A WEEK in a Life of a Law Student & Blogger

Well… kind of.

So a while back, I asked on my Instagram if anyone had any suggestions on what blog I should write about, and one of the suggestions that I really liked was a week in my life sort of thing.

Now, a few months after that question sticker on Instagram, I’m finally doing a post on it, even a YouTube video on it too!

This week in a life may give you a bit of an idea on how I use my own time management, and organization tips.

I’ll admit, I’m really excited to write about this one, especially since you get a little look into my days, and what goes on behind the scenes.

Now, before I go through each of the seven days, and what I do, I’m going to first outline the daily routines that are the same every day. The reason for this is so that I don’t repeat myself every single day, if I do the same exact thing.

Here is what stays the same every day (unless I specifically say it doesn’t):

Morning Routine

So I wake up at 5am (to be honest, since it’s getting so much colder, it’s sometimes a bit later than that). I prefer to wake up at 5am because it is my personal preference, and my body clock works really well early in the morning rather than at night.

Here is what I do during this hour:

1. Devotional Prayer
2. Gratitude & Journalling
3. Reading
4. Make my bed and get set up for the next task.

This is my morning routine – quick and simple. I’ll be honest here, I used to be guilty of trying to copy an exact morning routine that I would watch on YouTube. However, what I found mattered most is what suits YOU. I used to have several steps in my morning routine, and now it’s narrowed down to only 4, and it made my mornings a lot less chaotic (because honestly, the more steps in your morning routine, the more hectic it would be).

Study Routine

The hours of studying that I do each day, depends on the day, but I would always aim to start at 6AM to study. I found that my brain works best early in the morning, rather than in the afternoon, and for studying I need A LOT of focus.

I won’t go in depth on how my study routine is, but to briefly summarise it, I make sure that by the end of each week, all my required readings are done, lectures are completed, and assignments have been worked on. If I have extra time, I would also do recommended extra work (but to be honest, this hardly happens whoops).

Here is how a typical study day would look like:

1. Watch ONE lecture – I personally prefer to watch one lecture a day, rather than all at once, just because it doesn’t drive me crazy that way. Every day except for Friday, I am watching a lecture.
2. Read TWO required readings – I also personally prefer to do required readings for two subjects a day, rather than trying to do them all in one day. The reason for this is because the readings for law are very long and lengthy, and honestly I need more time in the day to work on my assignments and such. It’s also another way to keep me from losing my mind.
3. Do Pre-TUTORIAL work – This is something that I would have no choice to do. All of my tutorials all have discussion questions that do class discussion and participation. It’s different for every subject. Personally with this one, these are the only tasks that I would do all subjects in one day to do.
4. Work on Assignments – I would work on my Top 3 assignments that need priority on, and then if there are little assignments that come (such as compulsory homework or weekly quizzes), they are included as well. Typically, if I get to, I would only want to work on three assignments a day. This is so I don’t burn out and get too stressed out.

“In Between” Routines

Okay, I’m sure that you have never heard of this before, because I made this up. These are a list of small & mini tasks that I would do, in between work and study sessions, and when I have time to spare during the day.

For example, I break up my study sessions to 90 minute blocks, and in between have a 20 minute break. It is during that 20 minute break that I do my “in between routine”. This is what it consists of:

1. Answering & Sending Messages – if I don’t do them during the break, then I will never send them out. I really commend those who are really consistent with replying to messages, because for me it’s a long way to go and needs a lot of work…
2. Practice the Piano/Organ – my brain works in mysterious ways, and for some reason, the idea of practicing for one hour makes me procrastinate it, so the only way for me to overcome that procrastination is to break up that one hour of practice, into 5-10 minute blocks the whole day. This is personally what works better for me, because it stops be from going days without practicing.
3. Doing my steps – I do want to make sure that I move around every 30 minutes, and my Fitbit really helps me track how many steps I have actually been doing.

Exercise Routine

Honestly, not so exciting… it’s just a morning walk. I used to go to the gym, but I have found that I couldn’t put the time properly for it, so I just decided to do all walking instead. Personally, I find exercise a lot more exciting when I get to walk and get out in nature.

