And so it begins . . . After a year out, I am back in fourth year. On the one hand, it feels like I never left - on the other, the idea of having to sit my finals in ten months’ time feels like being ordered to climb a mountain while carrying a backpack full of medical textbooks and not wearing any shoes . . . Argh. The following are the steps I am taking in order to hopefully emerge on the other side of this journey with mental and physical health (mostly) intact - if you have taken a year out of medical school for any reason, I hope you will find something useful here too.
Step 1: Chill out
Clichés will be the stock in trade this year - chief among them: ‘It’s a marathon; not a sprint’. With finals happening at the end of this academic year, it is certainly going to be the most stressful of medical school so far - that is unavoidable. But not making time for rest and relaxation is likely the quickest way to apathy and ultimately burnout. Instead, trying to keep things in perspective and prioritising downtime is the surest way to maintain energy this year, which leads me to the next step . . .
Step 2: Get organised
This is not new information to anyone: the venn diagram of the most relaxed people you meet in medicine and the most organised is a perfect circle. These are the people who do not arrive at their appointments flustered or having to make excuses for being late or unprepared - both crimes of which I have been guilty - but instead, they get where they need to be with enough time to make tea, secure the best seats and arrange a smug grin for when everyone else rolls in. If, like me, you have decided that this is finally the year to get yourself together and become more like the smug, organised people, the following tips might help you as much as they are helping me:
- When faced with something that makes you want to sink into the mindless dopamine distraction field of your phone, ask yourself: ‘Can I do the damn thing right now?’ If the answer is yes, make like Nike’s marketing department and Just. Do. It. For me, daunting tasks, for example, ooh, I don’t know . . . writing this blog, evoke a feeling of discomfort that make me want to do absolutely anything else and often lead me to busywork activities like making to-do lists in an effort to defer the actual task to some imagined future where I feel completely differently about whatever it is I have to do. The problem is that I will likely never not feel discomfort around getting started with the difficult task - the only way my emotions are going to change is that I will gradually start to feel more anxious about doing it the less time is available. But crucially, it is the getting started that is the hardest part. So instead, I am committing to doing the thing now. Embrace the aforementioned clichés! Seize the day! There really is no time like the present! And when the thing is done, reward yourself in any way you see fit because you only flipping did it! And it was likely not nearly as painful as you thought it was going to be.
- Remember that everything takes about twice as long as you think it will - so budget time for that. Whether it is getting to the ward from the canteen, or gathering feedback responses for your portfolio, basically every task you ever need to do for medical school will require more time than you initially thought it would. So give yourself the gift of peace of mind and double the diary slots in your calendar for everything you do - you are basically guaranteed to never be in a flap again. Remember the goal is to be as chill as possible, which is so much easier when you’re not busy chasing your tail.
Step 3: Break bad habits
As described above, if procrastination were a city, I would be its mayor. It always starts something like this: I am struggling to get my head around a particular condition. (Probably something to do with rheumatology.) So, I do the sensible thing and go straight to YouTube for an Osmosis video or an Armando Hasudungan explainer. But the darksided geniuses of the algorithm have seen me coming, and have served up a sidebar content buffet that will inevitably lead to a two-hour cat/aquarium cleaning/acrylic nail tutorial video binge at the end of which I will have learned nothing and will remember nothing. I need to stop doing this. Instead, this year, I want to commit to working when I have decided to work, and to actually enjoy my leisure time, completely free from work, instead of disingenuously merging the two and not fully committing to either.
Step 4: Get real
There are only so many hours in the day. And there is only so much you can hope to do. You do not need to do everything and perfection does not exist. Be realistic about what it is possible to achieve - commit to doing that and no more. The year of medical school finals will likely be characterised by ‘must dos’ and ‘would be nice to dos’, when it comes to academic commitments. Figure out how to distinguish the two categories and focus on the former - of course, if there is time and energy for the latter, go for it! Keep your eyes on the prize, and make sure that you are prioritising what is truly important. We have a mountain to climb this year - but others have marked out the path and shown that it is possible. OK, I’ve certainly stretched this metaphor to breaking point, so I will leave you with this: keep putting one foot in front of the other and look out for those around you. We will get there. Eventually.