3 goals for second year law students!
Author Samara Wendt
This week we are adding a new Blogger to our Student team, Samara Wendt- another fun loving and talented law and psychology student.
Samara has penned a great piece on goal setting for 2nd year law students but as someone who finished second year law a very long time ago, I found her thoughts on goal setting a great reminder for me too!
Clarissa
New Year Goals are so six months ago. Having ‘Start of Financial Year Goals’ is where the magic happens. Well my fingers are crossed something close to magic happens. Over the last semester I accepted some aspects of my study just weren’t working. I’m talking blatant issues which I could easily identify but, I chose to keep trotting on through the semester and hoping I would survive. Miraculously, I did still get some decent grades at the end of it, but I now wonder, if I had made only a few small changes what could I have achieved? No more wasting time I say! They say there is no time like the present to make a goal so I’m changing my study habits. I believe with the use of three books, my study routine will see benefits galore! Here’s how…
Goal 1: I will make all my notes in notebooks
I have always been a hand writer of my notes for various reasons, including for the memory gains *insert muscle emoji* and the mutual distain technology and I have for each other. For a semester I dipped my toes into typed notes, but a corrupted computer resulted in ten weeks of notes being lost and a lot of tears. A lot. Side note, I was using a USB and OneDrive to back up my work but they also failed me. So back to paper I went. Despite always being a hand writer, I haven’t found a way to format and store notes that I find easy to access and beneficial to read over. Lined, loose paper was always my go to for notes, with a stapler and folder being my method of organisation, or madness. The idea of loose paper was to organise all the relevant lecture, tutorial and reading notes. But, what do you think my chances of finding the lecture, tutorial and reading notes on the same topic would be? Very unlikely with a side of tears.
So, this semester I am using notebooks for all of my notes. I hope this will bring more organisation between the various notes and ultimately make end of semester exam prep more productive. At least, I will minimise the tears resulting from notes of any kind. However, the organisation of my notes relies on the success of the next goal.
Goal 2: Make MORE of an effort to do MORE readings
I have developed a few nifty hacks to avoid purchasing expensive textbooks (which I look forward to sharing), but it’s my lack of commitment to completing readings that ruins the excitement of those hacks. While all the good intentions to do readings and make effective notes are present at the start of the semester, as soon as a couple of assignments are dropped into the mix my weekly readings become more of a dream than a reality. Tell me that’s a universal law student dream…
I recently saw a cartoon that explained the importance of readings. It showed a book shining light directly into the pictured character’s face. The next frame was of the character with the same light shining from its eyes. To me, the knowledge I could be gaining from those readings, that I simply don’t make time to do, is unbelievable. I could be shining so much more knowledge into my assignments, exams and future career but am missing out because of my lazy habit!
My goal is now to continue completing prescribed weekly readings even when stress hits. It is just a matter of making time available and being more conscious of how I spend my time elsewhere! This coincidently leads to my third goal.
Goal 3: Use my diary to become more organised with my time.
If you do not have a physical diary I could not recommend it enough. It makes organising and keeping track of life so much easier. I am a visual learner and having all important dates marked for me to visually reference is the most beneficial thing for my success. Even using your diary to forward plan on assessments and projects is made so much easier with a physical diary. However, it is the way in which I use my ‘extra’ time that is bringing me down. My ‘extra’ time is usually when I don’t have something scheduled to do in my diary. Really, this is when I should be doing those readings or completing my notes. But I don’t. Instead, I make myself give up hope of readings being completed to spend double the time binge watching The Crown or Millionaire Hot Seat. Don’t get me wrong, when you are stressed you need to stop and relax for a little time. Emphasis on the little time. Unfortunately, being as witty as Eddy McGuire is optional in the courtroom and should be classified as a extra-curricular (i.e. not important!).
This semester I aim to use my time more wisely. Instead of simply writing ‘study’ across a period of time, I am writing specific tasks and time frames to complete them in. These tasks are as specific as writing ‘Research Methods Tutorial Prep’ or ‘Counselling Readings’. Fingers crossed this method becomes rewarding at end of semester for assignments and exams.
Lesson Learnt!
But would goal setting be complete without acknowledging the harm my current habits were causing? It seems I was subjecting myself to a domino effect of low productivity which directly affected my success in all areas of study. Like I said, I knew my ignorance to change habits earlier could have prevented me to be questioning my potential. But what is a bad habit if not a lesson learnt.
There we have three semester goals using three different books! Let’s all say goodbye to time wasting regret and hello to productivity! Now the only question remaining is – what are your goals for the second semester?
Join me in making semester goals! Even if it is a single goal let’s work together. Connect with me on Instagram and Linkedin and lets manifest goal success together!
Hi! My name is Samara and I am an over opinionated, awkward and Imposter Syndrome suffering Law and Psychology student at the Queensland University of Technology. I never had that light-bulb moment when choosing to study law. I am not sure if many people so. But after witnessing injustice and suffering of those vulnerable in our world, I became determined to help. This is where going into law made sense for me.
Despite believing in my purpose, I openly feel the dreaded law school Imposter Syndrome. You know, when you feel like everyone else has got ‘it’ together and you don’t even know what day it is. This year I became determined to embrace this clueless feeling by moving out of comfort zone. This included entering an Instagram competition with The Happy Family Lawyer which led me here!
Here I am blogging about all things law school, student life and comfort zones in hopes to find fellow Imposter Syndrome suffers.
Join the journey here on The Happy Law Student Blog and connect with me on Instagram and Linkedin!