I have been practicing law for a long time.  And even now, 30+ years into the game, there are still times when I find myself overwhelmed by everything on my plate.  And it’s just as shitty a feeling now as it was as a young associate at a big law firm or as general counsel dealing with – literally – bet-the-company litigation.  Fortunately, getting older comes with some advantages (besides the prospect of getting 50% off if I go to IHOP at 4:00 pm for dinner).  The biggest (non-IHOP) advantage being that I have developed a lot of different ways to cope with feeling this way.  And that’s good because one thing I hear a lot from the in-house lawyers I speak with is that they are having an increasingly hard time dealing with the incredible amount of work that keeps rolling down the hill – like a boulder crushing Wile E. Coyote when his ACME products backfire for the nine thousandth time.  Okay, that sounded better in my head, but I know you get the picture because you’ve all been there (and some of you may even be there as you are reading this).    

Given the increasing number of in-house lawyers edging ever closer to burnout, I thought I would spend some time talking through what you can do when feeling overwhelmed at the office.  I am going to focus on some practical, short-term solutions to help you get out of the muck and onto solid ground in the near term – as that is typically the most pressing need.[1]  What I am going to set out is all tested and true, and some combination of these ten things will very likely help you.[2]  How much they will help depends on how far you are willing to go to gain some control over the situation (and I know that is not always easy to do).  But hear me out and stick with me.  Today’s edition of “Ten Things” takes you through what you should do when you feel overwhelmed at the office:

1.  Take a break.  I bet you weren’t expecting me to lead with “sit on your ass.”  But I did.  Why?  Because it works.  The very first thing you should do when you are feeling overwhelmed at work is step away from your desk and computer and take a break.  Go for a walk.  Go get a cup of coffee.  Just step away slowly from the scene of the crime.  You will instantly feel better because when you’re overwhelmed, your brain is flooded with stress hormones (like cortisol).[3] Taking even a short break gives your nervous system a chance to reset, lowering stress levels and allowing you to think more clearly. Taking a break lets your brain “reboot” and you will come back to your desk feeling significantly better than when you stepped away.  Next, practice some deep breathing.  Odds are good that you have been clenching your jaw and your neck muscles because you are pretty stressed out. A few deep breaths can release that tension. Most people take short, shallow breaths into their chest, especially when feeling overwhelmed. Doing so makes you feel more anxious and zaps your energy. Deep breathing helps relieve all of that tension.  And it only takes a few minutes to have a dramatic (positive) impact.  It also helps to do some simple stretches and neck rolls to help loosen things up.  After you have taken a break, stretched a bit, and started to breathe again, spend the next 30 minutes or so jotting down (in no particular order) everything you “need” to get done.  It may be a long list, or it may just be just one big hairy task but whatever it is, get it down on paper.  The mere act of writing things out will be helpful even if you feel like you are writing your epitaph.  Hold on to that piece of paper.  We are going to use it shortly.  But, for now, just breathe and take a few minutes to relax and regain your composure.  But don’t fall asleep – we’ve got work to do!

2.  Clean up your workspace.  I know this sounds a little silly, but the science backs me up here.[4]  The second thing you must do when feeling overwhelmed is to get yourself organized.  It starts with simply cleaning up after yourself, i.e., sorting through the mass of papers, trash, books, magazines, photographs, Post-It notes, ransom notes, half-eaten sandwiches, Diet Coke cans, USB drives, hard drives, pens, pads, charger cables, dice, nunchucks, “Get Out of Jail Free” cards, ice picks, machetes, syringes, spoons, Zippo lighters, semi-deformed gummy bears, expired gift cards, and any other clutter mucking up your workspace (and that’s just a list of stuff I am looking at on my desk as I write this!).  In short, throw away the trash and organize the paper (and save the gummy bears…).  Just know that the more you throw away the better you will feel.  Here is a great quote to sum up the point here:

“The state of the workplace environment can have a considerable impact on how employees perceive their jobs and perform their duties. Cluttered, dirty, or disorganized workspaces can lead to cognitive overload, which naturally diminishes the brain’s ability to concentrate and process information effectively. Conversely, a clean workspace is known to enhance focus. The mere absence of clutter helps reduce distractions and mental load, allowing employees to channel their energies towards more creative and productive tasks.”[5]

This is all a fancy way of saying slobs get less done.  Don’t be a slob.  Hey, that’s a soft skill you can work on for 2026!

