Belated Request: Study Breaks

Eleanor requested a post about how to clear your head when you're spending a lot of time studying.  She's in med school, and says that simply not studying isn't quite enough to come back to it feeling refreshed, and she seeks advice from my law school days. 

I think she's right.  I spent a fair amount of non-studying time doing things that absorbed my attention.  I had a job my first and second year, and that job was interesting and intense in ways that complimented my studies.  It was more energetic than contemplative, and forward looking rather than about precedent.  I liked it.  My first year I also put a lot of time into a crumbling and foolish romantic situation, which took my mind off my studies and gave me something different to fret about.  Although I wouldn't recommend it, I think the effect was to put my law school stuff into perspective, and to make studying seem like an attractive task, that was more under my control than the messy disintegration of my relationship. 

My second and third years I found exercise pretty useful.  I took karate classes my second year, because I realized I hadn't tried to learn a new physical skill in a number of years, although I'd gotten very good at mental learning.  I started running and discovered that it absorbed me and made me feel pretty good.  I took road trips to New York and Boston, Texas and Montana.  I listened to a lot of music and read magazines about the musicians who interested me.  I made friends outside of law school and tried to have a full social life.  I drew pictures when I took notes and I discovered how much I like design and color, so my journals from the time are full of sketches and funny little illustrations.  I read novels, but I am always reading novels and didn't particularly adjust the amount or type during law school. 

The essence of my advice: spend your non-study time doing something that absorbs you and delights you in some way that's different than being capable and intellectual.  Give yourself into your relationships with people, and push your body to do something it's not accustomed to, and do something that's playful and creative -- craft or art of some kind.  Remember all the other ways that you're human and connected to the world other than your brain and its stored expertise.   Write these down, these things that feed the other parts of your soul.  Decorate that list of things that make you feel good or that awaken your curiousity but that you can't put on a resume.  Post it on your desk where you can see it.  You like music?  Go to the independent music store, and meet the folks who work there and talk about what's new and ask them to play things for you.  (I did that, while in law school, and got to know some neat guys at the now-defunct Amadeus music.)  You want to play frisbee, or go cross country skiing?  Set some goals and stumble along toward them.   Send someone a postcard every week, and make it your thing to go out and find cool postcards or notice interesting quotes to put on the postcard.  (I did that in law school -- I sent a lot more letters and postcards.)  When you're in school, your view of the world and what matters in it, and what matters in you, can get narrowed.  Use your study breaks to push outside that.  That's my advice.   

Comments

[Deb]

I wish I'd had your non-study advice while I was in law school.

Maybe I can apply when I start studying for the bar. Again.

[Isaac Laquedem]

I like your advice. When I had graduated from law school, I did not have the money to sign up for Bar/BRI or take any bar review course. I bought the flash cards and constructed an exercise program around them. I set up review times around my work schedule (I had a full-time job) and then every weekend I planned a hike. I went up Mount Hood one weekend (to about 9000 feet, not to the top) and up Mount St. Helens another weekend. I had city hikes and country hikes. It worked -- I passed the first time. I think it helped that every weekend I did something that had nothing to do with the law, and having the physical activity kept me from obsessing about the bar exam.

[a]

I agree. I read a whole series of very non-law books during my first year. Still reading, but whimsical and imaginative and very unlike caselaw.
I suppose I also spent a lot of time on less-than-ideal (understatement) romantic situations. Not recommended though.
My favorite study break though, was cooking dinner. Necessary to eat, healthier than alternatives, skill-building, and above all (mostly) tasty! Doing it with great music in the background made it even better. Or doing it for friends/roommates.
Actually - having a non-law school roommate was nice, too.