I confess: I was an overly enthusiastic law school student. You know the kind. I showed up on the first evening of my first year, highlighters at the ready, excited to be there and ready to throw myself into learning the law.

Every single one of my professors said the same thing that first week—and I took their exhortations to heart: the only way to learn the law properly was to do the work—all of the work—and to show up every day to class prepared to be called on. And under no circumstances were we to buy the “Gilberts” summaries, or any other “canned” prep materials. Those were not for real or serious law students. Those were for hackers and slackers, and reliance on them would, at best, mean that I would get a sub-par legal education and, at worst, cause me to look like an idiot in class when I couldn't answer the professor's questions on the Rule Against Perpetuities, or Gibbons v. Ogden, or the required elements of a contract.

And so for the first semester I read everything, showed up to every class totally prepared—with full-on case briefs, no less—took notes diligently, and enthusiastically signed up for three study groups. And somewhat self-righteously, I passed the rows and rows of Gilbert's books at Zavelle's Bookstore, preferring instead to concoct my own elaborate outlines and study guides.

This lasted until about two-thirds of the way through my first semester, when I looked up, bleary eyed, from my 35-page (and counting) contracts outline to see that nearly everyone else in the library had a Gilberts open on their desks.

Thankfully, the bookstore was still fully stocked.

The rest of my four years as a Temple University Law night student were great. I got a fantastic legal education—without working myself to the point of near collapse—by using some great hacks that I learned along the way.

These hacks apply equally well to marketing—getting you the same (or better) results while eliminating some of the stress, anxiety and time.

Hack No. 1: Do the important stuff, skip the rest. By the end of my first year, I had figured out what I needed to do to get either the necessary knowledge or the necessary grade from a class. Some classes required that I read everything, but others I could get just as much benefit from showing up and taking good notes. Some classes were truly participatory, and others, not so much; I could get away with skipping the (more than) occasional class and borrowing someone's notes.

The same is true for marketing. You don't have to do everything and be everywhere to get good results. Put your time in where it counts and forget the rest. What will get the best results for you will depend, in part, on your level, your practice area and your target clients.

Of course, like in law school, there are some things you can't skip or skimp on. You must maintain a good, up-to-date web bio and LinkedIn page. You should do some content marketing—contribute some blog posts or articles, author an alert or two every so often. Try to attend some relevant networking events. But beyond that, you can pick and choose what makes sense for you, rather than trying to join every professional association, go to every conference and tweet a dozen times a day.

Hack No. 2: Share the workload. My law school study group was my first experience in divvying up work among a group of people. I'll admit, it didn't go so well. I got thrown out of my first group because I didn't trust other people's case briefs (so I did my own) and I tended to dominate the discussions with my (in my view, much better) analyses. I learned fast this was a waste of my time (and everyone else's) and that I could get as much—if not more—benefit, with less effort, by sharing the workload.

Think about your marketing efforts this way: you can generally get the same visibility being on a panel as you can giving a solo talk, with a fraction of the work. Sharing a byline gets you published and gives you something to share with clients and prospects, without having to do all of the writing yourself. And collaboration with others—maybe a colleague at your firm, or maybe a client, referral source or lawyer at another firm—can open up new relationships and opportunities.

Hack No. 3: Use (judiciously) other people's work. By the end of my first year, and through the good fortune of having befriended some 2Ls, I discovered a most amazing tradition: the passing around of “A-rated” class outlines by top students from previous years. Those “in the know” knew that “TP's” outlines were legendary and gave you a fighting chance in some of the tougher classes.

Now, I'm not suggesting that you take someone else's work and pass it off as your own. Not only is that morally wrong, it's probably not an effective marketing plan for your unique practice.

But there's nothing wrong with seeing what others have done before you embark on your own marketing projects. Chances are good that someone—whether in your firm or elsewhere—has spoken or written on your topic, held a similar event, or has some inside information on a group you're thinking of joining. Why not get the benefit of the work they've done—and use it as a jumping off point for some really great, innovative marketing of your own.

Hack No. 4: You do you. As a night student at Temple, I had exactly the same requirements and opportunities as a the day students. I had to take the same core classes, I could try out for the same law reviews or moot courts, and I could join the same organizations. But unlike most of the day students, we night students had full-time jobs or full-fledged professions including medicine, accounting, teaching or business. Many of my fellow students were older. Some had spouses and kids—shout out to the women who had babies while in law school! We did what we had to do to make it work and, as a result, our law school experience was somewhat unique—and every bit as rewarding as other, more traditional law students.

Just like there was no one “right” way to do law school, there is no one “right” way to successfully market your practice.

Don't worry about other people; you do you.

Prefer blogging to writing long articles? Don't have the bandwidth to travel to out-of-town conferences this year but have the time to attend local events? Would rather meet clients for breakfast or lunch than drinks or dinner?

As long as you have clear business development goals and your marketing efforts are tied strategically to them, you can do your marketing your way.

Hack No. 5: Do a little every day—or not. From the time I started having homework in grade school, my mother would say: “do a little every day and you won't have to do so much work the night before the test.” But that was never really my study style—I was more a “stuff everything into my brain the night before” kind of a student. And by the time I got to law school—with a full time job that required frequent travel—nightly homework was not even an option. Instead, I worked in long blocks of hours on weekends and, fueled by caffeine and nicotine, crammed until the wee hours before finals. Often-offered marketing advice goes like this: take just 30 minutes a day to market your practice and you'll get impressive results.

This certainly can be true.

It's also equally true that writing your blog the night before it's due or putting the finishing touches (or the starting touches) on your presentation on the plane to the conference can be equally effective.

The key is actually spending time on marketing, however it works for you.

As long as you make the time frequently enough, and put in a quality effort that meets deadlines—yours or others—it does not matter how or when you do it. (Although, I do recommend skipping the cigarettes and going easy on the caffeine.)

Bonus Hack: Take naps, eat good snacks, share, always say please and thank you. These aren't really marketing hacks, and I learned them in kindergarten, not law school. But they are essential to a happy life and career—and not everything needs to be about marketing, does it?

Meg Charendoff, the principal of CREATE: Communications—Media—Marketing, is a lawyer, writer and marketing professional who works with law firms and lawyers to develop compelling content for their marketing and business development. She can be reached at [email protected] or 215-514-3206.