Time Management Hacks for a More Balanced Academic Life

00:01 So as I just said, I'm Kate.

00:03 I'm in charge of Student Relations at Lecturio.

00:06 And later on, I will introduce you to our speaker for today, Dr. Adonis Wazir.

00:12 And he is in the UK.

00:15 And so he will be talking to you guys a little bit later about time management and some good strategies and some hacks to, you know, improve yours.

00:24 So, first of all though, we want to know who are you? So we're gonna have our first poll pop up.

00:30 And if you could just share your answer with us.

00:33 Are you a premed student? Are you a pre clinical student, clinical, maybe a nursing student, non-student or other? If you are not currently a medical or nursing student, can you you know, let us know who you are.

00:46 Just write in the chat, let us know what your background is.

00:49 Because we, you know, we have people sometimes who come from all sorts of different you know, walks of life, who join us for our events and especially something like time management that impacts all of us regardless of what field we're in.

01:02 That's, you know, that's always interesting to see.

01:05 So, let's see.

01:07 We got some dentistry student, student biochem art history, architecture.

01:12 Alright, that's interesting.

01:14 Some very different fields here.

01:19 I will say, we're going to talk a little bit about you know, the medicine, the science behind some learning and some of the strategies.

01:26 Some of it's a little more medical.

01:27 But overall, time management is a topic that, of course, impacts everyone and should be understood by everyone.

01:34 We do have a lot of clinical students here preclinical.

01:37 So I can definitely tell you, this is really going to help you out with your studies, especially as you're getting ready to study for those board exams, as you're going through rotations you know, time management, very important.

01:50 So next question.

01:51 This session is hosted by Lecturio.

01:53 So are you familiar with Lecturio? We often have a lot of our members joining us, but we often have a lot of new people joining us.

02:00 So next questions already in the poll.

02:03 How familiar are you with Lecturio? All right, I'll give you guys a second to answer.

02:13 We've got some new folks, we got some premium members, some folks who just use the free version, some folks who watch on YouTube.

02:21 If you do watch on YouTube, and you haven't checked out our actual platform yet, there are a lot more videos, where those came from.

02:27 And we're releasing new content very regularly.

02:30 So I'm definitely encourage you to create an account, you get a little free trial and you get to test it first.

02:38 And then I hope you all eventually become Premium Members, of course.

02:42 But it's great to see a nice mix of people who know it, people who don't know the platform already.

02:48 So welcome to our session to everyone.

02:51 And lastly, have you been at one of our previous events.

02:54 So many of you are new to Lecturio which means you're probably also new to the platform and so you are welcome, if you have been at previous events, welcome back.

03:10 We do try to do student events once a month.

03:13 And so some of our past events, I've talked about other learning science techniques, some other study hacks, other topics.

03:22 We did an embryology event last month that was really cool.

03:24 We've done physical assessment.

03:27 So it's a lot, a lot of cool stuff happening.

03:30 So we hope you can join us for future events as well.

03:33 And once we know when everything you know what's scheduled next, we'll of course, let you all know.

03:39 Alright, so since we had a lot of people who answered in the poll that they don't know Lecturio or they're new to it, or maybe have just seen us on YouTube, I just want to introduce the platform very, very quickly, I promise, just 2-3 minutes maximum.

03:52 We are a learning science based platform that is designed to help you not only prepare for, you know, licencing exams, board exams, and of course exams, but also to help you retain, you know, this medical knowledge that you have to learn.

04:05 There's a lot of content you need to know in med school.

04:07 Of course, and nursing school and you know, you have to somehow figure out how to remember it.

04:13 So using our platform, and our features automatically helps you to encode this information into your long term memory.

04:20 You can see here some of the features.

04:23 One thing I want to draw your attention to that is very relevant to today's session is our study planner.

04:31 So the Lecturio's study planner is part of our platform, it's something that you're able to use, and I'm trying to share my screen, we'll see if it works.

04:40 Took a few minutes earlier in our first session.

04:43 So I'm just going to wait for a minute and see if it pops up.

04:48 There we go.

04:50 So here you can see when you join Lecturio when you first log in.

04:55 This is what the dashboard looks like.

04:56 You can see I'm a terrible student, because I have not been studying lately.

05:00 So I I clearly need to fix that.

05:02 But to do that, I'm going to set some stuff up in my study planner.

05:05 So if you go up here to the top left, you can see study planner.

05:08 And I'm just going to go ahead and click there.

05:13 This is available also on mobile, and I have to log in again.

05:19 And see if it'll let me skip my context switch.

05:24 Ignore that screen.

05:25 Sorry, that's my work account.

05:30 Still as terrible student in here.

05:32 But alright, let's go into that study planner.

05:38 And you can see, I have some content that I've already put in my study planner to show you.

05:43 So these are videos or a playlist of videos that I, you know, for my own studies, for whatever reason, I need to watch these in order to then answer the quiz questions and start studying for the topics I've selected.

05:56 So you can see what is in here, you can sort it, you can filter different things.

06:01 There just two things I want to bring your attention to up top, we've got our blue line, so the due date by due date.

06:07 So if you did the tests on the day that they're due, this is what your study would look like.

06:13 But the balanced plan actually has it broken down.

06:17 So you're studying about the same everyday in order to study over the long term.

06:27 This relates then to our balanced study coach which tells you what the system recommends you to do today.

06:34 So, all right, if I want to stay on track with my study plan, these are the topics that I should review today.

06:42 And the specific video, so I could click directly in here, and go to the video, but I won't do that right now.

06:50 I just want to show you how you can add a video to your study planner.

06:56 And so say I want to study embryology because we just have that embryology event.

07:02 And if I want to add all of these videos, and these are different sub playlists within embryology, I can add everything to my planner over here on the left.

07:11 Or I can go in and say, "You know what,I really need to look at early development of the heart." Let's go ahead and add this.

