June 30, 2025 • 33 mins
Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! In this episode of our 1L summer series, we discuss how to organize your time efficiently and maintain focus in law school. We go through the structured daily routine of 1Ls, the importance of deep work, and the use of organizational tools for effective time management. We also explain two productive approaches to studying - the Pomodoro Technique and the Circles Method, and provide tips on combating procrastination.
In this episode we discuss:
- What does a typical law student's weekly schedule look like?
- The best calendar and task management systems for law students
- How to use the Pomodoro Technique and other focused work methods effectively
- How to avoid procrastination when the workload feels overwhelming
- Balancing immediate deadlines with long-term projects like outlining
Resources
- Start Law School Right! (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/start-law-school-right/)
- Podcast Episode 432: Creating New Habits and Optimizing Time Management (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/podcast-episode-432-creating-new-habits-and-optimizing-time-management/)
- Law School Toolbox Experts Share: How Should Law Students Create a Study Schedule? (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/law-school-toolbox-experts-share-how-would-you-advise-law-students-to-create-a-study-schedule/)
- How to Calendar Your Way to Better Grades and More Free Time (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/how-to-calendar-your-way-to-better-grades-and-more-free-time/)
- Pomodoro Technique (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique)
- Need to Get More Done in Law School? Try The Circles. (https://thegirlsguidetolawschool.com/08/tips-time-management-awesomeness-with-the-circles/)
- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport (https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Distracted-Paperback/dp/B0F79RGMLM/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0)
- Are You a Procrastinator? Break the Cycle with the Procrastination Wheel (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/12523-2/)
- Organizational Tools for Outlining Legal Subject Areas (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/organizational-tools-for-outlining-legal-subject-areas/)
Download the Transcript
(https://lawschooltoolbox.com/episode-510-how-do-i-organize-my-time-and-stay-focused-1l-summer-series/)
If you enjoy the podcast, we'd love a nice review and/or rating on Apple Podcasts (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/law-school-toolbox-podcast/id1027603976) or your favorite listening app. And feel free to reach out to us directly. You can always reach us via the contact form on the Law School Toolbox website (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/contact). If you're concerned about the bar exam, check out our sister site, the Bar Exam Toolbox (http://barexamtoolbox.com/). You can also sign up for our weekly podcast newsletter (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/get-law-school-podcast-updates/) to make sure you never miss an episode!
Thanks for listening!
Alison & Lee
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lee Burgess (00:01):
Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast.
Today we're talking about how onearth you should organize your time
and stay focused in law school.
Your Law School Toolbox hosts are AlisonMonaghan and Lee Burgess, that's me.
We're here to demystify the lawschool and early legal career
experience, so you'll be the bestlaw student and lawyer you can be.
We're the co-creators of the Law SchoolToolbox, the Bar Exam Toolbox, and the
(00:24):
career-related website CareerDicta.
Alison also runs TheGirl's Guide to Law School.
If you enjoy the show, pleaseleave a review or rating on your
favorite listening app, and ifyou have any questions, don't
hesitate to reach out to us.
You can reach us via the contactform on LawSchoolToolbox.com,
and we'd love to hear from you.
And with that, let's get started.
Alison Monahan (00:51):
Welcome back.
Today we're talking about how to organizeyour time and stay focused in law school.
Alright, as we jump in, I thinkthe first question we have is:
What does a typical law student'sweekly schedule even look like?
What do you do in law school?
Lee Burgess (01:08):
You're busy, but what do you do?
I was surprised - and I think most1L experiences are like this - how
structured your week is when you're a 1L.
I mean, you really have classfive days a week, usually.
The classes are usually spread out.
You may have two classes a day, youmay have a break in the middle of
the day, but it's pretty structured.
(01:30):
It felt more like high school thancollege actually, because it was
so structured, and you're takingyour classes with the same pool of
people, which is also interesting.
So, it really did feel like I was kindof at a job, like at a school job, more
than I think like my undergrad experience.
Alison Monahan (01:50):
Yeah.
For me, we had all of our classescrammed into four days a week, so that
was even more intensely scheduled.
I mean, I rarely had a break ofmore than except for lunch - like
30 minutes or so between classes.
So, sometimes you'll have these longbreaks in the middle of the day, sometimes
your classes will be stacked back-to-back.
Usually your schedule will flipon different days, and it can
be a lot of different things.
But basically, you're going to have togo to class, you're going to have to do
(02:13):
a lot of reading, and then you're goingto have stuff to do on your own - for
example, making outlines or other studyaids, and also preparing for exams.
And I think that's the piece that cana little bit get lost in the shuffle,
particularly in those first monthsof law school where it is this very
structured, read your cases, go to class,discuss the cases, go home, read more.
(02:34):
And what can really get lost that Ithink is critically important to include
in your schedule is this deeper work ortime to reflect upon things, put them
together, and then actually start applyingyour knowledge to some new scenarios,
like you'll have to do on an exam.
Lee Burgess (02:48):
Yeah, and you have to protect that deep work time from
things like Legal Writing assignments,which also take up a ton of time.
You blocked that out.
You didn't even mention it, becausenobody likes to think about them.
Alison Monahan (02:58):
No.
I, just mentally thought, "Oh yeah,Legal Writing, that's the thing over
there." But no, the reality is, thatwill take hours and hours and hours of
your time throughout the semester, andcan really start to take over when you
have memos due and things like that.
Lee Burgess (03:12):
Yeah.
I think what becomes really challengingis to put some sort of structure
on a lot of this unstructured time.
You may have the class time, which isgoing to lend itself to be a little
bit of structure, but I think for mostpeople you're like, "Oh, cool. I don't
have class till 10:00." But your dayprobably shouldn't start at 10:00.
I mean, maybe if you're a true nightowl, but I think for most people your
(03:33):
day shouldn't probably start at 10:00.
You want to think about it like a job.
What are going to be the hours thatyou're going to dedicate to law
school during the week and on theweekends, while still making time for
self-care, to take care of yourselfand create a little bit of balance?
It's a challenge.
Alison Monahan (03:52):
It is, and I think you have to look at the week as a whole.
So, what does your weekendversus your weekday look like?
And people vary in terms of how far inadvance they might be able to do the
reading, or they can do the readingand still remember anything about it.
I'm notoriously not a morning person,so I did a lot of my reading after
dinner, but for a lot of peoplethat would not have been effective.
(04:12):
Oftentimes people will like to do alot of the reading on the weekend.
It just depends.
You can kind of experiment with whatworks for you, but I think you want
to set up this cadence where youhave a routine and you know basically
how long things are going to take,and you've blocked out that time.
And you do it consistently, becauseit's just going to be easier than if
your world is kind of a world of chaos.
Lee Burgess (04:32):
Yeah.
And I think you need to prepareyourself that you're talking about
hours of reading for each class.
I think that's very different frommost students' undergrad experiences.
And so, you may say, "Oh well, I have twoclasses today. I could prep for two hours
in the morning." It's likely you have twohours of reading for one of those classes.
Alison Monahan (04:53):
Easily.
Easily.
Lee Burgess (04:54):
And so you have to really think about preparing for
class in a different way whilestill protecting those times, as you
mentioned, for things like deep work.
So, you want to lookat the week at a whole.
You want to either print out a calendaror look at an online Google Calendar
and start to place when classes mightbe, when your other life tasks are.
(05:14):
And then look for those pockets ofnon-distracted study time where you
can focus on exams, do things likethose Legal Writing assignments and get
stuff done, because getting behind isa really dangerous thing in law school.
It's pretty
Alison Monahan (05:29):
impossible to catch up.
No, as soon as you fall behind,you are in a very bad situation,
basically, because the workload is sointense and so continuous that if you
fall a day or two behind, now you'retrying to catch up those days in
addition to doing all the other stuff.
When are you going tohave time to do that?
There are no extra days inthe semester, basically.
Lee Burgess (05:47):
No.
So, you've got to stay on task.
And honestly, my comment aboutthat is, if you're behind, you just
have to cut it off and keep moving.
You cannot go back.
You only go forward.
Alison Monahan (06:00):
Right.
No, it's kind of like, I was watching theNetflix Tour de France and they're talking
about the peloton and they're like, "Thepeloton just keeps going." It does not
matter what happens, it keeps going.
And I feel like lawschool is a bit like that.
You can see the cases arethe peloton - they just keep
rolling, with or without you.
So, at some point you might just have tocut it off and start again another day
(06:21):
and get an outline to learn the stuffthat you didn't learn when you were sick.
I mean, that happens.
Lee Burgess (06:25):
Yeah, I got the flu my first year of law school.
I think I missed three or four classes.
I just had to get notesand work around it.
I could not go back, because I wastoo sick to study during that time.
