[Music]
what is up guys karma medic here and
welcome back to another dose i get a lot
of questions from you guys on how i've
managed to stay so productive throughout
my nine years of university four years
of my undergraduate degree and now in my
fifth year of medical school without
getting to the point of burning out so
today i'm going to talk to you about my
top six ways of preventing burnout
whilst in medical school if you're new
to the channel then hi my name is nasser
and i'm now a final year medical student
studying at king's college london and i
think mental health and how we take care
of ourselves is so important something
that i'm placing an ever-growing
emphasis on and i think we need to talk
about it more here on the internet and
on my channel so let's get right into it
if i could summarize this video in
pretty much one word it would be variety
it's so important to make sure that
we're not spending every minute of our
time doing the exact same thing over and
over again and that we have other things
going on in our lives if i studied every
minute of every single day then
eventually i'm going to burn out it's
just pretty much a fact of life even if
it's not studying whether it's only
playing video games or only hanging out
with friends the idea of doing one thing
non-stop can feel overwhelming and it
can make me feel empty inside if i'm
doing it for too long and there's not
enough variety mixing things up by
having extracurriculars that i love
doing is the key to me not feeling like
my life is revolving around one thing
and for keeping me fulfilled as you guys
know i love to play sports i really
enjoy running and basketball i like to
spend time with my girlfriend and
friends i create these youtube videos
every week and of course i like to study
medicine doing all these activities
during my week keeps things fresh and
helps me keep focused i'm more likely to
be focused during my studying sessions
if i know that the rest of my day or
rest of my week is filled with other
activities that i actually really enjoy
doing instead of just continuously
studying throughout the whole week with
no benefit or reward in sight having
said this it's important to stick to
your schedule as much as you can so that
you don't end up going over time on one
extracurricular and missing out on
another you want to actually have time
to do all the things you want to do it's
also important to make sure that you
keep things varied within the single
task as well so for example if i have a
four hour study block i try to keep the
material that i'm covering varied enough
to keep me interested rather than
spending the four hours on the same
topic for example i can be covering
multiple body systems or topics or
changing up the type of activity that
i'm doing so for example i can do two
hours of reading and then two hours of
practice questions this helps me stay
productive and focused for the entire
four hour block
it's easy to forget the reason that you
started doing something to begin with i
find it useful to keep some sort of
reminder as to why i'm working on the
specific thing i'm doing nearby so for
example i keep scrubs on my desk over
here and i have the youtube silver
subscriber plaque over there over my
shoulder and it just helps remind me of
why i started making youtube videos in
the first place it motivates me to keep
going and prevents the feeling of making
these videos being something like a task
or a chore that i just need to take off
of my to-do list honestly it reminds me
of you guys and the impact that you've
all had on me over the years as you
probably know i started the channel with
the goal of just helping a handful of
you get accepted into medical school and
now there's over 800 000 of you who are
interested in my life and how i work and
it just gives me that little boost of
motivation that i think we all need
sometimes finding your purpose and the
reason why you're working towards
something and the things that you're
doing makes the work more directed and
fulfilling i honestly enjoy med school
so much more when i remember that the
reason for me doing this isn't to get
the best mark on an exam or to rank
first it's actually to become a
competent doctor that patients feel
comfortable opening up to and that i can
practically help by sharing my knowledge
and experience
i think it's really important to
recognize when you're struggling and to
be sure to ask for help sooner rather
than later i don't know why when i was
growing up i sort of had this notion
that i needed to always be in control
always know what i'm doing and overcome
any obstacle that was in my way but
truthfully that's just not the case it's
okay to not be okay and to talk to other
people about it sometimes when things
are feeling tough i'll take time out to
talk to my sister or my girlfriend or my
friends about what's going on you know
or will play video games together or go
for a coffee just hang out to take my
mind off of things and just help process
those emotions and feelings and what's
actually going on talking to people that
you trust and that you're comfortable
with can be a huge help whether that's
friends family your personal tutors or
supervisors at university something i've
actually started doing recently is
talking to a therapist with the help of
the sponsor of this video betterhelp
betterhelp is an online service for
professional counseling it was really
easy for me to get set up with a
therapist better help assess my needs
and match me with a licensed
professional and we started talking
within just 48 hours of me signing up
now just forget that this is a sponsored
segment for a second i can't even
describe just how beneficial this has
been for me i feel like with medical
school this youtube channel and life
i've been constantly on the go so much
so to the point that i haven't had the
chance to actually sit down and think
about how i feel or how much all the
stress and this busy life has impacted
me talking to someone has enabled me to
think through those emotions in a way
that i never have before and it's
honestly been eye opening for me the
