Preparing for Spring Semester of Law School

Ugh it feels like Christmas break just started but that hasn't stopped that nagging feeling that I'm getting, reminding me to get my life together in the next week before school starts. For those of you who are 1L's, congratulations you made it past the hardest semester of law school and believe it or not your classes will get easier! (a fair warning though, that does not necessarily mean that you will be less busy) Even in undergrad I've always loved Spring semester because it's a fresh start in your school year but isn't completely new like Fall semesters. So, my friends, here's what I'm doing to get started on the new year! PS - Happy 2017!

Get finances in order

New year, new loans amirite? It sucks I know. Although I don't have to fill out another FASFA for this semester, I went ahead and double checked with my school to see when my tuition is due and if I'll need to request my refund or if it's automatically deposited in to my account. And since my government loan wasn't enough to cover my school and living expenses, It have to re-apply for another personal loan for this semester, too. If I had extra money left over from last semester, I definitely would think about taking out a smaller loan next time so because the less I initially take out (the principal) the less I'll have to pay later (the principal + interest). 

Next on the list: budgeting! I make sure I have enough money to pay for the next 5 months of rent (or maybe even 7 months in case I end up with an unpaid internship). I also look in to see how much my books will cost and go ahead and order those ASAP so that they get in before my first day of class.

With any extra money left over in my budget, I look and see what supplies I need to replenish. I typically need some more highlighters and other basic school supplies. I am still going to use my planner, but if you're needing a new planner for the new semester you should check out this post and also this one :)

Make a game plan

Now that I've been through a semester, I like to look back and think on what I slacked on the most so that I can make goals to fix those problem areas. One semester I struggled to actually read all of the cases, so I set a goal to make more time to read them. My first semester I procrastinated on my outlines, so then I made an effort to try to work on them a little each week. My goal is always to just try to improve on myself a little.

These goals are nice but I consider about what I'll need to do to achieve them. One thing that really helps me with that is creating a study schedule and planning out to study a little every day but also planning out some R&R time. Another thing I've tried is changing my study methods if what I did last semester didn't quite work out for me. 

Most importantly, I make appointments with my professor's office hours so that I can sit down with them and go over my finals. It's important for me to see what my strengths and weaknesses are! Also I go back through anything else that was graded and absorb any notes that were on my papers. I realize that this sounds like the type of advice that a guidance counselor would give but no one actually take or even what only suck-up students do, but I'm playing the law school game now and this is one of my cheat codes. 

Another big thing that I think really helps is that I review my notes from the previous semesters. Everything in law school builds on other topics so I know I will be screwed in my upcoming classes if I already forgot what I've been learning (plus it's a good little start for the Bar). All I do is start with my Fall 1L outlines and just read through them once, and then read through my Spring 1L outlines, and now I'm adding my Fall 2L outlines to that as well. My favorite law school quote is your rate of learning has to exceed your rate of forgetting.

Get organized

Déjà vu. Print out my syllabus. Color code my classes to my planner. Add due dates to my planner. Find where my classes will be (thank God law schools have less classrooms than college campuses!!). Find out when organization meetings are and if/when dues are due. Find out when try outs for any competitions are. Do a little internship hunting. This semester I bought cute file folders and a desk organizer and made a folder for: syllabi; financial aid documents; pro bono time sheets; internship paperwork; documents for tax purposes (FYI that's coming up soon); and textbook rental paperwork. Something I started last semester was adding my classes to my iCal with the classroom in the location so that I can easily remember it, and my section number and professor's names in the notes of the event. I set the events to repeat either M/W or T/R and have the repeat end for finals. I also set a reminder to go off "at time of event" just in case I'm grabbing a drink or something so I'm reminded to get back to class.

I also make sure that I'm getting my daily schedule organized too. This is probably my put-too-much-thought-into-everything coming out again, but I find that getting back into a daily schedule while I'm on break helps me be more productive when I'm back at school. I'll start going to bed earlier so that I can eventually be waking up as early as I do for school. Then I'll go ahead and actually not look homeless before meeting up with my friends or someone for lunch. When I get back in the afternoons, I'll make myself be productive by doing some laundry or helping my mom clean or cook. Because I'm not at school, I allow myself to watch a ton of TV but try to set a time to stop and stick to it. Then I read or do something else that isn't just bumming around. By the time I get back to school, it seems like my body is already on autopilot and used to the motions of being productive throughout the day. Just something to try maybe. 