So, you just have to make
Alison Monahan (06:36):
it
Lee Burgess (06:36):
work.
Alison Monahan (06:38):
Yeah, exactly.
It's like the class keeps moving andyou've got to keep moving with it.
Lee Burgess (06:41):
Yeah.
So, once you decide the landscapeof all the things that you have to
do, what are the best calendaringor task management systems that you
can consider using in law school?
Alison Monahan (06:54):
Again, I think this is very individual.
People have strong preferencesone way or the other on different
tools, for no real reason.
All of the tools are probably fine.
There are a ton of digital managementsystems out there at this point.
I personally have always likedTrello, people like Notion.
I don't know, there's Asana thatwe use but don't really like.
(07:16):
There are a lot of options.
And again, I think if something has workedfor you in the past, there's no reason
to reinvent the wheel, whether it's apaper system or an electronic system.
I live and die by my Google Calendar.
And what I like about that is, otherpeople can get access to pieces
of it, or we can share calendars,you can share things with me.
(07:38):
The reality is, it doesn't reallymatter what system you use,
as long as you have a system.
Lee Burgess (07:43):
Yes, I know.
I also now live and die by myGoogle Calendar, even though I used
to be a paper calendar die-hard.
Alison Monahan (07:49):
Oh, same.
Lee Burgess (07:50):
There are really cool ways that you can set it
up for yourself with law school.
I mean, you could really geek out on this.
You could have one calendarthat's just your classes, and then
you could have another calendarthat is your other study time.
And then you could have a sharedcalendar with family commitments
or whatever it might be.
Alison Monahan (08:06):
Or your study group.
Lee Burgess (08:07):
Or a study group or things like that.
But you can share things with people,you can change your own views,
the way you view your calendar.
It's just so helpful.
I also think it's great with GoogleCalendar because you can put in so
easily all of those dates for theentire semester and really look ahead.
So, no matter what system you do, Ithink setting aside some time to put in
(08:32):
the entire semester's worth of dates,like when are reading days, when are
the final exams, when are any daysoff from school, there are holidays.
All of that kind of stuff, makesure everything is in the calendar.
Due dates for things - you'd neverwant to be surprised by a date.
It takes two seconds toput it on your calendar.
Alison Monahan (08:50):
Right, exactly.
Like the second a call is scheduled foranything, or a meeting, or a doctor's
appointment - just put it in the calendar.
Maybe they're going to later sendyou a meeting invite - that's great.
If they do, you can update it;but the second you get that
scheduled, put it on the calendar.
And I think also recurring events arereally useful for things like deep work.
If you decide that, "Okay, I amcommitting that every Saturday morning
(09:14):
is going to be the time that I'm goingto do a minimum four hours of deep
work" - just put that on the calendaras a recurring event, and then you're
much more likely to do it than whenyou Friday night are like, "Oh, I don't
really feel like getting up tomorrow.
I'm not going to do that."Or you just forget entirely.
Right.
Or
Lee Burgess (09:30):
then you could move it.
I have a "work on LinkedIn" as one ofmy recurring things on the calendar.
I don't always do it at thetime, or at all, but at the
time that I'm supposed to do it.
But oftentimes I will move it and say,"No, I have time-sensitive work that
needs to be done, but maybe I'll do iton Wednesday instead." And so even if
it's there and it gets moved, it's stillbetter than it not being there at all.
Alison Monahan (09:54):
Right, which is what I did when we talked about
thinking about LinkedIn, andhave I looked at LinkedIn since?
Probably not.
So if I had it as a movable event,I would at least think to do it.
Lee Burgess (10:04):
Yeah, exactly.
But I do think blocking out time,trying to move your schedule around,
probably setting up something foryourself where you audit your schedule
for the week - I think that is areally great habit on Sundays, to take
some time and look ahead at the week.
I'll use my own personalweek as an example.
It is May when we are recording this, ifyou have children, you know it's called
(10:28):
"the thousand days of May", because it isinsane how much stuff is on the calendar.
And I looked at my calendar not realizingI had committed to things Tuesday
night, Wednesday night, Thursday night,Friday night, and Saturday night.
Okay, that's not how I run my life.
I do not like to go outfive nights in a row.
That is too many things.
And then I kind of went, "Okay." One,I did not look ahead at my calendar
(10:52):
when I started saying "yes" to things.
Ironically, I've been saying "no" tothings, but clearly not enough things.
And now I have to go through and decidewhat I'm not to do, because I'm not
going to five events in a row this week.
That is impractical for my life.
The important event is on Saturday nightand I don't to be zombie at that event.
So, I do think it'simportant to take stock.
(11:14):
I did do that on Sunday and thenI made some choices and I decided
what was most important that I do.
But if I hadn't done that, I couldhave been surprised on Wednesday, when
my calendar told me I was supposedto be dressed up to go to some event
at 6:00 o'clock and I was stillwearing my tennis clothes and not at
all ready to go to some fancy event,or maybe hadn't even had childcare.
Alison Monahan (11:34):
Yeah, exactly.
I think this habit of sort oflooking ahead, thinking through
what's realistic and then makingsure that you're not missing things.
For me, every night before I goto bed, I look at my calendar and
I set an alarm 10 minutes beforeevery single event on the calendar.
And I cannot tell you how many timesthat alarm has gone off and I'm like,
"What is this annoying alarm going offfor?" And then I look at my calendar and
(11:56):
I'm like, "Oh, because in 10 minutes,I have a call." So, that has saved me
so many times, and I highly recommendemploying it as a practice of everyone.
Lee Burgess (12:06):
Yeah.
You can also sit down, especiallyonce you get your calendar for the
semester when you get your syllabi,and look for due dates for things.
I think that's anothergreat thing to think about.
It's like, if you know that October15th is some sort of due date for a
legal memo, and you're not sure whenexactly that starts, I might put on
my calendar two weeks before, "Note: the memo is coming up in two weeks." (12:30):
undefined
Alison Monahan (12:36):
Right, exactly.
Lee Burgess (12:37):
You can give yourself these alarms, right?
You can schedule an email to goto yourself to remind yourself
to put that on your radar.
I think looking ahead and creatingsome timed structure for yourself so
you get a heads up when things arecoming also makes a lot of sense.
So, investing in your calendaringtime and giving yourself the gift
of doing it on a regular basis isgoing to set you up for success.
(13:00):
And just pick a schemeand try and stick with it.
I think you don't want to beconstantly trying new time management
schemes during the semester.
Or maybe a new semester is agreat time to try something new.
But just commit to somethingand try it for a while and see
if you can create some habits.
Alison Monahan (13:15):
Yeah, you need a basic calendar and then you need
some way to manage your tasks.
And that might be by writing lists,it might be by having some sort of
app, there are lots of different ways.
But those are kind of the big buckets ofmanagement, is like, "What's happening at
a certain day or time, and then what do Ineed to get done in this particular day?"
Lee Burgess (13:33):
Yeah.
And if you don't have a great systemfor that, there are a million of them.
You should start tryingthem as soon as you can.
Alison Monahan (13:40):
Yeah, and it might be a combo.
It can literally be something as simpleas bullet point notes on your phone,
and then you also have a paper versionand you compare them occasionally.
It doesn't have to be super complicated.
Lee Burgess (13:50):
No.
I love a good notes app on my iPhone.
That is just how I run a lot of my life.
Alison Monahan (13:57):
And you can share those with people too, in case you need to.
Lee Burgess (14:00):
My whole world is run off of notes and Trello.
It's really amazing.
And I still use a paper to-do liston top of that, because I still
like to cross things off for thedopamine hit that you get crossing
Alison Monahan (14:11):
off.
Exactly.
So, don't overcomplicate this, butyou do need something to help you
stay organized and have a calendar.
Lee Burgess (14:20):
Another question we get frequently, and very popular
blog posts and podcast episodes talkabout this, is: How can I use things
like the Pomodoro Technique or otherfocused work methods effectively, and
how's it going to help in law school?
So, what is this stuff?
I had not really even heard of thisstuff before we started working together.
Alison Monahan (14:41):
Yeah.
I'm a big fan.
I call it "the Circles", which I stolefrom somebody else a long time ago on the
Internet, and I talked about this early onon The Girl's Guide to Law School, it was
one of the ways I got through law school.
But the basic idea is that you picka certain amount of time and it's a
small amount of time, like 30 minutes,45 minutes, maybe up to an hour
and you allocate that time betweenfocused work and then break time.
(15:04):
So, the Pomodoro, I think it'susually 25 minutes of work
and then a five-minute break.
When I did the Circles, I did an hour.
I think I said like 50 minutesstraight, or 45 minutes.
I got the rest of it off.
If I got distracted, Ionly got five minutes off.
