Skip to content

I need help

Help for barristers

Barristers inherently face very specific challenges on a daily basis. If you need some help click on support to find contact details and advice on seeking support.

Get help

Help for clerks and staff

The professional lives of clerks and chambers’ staff include many potential stressors. If you don’t know how to broach an issue, want advice on your options.

Get help

Help for students and pupils

These resources have been designed specifically for those who have completed their BPTC and for pupils up to tenancy.

Get help

Resources

Our vision

Find out what Wellbeing at the Bar aims to achieve.

Read more

Policy & practice

Guidance on how to introduce wellbeing policies and initiatives and on tackling a wellbeing issue in chambers.

Read more

Media pack

Logos and banners to help you to promote wellbeing.

Read more

Case studies

Examples of successful wellbeing initiatives adopted by chambers, Specialist Bar Associations and the Inns of Court.

Read more

Support

Support for barristers

Who to talk to, how to get help in coping with the pressures and demands of life at the Bar.

Get support

Support for clerks and staff

Who to talk to and how to get help, resources are for clerks and staff themselves.

Get support

Support for students and pupils

Who to talk to and how to get help for those who have completed their BPTC and for pupils up to tenancy.

Get support

Assistance programme

The confidential 24/7 helpline with access to counselling for barristers, pupils, clerks and chambers’ staff.

Get support

Close

Search

Wellbeing at the Bar blog: Grant Warnsby

As I turn on the PC, the memory of lazy Italian lunches by the Mediterranean quickly fade away. It is not just because it is 6:30am on a cold UK morning, but the sight of the blue-bracketed email counter next to the word “Inbox” is steadily climbing.

It clicks quickly past the 300-mark. I take a call. On my return to the PC; the blue-number has come to rest at 849 emails. I had only spent 9 days away, and although it is only a 4 day-week, my diary is already back-to-back on every one of those days.

A restorative cup of tea is required though it doesn’t help. I sip it as I repeatedly scroll first up and then down the emails. The names, dates and times are all screaming at me in bold font.

I stop myself. “What am I doing”? I can manage this. I need discipline. I knew this was going to happen. It happens every time I go away, and this time I had planned for it. I had put two slots in my diary on my first day back and two further slots the following day to go through my emails. I began to create a structured plan of action to tackle the 849 emails.

First, I filtered out emails on which I was “cc’ed” into a new mailbox – they can be looked at later. I then ordered the remaining emails by sender and group deleted the circulars. It feels good to be making some headway!

Now I am sub-400 emails in the Inbox, with over 400 emails either deleted or deferred. The task feels a little more manageable now; but now the emails need reading.I started at the top with the most recent and work my way down, each time sorting by subject matter and checking that I have read or actioned them. After a productive hour, I stopped. There is plenty to do, but I have another slot that afternoon. I also decide my target: fewer than 50 emails in my inbox by Friday.

——–

I set myself a reward for the task: I promised myself a “tech-free day”. My “tech-free days” are those when I turn off the iPad, discarding it neatly with the “work-iPhone”. The “personal-iPhone” will come with me but only for emergencies! My e-book is out of bounds, as is any TV or music: I am detoxing from technology completely, I do not want any blue-light emit device near me. With that, I pick up a paperback novel, with that comforting new-book smell, and walk off in the direction of Borough Market. No emails, just thoughts of a coffee, a walk along the river and a few treats along the way.

Yes, I accept I have rules in place that I follow to relax. But these rules soon became “it’s what I do” which I hope will just turn into habit. However it happens, these rules provide me a few hours of freedom from emails, calls or checking my phone for those emails and calls. We all need a break sometimes.

 

Grant Warnsby is Senior Counsel at BP.

Seminars & Events