Post Exercise Routine

So this is the routine that happens after I exercised. This is what would happen:

1. Breakfast – because I become very hungry
2. Do my “In Between Routine”
3. Brush my teeth/Skincare
4. Shower
5. Get Ready & look presentable!!

Night Routine

Okay, I’m going to be honest here and say that I don’t have a consistent bedtime. I know that I definitely should, and it’s something that I am currently working on myself!

However, I do still have a routine set in place for me that cues me that it’s time to go to bed. At 9PM, I stop replying to messages and leave it for the next day (except for my accountability messages), unless the message is a genuine emergency and needs to be sent right away.

I usually have meetings or church events in the evening, and they would end at different times. What I always try to do each night is that once an event/meeting is finished, I would send through my accountability messages (won’t talk too much about that, maybe next time) and then switch my phone on Airplane mode.

I would then do a quick clean up on my room to make sure that everything is where it belongs, and also prepare my things for the next day. While doing that, if I haven’t finished listening to my podcast list (yes I have a daily podcast list!), then I would finish my podcasts up, otherwise I would just listen to some of my favourite music.

If it’s not my face mask day, then I wash up, do my skincare and brush my teeth, before going to sleep. If it is a face mask day, then I would just do my face mask, put it on for about 20 minutes (while watching some videos on YouTube) and then wash it off and go to sleep.

Routines are CRUCIAL

As you can kind of tell, these are the routines that I do every day, and it pretty much stays the same. I have A LOT of routines throughout the day, and to be honest I have felt like my routines have contributed to the accomplishments of some of my goals.

So whenever you see me mentioning these routines when I outline the days, those are what I am talking about!

Now, let’s get onto what happens on a daily basis!

Feel free to watch the YouTube video on this section linked here:

MONDAY

5:00AM – 6:00AM – morning routine

It’s a 5am wakeup, and then I proceed with my morning routine (as outlined above)

6:00AM-9:30AM – study routine

You can refer to when I mentioned my study routine above!

in between 90 minute study sessions – “in between routine”

I had two breaks in between my study sessions, so I was able to do my “in between routine” two times, before I proceeded with my exercise routine 🙂

9:30AM-10:15AM – Exercise Routine

I would be going through my podcast list of the day while doing this.

10:15AM-11:00AM – Post Exercise Routine

I have to look presentable today because I will be filming!

11:00AM-12:30PM – Blog Work

So the reason why this isn’t a “routine” (although it technically could be) is that because it’s different tasks each day.

I honestly like to shake things up each day so I don’t get bored of doing the same thing over and over again. In these 90 minutes, here is what I do for my blog:

1. Write a Blog Post – 60 minutes
2. Post on Instagram (daily posting) – 10 minutes
3. Do “Blog Personal Development – 20 minutes – if you have no idea what I’m talking about, that’s fine because I also made it up. You know how we do personal development for ourselves consistently so we can continue getting better? I do the same with my blog. I like to find ways to help improve my blog so that I can continue to create good content and grow my community.

12:30PM-1:00pm – Lunch

So lunch is when I am a bit more chill and take a longer break.

I do my in between routine as well, but while eating my lunch I am going through my podcast list.

Most weeks, I do meal preparation, so it saves me time in preparing a meal, and gives me more time to relax a bit before I do more work.

THEN, I go to my local cafe and then do:

1:00PM-2:00PM – YouTube Editing

This is where I edit my videos. Every day I do aim to work on two videos (30 minutes each). I do have a whole process on what part I work on each day, but I won’t go in too much detail with that.

Personally for me, 30 minutes of working on a video a day feels better than spending a whole two hours working on it. If you know me personally, you know that I can’t just sit on doing one thing at a time, I like to break it up, (like my organ practice). My mindset here is that I rather break it up during the day, and then get it done, than procrastinate 2 hours of work and never get it completed.

I do like doing work in my local cafes when I can, because I do need the change in an environment every once in a while.

2:00PM-2:30PM – Creating Thumbnails & Writing Descriptions for this Week’s videos

If I am being transparent here, I should really spend longer on these because I feel like the optimizastion of my videos needs A LOT of improvement.

