Professional Development

It’s essential to take the time to relax – to take a break from other things: work, home, other people. It is vital to maintain ourselves and our health, both physically and mentally. We really need to give priority to the time to relax regularly in order to recharge the batteries. Things can take on a fresh perspective when we make this time for ourselves; we can become more resilient and calmer all round.

This is a busy time of year, and this is the first in a series of articles about different types of relaxation exercises to help you through stressful periods. Different methods of relaxation suit different people, and it’s good to try out various methods to see which ones give you the most benefit – and then, ideally, to build them into a routine part of your daily life.

Education does not lie outside society. One can learn from life experiences, whether you are learning physics, mathematics, music, art, the social sciences, law or any other subject. We live in a time when information is more accessible than ever before, and using this to your advantage is an important and useful study skill. 

When it comes to law, current affairs, news and social trends can be an extremely useful source of learning about the subject. You can learn a lot about current trends in legal practice simply by keeping your finger on the pulse of society and following news stories via different media sources. This can not only be a useful learning tool, but will enhance your Legal Secretary career. 

Over the past couple of months, we have looked at renewable energies and how they affect the conveyancing process. In each article, we have mentioned that these renewable energies are to be kept in mind when providing an estimate of fees to your client. 

The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs features a range of single-subject legal courses which are designed to provide you with a good understanding of one specific area of law. Whether you are already working within a certain area of law and want to advance your knowledge, or you would like to secure a position in an area that interests you, ILSPA’s single-subject legal courses are the perfect way to focus on exactly what you want to learn in order to have a successful career.  

We have all, at some time, encountered the steamroller and the sniper. ‘Steamrollers’ are aggressive, hostile and intimidating; they don’t listen, they talk over what anyone else may have to say and they bludgeon others with their views and demands. ‘Snipers’ are far more insidious; they seek to undermine, often indirectly, and pick fault.

Steamrollers have a great need for control, and snipers are essentially insecure. So, how can we best take the sting from their poisonous tails? Let’s consider some examples:

Steamroller Case Study

Everyone recalls a time or a particular situation when we wish we had been more assertive. Assertive communication is all about putting our point of view over – clearly and calmly, free from the distortion of mood or circumstances – so that we can best communicate how we feel about something and what we need as a result.

If a particular situation nags at our thoughts, this can be because our response was not as we wanted it to be. Replaying the same situation through our minds, again and again – what could or should we have said differently? – is a sure sign that we have not expressed ourselves as we needed to. The mind keeps working on a solution before we can let it go.

 One of the biggest concerns for anyone studying a course is finding the time and motivation to commit to it. This is easier for some people than others, depending on a number of different aspects which are prevalent in your life. One of these aspects is having a good diet and being healthy. 

You can’t really “manage” time, which is why I’m not the biggest fan of the term “time management”. I use it only – and then only very reluctantly – because that’s the term most people are familiar with.

But in actuality, the only thing you can control is what you do with your time; you’re really managing your activities, not your time.

This may seem like a silly distinction, but this small shift in thinking can profoundly and positively affect your productivity. 

In her book Time Management from the Inside Out and other writings on the subject, author and professional organizer Julie Morgenstern advises that instead of thinking of time as abstract, you should think of time as something tangible – a container. There are only a limited number of things that can fit into the container.

Challenging unhelpful negative thoughts is a skill. These thoughts are not facts, and by challenging them we can differentiate between what is real and what is distorted emotional interpretation. When we temper and control the emotional black-and-white thinking, which comes from an agitated emotional brain, we can better access our thinking rational brain (our higher intelligence) and see things with a far clearer perspective. This is good emotional intelligence, not least because it is fair, realistic and balanced.

Once we are aware of any one or more unhelpful thinking tendencies, we can then begin challenging unnecessarily negative thoughts and practise using different language which better reflects the shades of grey of reality, training the brain to move further away from instinctive black-and-white (emotional) thinking. Here are some examples of some typical black-and-white thinking styles and possible contrasting ways of looking at things.