6 Tips for When You Feel the Mid-Semester Burnout

October is the worst month of the semester. September is full of new year, new me! attitude. November is full of shit shit shit finals are coming! attitude. October is full of meh attitude. It's the middle of the semester and your motivation is gone. I'm talking about me too because this is why although I have lots of blog post ideas, the effort of writing them out just seems too much. This is the month when you start skimming or completely skipping the notes after a case. Where you go to class unprepared. Where you spend all day in bed watching YouTube videos of auditions for The Voice instead of studying. You just are over law school. 

Unfortunately, this lack of motivation is obviously detrimental for your law school success. It becomes easier and easier to fall behind in your readings or procrastinate studying your outlines. You can only put your responsibilities off for so long before they start to stress you out because all of a sudden now you have this massive to-do list just to catch up on top of what you already need to be doing. So here's some things to rekindle that motivational fire of yours so you don't keep slipping behind.

Take a day to get your life together

Do all of the chores that have been piling up. Do that workout hat you told yourself you'd do weeks ago. Change the oil in your car, hang those pictures, or do whatever else you've been putting off. Just make a to do list and get it done. 

Related: How working out helped my law school anxiety and depression and 6 ways to de-stress in law school

There's just something about having a clean house and your personal life put back together that helps you feel like you can take on the world. It's kind of a way to jump start your motivation because once you start getting tasks done, it'll make you want to keep going and tackle studying.

Related: Law school apartment cleaning schedule

Get in a routine

It's easy to start off the year saying I'll go to class from 10-3; I'll read from 3-7; I'll study from 7-9. But probably now your schedule is more like class for sure because it's mandatory, read whenever I get around to it, and study sometime eventually. But that routine is what helps keep you organized and make sure you get everything done that you're supposed to. 

Related: 5 lists for an organized semester

After you've run all the errands that I was just talking about, sit down and think of what you have to get done. Make two lists— one for things you need to do weekly (chores, reviewing) and one for things you need to do daily (read). Now designate a study time every day, a review time every week, and a chores time every week and get used to getting your shit done during those times. Eventually you'll get used to studying at 7 o'clock every night again and then you'll just go on autopilot and start studying when you're supposed to.

Related: How to study from 9-5 in law school

Get back to planning

Again, putting everything down in your planner is really easy at the beginning of the semester, but by now you might even forget to be using your planner. This goes along with the routine in that organization will help you get back on track. You have 24 hours in a day, so excluding sleeping and class think about how you're spending each hour. Once you become self-aware of those productivity black holes during the day, you can focus on not letting those hours waste by.

Related: The best law school planners

If you're struggling with this, you might start out with baby steps and plan out your day hour by hour. I'm talking write out the time you're asleep, the time you spend getting ready/going to class, and especially the time you know you need to be studying. Another thing you might try doing is making a to-do list of everything that you need to get done that day. This might feel overwhelming, but it keeps you on track and makes sure there's nothing you forget.

Get real about your studying

First of all, when it comes to studying if you wait until you're motivated to start studying then you'll be waiting for a very long time. The best way to start is to kinda just force yourself to do it. Also be realistic with yourself about what distracts you the most. For me, sometimes it'll be getting on Pinterest during a study break and then staying there longer than I need to. Two solutions I've found to this is to use the Podomoro app (more about that here) or to study somewhere where I don't have WiFi, like a park.

Related: 5 new locations to study

This brings me to my next suggestion of try something new to shake up your mundane studying. I love studying at the park because I get to enjoy a beautiful day but still study somewhere less depressing than the library. Another way to shake things up is to listen to something different. Obviously music with lyrics can be distracting, but sometimes even classical music can be distracting when you start paying attention to the rhythm. On the flip side, not listening to anything won't drown out the background noise of your neighbors and can be pretty boring. So I recently started listening to white noise while I study and it solves all of these problems.

