Making the Most of the Last Three Weeks
The bar exam is three weeks from today. A lot of things can happen in three weeks. The Winter Olympic Games will have started and ended. The Lunar New Year will have come and gone. And the Cincinnati Bengals will have beaten the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl and will have already held a massive parade down by the Riverfront by the time the February bar exam takes place. Well—at least we knowtwo of those three things will happen for certain!
The point is: Three weeks is a lot of time, if you appropriately plan out your next three weeks. On the other hand, three weeks can go very quickly, with lots of unproductive time passing by, if you don’t pay attention to how you’re spending your time.
Take a look at the Forbes article, “How I Get More Done 2 Days Than Most People Do In 2 Weeks.” It’s a quick and interesting read, with lots of good tips and advice. It’s written by Neil Patel, who admitted that “I’m not smarter than most people. I’m not more talented. I don’t have some Ivy League education. I don’t get a lot of lucky breaks.”
But what he does have is hustle—that’s his “secret skill,” Patel wrote.
In his article, Patel put his habits under the microscope and wrote about what he discovered about his ability to hustle harder than most people. Patel also provided tips on how you can do the same.
What I’ve done below is supplemented Patel’s tips with my own thoughts and bar prep-related advice. So I encourage you to read Patel’s article, and then come back to this announcement to see how you can incorporate these tips into your own studying. Maybe you’re finding that you’re doing some of them already!
1. I figured out exactly where I was wasting time.
Patel discovered that he was wasting a lot of time without even realizing it. He was a self-proclaimed “web-surfing time waster,” spending hours each week on useless stuff like YouTube and Facebook.
As you’re preparing for the bar exam over the next three weeks, consider installing apps on your phone or laptop that tracks where you spend most of your time online. Consider even installing apps that prevent you from visiting those sites or other apps on your phone while you’re studying. Studying isn’t productive if your time is constantly being interrupted by incoming texts or messages.
2. I sleep a lot.
Patel wrote that he became more productive by sleeping more—9.25 hours a night. I’m guilty of not sleeping much. I sleep about 4 or 5 hours a night, and I’m told by my doctors that that’s just not healthy—let alone making me unproductive throughout the day. So I’m trying to work on that. I feel like I have to get less sleep to get everything I need to get done throughout the day. But if I can be more productive throughout the day, then I can get more sleep. It’s a bit of the chicken-or-the-egg conundrum, I suppose.
What can you do? For the next three weeks, get more sleep. I’ve heard from some graduates that they’re staying up to 3 am studying. While they might be putting in the work, it’s important to make sure that that work is productive and that other word being done throughout the day is productive, too.
3. If I start it, I finish it.
Patel wrote about how a lot of people start a project, pause, and try to come back to it later. He used email as an example—"You open an email, read it, don’t reply, and close it … When you get back around to checking email again, you’re going to read the same email again, figure out what to do, and compose a reply.” That’s a waste of time.
When studying for the bar exam, especially during the final three weeks, you’ll want to focus on just a couple of subjects each day. Switching between multiple subjects too many times is a time waster because you’re required to get up to speed to where you are on the subject and figure out what you need to focus on each time you make that transition from one subject to another.
4. I break my tasks into bite-sized chunks.
Patel admitted that big projects “scare” him. So he breaks down large projects into “bite-sized chunks.”
You should do the same, and this is the importance of doing the Simulated MBE and digging into your performance report. Don’t just study Torts or Constitutional Law. Figure out your strengths and areas of improvement in the MBE subject, and then focus on those topics within Torts that you can focus and improve on, like causation when it comes to negligence or Freedom of Speech when it comes to the First Amendment.
5. I work from bed.
Patel wrote that he works a lot from bed—"When you’re in bed, you feel immune to interruptions, and people are less likely to bug you."
I don’t do this. I don’t even find this appealing to me. But I can see how it might be productive for others.
6. I work anywhere.
In addition to bed, Patel said that he works everywhere else—in the shower, on the toilet, while exercising, etc. He takes advantage of every spare minute he has and makes it productive.
I commute about 10 hours each week between Tennessee and Ohio. During those 10 hours, I rarely just zone out and listen to music, podcasts, or the news. I try to do something productive, like prepping for class, dictating notes, listening to self-help audiobooks, and even drafting these Daily Breakfast Bars through voice memo. The more work I can do while in the car, the less work I have to do when I’m with my wife and kids.
For the next three weeks, think about where you might be able to do some additional studying by flipping through some flashcards or completing multiple-choice questions on your BARBRI app. There is no shame answering questions about the mailbox rule on the toilet. No. Shame. At. All.
7. I’m a minimalist.
Patel discussed how he lives a simple life. “Owning less stuff gives unleashes insane levels of mental focus. Plus, I don’t have to worry about all the time-sucking activities involved with owning lots of stuff, a house, or a car.”
I’m definitely not a minimalist. I’m a hoarder and collector. I have trouble letting things go—hence, I still have my Star Wars action figures and vintage Atari video games from the 1970s and 1980s.
While studying for the bar exam, I know some things just can’t be pushed to the side and wait to be addressed until after the bar exam. Kids still need to eat, parents need to be checked on, and bills have to be paid. But to the extent that things can wait, then schedule them later. Do I really need to change my car’s oil after 5,000 miles? I can wait another 1,000. And going to the dentist on the seventh month instead of the normal six-month check-up isn’t going to dramatically impact the state of my teeth.
8. I outsource everything.
Patel wrote about paying people to help him so that he can do the things that he needs to do.
Let’s face it—we don’t have that luxury to pay people. At least I don’t. But we can take advantage of friends and family. Use that support network to help you get things done over the next three weeks so that you can focus on the bar exam.
9. I schedule large blocks of time for self-development.
Patel wrote that “I believe that if we spent more time on self-improvement, self-discovery, personal development, long-term planning, and strategy, we will become more productive.”
Since the first day of law school, you’ve been taught to become a self-regulated learner. Self-regulated learning is a cyclical process, wherein the student plans for a task, monitors their performance, and then reflects on the outcome. The cycle then repeats as the student uses the reflection to adjust and prepare for the next task.
Think about the Simulated MBE and other practice exams where you can examine your performance reports. I know I might sound like a broken record, but here’s the chorus once again: Over the next several weeks, you should find yourself taking practice exams, identifying your weaknesses, working on those weaknesses, taking more practice exams, identifying additional (or the same) weaknesses, working on those weaknesses, taking more practice exams, and repeating the process over and over again.
10. I work with my ultradian rhythms.
Okay, I didn't even know what this was when I first read “ultradian rhythms.” Patel discussed energy management techniques by noting that your energy levels go up and down during the day. As a result, he suggested that you do more mentally demanding tasks during the time of the day when you have the most energy. Even though I didn’t know what “ultradian rhythms” are, I do try to plan my work accordingly. So lots of my number-crunching, Excel-filled work is usually done the first thing in the morning. Emails are usually responded to at night, if I don’t immediately respond to them.
During these next two weeks, figure out when is the best time for you to complete multiple-choice questions and essay questions. You might find doing them at different times than when you’re currently doing them might be helpful.
The week immediately before the bar exam, however, I would encourage you to complete questions during the same timeframe as when you’re going to be taking the bar exam, e.g., around 9 am to 5 pm. Reserve the evenings for reviewing your notes and other tasks.
Let me just end with that Patel wrote: “Being productive isn’t an end in itself. It’s a means to an end. Knowing what you want out of life, and then pursuing it — that’s where true productivity really begins.”
