Lawyers: Think Twice Before You Hit The Snooze Alarm

It’s time to wake up, and of course, you hit the snooze button on your clock. You may have stayed up late. Maybe you didn’t get enough sleep or have had long days at the office. Or, you have a habit of hitting the snooze button every day.

But, even after hitting the snooze, you still feel tired. Those extra few minutes of sleep cause you to run late. Now you are in a hurry! Beware you may have “Hurry Sickness.”

WHAT IS HURRY SICKNESS?

Lawyers are used to rushing and being in a hurry. But, there is a condition that psychologists called “hurry sickness.”

What is hurry sickness? Psychology Today says that hurry sickness is:

1.  “a behavior pattern characterized by continual rushing and anxiousness;
2. an overwhelming and continual sense of urgency;”
3. “A malaise in which a person feels chronically short of time,
4. A tendency to perform every task faster and to get flustered when encountering any kind of delay.”
5. “Hurry sickness is excessive time-urgency. It causes one to be tied to the clock and try to do too many things at once.

When you do things too fast or doing too much at one time, you compromise your productivity and reduce your effectiveness.”

SYMPTOMS: Does Any of This Sound Familiar?

• You eat lunch at your desk while also checking emails and talking on the phone.
• You multitask on conference calls, all day long and even while brushing your teeth.
• You habitually interrupt someone who is talking or are constantly checking your device when you should be listening.
• You always get frustrated in a checkout line or in traffic, even when it’s moving along smoothly.
• You get annoyed when colleagues or staff are not completing tasks fast enough.

How Does Hurry Sickness Affect You?

According to social psychologist Robert V. Levine, Ph.D., cities with the highest pace of life, men have the most coronary disease. Women are not far behind.

Rushing the first thing in the morning causes adrenaline to increase your heart rate and elevates your blood pressure. You also end up pumping cortisol, the primary stress hormone, into your system.

Once you have pumped your body into an anxious or stressful state, these stress responses stay with you for hours or even days.

When lawyers oversleep, it sets up the day to begin rushing and feeling and almost guarantee that one can feel stressed all day long.

Overcome Hurry Sickness

• You can begin to combat hurry sickness by not hurrying in the morning.
• Go to bed a little earlier the night before.
• Turn off devices, even put them in another room at bedtime.
• Get up with your alarm in the morning.
• Stay hydrated. You have to slow down to remember to drink water.
• Enjoy a leisurely and nurturing morning to prepare for a busy day at the office.
• Take deep breaths throughout the day.

Start your day without rushing and stressing. Refuse to hit the snooze in the morning. Develop these habits and stop yourself from doing too much at one time. As a result, you will significantly increase your effectiveness and improve your health.

#lawyer #attorney #wellbeing