07:21 So I can add it directly from the video.

07:25 Just by clicking Add to planner.

07:28 and I'm going to say I'm gonna make sure that pauses.

07:35 and I'm going to say, "Alright, I need this due by tomorrow, save it, and it's automatically in my study planner." Now, one other thing that we have that is very relevant, especially if you're doing end, of course exams are the learning paths.

07:48 And these also will go automatically into your study planner, once you start one.

07:52 We have different board exams available, USMLE Step 1, 40-day study schedule, for example.

07:58 But you can also pick different subject exams to say I need to completely review microbiology because you know, I have a microbiology exam coming up, and I just I need a total overview.

08:10 Once I say "Okay, you know what, let's go ahead and get started." Let's do block one.

08:16 We're going to start it.

08:19 I can start watching videos, there are cubing questions.

08:23 So clinical case questions, then also quiz questions.

08:26 And as you'll be able to see, since I started microbiology here, it is then automatically added to my study planner down here.

08:34 You can also remove anything from your study planner, and customize it a little bit more as you'd like.

08:40 But for the most part, this is, yeah this is what is most important to know about our study planner.

08:47 So why did I just show you about this? Well, because we're about to talk about time management.

08:53 And time management, creating a study plan go hand in hand.

08:58 So many of you will ask or have asked in previous events about different discounts.

09:05 At the end, we will provide you a special discount coaches for people who are at this event.

09:11 So stay tuned, the event is about one hour.

09:14 So I don't want to take up any more of your time.

09:15 Rather, I'm going to turn the floor over to Dr. Adonis Wazir.

09:20 And he is going to tell you a lot more about what you really came here to talk about.

09:25 So, see you all later.

09:27 Thank you very much Kate and thank you everyone for joining.

09:31 My name is Adonis Wazir and I'm a medical doctor from Lebanon based in London right now.

09:36 And I'm also a Medical Education Consultant of Lecturio.

09:40 So thank you all for joining me, joining us in this event.

09:44 Again, as Kate mentioned, this is part of a series of events on learning science and study strategies that we are conducting.

09:52 So it's always nice to see huge number of people coming from all over the world.

10:01 Time management is something that is relevant to a lot of us, all of us for sure.

10:05 And just before I begin, I guess talking about time management, I want to mention that, you know, just keep in mind that time management is a skill, it's not just some knowledge that you can read about or learn about and then become a time management expert.

10:21 Just remember, it's a skill that needs to be nourished, and you need to practice it with with time and so on.

10:27 So I'm going to dive right into the presentation.

10:30 And of course, there's going to be time for questions at the end.

10:33 Feel free to add, we would love to see some involvement in the chat, I see that the chat is already very active, but feel free to post any questions you have or any comments or anything.

10:44 So let's start with the basics.

10:45 What is Time Management? Time management is an intentional organizational process that provides individuals with a structure that allows them to have enough time to complete tasks while having the flexibility to adjust the changing conditions.

11:02 So maybe it might be worth noting here that you don't see medicine or medical students written anywhere here.

11:07 And that's because we all time manage in pretty much the same way.

11:13 And this is a skill that will be relevant to everyone here.

11:16 So whether you're from within the medical field or outside, this is going to be relevant for you.

11:21 But the main point from this slide, I guess it's an intentional organizational process.

11:26 So we need to try to manage our time in order for time management to work.

11:33 Now, before we dive in I guess, I just wanted to ask what kind of challenges you are seeing in medical education or perhaps in your experience as a medical student or for those that aren't medical students, as students in general? What kind of issues are there? I mean, I know we're talking about time management, but there are some other things that perhaps can impact your ability to perform or be effective the way that you want.

11:59 I see procrastination, there's a lot of information that is very true.

12:05 Motivation, funding materials, a lot of information, definitely that is one of the main issues that we have in the field.

12:14 But it's also starting to happen in other fields as well.

12:18 Environment for getting mental saturation, that is a good one.

12:23 I'd like to talk about that at the end.

12:26 Lack of time, that's a good thing where you're attending a time management session.

12:30 Yes, managing jobs studies and family, lack of discipline, anxiety.

12:37 There's a lot of thing ADHD.

12:39 So a lot of actually, we tackle a lot of these topics and these webinars that we have.

12:45 So stay tuned for further webinars and feel free to check out the previous webinars that we've had, because we do tackle about these issues.

12:53 But yes, these are all issues that we can, I can personally relate to having been through the medical school experience.

13:00 And these are just some of the problems that students are facing during and even before, and they will keep facing them after the pandemic as well.

13:10 So there's a feeling of disconnect from your community and your educators.

13:14 There's ineffective study methods and difficulty finding curated content.

13:18 So many of you mentioned that it's difficult to find the resources or information or maybe to decide on what resources to use.

13:24 And there's limited time coupled with an exponential increase in medical knowledge.

13:30 So some key facts to consider, I guess, before we go into the topic itself is that this is what medical education.

13:37 This is the trajectory of the amount of medical knowledge that exists.

13:41 And it's estimated that in 2020, the medical knowledge was doubling every 73 days.

13:48 So the amount of literature and the amount of information that we have in medicine is doubling every 73 days.

13:54 So you can imagine throughout the course of medical school how much more content is developing.

13:59 And you know, that alone is a scary fact.

14:02 And we need to do something about it to be able to study it and obtain this information and retain this information.

14:11 Because the thing is without any attempt to retain most of the information we get is lost within 6 days.

14:18 So in 70 days, the medical information is doubled.

14:21 And 6 days, I lose everything.

14:23 So we need to do something we need to study effectively.

14:26 And we need to make the most out of the time that we have.

14:31 And unfortunately, this is what medical school looks like.

14:33 I mean, not literally but generally this is the feeling that medical students feel in medical school especially going from primary school to secondary school, maybe premedical school.

