I find it noteworthy that a swath of people I consider, for the most part, to be highly intelligent need be reminded of something as elementary as the importance of balance in one’s life. But sure enough, my colleagues and I apparently need self-help gurus to let us know that we need to unplug from our devices in order to be our best professionally and personally. This is likely because one of the most important attributes to success in our field is a strong work ethic.
While our profession may not be one suited for some of the more experimental concepts in work-life balance, it still could heed lessons from other fields: less but better is a description of billable hours that would be universally embraced by our clients. “Sure, that sounds great,” you may be saying, “but it’s easier said than done.”
These may well be redundant suggestions, but a gentle reminder never hurts, especially when you’re juggling more cases than you have appendages: be sure to get outside for at least part of the day whenever possible, even if it’s just a ten-minute walk around the block to stretch your legs, unplug from your devices at the end of the day to decompress and make some time for yourself, and perhaps consider getting a pair of blue light glasses to reduce the strain on your eyes for those days spent extensively researching and drafting on screens.
I’ve never had the privilege of meeting Mordecai “Mordie” Rochlin, but I would love to know his secrets to longevity. I note that he does wear glasses, and they very likely could be blue light glasses. I would also note that even Mr. Rochlin’s retirement was an act of balance, deciding that he would spend four days a week at his weekend house and spend the other three days practicing law.
I myself am often guilty of lacking balance from time-to-time either having lunch delivered to squeak a few more minutes into my day, working through weekends, and keeping up hours some weeks to keep pace with juggernauts. But as a partner at my firm recently told me over coffee, “I don’t think anyone saw Monet painting on a Sunday and said, “why are you painting on a Sunday?”
The partner, who had invited me out just to touch base generally as he’s known to do, went on to reference the Malcolm Gladwell book, Outliers: The Story of Success, a book which I am thankfully familiar with. He reminded me of the chapter on The Beatles in which Gladwell says:
The Beatles ended up traveling to Hamburg five times between 1960 and the end of 1962. On the first trip, they played 106 nights, five or more hours a night. Their second trip they played 92 times. Their third trip they played 48 times, for a total of 172 hours on stage. The last two Hamburg stints, in November and December 1962, involved another 90 hours of performing. All told, they performed for 270 nights in just over a year and a half. By the time they had their first burst of success in 1964, they had performed live an estimated 1,200 times, which is extraordinary. Most bands today don’t perform 1,200 times in their entire careers. The Hamburg crucible is what set the Beatles apart.
While unplugging, decompressing, and carving time out for one’s self are all important, they are only important to the extent that they make us better individuals and professionals. They are all great supplements to compliment the underlying reality of our profession: that hard work wins the day and hard work takes time.
Timothy M. Lupinek is an attorney at Balestriere Fariello who represents companies and individuals in state, appellate, and administrative courts of Maryland. He focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation with thousands of hours of civil, criminal, and regulatory trial experience. You can reach Timothy at timothy.m.lupinek @balestrierefariello.com.