I don't know, there was a wholebargaining system in there.
But the basic point is, you'renot trying to sit there and
work eight straight hours.
(15:26):
You are focusing on something,and then you are taking a break.
Usually it's ideal if that's a movementbreak of some type, where you remove
yourself from reading or viewing anything.
So it might be that you walk aroundthe block, it could be you walk
to get a coffee, whatever it is.
But you take an actual mentalbreak, you refresh yourself, and
then you come back to the work.
(15:47):
So I think particularly for people whomaybe have some ADHD stuff going on, this
idea of focusing on something, taking abreak, focusing on something, can just
really improve your productivity a lot,and probably also make you happier.
Lee Burgess (16:01):
Yeah.
I really think the point you madethat this needs to be a non-digital
break, I think is very important.
I have also read more and more aboutthese techniques, and it is very
consistent that you should not be onsocial media, that you should not be
answering emails and things like that.
I think you'd be better off takinga non-digital break and then coming
(16:23):
back and saying, "I have to do10 minutes of emailing" instead.
Alison Monahan (16:26):
Right, like an admin.
Lee Burgess (16:27):
Right, like an admin allotment.
But also, you will justfall into the phone.
I was watching that Netflix show thatjust came out called The Four Seasons,
and there's a line that Tina Fayesays about wanting to go somewhere
by herself and read her phone untilthe end, or something like that.
Which I thought was a funny way to putit, but I do sometimes feel like that,
(16:50):
where you're like, "Maybe if I just keepreading, I'll reach the end of Instagram."
Alison Monahan (16:54):
Yeah, no.
The funny thing is, I don't know ifthey still do, but BlueSky, because they
had less content, you sometimes wouldreach the end, and then it was this
moment of "Oh, I guess I'm really done.They have nothing else to show me."
Lee Burgess (17:03):
"I have now read the Internet."
Alison Monahan (17:05):
"I'm done. I'm at the end of the scroll."
Lee Burgess (17:08):
But I don't think Meta's algorithm ever lets you
Alison Monahan (17:11):
find the end.
No, they'll just keepthrowing whatever they got.
I don't care what language it'sin, you've still got more to see.
Lee Burgess (17:15):
Totally.
Alison Monahan (17:16):
"You have zero interest in this, but look at it anyway.
Please.
Come on.
It's eight days old.
It's totally fresh."
Lee Burgess (17:25):
But part of the reason why you want to not fall into your
phone is because 20 minutes can justfly by, and then you've lost yourself.
So, I think taking those very focusedbreaks and seeing something like
the Pomodoro or the Circle methodas these kind of micro sessions
within a longer study session.
So, you may have a four-hour deep worksession, but within that four hours, you
(17:48):
may have eight of these Pomodoro sessions.
and
Alison Monahan (17:51):
I would literally get a piece of paper and draw
them out and then color them in.
And then it actually was helpful.
At the end of a day, if I was feelingbad about what I'd done or the week
or whatever, I was stressing about anexam, I would actually sometimes look
at them and be like, "You know what?You did do this work." It was a visual
reminder that I sat there, I did it.
And it just kind of made it alittle more fun to color them in.
That was a little bit of a treat as well.
Lee Burgess (18:12):
Yeah, so little dopamine hit.
Alison Monahan (18:14):
Yeah, whatever works.
Lee Burgess (18:17):
My daughter was making flashcards, and then after she'd write
something on it, she would color them.
And I was like, "What apositive reinforcement. Look
how pretty this flashcard is."
Alison Monahan (18:27):
Oh yeah.
I made flashcards with little picturesthat I colored in, and people thought I
was crazy, but I'm like, "You asked me tolearn 10 cases." I can still basically
tell you if I think back to that personin the surgery that I colored in, I
can tell you what the case is about.
I mean, I think engaging moreparts of the brain is often
helpful for learning, actually.
Lee Burgess (18:45):
Yeah.
So, one of the themes here is that you'vegot to figure out how to find some focus.
And there's not a lot of extratime, and you've got to set yourself
up for success with that focus.
So, whatever you need to do, removingdistractions, turning off your phone,
using a tool on your computer if you needto block websites or things like that.
(19:06):
But you have to really giveyourself the best chance of
using your brain to do your work.
It'll be so much more efficientand you will feel so much better.
Alison Monahan (19:15):
Yeah, and it's also just a good habit to develop.
There's a well-known book calledDeep Work by Cal New something.
Lee Burgess (19:21):
Newport, I think.
Alison Monahan (19:22):
Newport, yeah.
I was like, Newtown, Newport.
Lee Burgess (19:23):
I just saw it on my bookshelf the other day, which is
why I refreshed my recollection.
Alison Monahan (19:27):
Yeah.
So, I think that's animportant book to look at.
This idea that the modern economy isso full of distractions that being
able to focus is actually a sellingpoint and a benefit, and something
that's becoming increasingly rare.
So, I think law school in a way is almostthis monastic type of experience of
(19:47):
just you and the material and the book.
But if you can work those muscles anddevelop that focus, that's something
that's going to pay dividends for sure.
The other thing to think about iseventually if you're in any sort of
private practice, you're probablygoing to be billing your time, wants
to be billing your Instagram time.
That is malpractice.
So, you can't do that.
(20:08):
But you do to start realizingto work with lot of focus and
very conscious of your time.
so, if you've never tracked your timebefore, if you don't understand where your
time then try It is very enlightening.
think all time and then you starttracking it, you might be shocked
that you're not actually doing asmuch focused study as you thought.
(20:32):
Yeah, no, I think that's the advantageof these types of techniques, is
it really forces you to confrontthe fact that you are not paying
attention to what you need to be doing.
Lee Burgess (20:39):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Okay, here's another great onethat we talk a lot about: How
do I avoid procrastination whenthe workload feels overwhelming?
Oh, the self-sabotaging behavior.
We've all been there, we've all doneit, we've all seen other people do it.
It happens to everybody.
Alison Monahan (20:58):
Yeah, and I think there are a number of
different reasons this can happen.
If something's feeling reallyoverwhelming, that's often a sign
that someone just doesn't knowhow to get started on something.
So, if the assignment is "Write a brief"and you've never written a brief before,
of course you're going to procrastinate onthat, because you don't know what to do.
(21:23):
So, getting that problemsolved is often the first step.
I mean, some of this is you justdon't want to do these things.
Your brain doesn't want to do them,it's not motivated to do them.
So, I don't know, I feel like thereare a lot of different root causes
of procrastination, and that you'veprobably got to figure out what
that cause might be for you tofigure out an effective solution.
Lee Burgess (21:42):
Yeah.
I think oftentimes with our students, I'vefound that it's easier to manage if you
set yourself up for success the next day.
And so, if you make your to-do list atnight or you commit to doing certain
tasks the next day, it's much easier tosay, "Okay, I'm going to just take this
(22:03):
list and do the tasks that are presentedto me, rather than having to make all
of those choices." So, I think thereare things like scaffolding you can
create for yourself, to stay on task.
But I love this idea of takingsomething big and breaking it
into more manageable chunks.
And I think that applies to almostall of this stuff in law school.
It could be, read the firstcase in your reading assignment.
(22:23):
It doesn't have to be, readall three cases at one sitting.
Maybe that's impractical.
How do you break any sort of largeassignment up into manageable chunks?
You're not going to sit down andoutline a whole course, right?
What can you outline?
You're going to outline defenses intorts, and that's one sit down time.I
think that anything you can do to makeit so you can meet these goals, it just
(22:45):
doesn't feel like such a black hole.
Alison Monahan (22:48):
Right.
And there are tools out there - a lot ofthem are AI-based that can help you with
some of this stuff, where you can giveit kind of, "Okay, this is my assignment
and I don't know what to do first." Andit can kind of say, "Well, maybe think
about this and this and this." And youcan say, "I need more detail than that"
or, "I need less detail than that.
Give one thing to do that's going tomake it easy to move this forward." And
it's really that process of moving thingsforward that's going to create that
(23:11):
momentum for you to get to the bigger win.
So, maybe it's not even that youare going to read an entire case.
Maybe if you're really just not feelingit, you're like, "I'm going to sit
down, I'm going to open the book, I'mgoing to find the case, and I'm going
to read the first paragraph." Thatmight be your goal, because you're
probably not going to stop after that.
Lee Burgess (23:29):
It's true.
Yeah, that's true.
I do think that anything you can do to getyourself over that hump is a great idea.
And then you may needaccountability partners.
You may need friends or a studygroup who you can make some of these
lists with together, and then youcan check in on how things are going.
Some people find thathelpful, some people don't.
But you need to decide if you needsomeone to hold you accountable, then
(23:51):
you better create that accountability.
