The Super Helpful Little Things Forum

[vexion]

So I was wondering, as an obsessive 0L who's already run through all of the most-loved "law school success" guides and noted the common advice, does anyone have any particular favorite little tricks? I'm talking Lifehacker-style stuff, like slicing the bindings off of casebooks and putting them in three-ring binders, or using twistable crayons instead of highlighters, because they don't bleed.

What's your personal little trick? It doesn't have to be integral to law school success, or even academic. Just the quick hacks no one would think about, and other people go, "Oh, that's neat!" (Or, "Oh, you're a twistable-crayon douchebag...")

[thesealocust]

oops

[1ferret!]

You should do your best to not run out of liquor, because then you might wind up needing liquor and not having any liquor, which is the pits.

TITCR

[JordynAsh]

So I was wondering, as an obsessive 0L who's already run through all of the most-loved "law school success" guides and noted the common advice, does anyone have any particular favorite LITTLE tricks? I'm talking Lifehacker-style stuff, like slicing the bindings off of casebooks and putting them in three-ring binders, or using twistable crayons instead of highlighters, because they don't bleed.

What's your personal little trick? It doesn't have to be integral to law school success, or even academic. Just the quick hacks no one would think about, and other people go, "Oh, that's neat!" (Or, "Oh, you're a twistable-crayon douchebag...)

Just googled the crayons. WANT!

[Netopalis]

Have you considered polyphasic sleep? It can be quite helpful in law school, although it's certainly not a little thing to undertake...And if you're not the type that can adapt to it, it can end up being rather hurtful.

[JazzOne]

Multiple screens FTW. Seriously, everything you do in law school requires going back and forth between documents.

[SteelReserve]

Whittle down the entire course into a one page issue spotter. If you have an open book, this alone will be glorious, but even if closed book you can at least mentally memorize the entire issue spotter.

If you miss an issue, you can't get points. If you spot the issue and address it in some moderately competent way, you get points. Issue spotting alone won't get you the A but it will ensure you a B+ or so.

[LjakW]

Robust backup is always credited. The people I know who had computer issues really kicked themselves if they didn't have some kind of automatic file backup system in place during law school.

I use SugarSync, which is free and awesome. If you sign up with my referral link, you'll get 2.25gb. (and I'll get an extra 250mb)
https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=d8xnfbrmx42ix

[ChewbaccaDefense]

I'm not a 1L yet, but I can think of a few things I've done that will help me when I head back to school next year.

Health/Nutrition: Get your diet in order. Remove processed foods and excess sugar from your diet. As far as a max-benefit diet goes (certainly not necessary), I function best on the Paleo diet. You can buy a copy of The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain for $15 in B&N or Borders. Essentially, I limit my food to vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, nuts, and seeds (the perimeter of the grocery store). Not saying this works for everybody; you need to tinker with things and see what works best for you. Reduce your dependency on caffeine and other stimulants (Do this before going! I hear soda/coffee withdrawl can make quitting smoking pale in comparison). Speaking of which, if you're a smoker, kick the habit now. Like coffee/soda, it'll be much harder to do in school. Develop a strict workout schedule that has some high intensity/interval training. I work harder than most of the people at my gym and I'm in and out of the place in 30 minutes. As an example, you can check out http://www.crossfit.com.

Cooking: Learn how to cook if you don't know how. Many munis have adult continuing ed classes which offer cooking instruction for very little money. Once you know how to cook, learn how to cook quickly. Have 20 - 30 dishes that take 30 minutes to prepare, give you at least 4 servings each time you prepare them, and refridgerate and reheat well.

Stress: Find something that you can do in 30 minutes or less and will ALWAYS de-stress you. For some people, it might be watching a favorite TV show/movie or reading a novel. However, I think a lot of people go to these things because it's what they do when they're relaxing. Actively de-stressing and relaxing are often two different things. If I'm stressed and I start watching TV, I stress more because it's a passive activity I'm thinking about whatever is stressing me. For me, swimming is a great way to actively de-stress. When I'm swimming, I preoccupy myself with my pace, breathing, and stroke, which leaves very little room to think about a case I can't wrap my head around.

These things all seem pretty fluffy, but they have a VERY real impact on how my brain functions when I really need to use it. Case in point; I took the LSAT when I didn't have these things nailed down and got a 156 and 165 in September and December, respectively. I got my act together on each and every one of the things above and, without any re-prep, I took a new preptest for the hell of it and got a 171.

[Paichka]

I LOVE the twistable crayons. I'll never go back to traditional highlighters.

I made tables, and those ended up being super helpful on the exam. For crim, I listed all of the crimes in one column. The next column was for the elements of the crime. The next column was for the defenses, then the next column was for responses to those defenses, and the last column was for lesser included offenses. When confronted with the massive fact pattern on the exam, I just went down the "crimes" column and used it like a checklist -- I listed each defendant right away, and then listed each crime he or she would be charged with. I'd then list the elements, the defenses, and the counters to those defenses. Finally, I'd finish up with, "and if the prosecution failed on X, he could charge the defendant with Y instead, because..." Once I did that for all of the defendants, I could go back through the relevant sections of my main outline to flesh things out with case citations or policy issues.