3.  Prioritize.  Remember that list I told you to hold onto just a few minutes ago? Now is the time to lay it on the table, smooth out the wrinkles, and wipe away the tear stains.  Take that list and figure out your top three priorities for the day.  And then spend the bulk (but not all) of your day focused on those three things.[6]  Yes, I know you have more than three things on your wrinkled, tear-stained list, but if you want to dig out you need to be maniacal (and ruthless) about identifying what really matters today and putting everything else on the back burner.  I have used this trick for years and it works.[7]  First, it forces you to make the hard choices everyone has to make in order to dig out, i.e., what really matters.  Second, a to-do list of three things is manageable.  A list of 150 is not (or you spend time cherry-picking “easy” tasks on the list of 150 and never make any real progress on the stuff that matters – yes, I know that trick too).  And third, a to-do list of three gives your brain a break and takes your anxiety level down.  It’s just three things and you know that if you focus on those and make progress on any or all of them today, you are starting to demolish the mountain that is making you feel so overwhelmed in the first place. 

There are many different methods to prioritize work.  I like to use a 2×2 Eisenhower Matrix (Urgent/Important) to plot all of the tasks that fall on my plate.  I am very judicious with what gets placed in the upper right box, i.e., what is truly urgent and important.  Likewise, I am equally dedicated to filling up the not urgent/not important box (where, as you get experienced in doing this daily, many of your tasks start to fall).  Here is a simple three-part test to decide what goes in the upper right box and potentially on your to-do list of three:

• What tasks carry the highest legal, financial, or reputational risk to the company?  (for example, is there a regulatory deadline, litigation risk, or board-level issue?).
• What legal tasks are blocking critical business functions or projects? (you should not be the bottleneck. Prioritize anything that, if delayed, would materially slow down sales, product launches, or business operations).
• What does the general counsel or executive leadership expect from you today? (anything directly requested by senior leadership or that will be visible at the executive level should generally rise to the top).

This is not a perfect list and there are always exceptions (and exceptions to the exceptions), but it is a good framework that will serve you well when it comes to prioritizing your workload.  Lastly, if you are not sure what to prioritize, ask your manager to help you.  They should be more than willing to assist you with getting the priorities right.  

4.  Set an out-of-the-office message (even if you are in the office).  Another trick I learned early on in my career was to set an out-of-the-office message (“OOO”) in my Outlook explaining that I was working on a critical project with a tight deadline and I would likely be delayed in responding to email.  Why does this help? Here are just a few reasons:

• Sets boundaries –  an OOO message tells others that you’re not immediately available, helping you reclaim some breathing room and focus.
• Reduces pressure to respond – with an OOO message in place, people know not to expect an instant response, which helps ease your mental load. Moreover, transparency builds trust (vs. folks getting upset because you are not responding to them, regardless of the reason).
• Manages expectations –  colleagues, clients, managers, et al., are more understanding when they know you are temporarily unavailable. It sets a far more realistic timeframe for when they can expect a response (and may even prompt them to solve the issue themselves).  Plus, just about everyone has been in your shoes and most will give you some extra space.[8]
• Makes you feel better – just crafting the message can be helpful as it forces you to assess what’s realistic for you to do right now – and helps slow new requests coming your way.

Here’s a sample message for you to adapt to your particular needs:

Thanks for your message. I’m currently dealing with a critical project with tight deadlines and will likely take longer than usual to respond. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you for your patience.

Will this stop everyone from bothering you?  No, it will not.  But it will very likely reduce the volume of requests for your time substantially, and that is a huge win when you are feeling overwhelmed.

