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Law School / Law School – 1L / unsolicited advice

A happy hour pause for the 1Ls

Dinner for two

I have leftover pizza, an exceptional Absolut cocktail, and episode 2 of the A-List: New York waiting for me, but I am taking a happy hour pause to speak to the 1Ls because I love you like Joan Rivers loves botox. Y’all still around?

A few friendly reminders:

  1. Breathe.
  2. Start organizing your notes this weekend (outlining) so you don’t have a “oh shit” moment at Thanksgiving when you realize that finals are around the corner. Use the syllabus as a skeletal outline and see if you need to review anything from the beginning of the semester. This is also a good time to hit up classmates for missing notes.
  3. Consider book briefing.
  4. Stop procrastinating your legal writing work. That will bite you in the ass. I promise.
  5. You didn’t become superhuman upon surviving two months of law school. You still need to sleep and eat, and on a related note…
  6. Remember to embrace the burnout.

For example, today I ran around for about 12 hours: studying, fumbling around the tax clinic, dealing with the meltdown of my craptastic school laptop, and attending class (without a laptop ah!)
I have an essay, a research paper, and a presentation to finish. But I am not doing any more work today. I am going to partake in this pizza,  my cocktail, and watch my trashy reality show before I go to bed.

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Why? Because I am burnt out and anything I do tonight will just have to be redone in the morning.

It is far more efficient for me to relax, sleep 8 hours, get up early, and then do great work.

How many unproductive hours are you wasting in the library after you’ve burnt out?

If you catch yourself reading at a snail’s pace because you spent all day studying then stop. You are burned out and need to rest. Grab a beverage and watch the A-List with me. No one is going to beat you if you finish your homework tomorrow morning.

That’s all grasshoppers! Now to the A-List…

5 Comments

  • Cindy
    October 13, 2010 at 10:32 am

    I can always count on you for calming advice. Thanks per the usual!

    Reply
    • Jansen
      October 13, 2010 at 2:42 pm

      Buhaha. Thanks for reading!

      Reply
  • Casi
    October 13, 2010 at 11:40 pm

    Dennis, you are so wonderful! Thanks for the advice and support! 🙂

    Reply
    • Jansen
      October 14, 2010 at 12:44 am

      Muah! Thanks!

      Reply
  • annlee@kohncommunications.com
    October 20, 2010 at 1:19 pm

    Sage advice for anyone who’s overworked. Thanks! -ae

    Reply

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