14:42 You just wanted to stop because there's just so much that is happening right there.

14:47 And I see that many people probably relate to this.

14:51 But the question is what happens to this fabled work life balance? You know, this is you as a medical student or a clinician or a student.

14:59 You have to balance your clinical duties, you have to rest, you have to exercise, you have to do activities that you want to do, you have to read, you have to study, stay up to date, you want to communicate with family, you want to do all of those things.

15:14 How does this make you feel? I mean, how does this slide make you feel? When you look at all of these things that you need to take care of and juggle in your day to day life.

15:23 Overwhelmed, trapped, or perhaps stressed.

15:27 I think stress exactly, which is why we're going to start this event by talking a little bit about stress, because it is very relevant to the topic of time management.

15:38 Ultimately, we want to manage time so that we manage our stress in a very, you know, efficient way.

15:46 So what is stress? Stress is an umbrella term that basically means it's a force that is contrary to the body's homeostasis.

15:56 So it can be biological or psychological.

15:59 And it is disrupting how your body is functioning.

16:02 So it leads to alterations in the neurotransmitter and hormonal level, which can lead to structural changes actually in the brain that affect learning in different ways.

16:13 And we're going to see a little bit how it's going to affect our brain function.

16:21 This is this is a diagram that is based on research in the field.

16:25 And if you've attended our previous sessions, you might remember this, this kind of, you know, diagram from moving from sensory memory to working memory.

16:36 So long term memory and high kind of the memory process and how it works, and essentially breaks down what happens to information once you encode it, and you push it to your long term memory.

16:46 And you can see that a lot of all of these steps rely on certain neurotransmitters that are highlighted in red, such as dopamine, acetylcholine, GABA, you know, and all of these things.

16:57 And clearly these hormones play a role in the memory process itself.

17:03 Because if one of these hormones or neurotransmitters is not there, then it's going to impact the the function that it's supposed to be playing a role in.

17:18 And this is perhaps what stress causes.

17:20 And we know that stress impacts the levels of these neurotransmitters and hormones.

17:25 So for example, the brain derived neurotropic factors can lead to a reduction in this factor which reduces dendritic spine formation causing poor or long term memory formation.

17:39 Stress levels also increase norepinephrine which leads us to anxiety, low attention span and lower concentration.

17:48 Glutamate is important and you know, the maintenance of the neurons and increasing glutamate can lead to some toxic effects on the neurons.

17:58 So you can imagine as well, how this can impact stress.

18:03 What is the main message behind this? Stress causes these imbalances in these neurotransmitters which ultimately influence how you learn.

18:14 So now, let's think about this for a second, how the stress manifest in your life? What kind of things do you find that contribute to stress in your life? Or maybe what kind of responsibilities do you feel that stress you out more than others? Why don't you let us know in the chat, just so that we can see, you know, what kinds of things are on your mind.

18:34 So we see last minute work, accumulation of stuff, age, family issues, financial issues, exactly a lot of personal issues.

18:43 There's a lot of study, USMLE.

18:46 Yes, I can see that there's some laughs of despair with that message as well.

18:51 It's quite a scary topic.

18:54 But that's very true.

18:55 And you can see from the answers that you've got.

18:58 This is from a survey conducted on medical students.

19:01 There's personal stress and academic stress.

19:04 So personal stress can include peer relations, you know, your work time balance and your health and financial concerns because you are a person with issues at the end of the day.

19:15 And then there's the academic stress.

19:16 So, you know, you have your clinical rotations, you have to study, you have to deal with patients.

19:24 You know, you have to plan your career.

19:25 So there's a lot of stress that you have to deal with.

19:28 But does this mean that we have to remove all stress? According to this study, stress is still a little bit essential.

19:38 Because ultimately, we always think about stress as the the right side of this graph.

19:43 If you're very stressed, then you are going to be in a breakdown anxiety and you're not going to be able to study.

19:50 But if you go to the very left side of this graph and you completely eliminate stress, you're going to be under aroused which essentially means you're not going to be studying as effectively.

20:00 So the center of the graph is actually the chose, this is where the highest performance comes in.

20:06 So we need some stress to keep us, you know driven to actually retain memories and and study well and perform better.

20:14 And this is what we call the growth and the learning zone.

20:18 So, I want you to keep this graph in mind as we discuss the time management strategies.

20:25 Because the time management strategies ultimately is there's no one size fits all, you know, you're going to have to tailor it based on your performance.

20:32 And one way to actually know how you can tailor it is based on how much stress it gives you.

20:39 So, does it burn you out n which case that's too much? Or does it under arouse you and in that case you're not going to be you know, efficient in your study? You want to make sure that you're staying within this growth and the learning zone.

20:55 So to summarize, why am I talking about stress? Just keep in mind that you need to optimal growth soon.

21:01 These implement desirable difficulty in your learning.

21:05 So challenge yourself a little bit, we're not aiming to go completely relaxed to the point where we're under stimulating our brains.

21:12 And maximize the time that you have by maximizing the efficiency of your studying using evidence based techniques which we're going to discuss a little bit about as well.

21:24 So let's get to the point, how can you manage your time? Like I said before, this is just a disclaimer, this needs to be personalized.

21:32 So these strategies are not set in stone.

21:34 It takes time to figure the right strategies for you.

21:37 Remember, time management is a skill.

21:38 So you need to nurture it, and you need to practice it.

21:42 Even if you pay full attention to this presentation, you're not going to graduate as time management experts.

21:48 But this is going to tell you, you know, give you some ideas on how you can practice this and how you can potentially get better.

21:54 And trust the process.

21:55 You know, you learn from your mistakes.

21:57 Mistakes are fine.

21:59 They will help you find you the skill that you're trying to work on.

22:06 So how do we do this? The first challenge is understanding your situation.

22:10 You cannot really manage your time without knowing what it is you need to do first.

