Essays
Find your atlas
When I started medical school, I was reading up on a lot of resources at once. I would jump from one book to another, even though I’m studying the same topic. One week I’m doing questions from this book; the next week, I’m doing practice questions from
Mindful internet use
Have you ever wondered how much time you waste on the Internet? In a survey by Survey.com, 26 per cent of people admitted to wasting at least two hours every day. The participants named the Internet as the most significant time waster by a big margin. A study by
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
Best Free Resources to Learn Roam Research
Why is everyone crazy about this astrolabe note-taking app? I mean, they even have a cult! I didn’t get the hype back then. I thought of Roam as another note-taking app like Evernote and Notion. Boy, I was wrong. Roam is not a note-taking app. It’s a tool
How to Use Templates in Roam Research
One way to be more efficient when using Roam is by using templates. I’ve been using the template feature for the past month, and it is useful when I’m doing repetitive tasks. Roam templates are little snippets what show up when you type a shortcut. You can put
How To Read More Books
When Warren Buffett was asked how to get smarter, he held up a stack of paper and said, “Read 500 pages like this every week. That’s how knowledge builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many will do it.” Reading is
Practicing metacognition in medical school
Metacognition is a strategy that can improve your learning in medical school. Metacognition means above cognition. In other words, metacognition is “learning about your learning”, or “knowing about what you know”, or “thinking about your thinking”. For example, a person uses metacognition if they realise that they have more trouble
How To Use the GTD System as a Student
Being a student these days is stressful. We’re bombarded with incoming deadlines, exams, meetings, and my favourite one - rescheduled classes. How can we keep up with all these inputs and not get stressed out? These inputs clutter our mind and stress us out. We can’t focus on
How I (try to) stop procrastinating
I've been procrastinating on my studies recently, thanks to the coronavirus situation. Uncertainties about medical school and exams made my personal productivity go down. I wake up with plans on my to-do-lists, but I end up in bed, watching Netflix. I wasn't doing anything, but I was more tired than
How I Make Online Classes Bearable
Looking at your screen to learn medicine sucks. I did not go into medical school to watch lectures at 2x speed. You can't learn medicine by watching lectures; you need to see the signs and symptoms with your own eyes and examine your patients. If William Osler were still alive,
