Dear 1L

Dear 1L,

January is hard. How do you find motivation? With grades in, but summer employment still uncertain for most, how do you become energized to re-engage this semester? Try this.

Break the semester up in your mind.  Don’t think about everything you must accomplish by May. That is too large a mountain to climb. Focus only on March 1 as a goal. Pretend there are midterms then. They count for half your grade.

Would you be ready to write an A+ exam on the Jan-Feb content by March 1? Think of that alone as your chief goal for the next five weeks.

Before March 1, you need to 
(a) have a fully-operational, well-oiled study machine in place, to
(b) be able to turn on auto-pilot for studying through to the end of classes.

Take this remaining time in January to craft a plan of attack for now until March. Make your plan so detailed that you can implement it with no daily thinking, no daily decision making. The plan can, of course, be revisited and tweaked over the next several weeks. But by March, you should just be following your plan, not deciding what and how to do so.

Map out each time block for weeks in advance. That way, you won’t have to decide what course, or what type of studying you will do during each time block, at any step along the way.  

Decision fatigue is real. The more daily decision-points you can remove, the less fatigued you will feel. (And it is not a semester where anyone can take on any unnecessary, additional sources of fatigue.)

As to what to put in those study blocks, my main message is this:  you must pick only highly-efficient ways of studying. Preparing in advance for class may give you comfort, but it is highly inefficient.  

Don’t worry about cold calls. You should be beyond that, by now. Your course grade is the same, whether you answer brilliantly, or you have to pass. 

Being unprepared for class takes courage, but this idea is not new. Some push it in October, and I may start doing so, too. In January, I have no hesitation. Dare to stop preparing for class. Free up huge study blocks for practice problems and full essay exams.  

The approach may cause you short-term unease, but there is no way to do everything. There simply are not enough hours in the day. You need to pick your spots.  Everything you do should be efficient. Preparing for class is not.

I hear you. I am here for you. I welcome your thoughts and questions. January is hard for everyone. Don’t let it beat you. This is precious time that you won’t get back. Make every moment count.

Fondly, 

Amanda