One last thing. Remember to study and then relax. If you start off relaxing then it'll be really hard to convince yourself to get up and get studying. So save the Netflix for a reward.

Go to bed one hour earlier

This may not seem relevant, but hear me out. Because you're not super organized in your life right now, you're probably staying up later than you did at the beginning of the year. Which means that now you're waking up more tired and hitting snooze until you have to rush to get ready. So now your day has started off in a rushed yet sleepy haze. And that's how the rest of your day will probably be.

Making yourself get an extra hour of sleep is going to do wonders for your sanity! You'll be more energized to pay attention during class or tutor sessions. And when you feel well rested, it's a lot easier to sit down and read for hours instead of fighting off a nap. 

Related: 9 Steps to Sleeping Better

Give yourself a kick

I understand that right now you're feeling more stressed out than you ever thought was possible. I mean, your friends still in college whining about their little midterms? They don't even understand stress! So without adding more stress to yourself and pushing you closer to a mental breakdown, you do need to have a reality check with yourself. 

Yes you made it to law school, but you haven't reached your dreams of being a lawyer yet. Now is not the time to get lazy and sloppy just because you no longer have to worry about being good enough to get into law school. I know it sucks, but you need to sit down and think about what baby steps you can take to make sure that you're accomplishing your goals.

Related: My law school semester goals

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How to Stay Fit in Law School

Confession time: I gained the freshman fifteen in college (ok, a teensy bit more than that). And then at the end of my first semester my 1L year, I noticed that my oversized sorority shirts weren't quite so baggy anymore and realized that I had gained over 5 pounds just that semester. I wasn't completely surprised, I was stress eating and had been stressed a lot. Not only that, but I was spending a ton of time at home reading, and usually snacking around as I read. 

I knew that if I didn't change something, pretty soon I'd have the 3L 30 (just made that up haha). So I started eating healthier and working out more my 2nd semester. Working out when stressed instead of stress eating turned out to help so much. Instead of feeling guilty on top of being stressed, I felt like I was combating my stress and my weight insecurities all in one. Plus, exercise gives you endorphins ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Related: How working out helped my law school depression

 The easiest way to get into a habit of working out every day is to fit it into your routine. My 1L year I would come home from my last class, change, then go work out. My 2L year I started setting my alarm for an hour earlier and would wake up, workout, then go to class. When I work out, I typically go through 3 phases: 1) wanting to be healthy so I do a lot of cardio, 2) wanting to tone up so I do a lot of weights, and 3) being tight from weights so I do a lot of yoga. 

Related: How to workout in a small apartment

Running is my personal favorite way to exercise because you don't have to think of your next move like in yoga or count reps like with weightlifting. You just can get lost in the music and let your brain take a break. If you hate running, my first suggestion to you is to go outside because running around a park is a lot less depressing than running in one place for 30 minutes.

One of the best things I got when I started running again were these wireless headphones, because it is seriously the worst when the movement of your arms catches a wire and rips an earbud from your ear and it feels like it took your whole ear off with it. I also used to hate how the wires would bounce around while I ran, so much that I would run my headphones under my shirt to keep them tucked in. These headphones in particular have one short wire that connect the earbuds that runs behind your head, so it stays out of your way. 

Update: I just got a pair of Apple AirPods and they are definitely worth the investment!!

And because the headphones connect wirelessly to your phone, you can put that away when you run too. I loathe those stupid armband phone holders because they trap all of your sweat and begin to slide down your arm and are too big of a pain to get your phone out to use your phone. I recently started running with this running belt instead and it is so so so much better. The band goes under your shirt so no one even knows you have anything on you. It doesn't slide around and thankfully doesn't trap sweat either. And because it's so big, I can keep the clicker to my car in there instead of having it rattle around in my bra.

Another thing that I now can't run (or live) without is my Apple watch. It tells me my pace, heart rate, and how long I've been running. I can set a countdown for a certain distance, and it'll even pause the run when I stop to tie my shoe. And it also can connect to my headphones and play music so I could run without my phone, if I wanted to. And since I decided I want to be healthier, I use it daily to try to reach my steps goals.

