access more content. Go to maximum lawyer.com. Have a great week and catch you next time.