Editor’s Note: This article is one in a series of blog posts from first-year faculty members with their best advice to incoming law students on how to spend their summer before entering law school. To see every piece of advice in one document, click here.
How can you best prepare for the unexpected journey that is the first year of law school? As I am fond of telling my students, law school is a marathon, not a sprint. In order to achieve your own personal optimum performance as a law student and a lawyer, you need to get serious about taking care of yourself. Marathons are not won on two hours of sleep and a Big Mac. Now is the time to develop good habits in four important areas: eating, sleeping, exercising, and relaxing.
“Find a great running trail and a running buddy; sign up for a gym or yoga classes and practice actually going.”
Over the summer, you should take stock of your eating habits, and figure out how you can maximize nutrition when you are short on time. Brains are powered by healthy food; if it comes from a vending machine, it can’t be classified as “dinner.”
If, like me, you are not a good sleeper, think about virtuous habits you can put into place to make it more likely that you will sleep well. Limit caffeine intake after 4pm, keep your sleep and work spaces separate, drink lots of water – you know the drill.
Exercising is key both for good sleeping and for managing the law school workload without turning into a growling ogre. Find a great running trail and a running buddy; sign up for a gym or yoga classes and practice actually going; download the 7-minute workout app, if that’s what it takes to ensure you will carve out the time to exercise over the course of the semester.
Perhaps most importantly, figure out what it is that you enjoy so much that it takes your mind off everything else – spending time with friends and family, going to a museum, listening to live music, eating John’s water ice, etc. Be serious about maintaining those habits now and they will carry you through the semester. Just before the semester starts, do whatever it is that will make you most relaxed – read some good fiction, head down the shore and get some sand between your toes, hang out with people who make you laugh, maybe do all three at the same time! – and start that marathon with the right foot forward.