5.  Clear the road.   Take a look at your calendar.  I bet that about 40% of the meetings, deadlines, or whatever else you have on your calendar are useless time sucks.  Get rid of them!  When you are feeling overwhelmed, it is critical to start freeing up time – to escape meeting hell!  That means you need to sit down and start declining anything and everything on your calendar that does not require your attendance.  Second, stop letting email drive your day.  Working off email means you have given permission to anyone who has your email address to add something to your to-do list.  That is insane.  Stop it right now.

Here’s my list of what you need to do right now:

• Cancel any meetings you have set that can wait until you get your head above water.
• Decline any meetings where your attendance is not required.  If you’re not sure, ask the organizer for the agenda or why you are needed.  Only caveat here: if they can fire you, go to the damn meeting.
• Meetings with vendors, outside counsel lunches or dinners, or anyone trying to sell you something need to go (canceled or postponed).  You do not owe anyone your time. 
• Start blocking out chunks of time on your calendar to get work done.  It is okay to set meetings with yourself.
• Negotiate deadlines.  The odds are good that many of the deadlines you face are “false” and set with little thought for when things are truly needed.  Find out which deadlines you can push out to free up time.  And please stop volunteering deadlines, i.e., “I’ll get that to you tomorrow.”  First, you don’t know when they need it and you likely just added to your stress by setting your own (unrealistic deadline).  Let them tell you and then negotiate that.  Second, you will always way overestimate your ability to get stuff done, meaning the first things to go will be family time, weekends, and sleep.  And who needs that?
• Turn off email pop-ups, Teams alerts, or anything else that might pop up on your screen and cause you to deviate from your top three.  Even better, close your email for an hour while you do real work.
• Review email at set times per day.  I tend to review my emails about 6-7 times a day.  I make quick decisions about what to do with each email: delete it (my favorite), delay it (come back to it later), delegate it, or do it (especially if it is something that I can do in two minutes or less.  Then I get back on target, i.e., one of my top three.[9]

6.  Tell your boss.  If you are feeling overwhelmed and struggling to prioritize or get things done, the first person you should speak with is your manager.  They should be very willing to listen to what’s going on and then look for ways to help you.  That may mean protecting you from new assignments, running interference with crabby business colleagues who want their not-urgent/not-important project done pronto, finding you help (if available), and potentially sending some of your work to outside counsel – if that’s an option.  But it all starts with you being willing to tell her that you have more than you can handle at the moment and can use some help prioritizing and figuring out how to manage it all.  If your manager is not willing to do any of these things, guess what?  Probably time to find a new job.  Seriously.  Managers are there to help you and the team.  If they cannot even make an effort at doing that you are very likely in a place where you will always feel overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed Town is a bad place to live.

7.  Find an extra hour per day.  Everyone has what I call a “Golden Hour,” i.e., that time of day when each of us is most productive.  For many (like me), it is early morning.  For others, it’s late afternoon or even late at night. The trick is to know what time of day you are most productive[10] and then find a way to add one hour to your Golden Hour time.  How you do it doesn’t really matter.  It can be as “easy” as getting up an hour earlier or staying up an hour later. You can move things around on your calendar or work from home and save commuting time. You can try to cobble small bits of time together to get to 60 minutes (see my “Ten Things” blog – The Productive Power of Little Things for more on how to do this).  Technology can also help here, especially Generative AI tools.  If used properly, you can significantly cut the time you are spending on many projects.[11]  No matter how you get there, finding a way to squeeze an extra hour every day during this particularly tough time at work is the equivalent of almost an extra day for the entire week![12] 