Not all professors want you to cite cases, but my professors said using cases in your analysis was a good way to distinguish yourself from the pack. Not necessary, but a nice to have, you know? So I made case flashcards and quizzed myself on the facts of the case and where the cases fit into the course. A lot of my professors would use facts in their tests that were tweaked versions of cases we'd seen during the semester -- name-dropping the case worked as a convenient shorthand in my analysis. The flashcards were convenient -- I'd go over them on the metro or while standing in line at Starbucks. Dorky? Sure. But effective.

Oh, and for Civ Pro -- Moore's Federal Practice, on Lexis. If I was confused about something, looking it up in Moore's cleared it right up. Particularly for things like personal jurisdiction, I really like the way the editors explain the tests and show how the tests were applied in cases.

[seespotrun]

Step 1: Drink Cherry Coke Zero to wake up in the morning. Any caffeine substitute will work.

Step 2: Attempt to read Civ Pro casebook. (Or torts, crim law, con law, property, contracts)

Step 3: After failing miserably at understanding the casebook, let Glannon clear it all up for you. (Or - Glannon, Dressler, Chemerinsky, Ides, Blum - respectively)

Step 4: Eat a healthy snack. Maintaining a proper diet is KEY to law school success.
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Step 5: Take one of these. (Only if you're prescribed, of course. Or if you have a generous friend and a nice ignorance as excuse plan)
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Step 6: Read these

Step 7: Enjoy success
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[MC Southstar]

This thread title is totally racist against Mexican immigrants.

[seespotrun]

This thread title is totally racist against Mexican immigrants.

[JOThompson]

I'm going to experiment with the twistable crayons, good tip.

[texas man]

Bookstands - keep your neck feeling good...

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[eandy]

Colored pencils are even better than crayons, IMO. More variety in colors because it is easy to draw lightly. Won't rip delicate pages(been using them for Scriptures for years).

[PSLaplace]

Multiple monitors is a major win.

This x10^10^10. Seriously, dual monitors boosts your productivity so much, it's almost unfair.

I started using dual monitors in undergrad - I had to do a lot of computer programming and it was very helpful for that. As it turns out, it's been even more helpful in law school.

[Mr. Matlock]

Multiple monitors is a major win.

This x10^10^10. Seriously, dual monitors boosts your productivity so much, it's almost unfair.

I started using dual monitors in undergrad - I had to do a lot of computer programming and it was very helpful for that. As it turns out, it's been even more helpful in law school.

WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE!!!!!!!!!!!

This is serious?????? How in the fuck are you supposed to lug around your laptop AND an additional monitor??? The twisty crayons, OK, I get it. But this??? If this is a joke, please PM me so I can go on about my business and pretend I was never sucked into the vortex.

[d34d9823]

Multiple monitors is a major win.

This x10^10^10. Seriously, dual monitors boosts your productivity so much, it's almost unfair.

I started using dual monitors in undergrad - I had to do a lot of computer programming and it was very helpful for that. As it turns out, it's been even more helpful in law school.

WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE!!!!!!!!!!!

This is serious?????? How in the fuck are you supposed to lug around your laptop AND an additional monitor??? The twisty crayons, OK, I get it. But this??? If this is a joke, please PM me so I can go on about my business and pretend I was never sucked into the vortex.

Pretty sure they mean at your desk/office.

If your post was sarcasm, sorry, I didn't get it.

[Ginger1492]

I'm not much of a tech person so this may be obvious but I thought I would ask.

Is it possible to hook up a second monitor to your laptop? That way you could have a laptop for class and an additional monitor at home (to use two screens at once) without having to buy a second computer system.

[thalassocrat]

I'm not much of a tech person so this may be obvious but I thought I would ask.

Is it possible to hook up a second monitor to your laptop? That way you could have a laptop for class and an additional monitor at home (to use two screens at once) without having to buy a second computer system.

It is. You should have a connection on your laptop to hook in a monitor. It's the same one you'd use to hook it up to a projection system (at least for the ones at my UG).

[d34d9823]

I'm not much of a tech person so this may be obvious but I thought I would ask.

Is it possible to hook up a second monitor to your laptop? That way you could have a laptop for class and an additional monitor at home (to use two screens at once) without having to buy a second computer system.

Yeah, it's pretty easy actually.

But then it becomes awkward in terms of peripherals. Do you have an external keyboard and mouse? If so, you can't see the laptop screen well. If not, it's awkward typing on the laptop and looking at your other screen.

[Ginger1492]

I touch type without looking so the visual thing is not much of an issue. I think this is a great idea I had not yet thought of.

[Mr. Matlock]

I'm not much of a tech person so this may be obvious but I thought I would ask.

Is it possible to hook up a second monitor to your laptop? That way you could have a laptop for class and an additional monitor at home (to use two screens at once) without having to buy a second computer system.

Yeah, it's pretty easy actually.

But then it becomes awkward in terms of peripherals. Do you have an external keyboard and mouse? If so, you can't see the laptop screen well. If not, it's awkward typing on the laptop and looking at your other screen.

OK, well then let's take it one step further, for us technically deficient tards;

How do you have one thing up on the monitor, and another on the laptop? I just assumed the monitor would show whatever is currently up on the main computer screen. No sarcasm here.... sorry.

[macattaq]

This thread title is totally racist against Mexican immigrants.

I'm pretty sure they have bigger things to worry about, seeing as they are being arrested and locked up for being brown.