If you feel like you run and run but never lose weight, you might consider drinking a protein shake after you run. Just add a scoop of protein powder (this is what I love) into a blender bottle and add water. It helps your body turn fat into muscle and helps you get lean muscle. I also sometimes will drink a half shake about 45-30 minutes before I run and I've found that helps me not get so tired as I run.

1. Stop eating out. Like as much as possible. None, if you can. Eating out may seem cheaper, but for me, eating at home is cheaper. For example, all of the ingredients for a PB&J costs about $10 total but makes you 10 meals, so that's $1/400 calories for a meal. But at McDonald's, a meal of a burger, fries, and a drink for only $6 may seem cheap, but that's $6/800 calories for a meal.

And think about it-- if you really want a burger, then going to the store and buying patties and buns with be better than getting something that has lots of preservatives so you don't notice it's been under a heating lamp. 

Related: Why I meal plan in law school

2. Pay attention to portions. Obviously this is always mentioned when you want to lose weight, but here's how it saves you money. Say you buy a package of chips. A bag of chips has about 16 servings in it, which theoretically should last you at least 16 days even if you eat them every day. But if you're not measuring out these portions, this bag will only last you a couple of days and then you'd have to pay to buy more again. See?? 

How I portion things out is I'll go ahead and measure out each serving of the entire bag and put it in a little snack bag. Then I can visually see how many portions I'm having, or if I'm in a rush I'll already have a little snack poured out and ready to go!

3. Drink only water. Being from Texas, I have a slight Dr. Pepper addiction. That first semester, I would drink one at lunch and then have another one after school as I was reading. I finally decided to cut that habit and it saved me more money than I realized. Every day I was spending $4 and 400 calories on those drinks. This added up to $20 a week in savings!!

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How to Manage your Semester Goals for Law School

Happy October, everyone! Since it's not been a month since I made my fall semester goals, I wanted to take the time to hold myself accountable on how those are going. If you haven't made any goals for this semester, I suggest you still do it! If you're not sure where to start, here are some great basic goals to being with.

Read every case

I'm proud to say that this is one thing I haven't faltered on much so far this year. There's been a few times when I just had no motivation so I printed out a Quimbee brief and just highlighted what the professor went over in class, but even on those occasions I make sure to catch up on the weekends so I'm still reading the material between the cases.

I'll admit though, I only actually have any cases in 1 of my classes. That's because in my other classes—Legal Research and Writing (part 2), Negotiations, and Commercial Law—my book isn't a case book. Honestly I did get behind in reading my first Negotiations book, which bit me in the ass when my professor decided to give us a pop quiz. So now I'm trying to not let those readings slide by. My LRW book is essentially explaining exactly what I've already done as we get ready to write our first memos (been there, done that), so I feel pretty confident not staying up in those readings. As for Commercial Law, right now I'm so confused in there that sometimes I don't even know what chapters I should be reading in my explanations and examples book, especially because my professor never gave us a syllabus to structure myself around.

Next semester I'm taking 16 hours of nothing but traditional law school classes, so I know that I'll be drowning in reading. I'm sure this will be when I become a typical upperclassmen and start skimming hard on the assigned readings. That's because once you get out of your 1L year, you're expected to be building your résumé through campus involvement and legal practice and by then you already know what's vital from the readings so you can fudge it just a little. But we'll see!

Add highlights from the next to notes weekly

Again I'm sorta keeping up with this, but only because only 1 one my class has a book that I'm having to highlight in anyways. Because that class is Wills and Trusts, usually there's not a defendant so my OCD is starting to get bothered that I'm not using all of my highlighting colors equally. 

Summarize each chapter after reading it

This is something that I didn't do last year but am starting because it was suggested at the orientation that I went to. It's actually a great suggestion because it's a great review every week or so and I'm already creating study guides for finals. I wish I had pretty writing, but I don't :/ but if you'll bear with me, you can see how I'm doing these either on Twitter or on Tumblr (which btw has some really pretty study motivation!).