8.  Get something done.  When you find yourself lost in a morass of work, find something meaningful that you can get done.  Even small victories matter, i.e., a small (but important) task that you finish completely or a piece of a larger project.  It’s not about getting everything done; it’s about getting started.  Getting something done (however small) helps you overcome the feeling of helplessness that often comes with having too much to do.  Here’s why.  First, doing something, even small wins, breaks inertia. Once you’re moving, it’s easier to keep moving. It’s called the “momentum effect” and it’s like going for a run – the hardest part is getting started but once you are moving it gets easier and easier to keep going further.  Second, small wins reduce your anxiety level and build confidence. Things left undone cause a lot of stress. Completing even part of a project gives your brain a sense of relief (i.e., it’s thinking, “Things are starting to move, this is not just a looming problem anymore – we’re getting shit done!”[13]).  Likewise, each completed step is proof that you can make progress on the entire problem. Third, any progress creates a visible “win.”  A small win is still a win. Progress is motivating in and of itself, and when you (and your brain) see things moving forward, it creates a sense of accomplishment and belief that you can keep stacking up those wins until the dam breaks.  So, don’t worry about breaking up the entire boulder, just start chipping pieces off and soon enough it will crumble like a Three Stooges tent… or U.S. tariffs. 

9.  What can you delegate?  If there is a skill in-house lawyers underutilize more than delegation, I am not sure what it would be (maybe pub darts or ballroom dancing?).  Seriously, if you want to feel less overwhelmed, you need to get things off your plate.  The most straightforward way to do that is to delegate some of your work to someone else.  The two biggest obstacles to successful delegation are 1) lawyers are terrible at it because they don’t believe anyone can do it as well as they can, and 2) when they do delegate, they typically just dump and run.  My suggestion?  Get over it… and yourself.  If you get hit by a bus tomorrow, the work is going to get done.  So, maybe you are not indispensable after all?[14]  Regardless, delegation isn’t about how well you can do something; it’s about teaching someone else to do something you can do in your sleep so they can develop new skills and you can focus on bigger challenges.  Similarly, your concern with delegation should be about the end result, not the process used to get that result.  Let people work in their own manner.  If you micromanage people to do things exactly the way you would do them, you are not delegating you are dictating.  Second, if you are going to delegate understand that it requires an investment of your time to train the person you are delegating to.  This means initial meetings to explain what is needed, regular check-ins (certainly at first) to make sure they are on track, and finally constructive feedback on how they did with an emphasis on training and teaching, not berating.  But, if done right, it means work that would otherwise fall to you goes somewhere else (see – you are feeling better already!).

A frequent question I get around delegation is, “Who can I delegate to? I don’t manage people.”  You do not need to manage people to delegate.  Here is a list of people to consider delegating the right types of work to:

• Administrative staff (things that do not require a law degree).
• Virtual assistant (if you do not have administrative staff, virtual assistants are an inexpensive way to get some help quickly).
• Paralegals (a vastly under-utilized resource in my experience).
• Business colleagues (i.e., get them to help you with their projects by ensuring they have done all of the necessary footwork before bringing their projects to you).
• Other lawyers in the department (if they work for you, it’s easy.  If not, get your boss or the general counsel to buy into the idea that you have work that is appropriate to delegate).
• Outside counsel (yes, this comes at a cost, but you can find highly talented and reasonably priced attorneys who can make a dramatic impact on your workload).

10.  Live with “good enough.”  This is hard for most lawyers because we are all generally trained to give everything an A+ effort (just like a law school exam or a memo for a senior partner).  But, when you are overwhelmed with work, you need to forget about A’s and learn to love C’s!  In other words, learn to live with “good enough” and get things done and off your plate. Striving for perfection in everything takes more time and energy than most tasks truly require.  For example, if the other side’s contract redline doesn’t use the words you would use but their language works, don’t screw with it – accept it and move on.  Why?  Because when you’re overwhelmed, finishing tasks efficiently is usually far more important (to you and the business) than making them perfect. Getting something done to a solid, acceptable standard allows you to get a lot of things done.  Here is a checklist to help you decide when good enough is good enough:

Will “Good Enough” Work Checklist

• Will this task have long-term consequences if it’s not perfect?
• Is this going to be seen by someone who really cares about the details?
• Is there a looming deadline that’s more important than polish?
• Will spending more time improve this meaningfully?
• Will anyone actually notice or care about the “extra polish”?
• Am I refining out of habit, not impact?
• Am I spending more time than I can afford on this?
• Am I delaying other more important or urgent tasks?
• Is this draining my motivation and will to live?

