How Do I Organize My Time in Law School and Stay Focused? (Part 3 of 5)

Welcome back. This is Lee and Allison from the law school toolbox. And today we're talking about how on earth you should organize your time and stay focused in law school. Another question we get frequently, and very popular blog posts and podcast episodes, talk about this is, how can I use things like the Pomodoro technique or other focused work methods effectively? And how's that going to like help in law school? So what, what is this stuff? I had not really even heard of this stuff before we started working together. I know. Yeah. Well, I'm a big fan. I'd call it the circles, which I stole from somebody else a long time ago on the internet. And I talked about this early on, on the girl's guide to law school. It was one of the ways I got through law school. The basic idea is that you pick a certain amount of time and then you allocate, and it's a small amount of time, like 30 minutes, 45 minutes, maybe up to an hour. And you allocate that time between focused work and then break time. So the Pomodoro, I think it's usually 25 minutes of work and then a five minute break. When I did the circles, I did an hour. If I did, I think I said like 50 minutes straight or 45 minutes, I got the rest of it off. If I got distracted, I only got like five minutes off. I don't know. There was a whole bargaining system in there. But the basic point is you're not trying to sit there and work eight straight hours. You know, you are focusing on something and then you are taking a break. Usually it's ideal if that's a movement break of some type where you remove yourself from reading or viewing anything. So it might be that you walk around the block. It could be you walk to get a coffee, whatever it is, but you take an actual mental break, you refresh yourself, and then you come back to the work. So I think particularly for people, you know, maybe have some ADHD stuff going on, this idea of like focusing on something, taking a break, focusing on something can just really improve your productivity a lot and probably also make you happier. Yeah, I really think the point you made that this needs to be a non-digital break, I think is very important. I have also read more and more about these techniques and it is very consistent that you should not be on social media, that you should not be answering emails and things like that. I think you'd be better off taking a non-digital break and then coming back and saying, I have to do 10 minutes of emailing, you know, instead. Right, like your admin. Right, like an admin allotment. But also you will just fall into the phone, you know, because I was watching that Netflix show that just came out called The Four Seasons, and there's a line that Tina Fey says about wanting to, you know, go somewhere by herself and read her phone until the end or something like that. And I mean, which I thought was a funny way to put it, but I was also like, I do sometimes feel like that, where you're like, maybe if I just keep reading, I'll reach the end of Instagram. Yeah, no, the funny thing is, I don't know if they still do, but like Blue Sky, because I had less content, you sometimes would reach the end. And then it was this moment of like, oh, I guess I'm really done. They have nothing else to show me. No, read the internet. I'm done. I'm at the end of the scroll. But I don't think Meta's algorithm ever lets you find the end. No, they'll just keep throwing whatever they got. I don't care what language it's in, you've still got more to see. You have zero interest in this, but look at it anyway. Please, come on, it's eight days old. It's totally fresh. But part of I think the reason why you want to not fall into your phone is because 20 minutes can just fly by and then you've lost yourself. So I think taking those very focused breaks and seeing something like the Pomodoro or the circle method as these kind of like micro sessions within a longer study session. So you may have a four-hour deep work session, but within that four hours, you may have eight of these Pomodoro sessions. Yeah, 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 the day if I was feeling bad about what I'd done or the week or whatever I was stressing about the exam, 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 a little more fun to like color them in. That was a little bit of a treat as well. Yeah, so a little dopamine hit. Yeah, whatever works. My daughter was making flashcards, but she wasn't using them for flashcards, but she was making some of her flashcards. And then after she'd write something on it, she would color them. And I was like, what are just positive reinforcements? If you're like, look how pretty this flashcard is. Oh, yeah, I made flashcards with little pictures that I colored in and people thought I was crazy. I know. I'm like, you asked me to learn 10 cases, like I can still basically tell you if I think back to that, you know, person in the surgery that I colored in, I can tell you what the case is about. Like, no, I mean, I think engaging more parts of the brain is often helpful for learning, actually. Yeah. So, you know, one of the themes here is that you've got to figure out how to find some focus. And there's not a lot of extra time. And you've got to set yourself up for success with that focus. So whatever you need to do, but like removing distractions, turning off your phone, you know, using a tool on your computer, if you need to block websites or things like that, but you have to really give yourself the best chance of using your brain to do your work. It'll be so much more efficient and you will feel so much better. Yeah. And it's also just a good habit to develop. I mean, there's a well known book called Deep Work by Cal New something. Newport, I think. Newport. Yeah, I was like. I just saw it on my bookshelf the other day, which is why I refreshed my recollection. Yeah. So I think that's an important book to look at. You know, this idea that the modern economy is so full of distractions that being able to focus is actually a selling point and a benefit and something that's becoming increasingly rare. So I think law school in a way is almost, you know, this monastic type of experience of just you and the material in the book. But if you can work those muscles and develop that focus, that's something that's going to pay dividends for sure. The other thing to think about is eventually if you're in any sort of private practice, you're probably going to be billing your time and nobody wants to be billing your Instagram time. That is malpractice. So you can't do that. But you do have to start realizing that you have to work with a lot of focus and be very conscious of your time. And so if you've never tracked your time before, if you don't understand where your time is going, then try it. It is very enlightening. If you think that you're doing all of this study time and then you start tracking it, you might be shocked that you're not actually doing as much focus study time as you thought. Yeah, no, I think that's the advantage of these type of techniques is it really forces you to confront the fact that you are not paying attention to what you need to be doing. Yeah, 100%. 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