Enrolling in law school is a major life decision. Because of the financial and time commitment required, it is important to make the most of this decision by mapping out your long-term career goals early on, earning high grades and graduating on time. Staying organized and effectively managing your time are among the most important factors when it comes to achieving these goals. However, this is easier said than done — especially if you are working while you are a law student or have family obligations. Good time management skills are essential – but succeeding in law school requires the ability to organize more than your time. Getting organized requires planning, discipline, and the right tools. Cutting down on the number of decisions you need to make each day will help you save time and conserve energy.
Ways to Stay Organized and Plan Ahead
Set up a Filing System
You will receive many electronic and paper documents for each course you take in law school, and likely even more if you are enrolled in an online program. These may include cases, articles, excerpts, digital textbooks, and recorded lectures from your instructor. In addition, you will create dozens of your own documents by writing papers and notes. One of the most critical tasks is to keep all these documents in one easily accessible place. Go digital when you can, but don’t forget to organize your paper files, too. Consider an online file hosting service such as Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or iCloud to keep all your digital documents in a centralized location that you can access any time. These services offer mobile compatibility, enabling you to take a quick look at a document if you’re on-the-go.
Some law students use binders to organize class notes, with dividers to separate your notes from assigned readings, handouts, and other materials. Other students keep their class materials on their laptop and use software such as OneNote or Evernote to save and index their notes. Don’t worry about whether your system is perfect, just pick something you think will work and go with it. The great part about having a system is that you can evaluate and adjust it whenever necessary. Your class notes are only going to help you if you can find them! Be sure to not only organize your law school documents, but also those for your personal life, such as medical documents, bills, housing documents, and your forms of identification. Note: you will be applying to a plethora of internship, externships, volunteer positions, clerkships, and volunteer positions throughout law school and beyond, so be sure to have all of your important identification documents ready to go if and when you accept an internship or job offer – especially if it is with a government entity!
Create a Schedule and Using a Calendar
It’s likely that your law program utilizes an online learning management system such as Canvas, Blackboard or Moodle, even if the coursework is not entirely online. Instructors often post readings, lectures, assignments, and due dates on these platforms, but it is important not to rely solely on this to keep track of your assignments — especially since there will be many more assignments and readings than you were used to in your undergraduate studies. Instead, take advantage of your preferred electronic calendar — Google Calendar, iCal, or Outlook Calendar — and input each assignment and due date. These calendars can sync with your smart phone, and you can set reminders to notify you of upcoming due dates and appointments. For larger assignments, it often helps to break the overall assignment into smaller components, so that you can set personal deadlines for specific parts and avoid falling behind. If you find it helpful, you can also set up a schedule for accomplishing household tasks like laundry and cleaning. Moreover, try color-coding items on your electronic calendar. For example, you can have law school items as one color, personal items in another color, travel another color, etc. It can be more visually appealing and give you security knowing what is coming up by just a quick glance.
On your calendar, identify the best times to study by viewing your schoolwork adjacent to your personal schedule to appropriately manage your daily and weekly priorities. Block off study times in your calendar to make your study sessions official, rather than assuming you’ll get around to them, so you are less likely to skip them. You can get a sense of how much time you may need to spend on a course by reviewing the syllabus before the start of class. In sum, it doesn’t matter what type of calendar you’re using; what’s important is to plan your schedule wisely. This includes scheduling your work hours, meetings, project deadlines, research, writing time, and household chores in your calendar, as well as time with family and friends and other activities you deem important. Remember, too, that creating a study and work schedule is one thing. Sticking to it is another.
Tip: Print out your class schedule and post it in a spot that is easily accessible and easy to read. It may seem obvious but printing your schedule (especially of classes and standing meetings/events) and putting it up over your desk or anywhere you spend time regularly, will keep your motivation up and keep you on track with your coursework. As the semester goes on and you become busier, it is easy to become forgetful; a visual representation of your schedule that is easily accessible might help combat that.
Tip: While an electronic calendar is great for long-term planning for the semester and for keeping track of big due dates, appointments, and plans, a daily planner or to-do list – either handwritten or digital – can be used to break down a specific day or big projects to make them less overwhelming.
Tip: Set out your clothing, law school supplies, and personal items the night before you need them – especially if the upcoming day is very busy. This way you can avoid wasting time and energy running around trying to find your shoes, or your notebook for class. There will be a lot of times where you will be in formal dress attire for interviews, moot court, and other various law school activities; preparing for these days in advance can help reduce your anxiety and make the big days run smoothly.
Reduce Clutter
Clutter can be stress-inducing. Although everyone has different ways of living and doing things, it is said that clean homes promote a sense of control, which makes it easier to develop and maintain good habits. Simple things such as keeping your keys in a bowl or your utility bills in a designated box can help. Each day as you open your mail, sort it into stuff to throw out versus bills and other materials that require action. For mail and other household items that require action, try to take care of them as soon as possible so you don’t forget, or you can log the task into your calendar or on your daily to-do list. Law school is overwhelming enough without worrying about whether you have clean clothes or losing unpaid bills.
In your home, you can store seasonal or unused items in a garage or basement. But no matter the size of your home, don’t forget to dedicate a space for your coursework. It should be free of distractions, well lit, and have all supplies and files nearby. Even if your living space is small or shared, be sure to designate a portion to your studies.
Tip: If you’re going to be living with someone else, talk with them prior to your move-in date to determine who’s bringing which item. You do not want to arrive at your new apartment to find out you’ve got two televisions and three coffee tables, but no lamps.