And then you know yourself pretty well.
I mean, you've already been to undergrad,you probably know what some of your
triggers are, whether you need rewards.
I have a soft spot forsome trashy TV in my life.
And so, even in law school, during finalsand really intense times, this is back
when you'd have to get the DVDs of shows.
(24:12):
And so, it'd be like, I knew that Icould go home and watch an episode
of something trashy when I was done.
And that was one of thereasons I wanted to get home.
Simple pleasures, right?
Thanks, Netflix.
But I had a reward to look forward to,so I knew that was important to me.
I needed to know that I didn'thave to go home and do laundry.
I got go home and do somethingthat felt like blowing off steam.
(24:34):
So, whatever it is for you, youjust kind of have to set that up.
And just be honest with yourself.
And if you've truly hit a wall, aburnout wall, I mean truly hit one,
then you need to take a step backand maybe take a break, take half a
day off and reset yourself, becauseyou can't push through that burnout.
That's its own thing.
But burnout doesn't happen as oftenas people would like to say it does.
(24:56):
I think it's more oftenprocrastination and not burnout.
Alison Monahan (24:59):
Right.
And I think along those lines, ifyou really just don't know what to do
because you've never done this before,then find somebody to help you with it.
Legal writing is like a bigprocrastination area, and I think that's
the case where you need to go to officehours for your Legal Writing professor and
say, "Look, I'm feeling really overwhelmedwith this task. Can you help me figure
out how to get started? These are somethings I've thought about" or whatever.
(25:21):
You don't want to just go and be like,"Please tell me what to do." But,
"I've thought through the problem.
I'm really not sure what directionto head." Or you go talk to a law
librarian - they might even be morehelpful than your Legal Writing professor
would be, if it's a research-basedquestion. But there are people there
who can help you say, "Alright, you'vecome to me with this big question.
Here are some things you mighttry, to move, again, this boulder
(25:43):
down the hill a little bit.
Why don't you go try them and then comeback to me if they don't work?" There
are people who are actually there tohelp you; you just have to find them.
Lee Burgess (25:51):
Yeah, I think that's true.
I think your academic supportoffice is also a great resource.
Alison Monahan (25:56):
Your TA.
Lee Burgess (25:57):
Yeah.
Sometimes you can make an appointment with
Alison Monahan (25:58):
them
Lee Burgess (25:59):
and say, "Oh man, I am just in it and I don't know
what to do with this to-do list"or, "How to approach these bigger
challenges?", or outlining or whatnot.
And they can give you that support too.
Alison Monahan (26:09):
Well, your school may also have a writing center, which
is where you can get help that maybeyou can't get outside of the school
on some of your writing projects.
So, you want to understand whathelp you're allowed to get.
Obviously, you don't want to beaccidentally cheating, but typically you
can go to your school's writing centerand they have people who are trained and
can help you figure out the next steps,because there's really no reason you
would just inherently know how to do this.
(26:30):
So, get help and figure it out.
Lee Burgess (26:33):
Alright, his question I think is pretty unique to law school:
How do I balance immediate deadlineswith long-term projects like outlining?
And I think this really is suchhigh impact because of these final
exams that are barreling down at youfaster than you would like to think.
Alison Monahan (26:50):
Yeah.
And I think school, just the time spent,tends to prioritize something that is not
the same as what is tested on the final.
So, school prioritizes reading andclasses, and being prepared for the
Socratic method, and that's all welland good, but it doesn't actually help
you answer an exam question necessarily.
I mean, it does, kind of obliquely,but it does not directly give you that
(27:14):
practice that you need to answer examquestions, nor does it really help you put
together a big picture understanding ofthe class, which is what you do through
your outlines and other study aids.
Lee Burgess (27:25):
Yeah.
So, you've got to see that allof this stuff lives in parallel.
And I think that's why creating asmart calendar and looking at all
of your due dates is so important.
You need to see the semester asa whole and start to say, "Okay,
well, I can start outlining usuallya few weeks into the semester.
So, where is that going to happenevery week?" And then maybe look at
(27:48):
the calendar and say, "When should Ibe halfway done with that outline?"
Alison Monahan (27:51):
Right.
Lee Burgess (27:51):
At what point should that be done?
And then work back, so youhave those intermittent goals.
And then those outlines should be donepreferably before Reading Week, so you
can spend more of your time studyingand practicing, and not drafting things.
So, you want to invest in this everyweek, but you also want to have these
touchpoints where you can assess andsay, "Oh, I'm not getting enough done.
(28:12):
I need to invest more, or I need to changehow I'm doing it." So, I think having
these intermediate deadlines for yourselffor these longer projects also helps these
longer term projects stack up againstthese other classes like Legal Writing,
where you have to turn in assignments.
It is so much easier to do a LegalWriting assignment than it is to work
(28:33):
on a big abstract thing like outliningor studying for finals, because you can
be done with a Legal Writing assignment.
Alison Monahan (28:41):
Right.
Or you could even on the day-to-day basisbe done with your reading for a class.
I find sometimes people are just spendingway too much time on the reading.
And it might mean that people aretrying to read cases multiple times.
I've even heard people readingthem three times, four times.
Sometimes people rewatching classes.
You just don't have time for thesesorts of things, so you really
(29:04):
cannot let yourself do that.
If you find yourself rewatching aclass, you have to ask yourself,
"Why did I not get what I needto get out of it the first time?"
Lee Burgess (29:12):
Yeah.
Alison Monahan (29:13):
And change that.
Lee Burgess (29:14):
Yeah, like, why weren't you taking notes?
And I think this even goes forstudents who get accommodations.
You may get those recordingsfor an accommodation, which is
great, but what is the best wayfor you to use that recording?
Is it to just find a part of the lecturethat you found particularly confusing?
Or is it to crosscheck your notes,or what are you doing with it?
Because more information ormore repetitive information
(29:37):
isn't always better.
It is sometimes more challenging.
So, you really do have to constantlybe asking yourself, "Is this activity
getting me closer to these goals?And if not, then I need to pivot."
Alison Monahan (29:49):
Right.
"Is this a really good use of mytime?" And it's not to say that in
a perfect world you might not goto every lecture three times, but
what is that not allowing you to do?
Because you're spending that time doingthat instead of doing something else.
Yeah.
Lee Burgess (30:01):
And that's where I think it can become too, when you're finding
these deadlines, these longer, largerprojects, you've got to look at how
you're also just spending your other time.
I mean, if you haven't looked at yourscreen time report on your phone...
I don't like to look at mine, but Imake myself look at it and then I ask
myself important questions, like, "Isthat really how you want to be spending
(30:23):
that many hours of the week?" And maybeyou say "yes", and that's fine, but
you should ask yourself the question.
And if you don't have enough hours toget this other stuff done, you have to
ask yourself where the hours are going.
And I think that is a very hard questionfor a lot of us in these complicated
times where the news is very distracting.
I mean, it could be spendinga lot of time in The New York
(30:44):
Times or whatever you read.
Alison Monahan (30:45):
You know what?
I just stopped that, and The WashingtonPost, and I don't really miss them.
I mean, I still know what's going on,anything important enough still reaches
me, but I'm no longer spending... Imean, if you looked at my report from
I'm sure they're tracking me - and atsome point it literally dropped off
a cliff and never really went back.
Lee Burgess (31:04):
Yeah.
Alison Monahan (31:05):
I don't regret that time.
Lee Burgess (31:06):
Yeah, sometimes you have to just make those decisions.
I don't use Facebook anymore,unless I think there's something on
Facebook I need to see, but Facebookdoesn't serve me, so I just don't.
And I lead a full life I would liketo do the same with Instagram, but
there are things on Instagram thatI do feel that serve me, which
makes it a very mixed bag for me.
And that's its own podcast episode.
Alison Monahan (31:28):
Yeah.
Lee Burgess (31:29):
But you have to make conscious choices about how much of
your time, that is very precious...Time is like diamonds, not sand, to
quote our good friend Eve Rodsky, right?
It's like it's not infinite, soyou do have to be very aware of it.
If you're feeling like you don't knowwhat to do, that you're drowning,
you have to take a step back.
You have to look at your calendarand you have to be practical
(31:50):
about where your hours are going.
And that doesn't mean thatyou're not working hard.
It could just mean you have to be smarterabout how you're spending your time.
Alison Monahan (31:59):
Yeah.
And I think some of it is, you'rejust going to have to spend less time
at some point on the class reading.
And not to say that you shouldn'tdo it, but you hopefully
should be getting faster at it.
And if you're not gettingfaster at it, that's a problem.
But my opinion is you shouldmake a good faith effort to do
the reading you're assigned, andgo to class and talk about it.
That doesn't mean that you rememberevery single detail of every single case.
