The Lawyer’s Well-Being Brief. . .A Well-Being Lens on Doing Less, Better
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”-Dr. Seuss
Welcome (back) to the Lawyer’s Well-Being Brief! Each week, I try to share insights and practical strategies to help us cultivate well-being and thrive — both personally and professionally. Live well! Lawyer well!
Procrastinate on Purpose: A Well-Being Lens on Doing Less, Better
Most of us don’t have a time-management problem — we have a priority-management problem. That’s the core message of Rory Vaden’s book Procrastinate on Purpose, and it’s a message that lands right at the heart of modern wellbeing. We’re overloaded, overstretched, and overextended — not because we’re failing, but because we’re trying to carry more than any human was designed to hold. Learn more about Vaden here, https://roryvaden.com/
Vaden introduces the concept of multiplying your time by intentionally choosing when not to act. It’s counterintuitive in a culture that celebrates busyness, but it’s exactly what many of us need to reclaim clarity, purpose, and personal wellbeing.
Let’s break down how the book’s central ideas intersect with the pillars of a healthy, grounded life.
1. Eliminate: Clearing Space for What Actually Matters
Vaden’s first principle is simple but radical: stop doing things that don’t need to be done.
From a wellbeing standpoint, this is the foundation of mental breathing room. When you eliminate low-value tasks, we:
Reduce cognitive load
Free up energy for meaningful work
Create space for recovery, rest, and creativity
Elimination is a wellbeing win — because the real cost of doing too much is rarely the tasks themselves. It’s the stress, overwhelm, and quiet resentment that grow underneath.
2. Automate: Build Systems That Support Health
Automation isn’t limited to tech. It’s anything that makes the right choice the easy choice — or the default one.
A few automations that boost wellbeing:
Scheduling your workouts at the same time every week
Meal prepping for simpler nutrition
Using reminders for hydration, sleep wind-downs, or breaks
Putting bills, savings, and recurring tasks on autopilot
Automation removes friction. And when we remove friction, healthy habits stick. We multiply our wellbeing by multiplying our ease.
3. Delegate: The Courage to Let Go
Delegation is often the hardest step because it requires releasing control. But from a wellbeing perspective, it may be the most transformative.
Delegating well teaches:
Boundaries
Trust
Humility
Focus
We’re not supposed to do everything. We’re supposed to do the things that matter most — and share the rest.
Delegation isn’t abandoning responsibility; it’s aligning our energy with our purpose.
4. Procrastinate on Purpose: The Power of Strategic Delay
Here’s where Vaden flips procrastination on its head. Not all delays are bad. Some tasks don’t need our attention today — and spending energy on them prematurely is the real inefficiency.
Strategic delay is a wellbeing practice because it:
Keeps our stress aligned with relevance
Honors our personal bandwidth
Prevents emotional overinvestment in future problems
Keeps the present moment from being crowded out by “what ifs”
This is mindfulness in action.
5. Concentrate: Be Fully Where Our Feet Are
When something finally becomes “now,” we give it our full focus.
This is the antidote to fragmented attention and multitasking.
Concentration is:
Mental discipline
Emotional presence
Purpose-driven action
The ability to honor your commitments with excellence instead of frenzy
In practice, concentration looks like:
One screen at a time
One conversation at a time
One priority at a time
When we concentrate, we reduce the stress of split energy and reclaim the deep satisfaction of meaningful progress.
The Wellbeing Thread: Less Noise, More Life
When we combine these principles, a theme emerges:
We don’t need more time. We need more intention.
Time multiplies when:
We eliminate the unnecessary
We automate the repeatable
We delegate the teachable
We delay the premature
We concentrate on the meaningful
And our wellbeing multiplies right alongside our time.
This is productivity not as a hustle metric, but as a health practice. Doing less, better, is a path to becoming more grounded, more energized, and more aligned with what matters.
Final Thoughts
Let’s protect our energy by being intentional with our time.
Every “no,” every pause, every delegation is an investment in the version of who we’re becoming. We don’t need to do more — we need to choose better.
Forward Always!