22:14 So we need to be specific, realistic, comprehensive, we need to be inclusive, and think of really all the things that we want to manage first.

22:22 So this is the first step that you can think of.

22:25 And perhaps something that many of you have tried is writing some of that stuff down.

22:30 So this is the classic to do list, I guess.

22:34 And we can see that the student here has drawn up to do list.

22:38 But I feel like this can be improved.

22:41 Can you tell me in the chat how you would improve this or what is wrong? Perhaps in this kind of to do list.

22:51 Have a timing, be more specific, right.

22:53 We spoke about being trying to be specific, breaking down into smaller tasks, make it measurable.

22:59 There's no due time to big chunks, organized.

23:03 It just it doesn't look appealing.

23:04 I mean, if I look at this to do list, I'm not going to work, I'm just going to remember that my life is a mess, possibly.

23:09 And then I'm not, I'm just not going to do it.

23:13 So yes, we can improve this a lot, right? So this is perhaps the first thought that we can talk about this.

23:20 Make a better to do list.

23:21 So you can see in this better version of the to do list this person has specified.

23:26 So I don't want to clean the house, I want to clean the kitchen, perhaps it's more easy to do or it's more measurable in a sense.

23:32 Instead of saying start working on the research paper, do the literature review and write the background of the research paper.

23:39 Instead of saying start study cardiology study heart failure and arrhythmias.

23:43 I'm modifying this to do lists to make it into something I can check off, something realistic as well.

23:51 So let's try this.

23:53 Why don't you think about something that you need to do in your in your life, it could be personal or related to your studies.

24:00 And try to add it as an item on your to do list.

24:02 And let us know in the chat how you would write that.

24:06 We'd love to see some examples.

24:13 Yep, so all of the suggestions that you're giving are onpoint exactly.

24:17 Why don't you try that with, you know, some of the things that you have to do.

24:23 Think about some of the things that you want to do.

24:25 And, you know, give us a suggestion of how you would write it on your to do list.

24:37 Right, so study respiratory drugs, perhaps you can make it more specific.

24:43 If you want study for my chemistry exam, sure.

24:48 Maybe finished this chapter of my chemistry exam, finished reading it by 8pm that's even more specific and time bound that is very good.

24:55 Mandibular nerves, or it could be attend guitar lessons.

25:00 I'm happy to see that there are some things outside of medicine as well.

25:03 So yes, just remember, when you're writing down your to do list, try to be specific, you're going to thank yourself for it because if you just say study endocrinology, you're not going to finish that.

25:13 And you're never going to attain this item on your to do list.

25:16 You're never going to do what's on your to do list.

25:24 What do we do after we have to do list? I saw many suggestions in the chat which is on point, you have to prioritize this to do list.

25:31 And this is one of the decision the prioritization matrix, which is you know, quoted a lot.

25:38 It's the Eisenhower Decision Matrix.

25:40 So, if you have a list of the things that are on your to do list, the next step would be to prioritize your to do list and you can put them into this matrix.

25:49 So this matrix basically splits tasks into important or level of importance and level of urgency.

25:56 And you can see in the top right, these are tasks that are important and urgent.

26:00 So typically, you would need to do these tasks now.

26:04 The box under it is the urgent tasks that are not important.

26:08 So typically, as you need to delegate it, or you know, consider what you want to do with it.

26:14 There are things that are not urgent, but important.

26:16 So you need to design and schedule a time to do it.

26:19 And then there are things that are just not an urgent and not important which basically you just need to delete it.

26:25 So the idea behind this is that you want to, you know, label things based on how important and how urgent they are and then put them in the right box.

26:37 And you would want to do the things that are urgent and important right now.

26:41 I see some questions, what everything is urgent, and so on.

26:44 I will tackle those questions at the end of the presentation.

26:46 So we'll just mark those questions and then we'll come back to it.

26:51 But this is the main point. Prioritize this.

26:53 So now let me ask you a question.

26:55 In which one should you invest most of your resources? So which box should you invest you with the most of your resources? Is it the urgent important or urgent not important, important not urgent or is it just the not urgent not important? So you should see the poll pop up right now? And please just answer the poll so that we can see the actual percentage of answers.

27:23 Okay, the answers are coming in, we have a lot of answers in the chat as well.

27:28 If you could just answer in the poll, you should see the poll button somewhere on your screen.

27:33 That would be really helpful for us.

27:39 Okay, I can see that most people in the chat are saying a) on the poll itself we have, we have a lot of attendees on this event.

27:49 It's really good to see.

27:51 So we have I'm just gonna let it go a little bit more.

27:55 If you can just answer the poll.

27:56 We have 50% of the audience right now.

28:00 Just for a few more seconds.

28:04 Okay. Well thank you everyone for participating.

28:06 We have over 65% of the audience that has participated and 81% said that we need to focus on urgent and important tasks.

28:16 And I see why you would say that, but let me move on to the next slide.

28:21 What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.

28:27 What does this mean? This means that if you want to be effective, you want to really be focusing all your resources on the important but not urgent tasks.

28:34 So if I asked you a question right now, let's say you want to start working today, you woke up and you want to study or perform some tasks where generally do you want to focus on things that are urgent or things that are important? Maybe if you have a lot of urgent tasks, you would want to go do those which makes sense.

28:54 But if you are doing this on a daily basis and just focusing on your urgent tasks, you're really not spending a lot of time on important tasks.

29:02 So this is why time management and managing your time works well.

29:06 And this is why it's needed to be effective.

29:09 Because the most effective people are people that spend most of their time doing important things that they've scheduled the time for and things that are important but not urgent are not time sensitive.

29:21 So think about this the next time you prioritize things.

29:24 Try to work on things that are important.

29:27 Don't let your time be dictated by the newest deadlines that you have, but rather focus on the things that are really important.

