Search Results for: time management

Bottom line, there’s a lot to get done every day in law school. If you want to be successful, and maintain some semblance of a life, it’s important to manage your time wisely.

Read on for some time management basics, and ideas for organizing your days and for longer-term planning.

Best of luck!

 

Time Management Basics

• Ahead of the Curve: Time Management in Law School As a 1L, not only do you need to go to class, and of course, prepare for class, but there are so many other items on your to-do list that it can be difficult to make time for everything and prioritize what matters most. In this post, Ariel Salzer talks about the kinds of activities that you should make time to do, and some tools for helping you keep track.
• Time Management Tip: Think of Law School Like a Law Job Yes, law school is very time-consuming and sometimes it can feel like you work all the time. But do you really work all the time? Start to look at law school like you would a job, and may be surprised at what you find.
• Time Management Tips for Law Students Most law students would agree time management is a challenge. Some people excel at it, however, so it can definitely be done. Here are tips from some of those experts on how to go about managing your time in law school to ensure success and a bright future as a lawyer.
• Track Your Time to Rescue Your Time Learn about an awesome tool that tracks your computer activity to help you manage your time in the best way possible.
• Staying Sane During the LLM Program LLM programs can be hectic and overwhelming. Here are a few basic tips that can help you organize, focus, and maintain your sanity.
• Ahead of the Curve: How to Ensure You're Getting Things Done in Law School Are you feeling lost or falling behind? Here are some tips and tools to help you stay productive.
• Video Quick Tip: Time Management Being a law student is a full time job! In this Video Quick Tip, Lee shares some helpful suggestions about how to better manage your time in law school.
• Podcast Episode 7: Time and Life Management Basics In this episode we’re doing a deep dive into a critically important topic — time and life management! If you’re an over-stressed law student or young lawyer, this is a can’t miss episode.
• Podcast Episode 95: Top 1L Questions: Time and Life Management Law school requires a lot of time, but so do other important areas of your life. Find out how to fit everything in without having a breakdown!

Organizing Your Days

• How to Cope When You’ve Got Too Much Going On Let’s face it — exam time is stressful and jam-packed. Alison shares some tips on coping, when you’ve got way too much going on!
• Want Success? Rely on Systems, Not Willpower Lack of willpower is a common problem with all students. There are probably ways to juice your willpower, but we have an an easier suggestion: rely less on willpower, and more on systems.
• How to Stay Productive and Remember Everything in Law School Get our tips for staying on top of everything (even birthdays!).
• Five Steps for Setting Up a Final Exam Study Schedule You are likely spending all of your time preparing for final exams. To make your life a bit easier, we recommend that you develop your own study schedule. Here's how to do it.
• Top Organizing Apps for Law Students In this post, we highlight several top applications for staying organized in law school. From note taking apps to calendar organizers, this list will get you moving in the right direction to becoming more organized.
• Best Apps to Stay Organized in Law School Today we have a post for you law students who need some help organizing yourselves. Staying organized is critical in law school, especially when the handouts, books, and pamphlets start to pile up around exam time. If you think you are organized with binders, dividers, and folders, we still encourage you to embrace that thing sitting next to you right now: your smartphone and/or tablet!
• How to Calendar Your Way to Better Grades and More Free Time Let’s face it, just going to class and studying in an undirected, unplanned way is the bare minimum in law school. It’s not going to get you the As. How do you know where your time is actually being spent? How do you stay accountable and prioritized? Use a calendar.
• Bullet Journaling for Law Students I can remember how I discovered bullet journaling—I was looking for a calendar that was small, that had less hourly blocks of time and more of a to-do list, where I could track my fitness along with my freelance and work assignments, and where I could keep track of my reading progress in books. Does such a calendar exist? Sure it does. But I had to make it myself.
• Ahead of the Curve: Reading Cases: From Syllabus to Exam -- Prepare the Case for Class You've done your reading, you've briefed your cases, you're ready for class, right? Maybe not. Here is an approach for effectively following-up on all of your reading and briefing efforts that will have you as prepared as possible for class.

