Self-study
People who are employed full time: Where are yall finding the time to study? I work around 50 hours a week and commute 40 minutes to and from work (in-person every day, including some weekends). Been really struggling to carve out time and feeling really frustrated.
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13 comments
I work full time, too! The biggest thing that helped me was waking up earlier to put in an hour/hour and a half. My evenings are full of cooking, debriefing, or extra long work hours. Switching to mornings has made me 1,000x more consistent.
I'm a teacher and I study in the evenings for about an hour and take a prep test on the weekend. I make sure to prioritize working out and cooking too. My social life suffers, but no one is a superhero.
I'm at my daughter swim meet and I am doing drills. Even if for 20 minutes get it in where you can fit it in!
I work full-time w/ overtime, doing a house renovation, along with command time in the Army, all while studying. A few thoughts:
A) Schedule your LSAT and adjust your law school timeline if required. I decided I wanted to give myself the best shot to get into my top schools, versus pushing myself so hard, and/or not getting as much studying done as I needed to where I would have to settle.
B) Find your routine that works best for you. After work, I immediately drive to the library to study for a couple hours. If I go home, I am a goner. If you have ever read Atomic Habits this aligns with some of that.
C) Little pockets of time can be super valuable, like lunch.
D) Try not to overrun yourself. I gave myself a good bit of time to study, but I have plenty of times overworked myself and burned out while studying. This is still something I am working on because I tend to run myself into the ground on a normal day, but I hope you can strike a healthier balance than me because it has disrupted my studying a number of times.
I feel you. I work 45 hours/week of pretty intense work, driving to/from work everyday, working part-time on Saturdays.
My goal is to study at least 20 hour/week and to score 170.
I try to utilize every pocket of time: studying 30 minutes before work, another 30 min during lunch.
After work, 1 hr at the gym, and I come home and go through lessons while I stretch and then sit down to do drills, studying until I fall asleep.
Honestly I don't meet my goal perfectly everyday, but I accept that "studying " doesn't have to look perfect and that this my best at the moment.
It's hard but will be worth it! Rooting for all of you hard workers!
7 Sage app has been a game changer for me. I deleted all my social media and now when I feel like scrolling (or I’m on the train, on my lunch break, etc.), I do a quick drill on the app instead. I also listen to the 7Sage podcast and live classes while I’m driving which has been super helpful and just immersing me in lsat stuff more than I normally would be. I PT on weekends!
@NatMan Yess! Delete Social Media!! You really don’t realize how much time you waste until you don’t have it. Always drilling on the app too!
I work full-time as a teacher, and have found I’m exhausted most days at the end of the day. I’ve been waking up before work everyday and cranking out some studying then, and dedicate a few hours on the weekend. Definitely tricky getting on the schedule, but any time spent before work is much more meaningful than double the time would be after.
Shifting my mindset towards some time spent (even if it’s just 20 mins) is better than no time has been super helpful.
@notnotall1 I'm also a full-time teacher, and I do the same! Getting up just a bit earlier and putting in 30-60 minutes before work has helped me a lot.
Working full-time and being a mom... Typical study time, 9pm-11pm during week. Preptest on Sundays. Rest Saturdays. Dont burn yourself out. Just make a committed time and you'll get there.
@cmpagels This is so helpful. Working full-time and mom to a 2 year old here. Thought I was just struggling with time management but great to see I am not the only one!
@AlexisSantana you got this!
@cmpagels Props to you! That sounds really hard to balance.