How I Keep Weekends Free in Law School

One of the best things I have done for my mental health and overall sanity in law school is unplug from school on weekends. I used to spend hours on Sat/Sun in the library studying and I was so unhappy. I had no days to completely relax and I missed my friends. Once, I started focusing more on my mental health, I began to unplug from law school on the weekends. It definitely requires some serious time management and dedication, but it’s 100% possible! Keep in mind, final exams season is a whole other story. Here are some of my tips:

• Meal prep is my best friend! I plan out, grocery shop for, and prepare my meal prep lunches on Sunday of the week while I am running my errands.
• Limit the amount of extracurriculars/commitments you have. After my first year of law school, I honed in on the exact extracurriculars I wanted to dedicate time to. They are definitely time consuming, and having too many can really take up a big chunk of your week or weekend time. I chose two main ones to commit to and don’t really spend much time doing other clubs, journals, etc.
• Schedule everything and I mean EVERYTHING. All assignments, study time, lunch time, classes, etc. It helps to keep you on track and accomplish everything. You want to have all your work done by Friday evening so that you won’t worry about school on Sat/Sun. This means whatever you need done by Monday should also be scheduled accordingly so you don’t have to do it on the weekend! I have a more in-depth schedule related blog post here.
• Keep your phone in your backpack or desk drawer to minimize distractions and be efficient with your time.
• Schedule something on the weekends to look forward to, like an event or hanging out with friends! That you KNOW you absolutely must get your work done before Saturday of the week and it gives you something to look forward to!
• Take breaks when you need them, and know that it’s totally okay to leave some schoolwork for the weekends. Sometimes it can be very tiring to be school mode all day every weekday. Go easy on yourself, and move some of your work around in order to accommodate giving yourself a break.

If you want to keep reading on law school scheduling, mental health in law school, and SO many other topics, you can find my prelaw/law school menu here. I’m also always happy to chat via my instagram dm. Thanks for reading!