service is available worldwide and you
can log into your account anytime to
send a message to your counselor i'm
currently chatting over video call once
a week but you can do phone calls or
text communication if that's your
preference it's more affordable than
traditional counseling and financial aid
is available as well if you're
interested in trying them out i'd highly
recommend it i've honestly gained so
much value from it and i hope that you
do too you can go to betterhelp.com
karmamedic that's betterhelp.com
karmamedic to check them out thanks
again to betterhelp for sponsoring this
video
asking for help i don't think this one
is talked about enough especially in
medical school asking for help or
collaborating with your peers is so
important in being successful it's not a
sign of weakness and it is nothing to be
embarrassed about you guys have seen me
working on osu prep with kenji and
georgina which really helped me do well
in my most recent exams there is simply
no way i would have been able to perform
as well as i did throughout all of
medical school let alone just these
exams if i wasn't working
collaboratively with other people i'm
always talking to other students on my
course about which resources they found
useful and how they're getting on with
the material you know creating this
small community makes you feel like
you're not in it alone it helps with
burnout because you can talk to other
people that actually know what you're
going through via their own first-hand
experiences
so keeping an eye on your vitals what i
mean by vitals i don't mean things like
heart rate respiratory rate blood
pressure i mean things like eating well
sleeping well and exercise i try my best
to make sure that i'm eating well and
regularly the only time really that i
forget to eat is if i'm deep in editing
a video and i'm so laser focused that i
forget to do pretty much anything else i
also try to do some exercise every other
day at most i try to not let myself skip
two days of exercise i go to the gym i
play basketball or i go for a run you
guys know that i love running which is
something that i do to get the heart
pumping but also i feel like i just feel
so re-energized after a run which has
the added bonus of making me feel more
productive and focused because it helps
clear my mind and allows me to have this
like reset for the day finally sleeping
well is key to making sure that you have
enough energy to do the activities that
you actually want to get done during
your day if you guys have seen my video
on how i'm able to fall asleep in four
minutes i cover a lot of my sleeping
habits over there but long story short
just make sure that you're getting
enough sleep for you to not feel like a
zombie throughout the day and to
actually be alert and get the things
done that you want to get done our
brains need good quality sleep to
function at its best keeping an eye on
how much you're sleeping and keeping a
consistent sleep routine can be a great
way to prevent burnout
getting good rest working hard is
obviously important but also knowing
when to rest and take a break is vital
to not burning out personally i like to
rest by watching youtube videos or
netflix while i eat chilling with my
friends in the evenings and on the
weekends or just playing some video
games with my sister or anyone else
whenever we have time sometimes i really
need to remind myself that it's okay to
take some time away from my to-do list
honestly i'm not the best at this but
it's something that i'm actively trying
to work on when i go on holiday or i
have time away from medical school i try
and pull back on how much work i'm doing
and how much time i'm spending on emails
and things like that and try and spend
that precious time with my friends and
family even though there's always this
voice in the back of my head that's just
telling me to be productive sometimes it
can be hard to know when to take a
needed rest and honestly this is
something that i struggle with
constantly something that i do that i've
found helps quite a bit is if i schedule
rest into my schedule or schedule breaks
and chill time into my schedule that way
it's a predetermined thing that i've
already told myself i'm gonna do and so
when the time comes i just follow the
instructions that i've given myself in
the past and i take that rest that i
probably really need otherwise sometimes
if you're really deep in a working mode
it can be easy to get sucked in and just
keep going keep going keep going without
giving yourself that time to take a
break relax reset and then come back
more focused and productive than you
were before
the last thing that i want to say in
this video is that it is okay to burn
out balance particularly at medical
school can be especially difficult if
you do feel burned out just know that
you're not alone it's something that so
many of us can relate to we've either
all been burned out in the past or might
even be going through burnout right now
at that point we might need to take some
time away ask for help from friends
family personal tutors at university or
whatever and just get some good rest
it's okay to be in this position it's
something that a lot of us go through
and to be honest with you i'm probably
going through burnout in medical school
right now it's actually something that
i'm gonna make an entire video on in the
near future so make sure you subscribe
and stay tuned for that but it's totally
okay talk to someone get some good rest
and it will pass all right and that is
it guys six ways to prevent burnout in
medical school i've implemented these
ideas into my life and i've managed to
stay productive and avoid a lot of
potential burnout over the many years in
higher education i hope this video can
help add some value into your own
routines and help remind you of some of
the things that could prevent you from
getting to the point of burnout if you
enjoyed this video please don't forget
to leave a like on it and also subscribe
to my channel see more content from me
in the future and i'll catch you in the
next one peace
you