But anyway, if you can’t tell already, you know that I like to break things down throughout the week, including my YouTube videos. From the time a YouTube video is filmed, up until it is uploaded, I break it down in to short blocks of time each day, just because I don’t really want to work on it all at once.

So I do create my thumbnails and write my descriptions for my video, so when the time comes to upload it, I don’t need to delay it even more, or waste more time on these little things.

2:30PM-2:50PM – in between routine

I think you know the drill 🙂

2:50PM-4:00PM – Filming

While I do like to break things down, I also do like to batch things up and do them all at one go.

In this case, when it comes to filming videos, I prefer to batch them up.

I filmed 2 videos and it’s done for the week, I don’t have to worry about it anymore.

Just consider though that sometimes I would have to work around this, since things happen, or things change, and there’s some stuff I have to change with my videos.

But I just get relieved that I already finished filming for the week, so I don’t have to worry about a lot of those things anymore.

4:00PM-4:30PM – in between routine

Do I really need to explain this again? 😂

4:30PM-5:30PM – dinner time & TV

After a LONG work day, I like to reward myself with a big dinner, and watch my favourite TV shows (or a Royal Family documentary).

I’ll admit, sometimes I still have work to do, and I don’t get to do this, but when I do, you better bet I’m making the most of it!

I do have tutoring that I have to get done, so it’s a great way to reset my brain before doing one more hour of work.

5:30PM-6:00PM – travel time

At this point, I am still finishing off my podcast list for the day, before I proceed to listen to anything else. FYI, my podcast list includes around 5-6 podcasts!

6:00PM-7:00PM – tutoring (my job)

I currently work as a tutor, and in my opinion, this is the most flexible job for a law student. I do many hours of studying during the day, that I don’t have time for even a part-time job, so tutoring was a great job to give me that flexibility and a bit more control over my schedule.

In this tutoring lesson, I tutored a Year 9 English student. 🙂

7:00PM-7:30PM – travel home

Since I already finished my podcast list for the day, I do listen to music that by default, makes me sing out loud on the top of my lungs.

7:30PM-8:00PM – Bible Study

Most Mondays, I get home in time to attend my Church’s bible study. If my tutoring lesson is at 6pm instead of 7pm, I would be able to make it.

8:00PM-8:45PM – In Between Routine

Yeah, I think you get what I mean now.

The only difference during this time is that I had already hit my 10,000 steps, so I don’t need to add more steps in anymore.

This is also the time when I send my last messages, and even my accountability messages.

8:45PM-9:10PM – Devotional Prayer

9:10PM-9:45PM – Downtime with Face Mask

No, not the face mask we use when we go out, the face mask we use for skincare.

Monday, Thursdays, and Fridays are the days when I put a face mask on and relax… this is considered my “Me Time”.

TUESDAY

ANOTHER DAY!! This is actually more of a chill day as well.

5:00AM-1:00PM – same as above

If I’m being honest with you, my Tuesday is the same as the Monday. It’s all the same from the morning routine to lunch.

But here’s where things are a little different:

1:00PM-2:00PM – YouTube Editing

It’s during lunch I am already at the local cafe.

At this point, I would usually have one video that is finished, but I just need to watch it a few times to see if there are any final edits to be made. For the other video, it’s at the beginning stages of editing, so I’m still in the process of working on those.

2:00PM-2:45PM – Draft Writing for Next Blog Posts, Scriptwriting for Next Videos

Tuesdays are the days where I do my draft and beginning preparation for my next videos and blogs.

With my blog drafts, I just look at what I planned to write about (I have a content creation calendar/planner that gives me the exact videos and blogs to do for the month) and then I outline in dotpoints what I hope to include.

With my YouTube video script, just note that it’s not a full “script” where I write word for word what exactly I am going to say. Instead, it is just me listing dot points and list of things that I want to talk about in the video.

I also do some keyword research and look for inspiration to help with the video, and then even do some reflection on what I can do better than my last videos.

If you see in my YouTube channel, there are SO MUCH to work on for me… 😂

2:45PM-3:15PM – in between routine

At this point, I would drive home, and then proceed with my in between routine (which I had already mentioned several times and I’m only on Day 2!)

