By Hannah Keziah T. Morales
Photos by Sage Lingatong
A new school year is right around the corner, but due to the continuous raging of the pandemic and the ever-changing quarantine protocols, classes remain online. Law school is already challenging as it is, but conducting it online is a lot harder. And while the restrictions keep us inside our homes, the joy and experience of buying school supplies is not one to be missed, especially in law school where preparation is half the battle to survive and a key to ace the class.
Luckily, online shopping applications are here to help us browse items and purchase with just a click, and have those delivered right outside our doorstep. I’m sure after scrolling past numerous vlogs, Tiktok compilations, and review posts of netizens about their hauls after payday or big monthly sales, many of us can’t help but want to give our study area a makeover.
And so, with great voucher power, comes a great amount of Shopee budol and Lazada hauls. Here are some items that should make way to your cart in preparation for the incoming school year, law school edition.
Stands
First on our list are stands: bookstands, laptop stands, and tablet stands.
Studying is such a pain in the neck—quite literally—because we are sitting all day, hunched over our books and laptops during our daily grind. This may result to our poor posture which makes learning more uncomfortable in the long run.
Armed with textbooks and trusty gadgets for the online class, we must make reading a lot more bearable.
By adjusting the angle, users can bring their books, laptops, and other gadgets to their eye level and read at a more comfortable position. It is also a plus to get your best camera angle during class video conferences.
Desk lamp
Good lighting is essential in a study space to avoid straining your eyes. Not all rooms or houses have the perfect lighting in the designated study place. The best solution is a desk lamp to illuminate your workspace and provide a more focused lighting to your work and readings.
Aside from reducing strain on the eyes and keeping you from being drowsy, having good lighting increases your productivity by boosting your mood to be more active and putting you in study mode to help you go through the case lists and readings.
Planner or Desk Calendar
Because law school is such a rollercoaster ride, it is easy to forget which day of the week it is after going through a flurry of readings, outputs, and deadlines. Having a desk calendar or a planner helps a lot in organizing your schedule and prioritizing your tasks based on their deadlines. It is also very satisfying to cross out the items on your to-do list and give yourself a small pat on the back as you see yourself finish your pending tasks.
Planning helps to keep yourself on track with your tasks and organizes your schedule to increase your productivity. Utilizing your time properly prevents procrastination and cramming which cause stress and anxiety, especially when the deadline is looming.
Headset
Using a headset helps you to focus more during lectures and to communicate clearly when asked to recite. In choosing the right headset, always remember to prioritize function and reliability. Attentiveness during class is very essential in law school so do not take this for granted.
Noise-cancelling headphones or earbuds are also useful while studying to block out background noise and help you focus on your tasks. It is also handy when it’s time to relax and play your favorite music playlist or watch your favorite series.
Desk Organizers
Your study table is your territory. You will be spending most of your time here since aside from studying, you will also conduct your online classes on your desk. Hence, maintaining a clean desk is important especially when preventing yourself from become a giant mess.
An organized desk encourages creativity and increases productivity since you can focus more on your task without navigating through unnecessary clutter. It can also save you time as it enables you to locate stuff within reach more easily. Lastly, it reduces unnecessary stress and anxiety caused by the sight of mountains of unfinished work.
In addition, gadgets and tech accessories come hand-in-hand with several wires and chargers. Cable managers or desk cable organizers are a must to help you not get tangled up with the wires while you are studying or tripping on it while moving around your area.
Timer
A small timer is handy for managing your study time and complying with the schedule you allocated for readings and break time, especially when you are using the Pomodoro technique where you alternate between 25 minutes on focusing on a task and 5 minutes of break time. This also prevents you from using your phone to check the time and avoiding the unnecessarily scrolling through your social media feeds.
Stationeries
School is not complete without the good ol’ stationeries: ballpens, highlighters, pencils, binders, sticky notes and yellow paper. These can be used for your everyday note-taking, highlighting codals, and quick reminders as you go through your studies.
Yellow paper is also a must-have for making the handwritten digests required by professors. Sorting and storage are also important to preserve your notes in tip-top condition for midterms, finals, and even bar exam reviews.
As stated earlier, half of the battle is preparation.
Part of the preparation is converting one’s space to become a safe haven for studying and conducive place for learning in order to adapt with distance learning and to separate school life from home life. It is needed now more than ever, especially when the line between the two seems to be blurring and the pandemic is making everyone anxious after being plucked out from our normal lives.
Finding different ways to make us at ease despite the unprecedented times is a way for surviving law school. More importantly, remember that to be prepared for what may come next means to excel regardless of the changing circumstances. ∎