👋 Hey, I'm Haikal.
Thanks for stopping by my home on the Internet.
I'm a 3rd-year medical student at the University of Malaya. I am also currently writing a series of articles on using tools like Roam Research and Anki to learn better. Watch this space.
I write about productivity, habits, effective learning techniques, book summaries, and the lessons I learnt in medical school. My aim is to share and document the things I've learnt and read in hopes of it helping others.
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Slothtivity: the Secret to Happiness with Sloth-paced Productivity
Our brain is wired to conserve energy whenever possible. In that sense, everyone is lazy. This is called the Law of Least Effort, which states that people will naturally gravitate towards the option that requires the least amount of work when facing two possibilities. We are motivated to be lazy.
How a simple transaction changed my life
My world changed forever at the Duty-Free located in Terminal 3, London Heathrow Airport. I had some extra cash to burn, and I was looking to spend it on a keyboard for my iPad. However, my eyes lit up when I saw something else. It was the Kindle, and I’
The problem with schools
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. - Mark TwainSchools suck. Let me explain by telling you how a typical day in school looks like. “Let’s now proceed to how this bacterium will look like under a microscope, and try to identify the anatomy”, said my
What do you do?
I’m a medical student. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. Medical student/writer would probably be a more accurate answer. How I got hereI didn’t start my life wanting to be a doctor. When my primary school teachers asked me about my ambitions, I said
Notes Raft: How to Build a Habit of Writing Evergreen Notes
How can one become a productive writer with little effort? Enter Niklas Luhmann, a German sociologist who published 58 books and hundreds of articles in 30 years. While his productivity is impressive, he claims that he achieved this with almost no effort. “I only do what is easy. I only
Imitate, then innovate
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn. —T. S.
Are you burnt out?
I'm writing this a day before I sit for one of my last written papers for my third year of posting, and I suddenly realized why studying for my final paper has been such a slog - I'm burnt out. It's been a very long year, probably my most extended
My favourite books on mental health
Today is World Mental Health Day! I'd like to share some of the books that have helped me stay mentally healthy. Man's Search for Meaning The Courage to be Disliked Happy Stumbling on Happiness
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