(32:19):
It doesn't even mean thatif you get called on, it's
going to go amazingly well.
But none of that, frankly,really matters in the end.
What matters is, can youuse this material on a test?
That's what matters.
And so, I think it's easy to lose focus,because that's not what's emphasized.
We hear this all the time - somebodybombs their exams and then goes to
their professor, and the professor's sosurprised because they did great in class.
(32:42):
But they didn't do anything else.
Lee Burgess (32:43):
Yeah, I think that's very true.
Well, we have to wrap up because youand I have a meeting with some Legal
Writing instructors that we have to go to.
So, to sound very law student-esque,we have to go talk to some professors.
Alison Monahan (32:57):
That is very true.
Lee Burgess (32:59):
If you enjoyed this episode of the Law School Toolbox podcast, please
take a second to leave a review andrating on your favorite listening app.
We'd really appreciate it.
And be sure to subscribeso you don't miss anything.
If you have any questions orcomments, please don't hesitate
to reach out to myself or Alisonat lee@lawschooltoolbox.com or
alison@lawschooltoolbox.com.
Or you can always contactus via our website contact
(33:20):
form at LawSchoolToolbox.com.
Thanks for listening, and we'll talk soon!
Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast.
Today we're talking about how onearth you should organize your time
and stay focused in law school.
Your Law School Toolbox hosts are AlisonMonaghan and Lee Burgess, that's me.
We're here to demystify the lawschool and early legal career
experience, so you'll be the bestlaw student and lawyer you can be.
We're the co-creators of the Law SchoolToolbox, the Bar Exam Toolbox, and the
(00:24):
career-related website CareerDicta.
Alison also runs TheGirl's Guide to Law School.
If you enjoy the show, pleaseleave a review or rating on your
favorite listening app, and ifyou have any questions, don't
hesitate to reach out to us.
You can reach us via the contactform on LawSchoolToolbox.com,
and we'd love to hear from you.
And with that, let's get started.
Alison Monahan (00:51):
Welcome back.
Today we're talking about how to organizeyour time and stay focused in law school.
Alright, as we jump in, I thinkthe first question we have is:
What does a typical law student'sweekly schedule even look like?
What do you do in law school?
Lee Burgess (01:08):
You're busy, but what do you do?
I was surprised - and I think most1L experiences are like this - how
structured your week is when you're a 1L.
I mean, you really have classfive days a week, usually.
The classes are usually spread out.
You may have two classes a day, youmay have a break in the middle of
the day, but it's pretty structured.
(01:30):
It felt more like high school thancollege actually, because it was
so structured, and you're takingyour classes with the same pool of
people, which is also interesting.
So, it really did feel like I was kindof at a job, like at a school job, more
than I think like my undergrad experience.
Alison Monahan (01:50):
Yeah.
For me, we had all of our classescrammed into four days a week, so that
was even more intensely scheduled.
I mean, I rarely had a break ofmore than except for lunch - like
30 minutes or so between classes.
So, sometimes you'll have these longbreaks in the middle of the day, sometimes
your classes will be stacked back-to-back.
Usually your schedule will flipon different days, and it can
be a lot of different things.
But basically, you're going to have togo to class, you're going to have to do
(02:13):
a lot of reading, and then you're goingto have stuff to do on your own - for
example, making outlines or other studyaids, and also preparing for exams.
And I think that's the piece that cana little bit get lost in the shuffle,
particularly in those first monthsof law school where it is this very
structured, read your cases, go to class,discuss the cases, go home, read more.
(02:34):
And what can really get lost that Ithink is critically important to include
in your schedule is this deeper work ortime to reflect upon things, put them
together, and then actually start applyingyour knowledge to some new scenarios,
like you'll have to do on an exam.
Lee Burgess (02:48):
Yeah, and you have to protect that deep work time from
things like Legal Writing assignments,which also take up a ton of time.
You blocked that out.
You didn't even mention it, becausenobody likes to think about them.
Alison Monahan (02:58):
No.
I, just mentally thought, "Oh yeah,Legal Writing, that's the thing over
there." But no, the reality is, thatwill take hours and hours and hours of
your time throughout the semester, andcan really start to take over when you
have memos due and things like that.
Lee Burgess (03:12):
Yeah.
I think what becomes really challengingis to put some sort of structure
on a lot of this unstructured time.
You may have the class time, which isgoing to lend itself to be a little
bit of structure, but I think for mostpeople you're like, "Oh, cool. I don't
have class till 10:00." But your dayprobably shouldn't start at 10:00.
I mean, maybe if you're a true nightowl, but I think for most people your
(03:33):
day shouldn't probably start at 10:00.
You want to think about it like a job.
What are going to be the hours thatyou're going to dedicate to law
school during the week and on theweekends, while still making time for
self-care, to take care of yourselfand create a little bit of balance?
It's a challenge.
Alison Monahan (03:52):
It is, and I think you have to look at the week as a whole.
So, what does your weekendversus your weekday look like?
And people vary in terms of how far inadvance they might be able to do the
reading, or they can do the readingand still remember anything about it.
I'm notoriously not a morning person,so I did a lot of my reading after
dinner, but for a lot of peoplethat would not have been effective.
(04:12):
Oftentimes people will like to do alot of the reading on the weekend.
It just depends.
You can kind of experiment with whatworks for you, but I think you want
to set up this cadence where youhave a routine and you know basically
how long things are going to take,and you've blocked out that time.
And you do it consistently, becauseit's just going to be easier than if
your world is kind of a world of chaos.
Lee Burgess (04:32):
Yeah.
And I think you need to prepareyourself that you're talking about
hours of reading for each class.
I think that's very different frommost students' undergrad experiences.
And so, you may say, "Oh well, I have twoclasses today. I could prep for two hours
in the morning." It's likely you have twohours of reading for one of those classes.
Alison Monahan (04:53):
Easily.
Easily.
Lee Burgess (04:54):
And so you have to really think about preparing for
class in a different way whilestill protecting those times, as you
mentioned, for things like deep work.
So, you want to lookat the week at a whole.
You want to either print out a calendaror look at an online Google Calendar
and start to place when classes mightbe, when your other life tasks are.
(05:14):
And then look for those pockets ofnon-distracted study time where you
can focus on exams, do things likethose Legal Writing assignments and get
stuff done, because getting behind isa really dangerous thing in law school.
It's pretty
Alison Monahan (05:29):
impossible to catch up.
No, as soon as you fall behind,you are in a very bad situation,
basically, because the workload is sointense and so continuous that if you
fall a day or two behind, now you'retrying to catch up those days in
addition to doing all the other stuff.
When are you going tohave time to do that?
There are no extra days inthe semester, basically.
Lee Burgess (05:47):
No.
So, you've got to stay on task.
And honestly, my comment aboutthat is, if you're behind, you just
have to cut it off and keep moving.
You cannot go back.
You only go forward.
Alison Monahan (06:00):
Right.
No, it's kind of like, I was watching theNetflix Tour de France and they're talking
about the peloton and they're like, "Thepeloton just keeps going." It does not
matter what happens, it keeps going.
And I feel like lawschool is a bit like that.
You can see the cases arethe peloton - they just keep
rolling, with or without you.
So, at some point you might just have tocut it off and start again another day
(06:21):
and get an outline to learn the stuffthat you didn't learn when you were sick.
I mean, that happens.
Lee Burgess (06:25):
Yeah, I got the flu my first year of law school.
I think I missed three or four classes.
I just had to get notesand work around it.
I could not go back, because I wastoo sick to study during that time.
So, you just have to make
Alison Monahan (06:36):
it
Lee Burgess (06:36):
work.
Alison Monahan (06:38):
Yeah, exactly.
It's like the class keeps moving andyou've got to keep moving with it.
Lee Burgess (06:41):
Yeah.
So, once you decide the landscapeof all the things that you have to
do, what are the best calendaringor task management systems that you
can consider using in law school?
Alison Monahan (06:54):
Again, I think this is very individual.
People have strong preferencesone way or the other on different
tools, for no real reason.
All of the tools are probably fine.
There are a ton of digital managementsystems out there at this point.
I personally have always likedTrello, people like Notion.
I don't know, there's Asana thatwe use but don't really like.
(07:16):
There are a lot of options.
And again, I think if something has workedfor you in the past, there's no reason
to reinvent the wheel, whether it's apaper system or an electronic system.
I live and die by my Google Calendar.
And what I like about that is, otherpeople can get access to pieces
of it, or we can share calendars,you can share things with me.
(07:38):
The reality is, it doesn't reallymatter what system you use,
as long as you have a system.
Lee Burgess (07:43):
Yes, I know.
I also now live and die by myGoogle Calendar, even though I used
to be a paper calendar die-hard.