3:15PM-3:45PM – touch up myself and look more presentable

From this point, it becomes a very busy afternoon. After tutoring, I go straight to church, I don’t get to come home.

For the whole day I am wearing something really comfortable, and because I’m going to church straight after work, I’ve got to look more… presentable.

While going through my podcast list, I would get myself ready, redo some of my makeup, and get some other things prepared.

3:45PM-4:15PM – travel time

While also going through my podcast list 🙂

4:15PM-5:15PM – tutoring

Usually at this time, I tutor a Year 5 student who I assist with in both Maths and English.

5:15PM-6:00PM – travel time

Yes, I am still going through my podcast list while travelling… especially since there’s traffic around this time due to peak hour.

6:00PM-9:00PM – Waiting for Church to Start, Church, & Travel Time

This is everything all at once.

I would usually get there earlier than expected, so I would do my in between routine.

Then I’ll have church.

Then by the time I travel home, most times I have finished my podcast list, so I listen to music on the way home.

9:00PM-SLEEP – evening routine

At this point, the only messages I send are my accountability messages, and then I get ready for bed.

Tuesday afternoons get really busy, but I look at them as a preparation for Wednesday and Thursday, where both days get really busy… Check them out.

WEDNESDAY

Things are actually a bit different, and interesting this time!

5:00AM-6:00AM – Morning Routine

It’s the same as every other day… except some days I wake up a bit later than 5am because of how cold it has been lately!

6:00AM-6:45AM – Exercise Routine

Unlike the last two days, I do my exercise routine straight after my morning routine. This is because I will be going on the college campus today, and I plan to do some of my studying there before classes start.

6:45AM-7:30AM – Post Exercise Routine

While listening to my podcast list, I eat breakfast, get ready and look actually presentable. Then I head straight out of the door.

7:30AM-8:00AM – Travel Time

While listening to my podcast list – my podcast list I feel is the preventative measure for me to not complain when there’s traffic!

8:00AM-8:10AM – In Between Routine

Yes, I’ve mentioned this several times for the past 2 days, but the difference here is that I only answer messages for this one.

I’ve already done walking from getting from the car to my study space, and my organ is at home so I can’t play it.

8:10AM-9:50AM – Study Routine

These are my shortest study sessions during the Monday-Friday week. My other 2 hours of studying are taken up by the classes that I take.

9:50AM-10:00AM – Either In Between Routine OR Mini Catch up with friends

If I don’t run into my friends, I do a final answering of messages before class starts.

If I’m being honest here, I know that if I put off so many messages in a day, I am never going to answer them… and if I do, it’s going to be five days later. So my mentality here is to “do it now before you never do it” kind of thing.

10:00AM-12:00PM – Classes

12:00PM-12:45PM – Lunch Catch Up with Friends

Honestly, I’m not going to exaggerate here, but I love these times I get to spend with friends, especially since life does get busy, and you don’t even get the chance to catch up outside of uni campus.

12:45PM-2:00PM – Blog Work & YouTube Editing

Staying on campus, I do my blog work & YouTube editing (you’ll usually find me in a cafe or in a cute & comfy study space)

On Wednesdays, these are the days when I spend the less hours on my blog and my YouTube. I don’t do anything extra, the only thing I do is write/edit my blog post, and work on my two YouTube videos.

And then I also try to do some blog personal development so that I am able to properly grow my blog.

2:00PM-3:00PM – PAL Sessions for one of my Subjects

If you don’t know what PAL is because you don’t know what PAL is, it’s basically an extra non-obligatory session ran by a previous student who had taken the same subject as you previously, and is assisting you. They do a series of activities that help with understanding the content better, and preparing for final exams.

I don’t know why I never took them earlier in the course of my degree because they have been a huge help for me with my law school journey..

3:00PM-3:30PM – Travel Time

Listening to my podcast list, I travel from my uni campus to my first tutoring lesson of the day.

3:30PM-4:30PM – Tutoring Lesson #1

4:30PM-5:00PM – Travel TIme & In Between Routine

So after my first tutoring lesson, I travel to my second tutoring lesson, where I would arrive earlier and get to answer some messages.

