What's going on guys!
In this video I want to talk to you about increasing efficiency as a pre-med and in
medical school.
Optimizing our time management skills and efficiency is paramount to success.
So, I want to help you be successful in academics but also have time to enjoy yourself and be
healthy.
The first thing is to study smarter not harder.
And what I mean by this is that more time studying does not always lead to a better
outcome.
Make sure you're using your time wisely.
In order to do this, it's important to critically look at what's working and what's not.
I made another video describing how to study efficiently, I'll put a link in the comments.
Second, do bursts of studying.
This goes hand in hand with studying smarter.
A lot of students make the mistake of trying to study “all day”.
But no matter how strong your willpower, you will have diminishing returns as your mind
gets fatigued, so it's important to take breaks.
I spoke about the Pomodoro technique in a prior video and this comes in handy here,
but taking a step back, lets apply this principle of burst studying more broadly.
So, plan your breaks around your life.
You have other things to do, you got errands to run.
Having those breaks timed optimally for those errands is gonna increase your overall efficiency.
So, for example, let’s say you go to class from 8AM to 12PM.
You then take a break by eating lunch with your friends for 30 minutes to an hour.
Since you just took a break and should be relatively refreshed, you can use the next
2-3 hours to get some work done.
Now, at this point you're probably getting diminishing returns, so break up the monotony
by going to the gym and getting a workout and that might take you 1-1.5 hours.
And go back home and study again for a couple hours.
Then your next break is gonna be dinner.
So, take an hour, have your dinner and from there you can either enjoy the rest of your
night or if you have an exam quickly approaching, spend that extra time to fit in more studying.
Next is to plan ahead.
Now there's a spectrum of how broadly or how finely you want to plan your schedule.
Some people prefer planning every single minute of their day, others just list a couple of
larger goals to accomplish throughout the day.
I was somewhere in the middle.
Find out what works best for you and stick with it.
So, again for example, let's say I had a class from 8:00 to 12:00, I would then plan out
some time from 12:30 to 2 for my PBL look up, 2-3 I'd keep working on you know, lecture
materials, learning objectives, things like that.
Then I plan to go to the gym from 3:00 to 4:30, make on Anki cards from 4:30 to 6:00,
work on research from six to seven, eat dinner around 7:00 and then after dinner, finish
any research tasks or anything left over and then wind down and go to sleep.
So this is an example of how I would plan my day, either morning up or day before.
Next is to practice discipline.
If you want to be successful in medicine, you need to prioritize studying, plain and
simple.
So, discipline is a muscle requiring regular exercise, so use it.
Find ways in your day to exercise your discipline and move closer towards your goals, don't
just rely on brute willpower.
So, for example, in my case I made a habit of sleeping and waking up at consistent times
even on days that I had late class where I could sleep in.
This helped maintain momentum, keep me motivated and overall just helped me focus.
And again, habits are stronger than willpower, so critically look at your habits that prevent
you from being productive or studying as much as you need to and find ways around them.
And last, use your downtime.
So one example would be listening to audio books on your commute, whether you're driving,
walking, whatever.
Audiobooks are a good way to make otherwise useless time more useful, make it work for
you.
Depending on your board exam you're studying for or the clinical rotation, find what's
relevant and use that.
Fill in brief moments of downtime with little bursts of studying.
I cannot emphasize this enough, this made a huge difference not only in my test scores
but also in the impression I made on faculty and residents with my knowledge during clinical
rotations.
I was shocked by how many Anki cards I could get done over the course of a day just by
doing it when I was waiting in line, waiting for people, walking between places, those
5-10 cards here and there, they add up quickly and over the course of a day you will be able
to reinforce a lot of that material.
That does sound pretty intense and of course you're gonna need to figure out what works
best for you.
I personally did this quite a bit during my third year clerkships and closer to exams,
but to maintain that level constantly might be a little bit taxing for you, so figure
out what works best for you.
Alright guys, that's it for this video.
If you have any questions or comments, leave them below.
If you liked the video, make sure to press Like, hit subscribe and I'll see you in the
next one.