Law school stressors can be difficult to manage. Fortunately, some of the stressors imparted by law schools can be easily addressed with a few simple techniques.
- Breathe: For an involuntary muscle movement, humans sure have difficulty breathing under stress. When stressed, tilt your head back, close your eyes, and manually take slow, very deep breaths. This will help you to relax and calm your nerves. This very simple technique can help greatly reduce stress and is usable at any time. Do not allow stress to continue to build.
- Take Short Breaks When Stressed: Under time constraints, it may seem as though a student has little chance but to continue pushing through the material. If anxiety ever becomes full-blown panic, the student will get little or nothing done. It is better to take short breaks to allow the student to rest and allow the information to sink in.
- Avoid Distractions: Splitting one’s attention is rarely conducive to retaining important information. Study and work in quiet areas. Do not watch television or have it on in the background when studying. When in a group, avoid derailing the conversation into irrelevant topics.
- Manage Time Wisely: Make a schedule and stick to it. Multitask whenever possible. Know when to push through material and when to take a break.
- Manage Any Conditions You Have: Sneezing a dozen times suddenly and without warning during a brief will not reduce stress; nor will running to the bathroom to handle a gastrointestinal issue or staying home ill. Whether your issues are physical or mental, know what conditions you have and manage them well. With a law student’s workload, personal issues that aren’t managed have a habit of showing up at inopportune moments. If other techniques don’t work, anxiety medication prescribed by a therapist may assist you.
- Exercise: Exercising is a fine way to manage stress, as it allows individuals to burn off excess energy or aggravation and helps get you in shape at the same time. If you are under severe time constraints, exercise anyway, even if you think that you do not have sufficient time to do so. Regular exercise increases the amount of energy a person has throughout the day and increases blood flow throughout the brain. Students can also multitask and listen to CDs or MP3 lectures about a particular subject to help fill in the blanks or supplement other material, and thus manage time more effectively.
- Sleep: Sleep deprivation can reduce your attention span, your energy, and make you less focused. While eight hours of sleep each night may not be possible, students should get at least six hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. You may be stressed to squeeze an extra productive hour or two out of every day, but do not deprive yourself of sleep further.
- Remember Your Classmates: The odds that someone is singling you out for any sort of particular punishment are minute. Remember that all of your classmates are in the same position that you are and that nearly every attorney went through something similar to get his or her law license.
- Recreate: Law school takes up an inordinate amount of time, but it should never consume a student’s life entirely. Set time aside each week for hobbies and social activities.
- Keep Things in Perspective: You work to live. You don’t live to work. Remember that no matter how bad it gets, it’s just a school. Schools can be changed, career paths can be changed, and priorities can be changed. You may want to become a lawyer, but it probably isn’t your destiny. If you are a poor fit, then you are a poor fit. You can rise above it or move on. In either event, there is no reason to panic.
- Take a Leave of Absence if Necessary: If it all starts to get to be too much, take a leave of absence to collect your thoughts and square everything away. Don’t continue to bash your head against the wall, as that will lead to reduced performance and ultimately failure.