5:00PM-6:00PM – Tutoring Lesson #2

6:00PM-7:00PM – Travel Time, Dinner, In Between Routine

Right after my second tutoring lesson, I first travel to my last tutoring lesson of the day, where I would arrive very early, and take the time to eat dinner. I would also do my in between routine again as well (minus the organ practice & extra steps of walking).

7:00PM-8:00PM – Tutoring Lesson #3

The last lesson of the day – I do have coffee in the afternoon just so I can give the same focus and attention to this student just as much as my first student.

8:00PM-8:15PM – Travel time while listening to mentorship training session.

As I travel home, I would listen into a Zoom Webinar where there would be a training session that I go to. I only have to listen into it in the car for about 15 minutes, before I switch to my computer at home and watch the remainder of it.

8:15PM-9:00PM – Zoom Webinar

9:00PM-9:10PM – Devotional Prayer

9:10PM-9:30PM – Organ Practice

Since I haven’t been home all day (On Wednesdays, I’m out of the house from 7:30AM to 8:15AM) I never got the chance to practice the organ, so this is my time to do so.

9:30PM-sleep – Night Routine

And then after a long day, it’s time to settle back to bed, have some down time, and get ready for another long day tomorrow (but not as long as today was!)

THURSDAY

5:00AM-11:00AM- Same as Monday & Tuesday

On Thursdays, my routine is back to normal again. I would do my same morning routine, study routine, exercise, & post-exercise routine.

11:00AM-12:30PM – Blog Work & YouTube Editing

Just like Wednesday, I only work on blog posts and edit YouTube videos on days I go on campus, since it’s the only thing I have time for.

12:30PM-12:50PM – Lunch & In Between Routine

You know how it works 🙂

12:50PM-1:30PM – YouTube Editing

I do some final video editing before heading off to go to campus.

1:30PM-2:00PM – Travel Time

With what? The podcast list… (if you haven’t picked up the repetitiveness already)

2:00PM-3:00PM – Class 1 (in campus)

3:00PM-3:30PM – Blog Work & Blog Personal Development

On campus, when it’s nice weather, I like to be outside and do my usual social media posts for my blog, and also do some blog personal development.

3:30PM-3:45PM – In Between Routine

Obviously this routine excludes the organ practice, but I do get steps up as I walk to the next spot of the day, and I do answer my messages.

3:45PM-5:00PM – Self-Care Time

So my campus has a really good food area now that makes me obsess with trying out everything.

That’s my self-care/”me time” area. Honestly, the afternoon and evening is going to be so busy, I need this time to myself. And on days when I get the chance to do it, you better bet that I’m embracing it so much!

After taking a long time to decide what to eat, I would sit at the restaurant/the food place and eat it while watching a Royal Family documentary (that is one of my hobbies! No shame 😂).

5:00PM-6:00PM – Class #2 (Online)

Since I’m already on campus, I just attend my online class there. I find a spot that I can charge my devices and then I attend class from there.

6:00PM-6:30PM – Travel Time

Guess what I am going to say —

Listening to my podcast list, I travel from uni campus to my tutoring lesson.

6:30PM-7:30PM – Tutoring Lesson

My first and only tutoring lesson of the day!

7:30PM-8:00PM – Travel Time

If I had finished my podcast already, I would listen and jam to some music on the way home!

8:00PM-8:40PM – Zoom Training Sessions

8:40PM-9:00PM – In Between Routine

My last set of messages for the day, and my organ practice! I don’t do my steps anymore since I would have already hit it during the afternoon.

9:00PM-9:10PM – Devotional Prayer

9:10PM-9:30PM – Random things I do…

Yeah this is a block of dead time that I have before I have a tutoring lesson (and no, I’m not the one tutoring this time).

9:30PM-10:30PM – Getting Tutored

Why is it so late? Well my tutor is overseas so of course, I would have to take into consideration the time differences. That’s why I rely on some energy boosters in the afternoon to get me going doing this session.

I do find it quite funny that I go from tutoring people, to getting tutored in one day.