Longer-Term Planning in Law School

• How Should Law Students Create a Study Schedule? In law school time management is everything. The Law School Toolbox experts share their tips and tricks for creating a study schedule that will stick.
• How Many Weeks Are Left Until Final Exams? Have you taken out the calendar and counted how many weeks are left until final exams? If not, it is a worthwhile exercise (even if it is scary). Here are some tips for managing your time for the last few weeks of the semester.
• Time for a Mid-Semester Reality Check Time’s getting short to pull things together before the exam crunch hits. (But don’t flip out if you’re feeling unprepared). Here are a few tips for getting it together.
• The Law School Semester’s Half Over: 7 Questions to Consider You're approaching the halfway point of the semester. What do you need to be thinking about at this point? Final exams! Here's why it pays off to prepare early for your exams.
• Ahead of the Curve: Your First Month of Law: What to Do Week by Week Let's face it. The first month of law school is hard, and that's not even taking the subject matter into consideration. Here's a week-by-week guide to what you should be doing in your first month of law school.
• Organizational Tools for Outlining Legal Subject Areas Even if you are a first-year law student, you are now far enough along in your legal education that you need to start outlining the law for your substantive courses and taking practice exams. Here are three tools to make sure that you're on track to have your outlines and practice exams done in time to be prepared for your midterm and final exams.
• Plan Ahead to Improve your Semester Much like the lawyers they’re training to become, law students have a lot of different projects, tasks, and responsibilities that they have to juggle. But when you’re mired in the day-to-day struggle to stay on top of you’re reading, attend class, work at your internship, and manage all of life’s other daily requirements, it can be easy to lose sight of the long-term deadlines. But given the way law school classes are graded, with essentially your entire grade based on one final exam or research paper due at the end of the term, you can’t afford to miss the forest for the trees.
• Remember, Remember, the Fear of November Perhaps you were handling the October Freak-Out just fine, but now it’s November. For many law students, that means exams are just a few short weeks away. If you feel you may be teetering on a precipice overlooking exam day doom, take a few moments to consider the following questions and come up with a plan.
• Video Quick Tip: How Many Weeks Until Final Exams? In this Video Quick Tip, Lee talks about the importance of  doing a mid-semester check-in to make sure you're starting to think about final exams and are on track with your work.
• Is Tryptophan Plus Outlining a Recipe for Disaster? How to Decide Whether to Go Home for Thanksgiving in Law School Many students wonder if they should go home for Thanksgiving. As with many questions, the answer is, “it depends.” If you’re considering leaving town for the holiday or taking time off to celebrate, here are some pros and cons to consider.
• 1L Perspective at the Mid-Semester Point Are you a 1L approaching the middle of your first semester of law school? Here are some things you might be experiencing -- from the perspective of someone who's been there recently.
• Podcast Episode 36: Your Mid-Semester Law School Reality Check Time for a mid-semester reality check! Second semester is interesting in law school because you're in a different position than you were last semester. It's time to get real. But don't stress! Here is your (helpful) mid-semester reality check.
• Podcast Episode 67: Mid-Semester Law School To-Do List This episode addresses running through your mid-semester to-do list to ensure you’re where you need to be before it’s too late. Mid-semester is the time when reality sets in for most law students. Whatever is going on – midterms, sniffles, boredom – it’s time to focus on the end goal and get serious about preparation.
• Podcast Episode 93: Top 1L Questions: Academic Concerns There are many things about law school that inherently make law school intimidating, unfamiliar territory. Tune in for some tips on preparing yourself mentally for what to expect so you go into your 1L year with a strategy for success.
• Podcast Episode 131: Thinking Ahead About the Future We’re talking about the future and long-term goal setting in law school. It’s never too early to start thinking about what you might want your life to look like in the future, and to make the personal and career choices most likely to make that future a reality, or at least a possibility.