Prescription for Preventing the Panic Attack

It hit me. Week 10 and it hit me. Law school got really hard, really quickly (kind of like how it got really cold, really quickly). I started realizing everything I had to do and how little time I have to do it in and I almost had a panic attack. Another memo worth twice as much with half as much time to do it, double the amount of reading in almost all of my classes, the need to outline for impending finals, and no extra hours in the day.

Realizing that I didn't have time for a meltdown, I pretty much went into attack mode. Anyone who's been around me when I start to get sick knows how I go on the offensive: cups and cups of tea with ginger and other fluids, lots of sleep, no going out, etc. So I'm trying out the same type of offensive strategy for dealing with this insane amount of work infront of me.

So I made a plan of attack, a page in my notebook aptly titled "plan of attack," writing down what I need to do everyday and setting small goals so I don't feel so intimidated by my to-do list. I also took off all the quick links on my homepage that are distrctions for me. Facebook, gone. Craigslist, gone. ESPN.com, gone. AllRecipes, gone. Tetris, gone. I was debating whether or not to go on AIM hiatus but I realized that if I didn't talk to people and went into complete seclusion, I would go utterly insane. So I also tried to ensure that I do actually get some socialization/non-study time in on my calandar, but cut out things I was more ambivilent about. It was almost like a cleansing process, something I wish I had the motivation to do at times other than just crunch time.

Everyone likes having control in their life, but especially the control freaks like me. When I feel like the work is consuming me and controlling my life, it's a horrible feeling. Fortunately I think I'm starting to tip the balance of power back into my favor. I think this is something I've learned over the years (being a generally busy person) and probably good in the future for this line of work where people get easily overwhelmed by their work. I also went to church yesterday and prayed for some spiritual strength, so hopefully that will help too.