Time Management Skills for Law Students: A Handbook of Tools, Techniques and Motivation. (Legal Study Skills)

'Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.' Peter F Drucker And if you are a law student, lack of time management skills may simply have extremely disastrous effects on your academic and professional career. This book that you may (or are about to) read addresses the specific needs of the law students and those of the law teachers who constantly worry about poor time management skills of their students. From academic life to professional career, law students always complain about the paucity of time and their continuous struggle with the time management. From day one of the law school, students are expected to read and absorb, learn and retain, research and resolve, prepare and argue books, case law authorities, journal articles, legal problems and scenarios, and the technical wording of acts and statutes. In my experience of learning, teaching and practising the law, I found that the requirements of the law students are different from those of the students of other disciplines. While a common approach is always available to a student of any discipline, a specific approach is not very common. I found further support for my book in a research article "Time: An Empirical Analysis of Law Student Time Management Deficiencies" by Christine P. Bartholomew of Buffalo School of Law published in the University of Cincinnati Law Review* and also in the article written by Camille Lamar Campbell, “Timing is Everything: Teaching Essential Time Management Skills for “Real-World” Legal Writing”**. In legal studies, time management is not just about attending and managing class time. Increasingly, the law students' time is being spent on out of class learning and on the activities which have become essential along with the normal studies. Better time management is supposed to encompass every aspect of the law student's life including sleep, travel, exercise, and social activities. The need for addressing time management issues of the law students was also supported by my discussions with the law teachers and also with the law students, who are struggling to manage their time and are constantly looking for solutions to their time management issues. This course/book is not the result of any overnight thought. This has taken time to develop and finally resulted in an opportunity for me to offer law students some useful tools and techniques. I now leave you to read and explore this book and I hope that you will make deliberate and continuous efforts to apply the skills that you learn from this book. *Christine P. Bartholomew, Time: An Empirical Analysis of Law Student Time Management Deficiencies, 81 U. Cin. L. Rev. (2013) ** Camille Lamar Campbell, Timing is Everything: Teaching Essential Time Management Skills for “Real-World” Legal Writing, 22 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Res. & Writing 125 (2014)