I'd say it's any work outside of class. The more you prepare before class the less you have to do preparing for finals. I worked 4 years between undergrad and law school. I treated law school like a job--9-5 M-F. When I got to finals I didn't change my M.O. I had a bunch of friends who played a lot during the semester and freaked out for finals.
I probably lean more to studying then, as I think I freaked out less than 178 of the other 179 1Ls during finals week. The funniest part is that the people with work experience already freak out the most. For me, it was yet another finals week...sure it was harder stuff, but at the heart of it all, a test is a test.
M-W I wake up around 6:30, eat and such, bike over to school, and spend around an hour doing reading for pre-lunch classes. Then over lunch I read for the afternoon class 30-45 minutes probably. I get home after class, chill a bit with girlfriend and ask her how her day went, we make dinner together and watch the Mavs if they're playing, then some nights I do LRW stuff and most others play basketball or go out with girlfriend/other couple(s).
Thursday, same except never doing LRW stuff and Bar Review + pregaming for bar review starts right after dinner. Fridays are always different, Saturdays are no-school day unless a brief is due, and Sunday afternoons are typically setting up what reading to do for week.
Comparatively, there are a few people I know who get to campus and go to the library around same time as me, but then stayed until 11:00 every single weeknight, leaving only for dinner. Then everyone in between that and what I do, and then a few people who I'd bet do significantly less than I do (read only a previous outline and only for panel days, never make their own outline, only write one draft of each brief or memo). I think I'm somewhere between 30-50th percentile of time spent studying, but 80th or so in use of time studying. There are definitely some who outwork me, but I generally work until I feel I understand the material and then stop. That means I spent a lot more time on crim and civpro and not so much on torts. I'm not sure if that's how everyone approaches it, but it makes the most sense to me.
I imagine if we had real grades and a real curve I would work much harder at "being the best" at everything, but our system is: 1/3 gets an "Honors," everyone else usually passes. I'd bet 6/180 people get one "restricted credit" and nobody fails anything. With that system, I'm going to do my best but not sacrifice my life day in and day out for this. If I don't get something, I work at it until I do. Otherwise...I feel like I learn and test better when I'm well rested and not stressed out. Some people are so stressed all the time I don't understand how they can focus on anything.
ETA: That can count as my "a day in the life of an SLS student in 2014" post for everyone to reminisce about what their 1L year was like!