29:35 And perhaps the the next natural question to that would be okay.

29:38 So what is important? This is going to depend on you, which is why the next task is set personal goals.

29:44 So, what is important to you? Having goals will allow you to manage your priorities and decide what is important so that you know that okay, this is something that is important, whereas this isn't as important.

29:56 How does this specific task align with my personal goals that I've set to myself.

30:04 And like many of you mentioned in the chat, these goals have to be smart.

30:08 So this is an acronym SMART, which I think many of you are familiar with, you need to set SMART goals.

30:16 And these smart goals can be you know, related to your performance on a certain course, it could be within a certain rotation.

30:24 For example, in this clinical rotation, I want to learn how to, you know, interview a psychiatric patient for example.

30:31 But also, we want to take that a step further by making sure it's smart and we're gonna see what smart is in a second.

30:38 So these are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.

30:45 So use this acronym to help you really define a goal, help you define your goals and set these personal goals that you can refer to later.

30:54 Can you come up with an example of a SMART goal in the chat? So maybe try to do this as an exercise that can be useful to you as well.

31:02 So think about some of the things that are relevant for you.

31:05 For example, I saw we have a lot of clinical students, maybe write down a SMART goal for your current clinical rotation that you can apply or for students that are in different field, you know, try to come up with something that is relevant for the course that you're doing or something that you're doing at work for example, or a project that you might be working with.

31:24 I'm going to go back to this slide just so you can see it.

31:27 So try to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound.

31:33 So I see a comment that says revised common skin infections in paediatrics, I think you can be more specific, and I would add a time to that.

31:42 So we have a suggest in watch 30 minutes video on lower limb trauma between 5 to 6pm.

31:49 Perfect, as long as that's relevant and achievable, then you can do that.

31:55 I see lots of comments, like learn about case on kidney stones, go more specific, really try to set the specific goals so that you can very easily make sure they're measurable.

32:06 So instead of saying practice questions on something, practice 20 questions or practice 30 questions.

32:13 Because then you will know how much time you'll need to solve those questions.

32:17 And you will tailor your personal goals accordingly.

32:22 Learn how to do a number puncture today with Dr. X.

32:25 Right, now I understand that it might not be always easy to predict what kind of clinical things you can face in your clinic or in the hospital.

32:35 So it could be you know, during this rotation, I want to learn how to do a lumbar puncture or I want to do at least three lumbar punctures, and I want to get good feedback from my supervisor, and so on.

32:46 So again, think about these tasks and think about these smart goals that you can set for yourself.

32:52 I see very good suggestions in the chat. Thank you.

32:59 This is a medical example, for example that we've worked on.

33:01 So this is a student who was in the middle of the ObGyn rotation.

33:07 Finished reading the ObGyn chapter on first trimester pathologies by 8pm tonight.

33:12 So this is specific, it's clearly defined that outlines what needs to be read on the subject.

33:17 It's measurable, you can measure the success.

33:19 So once you finish reading that chapter, the task is complete.

33:22 It's also ambitious.

33:24 You know, it wouldn't be ambitious if I said, study ObGyn tonight, that's impossible.

33:30 And yet, so it's achievable.

33:33 It's relevant, you know, so maybe the class topic tomorrow is about differentials for bleeding.

33:38 Or maybe your long term goals are to, you know, as your ObGyn rotation.

33:43 So this makes it more relevant.

33:44 And it is time bound.

33:46 So you have the specific time mentioned there.

33:48 And remember, this is also applicable to your personal example.

33:51 So, go for a jog at least twice a week for 30 minutes.

33:55 Yes, you can be more specific, but I wouldn't put a jog at a speed of seven miles per you know, you don't need to just think about what you need to mention.

34:05 And just make sure that you are able to do it.

34:08 So the purpose of setting SMART goal is really for you to increase the chances that you will do it to understand your performance and to be able to perform better.

34:18 So this is how we perform SMART goals.

34:22 Hack #4, which is I think, very relevant to everyone is reduce distractions.

34:28 That is so easy to get distracted in today's world.

34:33 So make sure you only bring essential materials to your area.

34:37 I know we all study with our phones on our desk and we use our laptops, which have a million tabs open.

34:43 I know there's a YouTube tab probably open right now on most of your screens.

34:48 So there's a lot of potential for distractions.

34:50 So reduce those distractions.

34:52 You will really help yourself.

34:54 Put your mobile phones in desk, maybe put it on silent.

34:59 Block out unwanted noise or noises, but just focus on your tasks.

35:07 Something that I do for minimising distractions is really the design of the background of my phone.

35:14 I mean, how I arrange my icons.

35:16 I have, for example, a folder where all of my social media goes into, that way I'm not going to see a lot of red notifications, telling me to, you know, check out what is being posted out there.

35:26 But I do, I don't put my productive apps in any folders.

35:30 So for example, the Lecturio app and other productive apps that I use, I put those on on the screen itself.

35:37 And it really helps.

35:38 And you can also set time limits, I think, on most phones for apps.

35:42 So reduce those distractions.

35:44 It really, really helps.

35:48 And the next app we have as clearly about the Pomodoro Technique.

35:52 So let me ask you right now in a poll.

35:54 Have you heard about the Pomodoro technique? And have you used it before? So just say yes, if you've used it before.

36:00 No, if you haven't.

36:02 And there's an option c. if you haven't used it but you use something similar.

36:09 Yep, I see some people are talking about the focus mode on the phone that also helps.

36:16 Alright, you should be seeing a poll right now.

36:20 I see many people have tried the Pomodoro Technique that is good.

36:26 Some people haven't.

36:27 So don't worry, we will discuss it and I'll let you know how it works.

36:34 Yep.

36:38 Someone that does the Pomodoro Technique with a different time interval, which I will also address.

36:43 Okay, so I guess 50.

36:45 It's about 50/50 of those who use Pomodoro and those who didn't.

