Time management is the single most critical component of law school survival. You’re going to be busy, there’s no getting around it. But you don’t have to be stressed out, miserable, and overworked.
Your fate is in your hands, and you need a proven strategy for success. Read on for our best time management strategies, along with ways to stay balanced and handle the various stressful aspects of life as a law student.
Time Management in Law School
- How to Save Time on Meal Prep to Have More Time to Study We're hearing from Hillary Vaillancourt about why meal prepping now can help you save time later and provide more time to get your important school work done.
- My Law School Morning Routine Cathlyn Melvin talks about the morning routine she has implemented in law school, and how you too can find a great way to start off your day right.
- How to Use Your Summer to Reset For the Following Year Alexandra Muskat discusses how you can utilize your summer before each year of law school to re-set and get ready for the following year. There are some different things you can do at each stage of law school, and she looks at each of them separately.
- There is Never Enough Time: Tips to Manage What Little There Is Time management can be a major challenge as a law student. Mark Livingston is looking at ways you can alleviate the stress of balancing everything in your life.
- Tips and Ideas for Commuter Law Students Tiffany Lo discusses some advice for commuter law students.
- Five Ways to Prepare For Fall Semester Fall semester is coming up, and Hillary Vaillancourt is looking at some ways to prepare now in order to make the semester run smoother.
- Time-Saving Tips for Law Students Julia Gourary talks about how to find some extra time in law school and balance your schedule better.
- Five Different Time Management Methods: Getting More Done Without Feeling Overwhelmed Time management is a key component to becoming a successful law student. Alexandra Muskat looks at some ideas for managing your time as a law student.
- The Do's and Don'ts of Getting Involved Around Campus We're hearing from Aleena Ijaz about some considerations if you're thinking about getting involved in campus activities.
- My Three Best Tips for Time Management Awesomeness Bookmark this page, seriously. Here are the three best strategies I’ve come up with for time management, ever. Get more done, in less time, with less stress. What’s not to like?
- Need to Get More Done in Law School? Try The Circles Are you trying to boost your productivity? The Circles is a deceptively simple, but powerful, technique for managing your time effectively.
- Need to Get More Done in Law School? Try The Units The Units technique takes the simplicity of The Circles, but adds the all-important element of peer pressure to the mix.
- Need to Get More Done in Law School? Try The Buzzer "The Buzzer" is an extremely easy, effective technique for time management. Could it work for you?
- Managing Time in Law School Do you have difficultly juggling lots of different law school tasks? Read on for some simple suggestions to manage your time.
- A Review of the Better Habits App The Better Habits app can help you to stick to your goals and be held accountable to achieving new habits that you want to form!
Finding Balance as a Law Student
- Law School Perspective - How to Make Your Relationship Last Through Law School Shirlene Brown offers some advice for keeping your relationship on track as a law student.
- Following Your Own Law School Timeline Zoila Sanchez discusses pursuing your own path in law school, even if it deviates from the "traditional" route.
- The Myth Of Time Management: Why We Can't Manage Our Time. We Can Only Manage Ourselves Nora Riva Bergman, a business coach, discusses why time management doesn't really work, but you can make your life more balanced by making some life changes.
- How to Balance Screen Time as a Law Student As a law student, you need screen time for studying and doing your work, but you probably know that too much time staring at a screen is bad for you. Christen Morgan discusses some strategies for striking the right balance of screen time in law school.
- Three Reasons Reading Fiction in Law School is Important Hillary Vaillancourt talks about the value of reading for pleasure in law school and how it can make you an even better law student.
- Managing Expectations of Loved Ones as a Nontraditional Law Student Stephanie Gregoire discusses how to handle family and friends not understanding the law school experience and how to manage their expectations if you're a nontraditional law student.
- Being Okay With Your Choices - Law School Edition It can be hard to feel secure in the choices you make, especially in law school. Here's how you can make the right choices for yourself and feel confident in your decisions.
- Nurturing Your Romantic Relationship with Your Non-Law Student Partner Tiffany Lo discusses how to maintain a healthy relationship with a non-law student partner while you're busy in the thick of law school.
- Having It All in Law School - At Different Times! Elizabeth Knox discusses her experience starting law school with a child and family and how she was able to balance it and prioritize things as needed - and ask for help!
- Motherhood as a Law Student Rigien Bagekany-Jackson discusses what her experience has been over the law three years of law school balancing her classes and schoolwork along with motherhood and offers advice to others about how to manage this.