Alison Monahan (07:49):
Oh, same.
Lee Burgess (07:50):
There are really cool ways that you can set it
up for yourself with law school.
I mean, you could really geek out on this.
You could have one calendarthat's just your classes, and then
you could have another calendarthat is your other study time.
And then you could have a sharedcalendar with family commitments
or whatever it might be.
Alison Monahan (08:06):
Or your study group.
Lee Burgess (08:07):
Or a study group or things like that.
But you can share things with people,you can change your own views,
the way you view your calendar.
It's just so helpful.
I also think it's great with GoogleCalendar because you can put in so
easily all of those dates for theentire semester and really look ahead.
So, no matter what system you do, Ithink setting aside some time to put in
(08:32):
the entire semester's worth of dates,like when are reading days, when are
the final exams, when are any daysoff from school, there are holidays.
All of that kind of stuff, makesure everything is in the calendar.
Due dates for things - you'd neverwant to be surprised by a date.
It takes two seconds toput it on your calendar.
Alison Monahan (08:50):
Right, exactly.
Like the second a call is scheduled foranything, or a meeting, or a doctor's
appointment - just put it in the calendar.
Maybe they're going to later sendyou a meeting invite - that's great.
If they do, you can update it;but the second you get that
scheduled, put it on the calendar.
And I think also recurring events arereally useful for things like deep work.
If you decide that, "Okay, I amcommitting that every Saturday morning
(09:14):
is going to be the time that I'm goingto do a minimum four hours of deep
work" - just put that on the calendaras a recurring event, and then you're
much more likely to do it than whenyou Friday night are like, "Oh, I don't
really feel like getting up tomorrow.
I'm not going to do that."Or you just forget entirely.
Right.
Or
Lee Burgess (09:30):
then you could move it.
I have a "work on LinkedIn" as one ofmy recurring things on the calendar.
I don't always do it at thetime, or at all, but at the
time that I'm supposed to do it.
But oftentimes I will move it and say,"No, I have time-sensitive work that
needs to be done, but maybe I'll do iton Wednesday instead." And so even if
it's there and it gets moved, it's stillbetter than it not being there at all.
Alison Monahan (09:54):
Right, which is what I did when we talked about
thinking about LinkedIn, andhave I looked at LinkedIn since?
Probably not.
So if I had it as a movable event,I would at least think to do it.
Lee Burgess (10:04):
Yeah, exactly.
But I do think blocking out time,trying to move your schedule around,
probably setting up something foryourself where you audit your schedule
for the week - I think that is areally great habit on Sundays, to take
some time and look ahead at the week.
I'll use my own personalweek as an example.
It is May when we are recording this, ifyou have children, you know it's called
(10:28):
"the thousand days of May", because it isinsane how much stuff is on the calendar.
And I looked at my calendar not realizingI had committed to things Tuesday
night, Wednesday night, Thursday night,Friday night, and Saturday night.
Okay, that's not how I run my life.
I do not like to go outfive nights in a row.
That is too many things.
And then I kind of went, "Okay." One,I did not look ahead at my calendar
(10:52):
when I started saying "yes" to things.
Ironically, I've been saying "no" tothings, but clearly not enough things.
And now I have to go through and decidewhat I'm not to do, because I'm not
going to five events in a row this week.
That is impractical for my life.
The important event is on Saturday nightand I don't to be zombie at that event.
So, I do think it'simportant to take stock.
(11:14):
I did do that on Sunday and thenI made some choices and I decided
what was most important that I do.
But if I hadn't done that, I couldhave been surprised on Wednesday, when
my calendar told me I was supposedto be dressed up to go to some event
at 6:00 o'clock and I was stillwearing my tennis clothes and not at
all ready to go to some fancy event,or maybe hadn't even had childcare.
Alison Monahan (11:34):
Yeah, exactly.
I think this habit of sort oflooking ahead, thinking through
what's realistic and then makingsure that you're not missing things.
For me, every night before I goto bed, I look at my calendar and
I set an alarm 10 minutes beforeevery single event on the calendar.
And I cannot tell you how many timesthat alarm has gone off and I'm like,
"What is this annoying alarm going offfor?" And then I look at my calendar and
(11:56):
I'm like, "Oh, because in 10 minutes,I have a call." So, that has saved me
so many times, and I highly recommendemploying it as a practice of everyone.
Lee Burgess (12:06):
Yeah.
You can also sit down, especiallyonce you get your calendar for the
semester when you get your syllabi,and look for due dates for things.
I think that's anothergreat thing to think about.
It's like, if you know that October15th is some sort of due date for a
legal memo, and you're not sure whenexactly that starts, I might put on
my calendar two weeks before, "Note: the memo is coming up in two weeks." (12:30):
undefined
Alison Monahan (12:36):
Right, exactly.
Lee Burgess (12:37):
You can give yourself these alarms, right?
You can schedule an email to goto yourself to remind yourself
to put that on your radar.
I think looking ahead and creatingsome timed structure for yourself so
you get a heads up when things arecoming also makes a lot of sense.
So, investing in your calendaringtime and giving yourself the gift
of doing it on a regular basis isgoing to set you up for success.
(13:00):
And just pick a schemeand try and stick with it.
I think you don't want to beconstantly trying new time management
schemes during the semester.
Or maybe a new semester is agreat time to try something new.
But just commit to somethingand try it for a while and see
if you can create some habits.
Alison Monahan (13:15):
Yeah, you need a basic calendar and then you need
some way to manage your tasks.
And that might be by writing lists,it might be by having some sort of
app, there are lots of different ways.
But those are kind of the big buckets ofmanagement, is like, "What's happening at
a certain day or time, and then what do Ineed to get done in this particular day?"
Lee Burgess (13:33):
Yeah.
And if you don't have a great systemfor that, there are a million of them.
You should start tryingthem as soon as you can.
Alison Monahan (13:40):
Yeah, and it might be a combo.
It can literally be something as simpleas bullet point notes on your phone,
and then you also have a paper versionand you compare them occasionally.
It doesn't have to be super complicated.
Lee Burgess (13:50):
No.
I love a good notes app on my iPhone.
That is just how I run a lot of my life.
Alison Monahan (13:57):
And you can share those with people too, in case you need to.
Lee Burgess (14:00):
My whole world is run off of notes and Trello.
It's really amazing.
And I still use a paper to-do liston top of that, because I still
like to cross things off for thedopamine hit that you get crossing
Alison Monahan (14:11):
off.
Exactly.
So, don't overcomplicate this, butyou do need something to help you
stay organized and have a calendar.
Lee Burgess (14:20):
Another question we get frequently, and very popular
blog posts and podcast episodes talkabout this, is: How can I use things
like the Pomodoro Technique or otherfocused work methods effectively, and
how's it going to help in law school?
So, what is this stuff?
I had not really even heard of thisstuff before we started working together.
Alison Monahan (14:41):
Yeah.
I'm a big fan.
I call it "the Circles", which I stolefrom somebody else a long time ago on the
Internet, and I talked about this early onon The Girl's Guide to Law School, it was
one of the ways I got through law school.
But the basic idea is that you picka certain amount of time and it's a
small amount of time, like 30 minutes,45 minutes, maybe up to an hour
and you allocate that time betweenfocused work and then break time.
(15:04):
So, the Pomodoro, I think it'susually 25 minutes of work
and then a five-minute break.
When I did the Circles, I did an hour.
I think I said like 50 minutesstraight, or 45 minutes.
I got the rest of it off.
If I got distracted, Ionly got five minutes off.
I don't know, there was a wholebargaining system in there.
But the basic point is, you'renot trying to sit there and
work eight straight hours.
(15:26):
You are focusing on something,and then you are taking a break.
Usually it's ideal if that's a movementbreak of some type, where you remove
yourself from reading or viewing anything.
So it might be that you walk aroundthe block, it could be you walk
to get a coffee, whatever it is.
But you take an actual mentalbreak, you refresh yourself, and
then you come back to the work.
(15:47):
So I think particularly for people whomaybe have some ADHD stuff going on, this
idea of focusing on something, taking abreak, focusing on something, can just
really improve your productivity a lot,and probably also make you happier.
Lee Burgess (16:01):
Yeah.
I really think the point you madethat this needs to be a non-digital
break, I think is very important.
I have also read more and more aboutthese techniques, and it is very
consistent that you should not be onsocial media, that you should not be
answering emails and things like that.
I think you'd be better off takinga non-digital break and then coming
(16:23):
back and saying, "I have to do10 minutes of emailing" instead.
Alison Monahan (16:26):
Right, like an admin.
Lee Burgess (16:27):
Right, like an admin allotment.
But also, you will justfall into the phone.