36:50 Thank you for those who answered.

36:54 So this is the Pomodoro Technique first, for those that don't know it.

36:57 So it's Pomodoro Technique is kind of like you think of a tomato and you're slicing it and you're studying by slices.

37:05 So basically what it means is study in blocks of time.

37:09 Classically, it's 25 minutes and then take a five minute break in between rather than just going through a to do list and studying all the time.

37:17 So the benefits of this is that it maximizes the use of your time and it minimizes procrastination.

37:22 It helps to keep track of what you've accomplished.

37:25 And 5-minute breaks between Pomodoro is help refresh your mind and allow it to reset before starting the next block.

37:32 Now, while this slide does say 25 minutes, you can change this according to you know what works for you.

37:38 I see that someone in the in the chat also mentioned that they use a different time interval.

37:43 And that makes sense.

37:46 Just do what works for you.

37:47 And the key strategy that we're doing here is that we're taking breaks.

37:54 So it's not really about the time that you are investing studying, but it's more about the breaks that you are taking.

38:00 And we previously discussed this in one of our previous articles about the importance of taking breaks, because essentially what you do when you take a break is that you, your brain goes from a focus mode into a diffuse mode which allows for consolidation of this information.

38:19 I see someone asked the question.

38:21 I will address this towards the end if we have more time.

38:23 But just remember you need to study, study for a certain amount of time, take a break and then study again.

38:32 And in general, increase your breaks.

38:35 So we can talk about the Pomodoro Technique when the questions arise in the end.

38:46 The next hack which is perhaps something that we definitely don't talk about much and you probably won't see this when you google time management strategies.

38:56 Use learning science in your studies.

38:58 So we usually talk about you know prioritizing your studies, I want to study today for four hours for example, and I'm going to buy this and I set my personal goals and so on.

39:09 But we don't talk much about how we study because how we study is going to make a huge difference.

39:16 And in our previous so these this is basically these are some of the strategies that we've discussed in our previous sessions.

39:26 My colleagues have shared the link in the chat so you can go check them out.

39:30 But basically, if you use evidence based learning strategies, you're going to maximize the efficiency and the effectiveness of the studying that you're doing.

39:40 So, in theory, if you study effectively for one hour.

39:44 It's going to be better than studying ineffectively for two or three or any amount of hours.

39:51 As long as you're studying effectively, then you're making the most of your time.

39:55 So some of these techniques are dual coding, spaced retrieval interleaving.

40:00 But I really invite you all to check out our previous sessions.

40:04 And stay tuned for future sessions.

40:06 Because this is really how we maximize the time we invest energy in the right places.

40:11 We don't waste our time with techniques that we think work because someone has told us they work or because we feel that we we work better this way, but rather, what does the evidence say? Because there is a lot of research that is done on learning science, and evidence based strategies.

40:31 And there is a lot that we can learn from those.

40:34 So we'll be happy to answer any questions, of course, that you have about these learning science strategies.

40:43 The next section just includes some testimonials from people that we've asked that work with us in Lecturio.

40:49 So the first one is from one of our medical students.

40:52 Her name is Shennell.

40:54 So Shennell's insights say that making social life a priority instead of an option really helped her.

41:01 So again, this falls within the same ideas that we're we're talking about, you know, make some more time for yourself, and control your notifications.

41:09 So again, obviously, this is going to be relevant for a lot of you controlling notifications on your phone, turn on the notifications on productive apps like Lecturio.

41:20 This is something that can help.

41:22 So you know, you're going to study, turn off the notifications on all the social media apps or the things that you know, are going to be distracting you and focus on the time.

41:31 Focus your time and minimise the distractions that you have while studying.

41:36 One of our early career Dr. Satria, who you've probably seen in previous events.

41:42 So Satria, during his medical schools, he was seeing his friend study in an extremely intensive manner.

41:49 And he knew he tried and he pushed himself and quickly found himself burning out and stressing out.

41:55 So what he did is that he researched better learning techniques, and implemented time management techniques that are conducive to hers neuro ATP.

42:06 So Satria has told us that he has ADHD.

42:09 And this falls under a category of neuro types that we refer to as neurodivergent.

42:18 You know, people that have little that can be anxious or have attention deficit or might be on an autistic spectrum or even anyone, you know, falls on a certain nuerodivergent spectrum.

42:32 And these differences in abilities are things that are going to guide us find the best strategies rather than look at them as disabilities or things that are going to prevent us from studying.

42:44 So really, try off these techniques and try to see how they manifest in your life and how they make your life easier.

42:52 And don't forget that making mistakes is absolutely fine.

42:56 And it's part of the process.

42:58 It's a skill that you're trying to nourish.

43:01 Our social media manager at Lecturio Paulo talks about how social media algorithms are there to grab their attention, you know, and they specialize in short term content, mainly because this is going to get them more money.

43:18 So a lot of people are going to feel trapped by social media, definitely those with neurodivergent minds.

43:24 But all of us can feel trapped by social media as well.

43:28 This is why again, the same advice, mute your social media apps.

43:31 This is one of the main messages, I guess we're trying to get across, that these social media apps can be really distracting.

43:36 And you might think that, you know, I'm only going to scroll a few times on my Instagram, but that's really going to shift your attention away from the studying and distract you.

43:48 And I would also say that even if you're doing the Pomodoro Technique and you're taking breaks in between your Pomodoro slices, try to relax your brain rather than stimulated more by looking at things, especially with these short term, short form content that is just going to consume your brain energy, whereas you can score stand out, look at certain view, listen to some music, you know, try to relax your brain.

44:13 Let your brain go into a diffuse mode of thinking.

44:18 So I hope those skins were helpful to many of you to most of you.

44:22 I'm going to open the floor to questions right now.

44:25 Feel free to pop them in, I see we already have some things that have been asked.

