Law Student Wellness During Final Exams: No Room For Guilt

Louisa Botten*

It’s no secret that lawyers and law students struggle with mental health issues and maintaining wellness.¹ For law students, the finals period can be especially challenging. Finals can seem like a never-ending period of studying and stress that simultaneously feels like a runaway train. Not only have the looming pressures of exams and deadlines caught up to you, but the finals period can also be devoid of the structure that many students (and well, many individuals) crave. Pair that with the darkness of Minnesota Decembers, and finals can be quite awful. 

But not all hope is lost! There are many ways to keep the stress at bay and maintain wellness throughout the finals period. Now, as students of many years, we all have our own tips and tricks that we know work well for us. As law students, now is not necessarily the time to throw all of our studying habits out the window. But if you wish to try something new, or your usual habits are just not cutting it, please read on for tips!

In addition to signing a pledge to “improve lawyer and law student well-being” in 2019,² the University of St. Thomas School of Law provides law students with resources on navigating law school and the finals period.³ Looking at law school generally, JD Advising, one of these resources, recommends that students take care of their physical and mental health to manage law school stress.⁴ This entails getting the appropriate amount of sleep, eating healthy meals, exercising, paying attention to caffeine and/or alcohol intake, and talking to a therapist if necessary.⁵ JD Advising also recommends creating a schedule and being sure to schedule in extracurriculars and fun as well.⁶ Non-law school related friends and activities are critical.⁷ “Having a reminder of the ‘non-law school’ world will keep you grounded. Sometimes a little goes a long way, too. An hour or two with some family or a dinner with a friend can do wonders to your stress levels.”⁸ Lastly, it can be helpful to “re-visit why you chose law school,” by writing down your motivation for attending law school and reading it over in times of stress.⁹ 

Moving specifically to the finals period, activeminds reiterates the importance of getting enough sleep and exercise.¹⁰ As getting proper sleep can be difficult in times of stress, it is critical that law students remove any additional barriers.¹¹ To ensure a good night’s sleep, it may be necessary to avoid alcohol and “[a]void caffeine in the afternoon or evening hours and stay away from ‘study drugs.’”¹² Concerning exercise, while “[y]ou may not have an hour to hit the gym every day… if you can take a 10-minute walk, you can get some major stress-relieving benefits. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), a 10-minute walk may relieve as much stress as 45-minutes of rigorous exercise.”¹³

As social media has been found to increase feelings of stress in users, activeminds suggests limiting social media use during finals.¹⁴ Breathing exercises can also be used to decrease stress levels.¹⁵ Finally, talking to someone about your worries can be extremely helpful.¹⁶ There are people all around you who wish to support you, and many who are going through the exact same experience (sometimes the only person who can talk you down from a law school spiral is another law student!). 

Now, before I share my personal wellness tips, I must come clean. I do not always do as I say. But these are some strategies/activities I have come to rely on when I’m feeling burnt or stressed out. First, I do struggle with seasonal depression and have found that I feel much better when I go on one walk outside per day. During these walks, I like to disconnect from school and chat with my fiancé about some of the other things going on in our lives (as we are not solely law students!). I also find maintaining a consistent sleep schedule to be crucial to my wellness. Maintaining my sleep schedule during finals grounds me, limits my stress, and makes sure my brain and body are well-rested for whatever tasks I have to do. Additionally, I try to celebrate (even in a small way) each time I finish a final or project. Depending on the number of finals you have and your finals schedule, it can be tempting not to celebrate until you’re done with all of them. For me, it is helpful to give myself a little pat on the back for each final I finish. Often, that takes the form of takeout or a coffee, but these little treats help keep me going. 

I also surveyed other students from this year’s graduating class to see how they maintained their wellness during finals (you will see many of the same themes as addressed above):

Maintain Your Physical and Mental Health: 

First, get a full 8 hours of sleep. It’s really the most basic thing you can do… But it’s the one I struggled with the most my first year. I [kind of] hate that people were always right about this… Second, get some movement in throughout the day. Running, walking, even stretching for like five minutes is huge. I like stretching because it’s pretty minimal effort.

