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Hello all. My finals start December 12th and i am freaking out. My final memo for LWR is due Nov. 22nd and I have only done the researching part, without actually having started writing. My outline for Civ Pro is pretty much done, but my torts outline is barebones and my crim outline needs a ton of work too. To add on to that, I am frantic about applying to jobs. I know everyone is going through the same thing, but I am finding that the enormity of everything that has to be done seems to make me procrastinate more and lead me to put things off. Any advice?

Stop procrastinating.
If you need motivation I'm sure your classmates are working way harder than you at this point. That would scare the crap out of me if I was competing for a fixed amount of A's.

Stop applying to jobs. Just quit it. For so many reasons.

Also, don't anon post for shit like this. And don't start threads with douche-y titles.

I haven't even finished outlining a class yet, and my finals start the same day as yours. Relax. Besides, the later you start your outlines the fresher the material will be in your head come exam time (so I've been told). You should be at the point where you can skim most of your readings and still understand them, so that in itself will afford you more spare time for finals prep.

Deep breaths.

Also, come up with a realistic outline schedule. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I finish my work for the week, affording me Wednesdays and Thursdays to do nothing but outlining. On Friday, I do Monday's work/take a break, and on Saturday and Sunday I spend all day outlining. Unless you're exceedingly slow at outlining, this should be ample time to get everything together. Plus, you get a couple free days with Thanksgiving break.

Partialize. Break down what you have to do into small discrete tasks and do them one by one. Prioritize them by due date and importance. Put the amount of energy into it that it warrants -don't exhaust yourself on a small thing that doesn't matter. You just have to keep going on one thing at a time. Feeling overwhelmed can lead to procrastinating which means you get further behind. Have confidence that you will get it all done.

And stop applying to jobs right now. (see the excellent advice above)

I didn't start to outline until Thanksgiving break, and my first exam during 1L was on December 9th. Did I bust my ass pretty much every day from then until finals? Yup. Did I sweep all my 1L classes? Yup.

Also, I didn't start applying to 1L summer jobs until after finals.

thanks for all of the responses. Definitely helpful in terms of kicking it into gear. I know many of you probably think, "what a whiny waste of a topic post," and you're pretty much right, but this is very helpful to me. All recommendations, whether encouraging or critical are motivational to me.

This is more manageable than you think. Keep some perspective about things. You have a week to write a memo that you have already researched. This summer you may have a week to write a memo including research time. Stop trying to write it perfectly, just write. Editing is much easier than staring at a blank screen. As you see pages fill up you will relax. Even if you don't use a word of the first several pages in your final draft, it won't be a waste.

Remember the purpose of outlining is to help you process the material. In law school there were only two classes for which I made a "proper" outline. They were two of my worst grades. Generally my outline was only a few pages long and extremely bare bones -- basically just a check list that written in outline form. I worked much better off of reading other people's outlines or horn books and just writing a brief outline of the issues I would want to hit in an essay.

Stop jumping through hoops and looking at what your classmates are doing. Treat this as a job. Remember what your tasks actually are: getting a memo done and writing good exams. Outlines are only important if they assist you in doing one of those two things. Constantly triage your time by asking whether what you are doing really feels beneficial to the end goals. Its not about going through the motions, its about gaining momentum.

I'm also way behind; have half of one of four outlines done. And actually, it was just an old outline that I updated for our midterm (which I didn't do well on). Final memo draft is due Dec 1, 6 days before the first final. I've got way too much shit going on until Fri night to do anything about outlines, and even this weekend I was planning on just figuring out what to do about sending out apps on Dec 1 (I'm thinking I'll just be going for jud. internship). Is it not that important to send that shit out on Dec 1?

I can't wait until next week. Not because I'll be going home to relax, but because I'll finally have a chance to really get to work on preparing for the finals, which will actually be more relaxing than going home and realizing I was just wasting precious little time doing anything other than studying.

Procrastination, for me and many others, is caused by a feeling of hopelessness when thinking about how in the world I can finish what seem like really big tasks. Solution: small goals. Don't think. Just do.

There's no one way to prepare. Some people are capable of cramming and making an outline in the last few days before an exam and do fine. If your style is that way, you're fine. Stick with what worked for you in UG unless it doesn't work out this semester.

Anonymous User wrote:Hello all. My finals start December 12th and i am freaking out. My final memo for LWR is due Nov. 22nd and I have only done the researching part, without actually having started writing. My outline for Civ Pro is pretty much done, but my torts outline is barebones and my crim outline needs a ton of work too. To add on to that, I am frantic about applying to jobs. I know everyone is going through the same thing, but I am finding that the enormity of everything that has to be done seems to make me procrastinate more and lead me to put things off. Any advice?

You don't happen to be at Villanova, do you?

i'm in a relatively similar spot. I'm going to try and have my 8 page memo completely drafted by tomorrow, get way ahead of readings by thanksgiving, and focus on finals aggressively next week. I've also given up, (mostly), on applying to jobs before break.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Hello all. My finals start December 12th and i am freaking out. My final memo for LWR is due Nov. 22nd and I have only done the researching part, without actually having started writing. My outline for Civ Pro is pretty much done, but my torts outline is barebones and my crim outline needs a ton of work too. To add on to that, I am frantic about applying to jobs. I know everyone is going through the same thing, but I am finding that the enormity of everything that has to be done seems to make me procrastinate more and lead me to put things off. Any advice?

You don't happen to be at Villanova, do you?

OP here. No not villanova. The reason I'm doing this anonymously is because I know several classmates on TLS, and they know me.

I didn't even know you could post anon in this forum.

EDIT: I assume this was just moved from legal employment.

Anonymous User wrote:I am finding that the enormity of everything that has to be done seems to make me procrastinate more and lead me to put things off. Any advice?

Q: How do you eat an elephant?

A: One bite at a time.


Point being:

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