Outlining

Only two of my classes have finals, which is weird for me after last year. I've started on my Wills class because for the most part it has been my only "typical" law class. As for my Com law class, it still feels like we haven't gone over enough to make more than just a few subheadings, so I'm still waiting to really get it started because we are still only on the first chapter. But I'm still doing handwritten reviews over what we've gone over so I can easily use that to make my outline with.

(here's a post on how to get started on outlines)

Keep an updated case list

Obviously when I made these goals, I had no clue that only one of my classes would even have cases. I haven't started on this yet, but one day soon I'm planning an all-out catch up day where I get this done. Hopefully.

Speak up in class

Since my Negotiations and LRW classes require participation, I actually speak up a lot in these. But speaking up in class generally happens more when you're in a smaller class, and both of these have less than 25 students in them. In Wills class, my professor will go down the row and call on you, so I really haven't talked much except for the two times that I was called on. What's nice is that he goes through a lot of students in each class, so each time I was up, all I had to do was read part of a statute and that was it. 

As for my Com law class, I have no clue what's going on in there. Seriously it's one of those things where class kinda seems easy so I'm super suspicious. Because I have -25 confidence in that class, I have only talked the one time I was called on. Luckily I sit on her right, a little towards the back and she always calls on the middle or her left section so I can safely hide out for a while, at least until I feel like I have a good understanding on what's going on in there (if that ever happens).

Final Thoughts

If you read my blog last year, then you might remember that around this time last year was when I took a little break because I was too overwhelmed with law school to even think about blogging. That's why this post was so important to me to remind myself (and hopefully y'all) to take the time to organize myself and concentrate on what steps I need to be taking to make sure that I don't mess up anywhere. 

If you're starting to feel like you're drowning, it's cool because this is when I was too. There's nothing really I can suggest to beat that feeling, but just know that it's totally normal (almost expected), you can do this, you deserve to be here, don't give up on your dreams of becoming a lawyer, and stick with it! 

Goals for a New Semester of Law School

Hellooooo! I hope everyone's semester has started off as well as mine has! Not going to lie, the first day of class as a transfer student was slightly awkward when literally everyone but me was buddied up and sitting in a group with their friends from last year and I was just chilling by myself. But luckily, a girl who was an officer with me in Phi Alpha Delta during undergrad is in one of my classes so I instantly had a go-to person! This is why you should always try to join an organization people. 

Came for the law school, stayed for the margs. Day 1 of 2L done!

A photo posted by Nikki (@oh.nikki.you.so.fine) on Aug 22, 2016 at 10:47am PDT

But anyways now that I'm getting into the flow of school, I thought this would be a great time to set some goals for the semester. Last year I only had two goals: 1) don't drop out and 2) get good enough grades to transfer. While I accomplished both of these goals, they were a little too broad and I think I should've been a little more specific and set smaller goals that would help me achieve my overall goals. So that's what I'm going to do this semester! I'm sharing them with y'all to give you some inspiration to make your own goals and to have some accountability by making mine public. So here goes... 

Read every case

I'll admit, last year I'd start off strong with this but then get sloppy as the weeks passed. I used Quimbee as a crutch instead of an aid and I know I shouldn't have been doing that. Reading someone else's briefs might get you by in general because they tell you the basics about a case, but sometimes you actually need to read them for yourself so that you can pick up on how it connects to the cases you read right before and after them.

My goal for this semester is to at least skim the cases at the bare minimum. I want to have a deeper understanding of my classes so that I will do more than just pass, I will be ahead of the curve. I know if I don't let myself cut corners now, it'll be easier when it comes time to study for the final.

Add highlights from the text to notes weekly

When I read through a casebook, I'll highlight in yellow concepts that I thought seemed important. My favorite part is when the professor tells us to highlight something in the book because we'll need to know it for the test, and I've already picked that out myself. This is why it's important to scarcely highlight only the major parts instead of highlighting everything. And what I don't have already highlighted that my professor mentions, I'll highlight it in pink so that later I know that he wants me to know it. 

