Studying to be a doctor comes with the expectation that you must work harder than most other students. But nobody tells you that it could involve studying for 8 to 10+ hours every day, especially a few weeks before the exams. If you cannot study for longer without giving up on everyday life, here are a few tips:
1. Get Up At The Right Time V/s. Getting Up Early:
Science says if you are not a morning person, don’t torture yourself to wake up early. I know we’ve all heard stories about how successful people wake up before the crack of dawn. But for every Tim Cook who wakes up at 3.45 am, there’s a Mark Zuckerberg who snoozes until 8 am.
People are more productive when they’re allowed to follow their internal clock, which, in turn, is a genetic trait. Long story short, if you’re not a morning person, you’ll unlikely ever be one.
The Workaround:
Get adequate sleep so that you feel fresh when you wake up. Fix a wake-up time and stick to it, irrespective of when you’ve slept the last night. Once you get up, avoid tasks that require cognition and comprehension. Do not read messages, emails, newspapers, or access social media first thing in the morning. Focus on your morning routine activities and then follow them with reading your study material.
This is to trick your mind into thinking that studying is the first cognitive function for the day. You can start with some light reading material or revise what you read yesterday.
2. Make Studying A Priority For the Day:
Co-Authors Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, in their book, Make Time: How To Focus On What Matters Every Day, suggest making only one event the highlight of the day. It could be anything… completing a research paper, taking your pet to the vet, spending quality time with your kids, etc. Dedicate at least 90 to 120 minutes to this event and ensure it is free from any distraction.
Rather than focusing on big goals, the idea is to design your life one day at a time. Every morning when you wake up, decide on the one thing (in this case, studying) you want to get done.
3. Ask For Help:
Successful students avoid burnout by accepting that they cannot do the best in everything they do. If you do not have the time or energy to complete an assignment, hire a class taker online. Call us to ask, ‘can you take my online class for me?’ We’ll complete your homework on time and even hire an A or B.
