09 Aug Maximize Your 24/7
We all know that there are 24 hours in a day but how many of us have really looked at those 24 hours with a goal in mind. Attending an online law school means you will probably have modules you need to complete, recommended readings, horn book reading, case book reading, research, paper writing, and general time to bang your head against a wall.
First Steps
The first thing to do is to look at your syllabus. If you attend a school that gives suggestions regarding how long it will take to complete a reading assignment or writing assignment, take that to heart. Get a daily planner and with your life in mind begin to block out time and weasel study time in. The best way to illustrate this is sleep. We all sleep. When do you sleep? If you sleep from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. then block that time out for sleeping; do not cut into the time you need for sleeping, there are plenty of other hours and minutes to be found.
If you work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. then block this time in. Do not block out the commute time yet because as you will read later, these seemingly innocuous times will be the most important in your schedule. These innocuous times include your lunch break, your weekends, the time it takes for you to get ready for work in the morning, etc.
Do something that pushes your boundaries, something that you wouldn’t ordinarily do. Take a calculated risk and allow yourself to crumble a little.
Take those first steps and get that calendar out. Make notations for important events you cant miss. If you have a birthday party on the 5th or a wedding anniversary mark it on your calendar. You want to start by marking the important events and times in your calendar before you move on to fit in the rest. These are the things that are a standard requirement in your life; they can’t be messed with and they can’t be interrupted.
Part of time management is understanding where your time goes and what is important to you. By starting with your daily routines you clearly identify what is important and what has to be done; such as work. Block these times out, even if you think you may be able to study during work, this will never be a certain and if you rely on it and something comes up at work, a big project and you cant study, you will never get that time back.
Apply Your Minutes
Too often we ignore minutes, like pennies in the take a penny jar, but these minutes add up in a big way. Now that you have your time blocked for work and special events, take a look at all that free time. I can hear the grumbling now, “But that’s my commute time”, “That’s five minutes between this and that”. Yes, it is just small amounts of time but those are the most important, use them all wisely.
On that 45 minute commute make sure that you have recorded study sessions to listen to. Make sure you have books loaded into your Audible that you can listen to or load your iPod with substantive knowledge. Just because your not sitting at a desk with a Case Book doesn’t mean you aren’t using your time wisely and getting the most out of every minute.
While you are at your obligatory park day with your children bring a book, bring a blank legal pad and start writing what you know, bring your lap top and review some essays. Each small minute that goes by can be used.
Try to squeeze study time into every free second you have. While you are outside pulling weeds put your headphones on and listen to lectures. While you are making dinner listen to lectures. While you are sitting on the couch watching TV, keep a book in your lap, when the commercials come on, open up your book and begin scanning, you might find that what your reading is way more interesting that what is on the TV.
Be Flexible
Remember, just because you have a schedule that you are sticking to doesn’t mean the rest of the world is. Be prepared to be flexible and roll with the punches. If you have something scheduled and it is moved or if something pops up and you have to re-arrange things, do so the quickest you can. Take advantage of schedule changes by using that time to study instead.
Do not beat yourself up if you have time scheduled to study and a birthday comes up. Things like this will happen throughout your law school career. Often things take longer than you would expect or the individuals in your life will be inconsiderate and not give you warning, if you let this bother you, you will become a deeply unhappy individual. Take it all in stride, rearrange, and do the best with what you have.
Keep Planning
Just because you create a schedule once doesn’t mean your done, keep at it, update it over and over again. As you go through law school the time you allocate for certain things will change. You will find that you no longer require as much time to fully comprehend the reading, that essays do not require as much prep time, or that you now need more time in another areas. Edit your schedule as you go, allow yourself the time to process new information and to edit your calendar as necessary.
Avoid Procrastination
At some point studying can begin to feel like a chore and its easy to find yourself surfing Facebook. When you find yourself doing this, acknowledge it, and find a way to procrastinate efficiently. There are many law school related things you can do to procrastinate but still be proactive.
- Create Flashcards on Cram and then load the phone app to play phone games based on your flash cards
- Go to Youtube and search for 1L Parody songs, many of them are hilarious and include easy to remember substantive knowledge
- Play LawDojo on your phone
- Call a law school friend and just chat