Tip: Take the time to sort through your email daily and limit your inbox to messages you plan to immediately resolve, as this can also get cluttered very easily. Create and label folders for important emails for easy tracking. Be sure to delete spam emails and unsubscribe from mailing subscriptions you no longer find useful. Keeping your email organized is one way to keep up with your coursework because all the relevant information is easy to find.
Obtain Office Supplies
It might seem counterintuitive to discuss purchasing office supplies after going over decluttering, but it is easier to get and stay organized when you have the correct quantity of high-quality supplies you will need for law school. After you create your schedule and solidify how you will organize documents (electronic, paper, or both), make a list of office supplies you think you will need and use, whether it be a stapler, legal pads, paper clips, binder clips, stick-on notes in several sizes, etc., and purchase them as early as you can prior to your first day of class, preferably prior to orientation. You can go to a supply store and purchase office supplies in bulk to maximize savings and to be sure that you don’t unexpectedly run out of supplies during peak exam times.
Tip: Carry a notebook with you throughout the day. When an important thought or new task crosses your mind, write it down so you can remember it later. You can always enter it on your electronic calendar later. This can be especially beneficial because you’ll have so many different assignments, meetings, and classes to keep track of.
Streamlining Case Briefs
The earlier you are in your law school career, the more time you will spend creating case briefs. Streamlining this process will make your life much easier. Start by deciding on the format: will you handwrite or type? Next, figure out the crucial parts that you will include in every brief (spoiler alert: facts, issue, holding, and reasoning should definitely make the cut here) and decide if you will use any kind of color-coding system. Finally, decide where you will keep them. A binder, a folder on your computer, electronic/cloud-based storage, or something else? Whatever you do, keep all your briefs in one place and organized by course.
Organizing Class Notes
Similar to briefing, first, decide whether you will handwriting or typing your notes. This might not be the same for each class, which is fine, but you need to decide. Next, figure out what things you will listen for and write down. For example, black letter law, testing tips, and hypothetical questions are important items to pay attention to and incorporate into your notes. After you take your notes, create and maintain a process that incorporates spending a few minutes after each class condensing and reviewing them.
Preparing for Exams and Outlining
There are many ways to successfully prepare for a final exam, and you can waste a lot of time trying them all out if you aren’t careful. Below is brief system that both limits your decision-making and gives you the flexibility to customize your exam prep for each class:
- Schedule outlining sessions;
- Gather your materials (textbook, syllabus, briefs, class notes, etc.);
- Break down information (create a traditional outline, chart, series of flashcards, etc.); and.
- Do practice questions.
Tip: Start outlining early but not too early: 5-6 weeks before your final exams start. Outlining is generally something you save towards the end of the semester because the process helps you review and crystallize what you have learned in class. If you simply outline too early (i.e., starting at the beginning of the semester) a subject right after you study it in class, you will simply see trees every week and miss the forest. When you outline and cover many cases or rules at once you finally begin to see a subject such as contracts and torts not as a mass of random cases and rules but as coherent networks or systems of inter-related rules. But it takes time to outline, so if you save for the week before finals, you will fail to create outlines in time to make them usable for your exams. As a rule of thumb, you should budget one week per outline (start while you still have class) and aim to finish two weeks before your first exam so you can review often and take practice exams.
Tip: Keep your law school outlines short: generally, half the size of your class notes or less. There are exceptions, but generally keep in mind that, all else equal, a short and sweet statement of the law will do. Ideally you will review repeatedly and continue to reduce your outline until you can fit it onto a page or two of big picture concepts that you recognize readily and can mentally build out into more complete thoughts.
Tip: Don’t just outline: create any work product that will make your exam taking easier! You can create anything that will help you on your exam: issue checklists, flow-charts (especially for civil procedure), maps, spreadsheets, note cards – anything! Even if you use a traditional outline format, try to create “case spectrums” that show a range of factual scenarios and the court’s decision on them. Sometimes, two outlines for classes are useful: one “black letter” outline and another “policy” outline for classes like Constitutional Law or Criminal Law.
Self-Care and Staying Organized
Although Backpack to Briefcase has entire sections dedicated to self-care and mental health topics, we want to emphasize that taking care of oneself throughout the law school experience is a large part of efficiently planning and organizing your coursework and personal life. If you are constantly stressed and not taking care of yourself with proper rest and study breaks, the last thing you will want to do is take the extra time to organize your files and calendar, which are critical to your success.
Stress is inevitable in law school..To keep that stress from becoming completely overwhelming and interfering with your success, you’ve got to have a plan in place, preferably before the stress begins! To do this, evaluate your day to figure out when you have your highest energy and lowest energy, and when you are most productive and least productive. Use this information to play to your strengths and plan accordingly. Find some time during those low energy/low productivity parts of your day to build in some self-care down time. It is important to set hard time limits on studying. There will always be more to do. You have to decide when you are done. Although it isn’t easy, especially during your 1L year, you have to carve out the time and then respect it. Find things that make you feel relaxed and ready to come back to the daily grind. Lastly, remember that the most important relationships to invest in during law school are the ones you already have. Your family and close friends will help you stay motivated and inspired through the long and challenging years of advanced study. As busy as you’ll be, make time for your loved ones. Lean on them, and you’ll make it through!
Additional Resources
- How to Manage Your Time Effectively in Law School (New England Law)
- Law School Time Management Basics (Law School Basics)
- How to Organize Your To Do List in Law School (Law School Basics)
- Preparing for Law School (ABA)