44:29 I can perhaps start with those.

44:31 My colleagues will just highlight some of these questions.

44:37 Yes. Okay so there's a question that I'm going to answer right now.

44:40 Which is what if everything is urgent? Because I procrastinated? Yes. So, do not procrastinate is the easy answer.

44:48 I know that sometimes it's difficult to not procrastinate.

44:51 But again, just remember that maybe right now most things are on your urgent to do list.

44:56 So personal advice would be to get those things out of the way.

45:01 But invest some time into setting plans and managing your time for the future.

45:06 So again, remember these hacks, prepare to do list, prioritize, make sure that it's in line with your goals, and plan them.

45:13 So if you have a lot of things on your urgent list right now, I'm going to add one more thing on your urgent list which is plan, plan well, so that you don't find yourself in the situation.

45:24 And again, remember, we're trying to focus most of our energy and the important, not urgent tasks.

45:30 So I hope that answers your question.

45:34 What should we do in this 5 minutes break? Okay, so I added a little bit of that, but the 5 minutes break, so many people think that, okay, I'm going to take a break from, you know, reading this, and I'll just go watch a 5-minute lecture on the same topic, or I will solve questions on a break.

45:49 The purpose of a break is really a break.

45:51 It's for you to not think about this topic.

45:54 And ideally, not engage your mind in something that is very mentally stimulating.

45:57 Because imagine, think of your brain as if you have a secretary inside your brain and the secretary is taking down notes and gathering all this information.

46:08 You just need to give your brain some time to take these notes and put them in the right areas, which is what memory consolidation technically is.

46:16 So if you're always stimulating your brain, you're not going to be able to do this.

46:20 And the purpose, or the benefit of doing this, these breaks is not going to be apparent immediately you know, but you will find yourself at it's helping you out in the in the long run.

46:32 So do anything you can, you can listen to some music, you can drink a glass of water, you can go on the balcony, if you have a balcony, you can talk to a friend, just make sure it takes 5 minutes because those conversations can get longer.

46:51 And yeah, just find something for you.

46:53 It might be easier to just do something on your phone.

46:56 But again, I would advise against that because you still are kind of actively thinking about many things on the phone.

47:04 But yeah, just find something that works for you.

47:08 We can take another question right now.

47:10 How can I improve my attention span? So I'm going to say this, there's a lot of things that you can Google about improving your attention span.

47:20 But I will also say that you don't necessarily need to improve your attention span in order to perform better.

47:27 Like I was saying this is this is the whole concept of neurodivergence.

47:31 Some people focus less, and some people have a higher attention span.

47:36 This does not mean that these people cannot perform the same or even better than people that have different attention spans.

47:43 One of our previous webinars spoke about memory, and how you can really take advantage of memory and you know, use memory effectively to study I would invite you to watch that, because we really get into these, these topics.

47:59 But essentially, for someone with a limited attention span, what you want to do is focus on rather than gathering a lot of information, you want to gather some information and focus on the strategies that puts this information into your long term memory.

48:12 So this would be strategies like retrieval, interleaving, maybe mnemonics and and so on.

48:21 So check out our previous article.

48:25 And feel free to reach out for more details.

48:31 What is the best learning science you try? I cannot get into that.

48:35 But I will again, say that, please check out our links, you can find the whole sessions.

48:42 Link there. They're just webinars like this.

48:44 And we talk about different strategies.

48:46 And there's a lot more, we will keep talking about these things.

48:50 But I want to do them justice.

48:51 So that's why I won't get into them a lot.

48:57 The next question is what if I can make a plan, set the schedule, but find big difficulty following through? Yes, that is definitely one of the things that you will encounter.

49:10 But that's fine.

49:12 I think you still get an advantage from planning, even if you don't stick to the plan.

49:18 At least it works for me and others because I know what are the things that I'm missing.

49:22 So they're on my radar, and I know that I have to get to them.

49:26 So these things that are important for me that I've scheduled that I cannot follow through, they're slowly going to make their way to my urgent list.

49:34 And this is obviously a sign of bad time management.

49:37 But you this is just something that you're going to have to try to stick to.

49:41 And I would say that when you start doing this, the first, the first period is going to be a bit more tricky.

49:49 But once you really start following up with your to do list and you do it, you're going to find that it flows very naturally.

49:55 So push yourself just for the first few days and try to go through it.

49:59 And if you still struggle, reach out.

50:00 Maybe we can consider something else.

50:06 So even after setting up scheduled, I got lost mid study session, I get into a spiral of learning more and more about the topic leading to access burnout.

50:14 Yes, this is why you need to take breaks.

50:17 Take small breaks, even though you might think that this is harmful to your studying, it's actually beneficial.

50:24 Just try it out.

50:25 Take breaks when you're studying.

50:27 If you're feeling like you're burning out, take a day or two off and really try to do something else.

50:32 I know it can be hard, especially if you have exams coming up.

50:34 But you will thank yourself if you do that.

50:39 I think there's a question about anxiety or imposter syndrome that my colleagues are trying to highlight.

50:48 So I get really anxious when I don't complete one task in specific time and it tampers my productivity for further activity, how to deal with that.

50:57 So yeah, that's something that we find ourselves a lot.

51:00 And if you're getting really anxious, you need to get rid of the anxiety first.

51:05 And I mean it I know that you can't just tell someone to get through to your anxiety.

51:09 But what I'm trying to say is if studying is makes you making you feel anxious, the solution to the anxiety is not studying, it's doing something to reduce your anxiety.

51:20 So again, taking a break.

51:22 You need to reduce your anxiety before you can get back into the effective efficient study technique.

51:28 A lot of us fall into this habit of you know, there is something stressing me out.

51:33 So my anxiety levels are peaking.

51:35 So in order to reduce my anxiety levels, I'm going to try to solve that problem.

