Planning and preparing can be necessary and useful – within reason. However, we sometimes use them as avoidance mechanisms for our difficult study tasks.
Here are some examples law students have shared where they used planning and preparing to avoid working on a more difficult task:
- Cleaning the house because they cannot study until their environment is spotless.
- Organizing everything in their study area until everything is perfect for studying: pencils and pens lined up in a row, bookshelves alphabetized, papers for several semesters hole-punched and filed in binders.
- Continuing to research after everything found just repeats prior sources because “there just might be something else out there.”
- Making “to-do” lists that run on for pages and cover the entire semester to stall doing today’s immediate tasks.
- Daydreaming extensively about writing the best paper the professor has ever seen without actually researching for or writing that paper.
You want to plan and prepare. But you want to keep those tasks realistic and not let them become procrastination methods. Here are some tips for more realistic planning and preparing:
- Set time limits on planning and preparation steps rather than having them be open-ended.
- Limit daily “to-do” lists to a maximum of 10 tasks.
- Prioritize your daily “to-do” list into categories (very important, important, least important) and complete tasks in the order of importance.
- Block off specific times in your weekly schedule to do non-law-school items (chores, errands, grocery shopping, laundry, etc.) so they do not interrupt more important study tasks throughout the week.
- Ask yourself two questions for each task:
- Is this the wisest use of my time right now?
- If so, am I completing the task in a way to get the most effective results in the least amount of time?
If over-planning or over-preparing are difficulties for you, make an appointment with the academic success professionals at your law school to learn more strategies to use your time and efforts wisely. (Amy Jarmon)
