Tips on Maintaining a Life Outside of Law School

All law students need a life outside of law school, if for no other reason than to stay normal and sane. If you spend every conscious moment thinking about law school, not only will you go bananas, but you will likely become burned out and not do as well academically as you would otherwise. All work and no play is simply not a recipe for success or happiness.

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During law school, you will undoubtedly meet students who spend all their time studying or talking about the law. They can be found most hours of the day or night holed away in their assigned study carrel, complete with bedding, alarm clock, and coffee machine. Their idea of a big night out is a trip to the law school vending machine. A casual observer might wonder whether these people have homes. They also never seem to be happy, since they are always worrying about some test or other hurdle they will face down the road. They erroneously consider their own mental well-being irrelevant. These students may be at or near the top of the class, but just as often they are only achieving average grades. As one quickly finds out, attempting to study 18 hours a day or more is counterproductive and quite silly.

Based on our collective experience, we truly believe that optimum law school performance can be obtained by combining rest, relaxation, and physical activity with hard work. Students need to keep their perspective balanced and develop or maintain a social life outside of law school. The easiest way to do this is simply to continue during law school to do those things that you enjoyed before. For example, if you liked going to the movies prior to law school, continue to go to movies once school starts. If you enjoyed working out at a health club prior to law school, continue to do so after you enter law school. In short, do not entirely stop doing the things you enjoy simply because you are enrolled in law school. While we do not suggest you try to emulate Axl Rose's social calendar, we do strongly recommend that students take the following steps to maintain a healthy, balanced social life during law school.

Go out socially at least one night every week. Whether it is dinner with family or spouse, a basketball game with friends, an intellectually stimulating play, or a night at the opera, just go out. The key is regularly doing some social activity that takes your mind off of law school completely. Do not feel guilty; you will start the next day mentally refreshed and ready for your studies.

Try to take a day off once every week or two. Going to the beach, keeping a journal, wine-tasting, fly-fishing, writing letters, golfing, shop-ping, exploring by car, painting, writing poetry-the list of engaging activities with which you can fill a day off from classes, briefing, outlining, and studying is long. If you are caught up in your studies and other law-related activities, by all means take a day off, temporarily forget the stress of law school, and lose yourself for a whole day in a different activity-the more fun and frivolous the better. It will do wonders for your mental outlook. You will probably feel comfortable taking more days off after you have been in law school for a while and have gotten the hang of it. Hopefully, this book will enable you to do so a lot sooner than you otherwise would.

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Eat and sleep right. Try not to let law school paranoia lead you to alter your basic schedule. Be good to your body and yourself. Do not overeat, binge, or skip meals; just eat regular meals as you did before. Also, pay attention to what you eat. High-fat and empty-calorie meals will, over time, diminish your energy levels and your general sense of well-being. You should also make sure you get as much sleep as you need each night. A lack of sleep can make even the simplest tasks seem more complex. Trying to expand your available study time by eliminating sleep or regular meals is a shortcut doomed to failure. Not only is the extra time gained for studying inconsequential from the "big picture" perspective, but by depriving your body of basic needs you will be reducing your stamina, efficiency, and mental alertness. This could lead to illness or chronic fatigue, which will put you behind in your studies.

Do not socialize exclusively with fellow Law students. Although it is easy to fall into a pattern of socializing only with those persons you see most-fellow law students-fight against getting into this rut. During law school, try to see family and non-law student friends as often as possible. This will ensure that your time off is relaxing and refreshing, and does not always turn into a forum for stressful and unnecessary study sessions and legal arguments.

Get regular exercise. Even if regular exercise was not part of your basic routine prior to law school, you should make it so during law school. Exercise, besides its many health benefits, will keep your mind sharp and alert. A recent study even indicated that regular exercise strengthens the brain by increasing the number of blood vessels nourishing the cerebrum. The study of law is more like an academic marathon than a sprint, and it requires much physical endurance and mental discipline; both of these qualities are promoted by regular exercise. Regular exercise not only increases your endurance and clears your mind for hard study, but can give you a temporary "natural high" (because of the release of endorphins, often spoken of by runners) and a continued sense of well-being. In short, exercise is a great stress reducer. A lack of exercise, on the other hand, makes you feel mentally sluggish as well as physically tired.

Every physical and mental edge you can gain is important in law school and, in our considered opinion, exercise is an extremely important part of the law school routine.

Have a sense of humor. If you do not do well on a test, or are caught unprepared in class, try to see the humor in the situation- like a black comedy. Law students tend to take law school and life far too seriously. A good sense of humor is a valuable asset that many successful individuals possess. In a Forbes magazine survey, business executives were asked to describe the characteristics of up-and-coming employees. The executives placed a sense of humor at the top of the list. A good sense of humor is essential for getting a student through the trials and tribulations of law school.

Nourish your spiritual well-being. No matter what you do, some things in life will go badly for you. When this occurs, besides a sense of humor, it helps to have a belief system to fall back on. Prayer or meditation puts things in perspective and infuses some calmness into the otherwise hectic world of a law student.

Follow the preceding rules, and in all likelihood you will do better academically than if you spent all of your time studying the law. You will also enjoy law school a lot more than many of your fellow classmates who will suffocate themselves with excessive studying.