Essays
I Survived Medical School Because of Ali Abdaal
It was my second year of medical school, and I was studying harder than ever before. All I wanted was awards, yet I felt empty when I got them. Regret even, thinking about the things I sacrificed just so that I could get a better grade on my exams. One
Lessons learnt from writing daily for 28 days
Today is Day 28 of the 28 Days Ness Labs blogging challenge. I can’t believe that I did just that - publish every day for 28 days. It’s pretty surreal thinking about what I achieved. I’d like to share some of the things I experienced and learnt
Schools suck
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. - Mark Twain Schools 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
How I prioritise my tasks
Does this sound familiar to you? You open your to-do list, and you find at least 20+ tasks. You don’t know what to do next, and you go through each of them without deliberation. By the end of the day, you realise that you haven’t accomplished much; you
Trying to understand how to understand
Do you understand the importance of understanding? Understanding a concept well is important if you want the knowledge to stick, but not many seek it. Tim Urban has an analogy that compares knowledge to a tree “If you don’t fully get it, it’s like a tree in your
How to use mnemonics
One of the best ways to improve retention is by using mnemonics. A mnemonic is something that aids your memory, such as an acronym. For example, I memorise the bones of the hand by using the mnemonic Some Lovers Try Positions That They Can’t Handle, which corresponds to Scaphoid,
What I’m using to build my site
When I wanted to build my site, I quickly Googled and set it up an hour later. In hindsight, I should’ve done more research. I started by using WordPress with crappy self-hosting, and I wished I didn’t start there. So here's a guide that old me would have
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 here I didn’t start my life wanting to be a doctor. When my primary school teachers asked me about my ambitions, I
Focusmate: Productivity on Demand
Imagine cutting your procrastination in half and doubling your productivity with just a click. Picture this: You wake up at 6am in the hopes of getting some work done. An hour later, you end up scrolling Twitter on your phone, with the latest Netflix show on your laptop. I know
My favourite free resources on learning how to write
When Archimedes said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world”, he was probably referring to online writing. Online writing has brought so many benefits for me. I’m learning more, reading better, and most importantly, I’m