51:39 But in reality, that's not what you need to do, you need to try to reduce your anxiety by relaxation techniques.

51:45 You can go with some grounding techniques and just try to you know, get into a more okay mood.

51:51 And again, I understand this might be difficult, but you need to do that before you study.

51:56 You don't study to solve that.

51:57 I think I'll just start if you want more advice, please feel free to reach out and we'll be happy to share some resources as well.

52:09 Suffering from imposter syndrome often leads to myself procrastinating instead of working.

52:14 Any tips on how to overcome imposter syndrome? So for those that don't know what imposter syndrome, it's this feeling like you are an imposter.

52:25 Maybe that you're not good enough that you could be for example a doctor or a clinical student and you feel like you are putting up a certain charade, I guess in front of your patients or you're not.

52:40 It's just this is what imposter syndrome is you can Google it.

52:44 Something that helped me because I've also been through that before, it's realizing that there's a lot of people that go through imposter syndrome.

52:53 And imposter syndrome is a completely internal process.

52:56 So you're not going to see people going through imposter syndrome, you're going to see people that look like they know what they're doing.

53:02 But just remember that everyone has thoughts in their head and everyone is struggling with something.

53:08 So if there's a sense of oneness, you know, with everyone that is around you, knowing that everyone might be struggling for it, they're struggling through this.

53:20 And one way to help is try to use objective measures to determine.

53:25 So if you feel like you are not a good student, or you are not a good doctor, what defines a good student and good doctor? Maybe write those thoughts down and maybe talk to a friend about, you know, a friend within the field.

53:38 How do I know if I'm a good doctor? And then just with time, you're going to notice that there's going to be a different set of parameters that you're looking at, you know, to know a few good, good enough.

53:49 And for the issue of procrastinating and feeling like you're not in the mood.

53:52 Again, try taking breaks.

53:55 And try try using you know, more effective study techniques, I guess would be my short answer.

54:02 If by the way, I don't satisfy any of the questions, please do reach out, I will invest more time in them.

54:08 I'm just trying to get as much you know, as many questions answered as I can.

54:12 And I guess I'll just do this one quickly before Kate takes over.

54:16 What's the best solution? What's the best solution for being distracted? I'm not studying because of ADHD.

54:24 Please answer this.

54:25 I've been problem for a while now.

54:30 Yeah, so again, minimize your distractions would be what I would say.

54:35 So it's very difficult, I understand.

54:38 But the next time you study try to see what are the things that are distracting you perhaps list them down.

54:43 You might realize that okay, maybe I'm getting a random song stuck in my head or I have this urge to go eat something or I have a friend that are a little sibling that was distracting me.

54:54 So write these distractions down and try to come up with strategies to minimise these distractions.

54:59 And again, you will have have to try to find a balance between focusing and not focusing for you.

55:05 If you have ADHD, then you're going to spend less time focusing as well.

55:10 But that's again, that's fine.

55:11 Just find the right balance that works for you.

55:13 So kind of embrace it, rather than find it, look at it as a herd.

55:17 And that's going to stop you from studying.

55:20 So, good luck, Alexandra and everyone else.

55:24 Okay, I think I'm out of time, right? You're just about out of time.

55:27 But thank you so much.

55:29 I know, we had a lot of questions in the chat and a lot of really good questions.

55:33 So if there's something you still want to ask, you can shoot us an email at events@lecturio.com.

55:39 We will do our very best to get back to you.

55:42 There are, you know, with time management and trying to figure all of this out with different neurodivergences with you know, other distractions, anything there's so many factors that go into it.

55:53 So hopefully, some of these tips tricks hacks can help you overcome some of the challenges that you're facing.

56:01 As you know, of course, we can't solve all the problems but hopefully this will get you on the right path.

56:09 Something else to get you on the right path could be to utilize a platform like Lecturio.

56:14 So we do have this special offer available for you for the next 48 hours.

56:19 You can take 25% off Lecturio Premium to the study planner that I showed you at the beginning.

56:25 And you know, clinical case questions, video lessons, spaced repetition, or spaced retrieval algorithms.

56:33 I think someone mentioned Anki earlier in the chat, we have our own algorithm on it takes quiz questions based on the videos that you watch.

56:42 And it does it all for you and does the whole space retrieval.

56:46 And we've talked about this in other events.

56:48 But I definitely recommend please, please, please check out Lecturio and of course special offer.

56:55 But even if you're like hey, you know what, today's not the day for me to purchase, please go try make a free account.

57:01 Take a look at it, see what's happening.

57:03 And when you are a Lecturio member, you do get invited to all of our future events.

57:07 So you can come join us again, and again and again.

57:10 And we're looking forward to seeing you all next time.

57:13 So for a couple of you who might have come in a couple minutes late, and I thinking wait, what is Lecturio? Lecturio, we are hosting this event today.

57:22 We are an all in one study resource for med school, and also nursing school.

57:27 Our platform is entirely based on learning science.

57:30 So some of these techniques that we've mentioned, especially in Hack #6 that we go over in some of our previous events, which we've linked to somewhere in the chat but we'll link it again.

57:38 You know, this is what our platform does.

57:40 So we've got videos, we have this space retrieval algorithms, spaced repetition is what we call it in our platform, clinical case questions all of the above to help you not only, you know, study for your exams, but also just become the best, you know, med student and medical professional all around that you can be encode that information into your long term memory.

58:01 So I see a couple questions in the chat as we're going that I can answer our events are about once a month.

58:08 If you are a Lecturio member, either free or paid, we do send you an invitation.

58:13 We are sending around a recording of this session, by the end of the week to all of you are here.

58:20 And that is what is kind of popping up on the side for me right now.

58:24 So, again, thank you all so much for taking time out of your day.

58:29 I hope it was an hour well spent.

58:31 And we're looking forward to seeing you at our future events.

58:35 Have a nice one. Bye.