I was watching that Netflix show thatjust came out called The Four Seasons,
and there's a line that Tina Fayesays about wanting to go somewhere
by herself and read her phone untilthe end, or something like that.
Which I thought was a funny way to putit, but I do sometimes feel like that,
(16:50):
where you're like, "Maybe if I just keepreading, I'll reach the end of Instagram."
Alison Monahan (16:54):
Yeah, no.
The funny thing is, I don't know ifthey still do, but BlueSky, because they
had less content, you sometimes wouldreach the end, and then it was this
moment of "Oh, I guess I'm really done.They have nothing else to show me."
Lee Burgess (17:03):
"I have now read the Internet."
Alison Monahan (17:05):
"I'm done. I'm at the end of the scroll."
Lee Burgess (17:08):
But I don't think Meta's algorithm ever lets you
Alison Monahan (17:11):
find the end.
No, they'll just keepthrowing whatever they got.
I don't care what language it'sin, you've still got more to see.
Lee Burgess (17:15):
Totally.
Alison Monahan (17:16):
"You have zero interest in this, but look at it anyway.
Please.
Come on.
It's eight days old.
It's totally fresh."
Lee Burgess (17:25):
But part of the reason why you want to not fall into your
phone is because 20 minutes can justfly by, and then you've lost yourself.
So, I think taking those very focusedbreaks and seeing something like
the Pomodoro or the Circle methodas these kind of micro sessions
within a longer study session.
So, you may have a four-hour deep worksession, but within that four hours, you
(17:48):
may have eight of these Pomodoro sessions.
and
Alison Monahan (17:51):
I would literally get a piece of paper and draw
them out and then color them in.
And then it actually was helpful.
At the end of a day, if I was feelingbad about what I'd done or the week
or whatever, I was stressing about anexam, I would actually sometimes look
at them and be like, "You know what?You did do this work." It was a visual
reminder that I sat there, I did it.
And it just kind of made it alittle more fun to color them in.
That was a little bit of a treat as well.
Lee Burgess (18:12):
Yeah, so little dopamine hit.
Alison Monahan (18:14):
Yeah, whatever works.
Lee Burgess (18:17):
My daughter was making flashcards, and then after she'd write
something on it, she would color them.
And I was like, "What apositive reinforcement. Look
how pretty this flashcard is."
Alison Monahan (18:27):
Oh yeah.
I made flashcards with little picturesthat I colored in, and people thought I
was crazy, but I'm like, "You asked me tolearn 10 cases." I can still basically
tell you if I think back to that personin the surgery that I colored in, I
can tell you what the case is about.
I mean, I think engaging moreparts of the brain is often
helpful for learning, actually.
Lee Burgess (18:45):
Yeah.
So, one of the themes here is that you'vegot to figure out how to find some focus.
And there's not a lot of extratime, and you've got to set yourself
up for success with that focus.
So, whatever you need to do, removingdistractions, turning off your phone,
using a tool on your computer if you needto block websites or things like that.
(19:06):
But you have to really giveyourself the best chance of
using your brain to do your work.
It'll be so much more efficientand you will feel so much better.
Alison Monahan (19:15):
Yeah, and it's also just a good habit to develop.
There's a well-known book calledDeep Work by Cal New something.
Lee Burgess (19:21):
Newport, I think.
Alison Monahan (19:22):
Newport, yeah.
I was like, Newtown, Newport.
Lee Burgess (19:23):
I just saw it on my bookshelf the other day, which is
why I refreshed my recollection.
Alison Monahan (19:27):
Yeah.
So, I think that's animportant book to look at.
This idea that the modern economy isso full of distractions that being
able to focus is actually a sellingpoint and a benefit, and something
that's becoming increasingly rare.
So, I think law school in a way is almostthis monastic type of experience of
(19:47):
just you and the material and the book.
But if you can work those muscles anddevelop that focus, that's something
that's going to pay dividends for sure.
The other thing to think about iseventually if you're in any sort of
private practice, you're probablygoing to be billing your time, wants
to be billing your Instagram time.
That is malpractice.
So, you can't do that.
(20:08):
But you do to start realizingto work with lot of focus and
very conscious of your time.
so, if you've never tracked your timebefore, if you don't understand where your
time then try It is very enlightening.
think all time and then you starttracking it, you might be shocked
that you're not actually doing asmuch focused study as you thought.
(20:32):
Yeah, no, I think that's the advantageof these types of techniques, is
it really forces you to confrontthe fact that you are not paying
attention to what you need to be doing.
Lee Burgess (20:39):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Okay, here's another great onethat we talk a lot about: How
do I avoid procrastination whenthe workload feels overwhelming?
Oh, the self-sabotaging behavior.
We've all been there, we've all doneit, we've all seen other people do it.
It happens to everybody.
Alison Monahan (20:58):
Yeah, and I think there are a number of
different reasons this can happen.
If something's feeling reallyoverwhelming, that's often a sign
that someone just doesn't knowhow to get started on something.
So, if the assignment is "Write a brief"and you've never written a brief before,
of course you're going to procrastinate onthat, because you don't know what to do.
(21:23):
So, getting that problemsolved is often the first step.
I mean, some of this is you justdon't want to do these things.
Your brain doesn't want to do them,it's not motivated to do them.
So, I don't know, I feel like thereare a lot of different root causes
of procrastination, and that you'veprobably got to figure out what
that cause might be for you tofigure out an effective solution.
Lee Burgess (21:42):
Yeah.
I think oftentimes with our students, I'vefound that it's easier to manage if you
set yourself up for success the next day.
And so, if you make your to-do list atnight or you commit to doing certain
tasks the next day, it's much easier tosay, "Okay, I'm going to just take this
(22:03):
list and do the tasks that are presentedto me, rather than having to make all
of those choices." So, I think thereare things like scaffolding you can
create for yourself, to stay on task.
But I love this idea of takingsomething big and breaking it
into more manageable chunks.
And I think that applies to almostall of this stuff in law school.
It could be, read the firstcase in your reading assignment.
(22:23):
It doesn't have to be, readall three cases at one sitting.
Maybe that's impractical.
How do you break any sort of largeassignment up into manageable chunks?
You're not going to sit down andoutline a whole course, right?
What can you outline?
You're going to outline defenses intorts, and that's one sit down time.I
think that anything you can do to makeit so you can meet these goals, it just
(22:45):
doesn't feel like such a black hole.
Alison Monahan (22:48):
Right.
And there are tools out there - a lot ofthem are AI-based that can help you with
some of this stuff, where you can giveit kind of, "Okay, this is my assignment
and I don't know what to do first." Andit can kind of say, "Well, maybe think
about this and this and this." And youcan say, "I need more detail than that"
or, "I need less detail than that.
Give one thing to do that's going tomake it easy to move this forward." And
it's really that process of moving thingsforward that's going to create that
(23:11):
momentum for you to get to the bigger win.
So, maybe it's not even that youare going to read an entire case.
Maybe if you're really just not feelingit, you're like, "I'm going to sit
down, I'm going to open the book, I'mgoing to find the case, and I'm going
to read the first paragraph." Thatmight be your goal, because you're
probably not going to stop after that.
Lee Burgess (23:29):
It's true.
Yeah, that's true.
I do think that anything you can do to getyourself over that hump is a great idea.
And then you may needaccountability partners.
You may need friends or a studygroup who you can make some of these
lists with together, and then youcan check in on how things are going.
Some people find thathelpful, some people don't.
But you need to decide if you needsomeone to hold you accountable, then
(23:51):
you better create that accountability.
And then you know yourself pretty well.
I mean, you've already been to undergrad,you probably know what some of your
triggers are, whether you need rewards.
I have a soft spot forsome trashy TV in my life.
And so, even in law school, during finalsand really intense times, this is back
when you'd have to get the DVDs of shows.
(24:12):
And so, it'd be like, I knew that Icould go home and watch an episode
of something trashy when I was done.
And that was one of thereasons I wanted to get home.
Simple pleasures, right?
Thanks, Netflix.
But I had a reward to look forward to,so I knew that was important to me.
I needed to know that I didn'thave to go home and do laundry.
I got go home and do somethingthat felt like blowing off steam.
(24:34):
So, whatever it is for you, youjust kind of have to set that up.
And just be honest with yourself.
And if you've truly hit a wall, aburnout wall, I mean truly hit one,
then you need to take a step backand maybe take a break, take half a
day off and reset yourself, becauseyou can't push through that burnout.
That's its own thing.
But burnout doesn't happen as oftenas people would like to say it does.
(24:56):
I think it's more oftenprocrastination and not burnout.
Alison Monahan (24:59):
Right.
And I think along those lines, ifyou really just don't know what to do
because you've never done this before,then find somebody to help you with it.