While not perfect, a checklist like this can help you decide how much effort something deserves (and needs).  Another good touch point is your manager, i.e., tell them you are going into “good enough mode” and if they have any specific issues or concerns, let’s discuss that now.

 *****

Well, that’s all I have for now on this topic.  I have included hyperlinks to a lot of useful articles and resources, so be sure to check those out as well.  Being overwhelmed and stressed is nothing new or unusual for lawyers, especially in-house lawyers.  You have to accept that, for the most part, you will always have unfinished tasks and not enough time or resources to get to everything.  That means you need to adjust your thinking and focus on the things that are most important and the rest will have to wait, i.e., you need to learn to say no (or at least “not now”).  But when you do get the point of insanity and are overwhelmed with everything on your plate, you now have some ideas on how to claw your way out of the muck. As Tom Petty said, “Some days are diamonds.  Some days are rocks.”[15]  Stay clear of the rocks and embrace the diamonds.

Sterling Miller

June 12, 2025

My latest book (number six), The Productive In-House Lawyer: Tips, Hacks, and the Art of Getting Things Done is now available for sale.  Like the ABA says, “We get so much more done since we made reading this book a requirement of employment at the ABA!”  Be like the ABA.  You can buy your copy here: Buy The Book!

My fifth book, Showing the Value of the Legal Department: More Than Just a Cost Center is available now, including as an eBook!  You can buy a copy HERE.

Two of my books, Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel – Practical Advice and Successful Strategies and Ten (More) Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel – Practical Advice and Successful Strategies Volume 2, are on sale now at the ABA website (including as e-books). 

I have published two other books: The Evolution of Professional Football, and The Slow-Cooker Savant (and cookbook number two on the schedule for 2025!).  I am also available for speaking engagements, webinars/CLEs, coaching, training, and consulting.

Connect with me on Twitter @10ThingsLegal and on LinkedIn where I post articles and stories of interest to in-house counsel frequently.  

“Ten Things” is not legal advice nor legal opinion and represents my views only.  It is intended to provide practical tips and references to the busy in-house practitioner and other readers.  If you have questions or comments, or ideas for a post, please contact me at sterling.miller@sbcglobal.net, or if you would like a CLE for your in-house legal team on this or any topic in the blog, contact me at smiller@hilgersgraben.com.

[1] For longer-term solutions, may I suggest a copy (or two) of my newest book, The Productive In-House Lawyer: Tips, Hacks, and the Art of Getting Things Done?

[2] Warranty void in all 50 states.

[3] I am not a doctor.  I am not really sure what cortisol is.  I just read about it and put it into the blog because it sounds important and kind of scary.  Just wanting to keep the story straight here in case RFK Jr. decides he’s against cortisol – whatever it is – and wants to sic his goon squad on me.

[4] If you don’t believe in science, what can I say here but, “Congratulations on your successful run for Congress!”

[5] See The Impact of a Clean Workspace on Employee Productivity and Well-Being.

[6] I say “not all” of your time because I sat in the chair and I know there is no way you will not have unavoidable stuff interrupt your day.  So, be realistic and plan on “most” of your time.

[7] You may have a to-do list of one some days.  That’s okay.  As long as you have a process to figure out what that “one” task is.

[8] And the ones who don’t are generally unrepentant assholes.

[9] This really works, give it a try.  I’m looking at you, Jessica…

[10] Yes, more science at work here. 

[11] See also Top 40 ChatGPT Prompts for Lawyers to Boost Productivity.

[12] See, e.g., The Progress Principle: The Power of Small Wins To Boost Employee Performance.

[13] Okay, that may not be how your inner monologue works, but for me, my brain is always raising hell about something left undone, not waiting an hour after eating to go swimming, or how the %$#@ did Dallas trade Luka to the Lakers?  I hear about that last one from myself almost every day.

[14] If you did get hit by a bus or witnessed someone getting hit by a bus (bystander trauma), I know some lawyers who can help.  If you did get hit by a bus and are still reading this, you are my hero.

[15] Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Walls No. 3 (Official Audio).