[G]o outside every single day, even if it is just for 10 minutes[,] drink at least 2 cups of water for every cup of coffee[,] meal prep the weekend before you start studying, that way you can grab a healthy/nourishing meal on your way to the library[, and] shower/get ready for study days, look good feel good. 

[C]ry/laugh/scream/stress/find joy when you need it, all of these are completely normal emotions and are more likely to hurt you if you ignore the urges. 

Take Intentional Breaks: 

I think making plans that can’t really be changed once or twice during finals [is helpful] (buy tickets to a show, get a dinner reservation with friends)[;] that way you’ll have to step away for an hour or two and it’s already planned.

[F]ind things that make [you] happy and be intentional about doing them. It’s really tough not feeling guilty for taking time to enjoy yourself, but I think those breaks have helped me come back to my studying refreshed!

[W]atch your favorite shows. Best way to wind down with little to no effort.

[S]chedule in “break” time after each final, you will not want to jump right into the next subject after taking a four-hour test. 

Communicate: 

[C]ommunicate with your friends/family that this will be an extremely busy time and they can expect xyz from you for the next two weeks (less contact/time to do chores/etc.).

Plan Something To Look Forward To: 

[I find it helpful to have] something to look forward to or something to hold on to/think about [to] get you through finals. It’s nice to have a trip, seeing family/friends[, etc.].¹⁷

I hope that some of these tips were helpful (take what works and leave the rest). It’s important to remove guilt from this conversation. You simply cannot perform your best if you’re not taking care of yourself. Good luck with this semester’s midterms and final exams!

Special thanks to Alfonso Gunaratnam, Micayla Bitz, Sadie Buckel, Deqa Mohamed, and Delaney Nelson for their tips!

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* Louisa Botten, J.D. Candidate, University of St. Thomas School of Law Class of 2024, Senior Editor.

1. “In 2016, the ABA’s Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs and Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation published their study of nearly 13,000 currently-practicing lawyers. The results showed that between 21 and 36 percent qualify as problem drinkers, and that many were struggling with depression (28 percent), anxiety (19 percent) and stress (23 percent).” Jordan Osterman, School of Law Pledges to Improve Lawyer and Law Student Well-being, Univ. of St. Thomas: Newsroom (Mar. 27, 2019), https://news.stthomas.edu/school-of-law-pledges-to-improve-lawyer-and-law-student-well-being/; see also Abigail M. Seeley, No, I Can’t Just Drink a Cup of Tea: Why and How Law Schools Must Change for the Sake of Mental Health, Univ. of St. Thomas L.J.: Blog (Oct. 24, 2023), https://ustlawjournal.com/2023/10/24/no-i-cant-just-drink-a-cup-of-tea-why-and-how-law-schools-must-change-for-the-sake-of-mental-health/. ↩︎
2. Osterman, supra note 1. ↩︎
3. The following resources are linked on a Managing Time and Stress resources page for St. Thomas law students. ↩︎
4. 5 Tips to Manage Law School, JD Advising, https://jdadvising.com/tips-to-manage-law-school-stress/ (last accessed Jan. 6, 2024). ↩︎
5. Id. ↩︎
6. Id. ↩︎
7. Id. ↩︎
8. Id. ↩︎
9. Id. ↩︎
10. Rachel O’Conner, 6 Healthy Ways to Reduce Stress During Final Exams, activeminds (Dec. 3, 2018), https://www.activeminds.org/blog/6-healthy-ways-to-reduce-stress-during-final-exams/. ↩︎
11. Id. ↩︎
12. Id. ↩︎
13. Id. ↩︎
14. Id. ↩︎
15. Id. ↩︎
16. O’Conner, supra note 10. ↩︎
17. I have personally used trips to a llama farm as my light at the end of the tunnel. ↩︎