Hi guys, my name is Jamie and I'm a first year emergency medicine resident.
Today, I want to talk about making the most of the little free time we have.
Working in the hospital especially as an intern or resident means working long hours in the
hospital.
For me personally, I work all 12 hour shifts which easily end up being 13 hours if you
count the random leftover work that we do after the shift is over as well as time it
takes to sign out to the next team.
So if you take a typical workday, I have 13 hours at work, 1 hour for commute, 6-7 hours
for sleep-- all of this leaves me about 3-4 hours of free time per day on the days I have
work.
This is obviously not a lot of time but I think over the past year that I’ve been
in residency, I’ve some up with little tips and tricks to make the most out of those few
hours.
So without further ado I will share them with you guys today.
Tip 1 Organization I’ve always been a pretty organized person.
But once residency started, I really started to see how the physical organization can cut
time and make me more efficient in what I have to do.
For example, in the Kitchen: Making sure everything has a place and having everything labeled
for easy access ensures that I’m never wasting time looking for a tupperware or a seasoning
because I always know where they are.
As far as things inside the fridge, for the most part, I buy similar stuff at the grocery
store-- this not only saves time when I’m shopping but also when it comes to cooking.
I like to have maybe 4-5 rotating recipes at a time so I always know what I’m cooking
and how I’m going to make it.
If I get bored with it then I change it up but otherwise I keep things pretty consistent
In the bedroom: everything also has its place.
My closet is roughly color coded and my linens and extra beddings have their designated space.
Something that I’ve been doing is storing my scrubs with matching tops and bottom in
a dedicated scrubs drawer.
So I just grab one bundle in the morning and I don’t have to look or dig through to look
for clothes.
Lastly, organization has also helped with Filming for YouTube
I have all my Cameras, lights, sound equipment in their designated place.
All my SD cards and hard drive are labeled for easy access.
And also my file organization system makes sure nothing gets lost and everything is consistent
for every project that I film.
This is really important since I always have a ton of footages and files.
Through these organized spaces, I save little bits of time here and there and they all add
up after a while.
I think more than actual time I save a lot of mental energy by having an organized space.
And I think saving scrap time and mental energy is one of the biggest ways to make the most
of your limited free time.
Tip 2 Planning things out I know I talk about planning ahead all the
time- but here’s a real example of how I do it.
My schedule gets posted usually 4-6 weeks in advance.
Whenever I get my schedule I like to plan out my month and then my weeks: What days
are good for meeting up with friends (as in, do I have any weekends free?)
Are there any opportunities for a quick 2-3 day getaway?
I try to plug in all the big things into my calendar then the smaller tasks to wherever
there is leftover time.
So the big things for me would be traveling if possible, meeting up with friends, laundry,
maybe a certain yoga class or going running.
Typically these are things that are less negotiable in terms of when and how long.
Then with the leftover time, I like to make a list of things I like to do-- TV shows,
reading a book, shopping, etc.
These are things that don’t need to be fit into a certain timeframe so they can be done
at any time
You can apply this to your schedule on a larger scale.
I’m at an age where people all around me are getting married.
Even with the limited schedule, I love being part of my friends’ milestones so I try
to make sure I can get those days off.
This usually means looking at my calendar weeks or even months in advance and requesting
the dates off.
It’s not always possible but the earlier you let your job know about these events,
the easier it is for them to help you.
Planning, for me, is a way of asserting my control over the little free time I have.
It’s also one of the ways to ensure that nothing important slips through the cracks.
Tip 3 Reducing the mental barrier/friction Do you ever feel like you really don’t want
to do something, like going to the gym or doing laundry-- but once you actually start
doing it, you think to yourself “hey, this isn’t that bad.
Why did I make such a big deal about starting this task?”
This usually happens to me because there’s a mental barrier to the task that I’m trying
to do.
The physical act of doing something, like going to the gym or laundry, isn’t so bad
but there’s always that little mental hump that you have to get over in order to actually
get started.
Something that really helps me with those mental barriers is trigger actions-- small
actions you can do ahead of time so that when it actually comes time to do the activity,
there’s much less mental friction to actually get started.
An example of this is having gym clothes ready, not just in their drawers but an actual outfit
out and ready.
If your task is studying or doing schoolwork, have your desk area set up so all you have
to do is sit down.
This can also apply to hobbies you want to maintain, for example you can a book next
to bed so you can read instead of scrolling through your phone.
Tip 4 Micro-activities Sometimes the things we do during our “scrap
time” can amount to big things.
Have you ever looked at some of your notes before an exam and had that exact same topic
come up on the test?
You invested maybe 5-10 minutes but that small time investment had a big impact.
This can apply to everyday commutes or the “throwaway times” we have throughout our
day.
Waiting for a doctor’s appointment, waiting for the train, waiting to meet up with friends…
If I’m studying for something, I find it really helpful to do small questions sets
like 5-10 questions at a time throughout the day.
It can be really tough to sit in one place and do a 40 question block.
And you do definitely need to do that in order to build up your exam taking endurance.
But in order to cover content, tiny little investments over time really add up and you
can get so much more done than just being on your phone doing nothing.
You can also listen to educational podcasts or watch videos on a topic.
And productivity doesn’t always mean educational or studying.
I apply similar concept to cleaning my apartment.
I don’t know about you but I’m the most productive and happiest when my apartment
is clean and organized.
But I don’t always have time to do a full cleaning.
So everyday I take literally 2-3 minutes to do “micro-cleaning.”
Sometimes it’s dusting areas where I see dust or cat hair, sometimes it’s running
the vacuum really quickly over the living room rug.
Sometimes it’s just a quick cleaning of the toilet bowl and nothing else.
Obviously it doesn’t replace a full cleaning but just a couple of minutes a day keeps my
place looking more or less a pleasant environment to rest and do my work in.
So those are all the tips I have for making the most out of limited free time.
Might not seem like it’s much but it really does add up.
Like I said before a lot of these tips have to do with saving bits of scrap time and saving
mental energy so that you can focus on the things that you really want to do during your
free time.
Before I close the video, I want to give special thanks to Brilliant for sponsoring this week’s
video.
Brilliant is a website that teaches you complex concepts like algebra, calculus, statistics,
physics, and break them up into bite sized concepts and help you master them through
interactive problem solving interface.
If you feel inspired by this video and want to get started on some micro-learning, Brilliant
has new offline courses that is ideal if you want to learn something new on your commute,
or while you’re travelling.
You can download any of their dozens of interactive courses through the mobile app, and you'll
be able to solve fascinating problems in math, science, and computer science no matter where
you are!
These courses are all interactive — so you can experiment with pendulum clocks to master
the physics of motion, you can use rockets to model algebraic functions, and learn probability
by playing casino blackjack.
So if you want to support this channel AND get unlimited access to all of Brilliant's
in-depth math and science courses, you can head over to brilliant.org/StriveToFit/ to
get 20% off their annual Premium subscription.
So that’s it for today’s video.
Thank you so much for watching.
If you wanna check out other videos you can do that by clicking over this way and if you
wanna support the channel please go to www.thestrivetofit.com for some merchandize.
And if you’re not following me already on Instagram and Twitter, you can do so by following
me at TheStriveToFit.
Thank you guys again and I will see you guys in the next video.