Legal writing is like a bigprocrastination area, and I think that's
the case where you need to go to officehours for your Legal Writing professor and
say, "Look, I'm feeling really overwhelmedwith this task. Can you help me figure
out how to get started? These are somethings I've thought about" or whatever.
(25:21):
You don't want to just go and be like,"Please tell me what to do." But,
"I've thought through the problem.
I'm really not sure what directionto head." Or you go talk to a law
librarian - they might even be morehelpful than your Legal Writing professor
would be, if it's a research-basedquestion. But there are people there
who can help you say, "Alright, you'vecome to me with this big question.
Here are some things you mighttry, to move, again, this boulder
(25:43):
down the hill a little bit.
Why don't you go try them and then comeback to me if they don't work?" There
are people who are actually there tohelp you; you just have to find them.
Lee Burgess (25:51):
Yeah, I think that's true.
I think your academic supportoffice is also a great resource.
Alison Monahan (25:56):
Your TA.
Lee Burgess (25:57):
Yeah.
Sometimes you can make an appointment with
Alison Monahan (25:58):
them
Lee Burgess (25:59):
and say, "Oh man, I am just in it and I don't know
what to do with this to-do list"or, "How to approach these bigger
challenges?", or outlining or whatnot.
And they can give you that support too.
Alison Monahan (26:09):
Well, your school may also have a writing center, which
is where you can get help that maybeyou can't get outside of the school
on some of your writing projects.
So, you want to understand whathelp you're allowed to get.
Obviously, you don't want to beaccidentally cheating, but typically you
can go to your school's writing centerand they have people who are trained and
can help you figure out the next steps,because there's really no reason you
would just inherently know how to do this.
(26:30):
So, get help and figure it out.
Lee Burgess (26:33):
Alright, his question I think is pretty unique to law school:
How do I balance immediate deadlineswith long-term projects like outlining?
And I think this really is suchhigh impact because of these final
exams that are barreling down at youfaster than you would like to think.
Alison Monahan (26:50):
Yeah.
And I think school, just the time spent,tends to prioritize something that is not
the same as what is tested on the final.
So, school prioritizes reading andclasses, and being prepared for the
Socratic method, and that's all welland good, but it doesn't actually help
you answer an exam question necessarily.
I mean, it does, kind of obliquely,but it does not directly give you that
(27:14):
practice that you need to answer examquestions, nor does it really help you put
together a big picture understanding ofthe class, which is what you do through
your outlines and other study aids.
Lee Burgess (27:25):
Yeah.
So, you've got to see that allof this stuff lives in parallel.
And I think that's why creating asmart calendar and looking at all
of your due dates is so important.
You need to see the semester asa whole and start to say, "Okay,
well, I can start outlining usuallya few weeks into the semester.
So, where is that going to happenevery week?" And then maybe look at
(27:48):
the calendar and say, "When should Ibe halfway done with that outline?"
Alison Monahan (27:51):
Right.
Lee Burgess (27:51):
At what point should that be done?
And then work back, so youhave those intermittent goals.
And then those outlines should be donepreferably before Reading Week, so you
can spend more of your time studyingand practicing, and not drafting things.
So, you want to invest in this everyweek, but you also want to have these
touchpoints where you can assess andsay, "Oh, I'm not getting enough done.
(28:12):
I need to invest more, or I need to changehow I'm doing it." So, I think having
these intermediate deadlines for yourselffor these longer projects also helps these
longer term projects stack up againstthese other classes like Legal Writing,
where you have to turn in assignments.
It is so much easier to do a LegalWriting assignment than it is to work
(28:33):
on a big abstract thing like outliningor studying for finals, because you can
be done with a Legal Writing assignment.
Alison Monahan (28:41):
Right.
Or you could even on the day-to-day basisbe done with your reading for a class.
I find sometimes people are just spendingway too much time on the reading.
And it might mean that people aretrying to read cases multiple times.
I've even heard people readingthem three times, four times.
Sometimes people rewatching classes.
You just don't have time for thesesorts of things, so you really
(29:04):
cannot let yourself do that.
If you find yourself rewatching aclass, you have to ask yourself,
"Why did I not get what I needto get out of it the first time?"
Lee Burgess (29:12):
Yeah.
Alison Monahan (29:13):
And change that.
Lee Burgess (29:14):
Yeah, like, why weren't you taking notes?
And I think this even goes forstudents who get accommodations.
You may get those recordingsfor an accommodation, which is
great, but what is the best wayfor you to use that recording?
Is it to just find a part of the lecturethat you found particularly confusing?
Or is it to crosscheck your notes,or what are you doing with it?
Because more information ormore repetitive information
(29:37):
isn't always better.
It is sometimes more challenging.
So, you really do have to constantlybe asking yourself, "Is this activity
getting me closer to these goals?And if not, then I need to pivot."
Alison Monahan (29:49):
Right.
"Is this a really good use of mytime?" And it's not to say that in
a perfect world you might not goto every lecture three times, but
what is that not allowing you to do?
Because you're spending that time doingthat instead of doing something else.
Yeah.
Lee Burgess (30:01):
And that's where I think it can become too, when you're finding
these deadlines, these longer, largerprojects, you've got to look at how
you're also just spending your other time.
I mean, if you haven't looked at yourscreen time report on your phone...
I don't like to look at mine, but Imake myself look at it and then I ask
myself important questions, like, "Isthat really how you want to be spending
(30:23):
that many hours of the week?" And maybeyou say "yes", and that's fine, but
you should ask yourself the question.
And if you don't have enough hours toget this other stuff done, you have to
ask yourself where the hours are going.
And I think that is a very hard questionfor a lot of us in these complicated
times where the news is very distracting.
I mean, it could be spendinga lot of time in The New York
(30:44):
Times or whatever you read.
Alison Monahan (30:45):
You know what?
I just stopped that, and The WashingtonPost, and I don't really miss them.
I mean, I still know what's going on,anything important enough still reaches
me, but I'm no longer spending... Imean, if you looked at my report from
I'm sure they're tracking me - and atsome point it literally dropped off
a cliff and never really went back.
Lee Burgess (31:04):
Yeah.
Alison Monahan (31:05):
I don't regret that time.
Lee Burgess (31:06):
Yeah, sometimes you have to just make those decisions.
I don't use Facebook anymore,unless I think there's something on
Facebook I need to see, but Facebookdoesn't serve me, so I just don't.
And I lead a full life I would liketo do the same with Instagram, but
there are things on Instagram thatI do feel that serve me, which
makes it a very mixed bag for me.
And that's its own podcast episode.
Alison Monahan (31:28):
Yeah.
Lee Burgess (31:29):
But you have to make conscious choices about how much of
your time, that is very precious...Time is like diamonds, not sand, to
quote our good friend Eve Rodsky, right?
It's like it's not infinite, soyou do have to be very aware of it.
If you're feeling like you don't knowwhat to do, that you're drowning,
you have to take a step back.
You have to look at your calendarand you have to be practical
(31:50):
about where your hours are going.
And that doesn't mean thatyou're not working hard.
It could just mean you have to be smarterabout how you're spending your time.
Alison Monahan (31:59):
Yeah.
And I think some of it is, you'rejust going to have to spend less time
at some point on the class reading.
And not to say that you shouldn'tdo it, but you hopefully
should be getting faster at it.
And if you're not gettingfaster at it, that's a problem.
But my opinion is you shouldmake a good faith effort to do
the reading you're assigned, andgo to class and talk about it.
That doesn't mean that you rememberevery single detail of every single case.
(32:19):
It doesn't even mean thatif you get called on, it's
going to go amazingly well.
But none of that, frankly,really matters in the end.
What matters is, can youuse this material on a test?
That's what matters.
And so, I think it's easy to lose focus,because that's not what's emphasized.
We hear this all the time - somebodybombs their exams and then goes to
their professor, and the professor's sosurprised because they did great in class.
(32:42):
But they didn't do anything else.
Lee Burgess (32:43):
Yeah, I think that's very true.
Well, we have to wrap up because youand I have a meeting with some Legal
Writing instructors that we have to go to.
So, to sound very law student-esque,we have to go talk to some professors.
Alison Monahan (32:57):
That is very true.
Lee Burgess (32:59):
If you enjoyed this episode of the Law School Toolbox podcast, please
take a second to leave a review andrating on your favorite listening app.
We'd really appreciate it.
And be sure to subscribeso you don't miss anything.
If you have any questions orcomments, please don't hesitate
to reach out to myself or Alisonat lee@lawschooltoolbox.com or
alison@lawschooltoolbox.com.
Or you can always contactus via our website contact
(33:20):
form at LawSchoolToolbox.com.
Thanks for listening, and we'll talk soon!
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!