10:30PM-11:00PM – Face Mask & Downtime

Honestly, I still have spikes of caffeine in my system, so I’m not even sleepy at this time. However, a face mask for skincare has a powerful effect on me, and it makes me feel sleepy once I put it on.

This is the time of the week where I do my face mask.

11:00PM-sleep – Night Routine

Remember when I mentioned the “random things I do”, those are just things in my night routine, so that once my tutoring session finishes, I can go straight into routine and then to bed, so I don’t have to worry about anything else.

And yeah, that wraps up the TWO of the busiest days of the week! From Friday onwards, days are a bit more chill.

FRIDAY

5:00AM-1:00PM – same as above… (most of the time)

So pretty much, the start of Friday is the same as Monday & Tuesday, however sometimes, because I have a very clear schedule on Fridays, sometimes I would wake up a little later, and then things will be behind… but that’s okay.

As I said, I like to stay flexible with my schedule, I don’t like having it fixed. I only like setting out my days to give me a better idea on what I am going to do each day, and whatever comes up, I would easily be able to fit it in.

Rest of the day – depends

So yeah, not just for Fridays, but also other days as well, things pop up, things come and go, things get canceled.

On Fridays, since it’s my free day right now, I sometimes catch up with friends. Sometimes I just want to stay home and chill and watch documentaries all day…

SATURDAY – Church & Rest Day

This is the day when I don’t do any work – whether it’s tutoring, university work, or blog/YouTube work. I don’t have anything planned out, the only thing I do is focus on Church, and then rest for all the other hours.

Personally for me, I need a rest day to be more productive for the next week. I’ve experienced how without a rest day, I get easily burned out and the work I produce suffers from that.

SUNDAY

Sunday is also a day that is not a fixed schedule.

Most Sundays, I get to sleep in a little later than usual. If I do have something going on, then I’ll stick to the usual 5:30AM wakeup.

Here is what I get done on Sundays:

Blog & YouTube Work

This is the time when I work on my blog and edit some YouTube videos. It’s the same system as Monday to Friday.

Weekly Reset

It is my Sundays when I do the weekly reset as linked in this blog post.

The blog post outlines how I do my weekly reset that I have shared with everyone.

Planning and preparing for you week is one of the most efficient ways to make efficient use of your time, be more effective with your time management.

I’ve got to say that the moment I started doing weekly planning and resets, my productivity game had changed for the better.

In case I haven’t emphasised it enough… NOT every week is the exact same.

I’ve just got to note here is that this is what a typical week looks like, and it’s never the exact same every week. Let me tell you that the weekly schedule I have today is different to the one that I had two months ago (before I started the semester). It’s definitely different to the one that I had last year (because I had classes and tutoring lessons at different time).

And I 100% guarantee you that my schedule is going to change, and I will soon update this week in a life again (because these things, I’ll admit… are very fun!!) – my note to self – whenever you run out of blog ideas, you can always do another week in a life….

NOTE: I came up with new ideas just as I wrote that line!

And also, appointments happen, unexpected things happen, so if you think that what I outlined above is something that happens every. single. week…. nope.

To be honest, no two weeks are the exact same, there’s always something different. What I want you to focus on is the ROUTINES that I do that keeps me consistent with my goals and helps me accomplish what I aim for.

Focus on consistent routines

During your week, as much as having a schedule is important, having consistent routines are important as well!

I definitely encourage you to have routines that you incorporate into your daily schedules.

Read my blog post on why focusing on your systems is better than focusing only on your goals. You’ll understand how having routines and systems give you a better mindset towards your goals.

I am excited to be writing a blog post on how to create your own routines and systems so that you can accomplish your goals!

Do What Works for You

This blog post is different to my other blog posts, because usually the rest of my blog posts is me reccommending tips for you to do to make a difference to your own life. This blog post is more of a personal blog where I share with you my own life, and the behind the scenes of everything.

Your schedule is most likely not going to be as close as my one and that is okay. The key takeaway I want you to remember is to develop systems & routines and implement them into your schedule.

I hope you enjoyed looking into a week in my life as a law student and blogger. It’s crazy to think about how it would change in the next year, next 6 months, even the next month. I look forward to updating this soon!

– Lauren 🙂

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