Burnout (?) - Allow me to express my worries and ask for some advice

HopefullyHLS

Hello dear community,

first of all, besides the high-quality content 7sage provides, I'd like to express my admiration for the positivity among the users on this platform, both in the discussion forum as well as in the comments etc. Definitely healthier to seek out for advice here compared to some other platforms (cough ... reddit ... cough).

My issue can be summarized into the following phrase: I have the suspicion that I am heading to LSAT-burnout.

In March, I quitted my previous job, got a new one in April and pushed my start date back to October in order to invest 5 months in the preparation for my applications for JD/MBA joint degree programs (which included LSAT, essays and some other stuff).

I've invested the vast majority of this time so far in the LSAT, started off with the core curriculum and untimed psets, and have done 16 timed PT's so far (including full review), averaging at 173 (took PT June07, 36, 37, 38, 39, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 80, 79, in that order). In parallel, I aim to read 15-20 articles of The Economist per week to practice understanding passages via the low resolution memory, and elongate & go over an vocab Excel-list consisting meanwhile of 800+ words (since I'm a non-native speaker and RC has been by far my weakest section).

Today I took PT 79, and had to realize that in sections 2-4 my brain was just running on auto-pilot mode, my mind was not 100% inside the test, I felt tired and exhausted. To my surprise, as opposed to the last 4 tests, my RC score wasn't that bad (-2) and that pushed the score up to 175 (seriously, don't ask me how this happened - I'll need to review the test, honestly I thought I totally, totally bombed RC this time). I believe that in the last 5-6 PTs I also felt kind of tired, but today it was really worse... I mean during the last section I even had impetus to just stand up and walk around rather than read even one more LR stimulus. For the last couple days, I also feel slower even when it comes to reviewing tests, and procrastinate a lot more compared to when I started...

I know, the obvious advice would be "take some days off". However, following worries keep me back from this:

• I consciously chose to start later at my new firm (thereby creating opportunity costs in form of lost salary) for the LSAT. Therefore, I kind of tend to feel guilty every moment I do not do anything for the LSAT, and other people in my age work full-time.

• I already was involved in LSAT prep (by far not full-time though) from September 2019 to April 2020, but did not really take it seriously and just kept burning PTs without reviewing them and without taking a rigorous preparation course. I decided to take these months off and do it correctly this time, and this decision increases the pressure I impose to myself to get a 175+ even more, since not achieving this would be a waste of my time (and maybe kind of an indication that my mental capabilities are simply not enough to get into Harvard, Yale or Stanford Law School).

• I am not sure whether it is burnout or problems with sleep. For some time, I've been having issues with falling asleep at night, with the result that I've rarely gained sleep of 7+ hours. Therefore, in case it is sleep issues and not burnout, I'm afraid that this break will be unnecessary and won't do anything to face the potential root-cause of the problem.

• As mentioned before, I am a non-native speaker. On top of that, I've never really been intrinsically motivated to read in my leisure time (be it for the sake of it, or in order to learn about what's happening in the world etc.). Therefore, I have the dilemma, in case I do decide to take a break, whether I should keep reading The Economist or not. On the one hand, RC is my weakest section and I feel like I need to improve on it and time is really running against me, therefore, ideally, I would have to utilize every single free second to improve my reading skills in English. On the other hand, investing time in an activity that I do not intrinsically perceive as "fun" would not really fulfill the purpose of taking a break...

That said, I would really appreciate it if you could give some answers to the following questions:

• Does the above sound like LSAT burnout?

• Have you ever had the above thoughts? If so, how did you cope with them?

• What do you think is the best way to get into the routine of a fixed sleeping schedule (e.g. go to bed before midnight and wake up before 8 am)? For some time, I managed to go to bed before or around midnight, fall asleep relatively quickly and wake up at 8.30-9 am, but meanwhile I went back to the vicious cycle of not being able to go to bed before 1 am, staying in bed without being able to fall asleep for at least 2 hours, waking up at 9.30 am, being tired for the rest of the day though paradoxically fully energized at night... and so on. Do you have some tips for breaking that cycle for a longer time period?

Thanks in advance guys! As I said, I really appreciate the positivity of the 7sage community and try to give my advice wherever and whenever I can as well Excited to read your comments before going to the final stage of taking PT 82-90.

BlueRiceCake

Yes that definitely sounds like burnout. I would recommend taking some rest and focusing on some of your other hobbies other than the LSAT. How long you do this is up to you, some people feel ready to jump back in the LSAT in a day, some people a week. There is one right answer and that's however long you need to feel better.

Meditation is the key to good sleep in my experience. I didn't know that until I started studying for the LSAT. I was an insomniac and it usually took me 3hrs+ to fall asleep. After I started meditating right when I head to bed(for getting better at the LSAT no less) I started easily falling asleep in 1hr tops. Ik it's mundane advice but meditation is a game changer when it comes to the changing sleep patterns

HopefullyHLS

Thank you