Last year I waited until finals time to add all these notes to my texts, and by then I didn't really have time to incorporate much of that into what I was studying. So this semester I want to stay on top of this and add it to my notes every week. This will help me not forget these tidbits until right at the very end, and also help me not have a ton of prep work when it comes finals time.

Summarize each chapter after finishing it

One of my favorite professors last semester always said that, "The rate of learning has to exceed the rate of forgetting." This semester, I'm hoping to put my 20-color pen set to use and make a pretty one-page summary of what each chapter was about, studyblr style. 

My thoughts are that if I do this for each chapter, it will help me review what I just learned. Then by the time I need to study for finals, I also have this that I can go over as a quick reminder. I hope that after each time I finish a summary, I'll review my previous ones so that my rate of learning will exceed my rate of forgetting.

Update outlines bi-weekly

I truly believe in the power of outlines helping you memorize the crazy amount of information that you need to know. However, these can again be something that is easy to start strong on but trickles after a while. Last semester one of my friends invited me to go out of town as a last fun weekend before finals time, but I had to decline because I hadn't even started on my outlines and was starting to freak out.

This year my aim is to stay on top of my game. Not only that, but again I hope to use my colorful pens to make them. I know that statistically, you're more likely to remember something if you write it down, so hopefully this method of creating my outline will help compensate for me typing my notes. When it comes time for finals, I'll still type up what I've written over the course of the semester just so that I can clean it up a bit.

(here's a post on how to get started on outlines)

Review outlines bi-weekly

On my off weeks for updating my outlines, I want to review what I have so far to again exceed my rate of forgetting. I decided to work on my outlines in alternating weeks because really if you go to a class for only 2 days a week then you probably won't cover that much to add to your outline each week. By breaking it up I can focus on reviewing my outline without having to waste time updating it first. 

(btw, don't worry about getting started on your outlines until after like month because you just won't have enough to put in them yet anyways)

Update flashcards monthly

As I add rules to my outlines, I also want to be adding them to the flashcards I make on Quizlet. Again this is coming from experience after wasting two days of study time last semester just getting everything together to study. This also goes towards trying to study throughout the semester by repetition instead of trying to cram two weeks before finals. I don't really get that much information that I need to add to flashcards, so I feel like a once-a-month update/review will be a decent pace of studying throughout the year. 

Another reason why all of this repetition and early studying is important to me, is that last year when it was towards the end of the semester my professor asked me, "What other legal theory that we've learned about this year could the defendant argue?" I couldn't think of an answer off the top of my head because I'd already forgotten the obvious theory, and it was embarrassing when it seemed like everyone else raised their hand because they hadn't already forgot what we learned two months ago.

Keep an updated case list

Even if your professor tells you that he won't require you to cite to cases on a test, having a list with the main facts and rule of each case is still a good idea. Probably the biggest pro of this is that sometimes professors will give you hypotheticals on your tests that are very similar to a case that you've read. One thing that really sucks is when you recognize the fact pattern, but can't remember what the outcome was. Another thing that is that if you could mention that a hypo was similar to X case in your essay, that's a great way to snag a few points and inch up the curve. 

Because I don't necessarily need to have the cases memorized quite like I do for my outlines, I'm not so worried about doing this a ton throughout the semester. My goal is just to have it done so, again, I'm not real busy trying to prepare to study once it's finals time.

Speak up in at least one class a week

This one is hard for me because as a naturally shy person, my instinct is to sit there in class and let other students be the eager beavers and raise their hands. My main goal for this will just to be actively making myself participate in class and reminding myself not to sit idly by. It's easy for a class (or several) to fly by before you realize that you haven't talked in there once. 

I want to actively participate in class so that if I ever need a recommendation letter or something, my professors can say that I really tried for them. Another reason I want to work on this is that I want to answer the questions that I do know so that when it comes time for a question that I don't know, and the professor thinks I want to call on someone who hasn't spoken up in a while, I'll be blissfully off the radar. 

Final Thoughts

So, there you have my personal goals to make sure that I don't just survive this year, I thrive. If you have any other goals that you think I should consider adding, please let me know! I encourage you all to sit down and think about what you personally need to be doing to make sure that you're killing the law school game this semester!

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