- Why Multitasking is a Terrible Idea Maybe you’re thinking all this focus on time management is overkill. No worries! You’ll just multitask and get lots of things done at once. Yeah, that doesn’t work. Read this.
- How to Use Spring Break To Catch Up and Still Have Fun Alexandra Muskat discusses some ideas for organizing your spring break in a way that you manage both some school work catch up and preparation, as well as down time and other fun things.
- Three Signs You Need to Slow Down Law school is hectic and stressful, and Hillary Vaillancourt is looking at all of the signs that are telling you that you need to take a break before you tackle any more in law school.
- Navigating Law School and a Long-Distance Relationship Christen Morgan looks at how law students can manage their studies as well as a long-distance relationship.
- Why You Should Celebrate Your Birthday in Law School Hillary Vaillancourt discusses why it's really important to keep up with celebrating life events, even when you're a busy law student.
- Juggling Kids in Remote School and Law School Emily Carter talks about her experience with her kids in virtual school at home while she manages her own life and work.
- Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired: How to HALT and Reverse Before Getting to Work Cathlyn Melvin talks about how to handle your feelings and personal needs before starting your law school work.
- How to Have a Social Life in Law School It can be hard to balance law school with outside interests and responsibilities, but Alexandra Muskat looks at how to do this - it is possible!
- Self-Care During Exam Preparation Briana Borgolini looks at why and how it's important to keep your personal self-care as a priority as you're studying for exams in law school.
- How Make Law School a 9-5 Julia Gourary discusses how to make your law school schedule more regular by setting boundaries.
- Young Professional Perspective - Thoughts on How Our Professional Lives and Looks are Affected by Social Media Shirlene Brown talks about how to balance your own social media presence with your professional life as an attorney.
- Coping with Divorce in Law School We're hearing from attorney Sara Seller about what it's like going through a divorce in law school.
- Three Things I Learned in Law School That Weren’t in the Curriculum When we talk about the challenges and lessons in law school, most people think that we're talking about academics. But there are other lessons everyone will hopefully learn about keeping those academics balanced with a healthy life overall.
- Your Guide to Landing a Research Assistant Position Hannah Myers discusses the best advice for getting a Research Assistant position in law school, and why these jobs can be useful!
- Thinking Ahead to Winter Break Briana Borgolini offers some advice for what you can do over winter break to prepare for the new semester (and also take some time off)!
- How to Have a Social Life that Doesn't Interfere with Your Studies Hillary Vaillancourt discusses how you can balance a social life and your law school studies and find a happy medium.
- The Law School Mama: Tips For Balancing a Law School and Family Life For the Non-Traditional Student What is it like to balance law school with having a family? This law school mama shares her story.
- Things I'm Excited About for Spring Stephanie Gregoire discusses her transition into second semester and what there is to look forward to after winter break.
Managing Law School Challenges
- Bouncing Back From Rejection Rejection is inevitable in the legal profession (or any profession). Find out how to bounce back strong and keep on keeping on after a setback.
- Should You Drop Out of Law School? As the school year winds down, a whispered question is floating in on the wind: “Should I drop out of law school?” If this is a question you’re debating (even secretly), here are some things to consider.
- Is 3LOL a Myth? 3 Ways to Handle A Stressful 3L Year Bummed 3L year isn't quite the low-stress delight that you anticipated? Read on for strategies to survive a high-stress 3L year.
- New Years Resolutions: Law School Edition Aside from "get better grades," what are your goals for the new year? A 2L shares hers, which you might want to add to your list!
- Public Speaking Tips from a Work in Progress Many law students have issues with public speaking. If you're one of them, here are some tips that might help you!
- The Positive Side of a Negative Outlook: How Embracing Your Natural Pessimism Can Work to Your Advantage in Law School You usually hear about how you need to embrace a positive outlook, but you rarely hear an argument for the other side. But maybe a negative outlook can be beneficial?
- How I Avoided the 2L Slump Afraid the 2L slump will happen to you? Here's how one 2L managed to avoid it.
- Survive Law School: Find Your People If you’re going to make it to graduation with your sanity reasonably intact, you need allies. Learn how to recognize "your people," so you can steer clear of those who aren’t.
- Survive Law School: Stop Procrastinating This one’s a doozie. If you want to survive law school, stop procrastinating. Believe it or not, it is possible, once you understand the root of the problem.
Need some help keeping things on track? Check out our law school tutoring options at the Law School Toolbox.