The Balancing Act: How I Balance Mock Trial with the Rest of My Busy Life

This blog post was written by junior Ellis French for the “Why MMT?” series in the Fall of 2023.

One of the most recognizable symbols of the law that makes a cameo in many courts around the world is Lady Justice, a personification of justice itself. She is commonly depicted as carrying both a sword and a balance, with the latter meant to represent how the law should properly balance facts and evidence to decide a verdict in a case. 

While college students may not be balancing the literal fabric of our legal system like Lady Justice does, we do have a lot of scales that we need to balance during the school year. Alongside our full-time course schedules, we still want to have a social life while engaging in our hobbies and taking care of ourselves mentally and physically. Add a time-consuming extracurricular like mock trial to that already demanding list of things to do throughout the day and life can get rather hectic. As a junior at Miami University in my 3rd year as a member of Miami Mock Trial, I have had to balance all of these things throughout my college career and as such I have picked up a few strategies that have helped me balance mock trial with the rest of my busy life.

But first, a little bit about me. I am an Economics major at Miami and I am pursuing minors in History and Business Analytics. Along with my regular course load and being a member of Miami Mock Trial, I help teach a course designed to help first-year students in their transition to college, I have a part-time job, I am a member of the Miami club tennis team and I love to take time for myself to pursue my hobbies and relax. Through several regret-filled all-nighters, one or two breakdowns, and a lot of pressure, I have gotten better at balancing all of these parts of my life. Here is what I’ve learned:

1. “Remember why you do this.”

I put that in quotations because it’s sort of my mantra. When the going gets tough and I need motivation I tell myself to remember why I do this. Mock trial requires a large time commitment. Outside of formal practice, I’ll spend several hours a week working on mock trial, with those hours being multiplied during the competition season in the spring. But I do it because I enjoy it, and I know that putting in that work helps our team compete at the high level that our program is known for. Doing well at a tournament makes the long practice sessions worth it.

2. Keep your priorities in check

Moving away from things I do to stay motivated; this point is all about prioritizing the things you need to do. Many people use Google Calendar or a standard to-do list. Those are certainly useful tools, I use them myself, but I believe there’s another dimension to time management. Prioritizing your tasks. If I tell you that you have two assignments due, one in 3 days and the other in 7 you might automatically assume that you should be doing the assignment due in 3 days first. However, the assignment due in 3 days may be a simple discussion post that will take you 10 minutes while the assignment due in 7 days is a 10-page research paper that you haven’t started. This is where prioritization comes in. I mark each item on my to-do list with a priority level based on how many days I have to complete it, the amount of time I think it will take to complete the task, and how close I am to completing the task. I have found that this is helpful for ccutting through the noise and using your time effectively.

3. Don’t sacrifice your sleep and health

This one is so important. With so much to do, it can be tempting to cut back on sleep or neglect your physical health in favor of studying or going out with friends. Adequate sleep and taking care of your physical and mental health are essential not only for your overall happiness and academic performance but also for your mock trial performance as well. I try to make sleep and my health the ultimate priority in my life, as the benefits from those healthy habits trickle down into all other aspects of my life.

Balancing mock trial with everything else in your life is possible, but it requires finding the time management strategies that work for you. Just remember that there are people to support you if you are struggling with this balancing act and remember to provide yourself some grace as you work through these things. Prioritizing my health and sleep, assigning priority levels to all the things I need to do, and remembering why I do the activities and classes I do is how I made this balancing act work, and you can make it work too.