 How do I become more productive in medical school? I know I've asked that question many times. I'm sure you have too. In this video, guys, I have a great two-part, easy-to-follow system that you can take to not only become more productive, but stay motivated in the process. I'm gonna give you that system after this intro. All right, guys, what is going on? Lux here for an empty journey, helping you succeed on your medical journey with less stress. If you're new to this channel and you want more tips on just succeeding in medical school, thriving, not just surviving, then go ahead and give this video a like and consider subscribing to the channel and joining the community. But in this video, I'm gonna answer that question where it usually comes from frustration. How do I become more productive? My to-do list is too long. I'm not able to see any progress. And by the end of the week, the month, I feel like I have so much more left to do than I actually have done. And I get that sentiment in this video. There's going to be an easy two-part system that I use to not only get my work done, but at the end of the month, realize how much I've done. And it keeps me motivated to kind of continue to work hard and grind as you are. So no time to waste, let's get into the system. So part number one is to have a list of done. It sounds a little bit strange. We have a to-do list, right? Which we all know, a list of everything we need to do. But I also go ahead and just do the extra effort of creating a list of done. This basically means as I accomplish a task, I move it over to the corner of my to-do list because I usually do it on like a piece of paper. And so one side is going to be my to-do list. And as soon as I scratch something off instead of just putting a check mark, I literally go in and put the effort to write down that I did it. If it was a syllabus chapter, you know, and I read it, I put it on the right side. If it was a workout that I put on my to-do list, I'd do it on my right side. Not only do the check marks feel motivating, but just simply writing and have a whole another list that you continue to gather over time of how much you've done. I just find that there's so much of a motivation factor that comes with it because you want to continue to fill that list. When you're checking off on a to-do list, you know, it feels fine, but you sometimes focus too much on how much is left to do, how much checks are left. But when you're creating a completely separate list of how much you've done, a list of done, then you just want to continue to fill it up. You're motivated to continue to work. And so I think if you go ahead and apply that principle of list of done, it's gonna be easy way to just continue to stay motivated because you will have a visual representation of how much you've done. Now the second part of the system is to create a habit of streaks. Now you've probably seen people on their calendar where they work out and they go ahead and just put an X on the calendar for every single day they've done it. This is kind of something similar. Your list of done is kind of your motivation for a day, but on a week to week basis, you know, that motivation may dip and rise depending on how our life is going. So what I like to do is I basically break down my life into three main components. One is school, obviously. One is fitness for me. And then the final one is personal. I have different goals that I want to achieve in each of those. And so, for example, for my fitness, it may be getting all my workouts in for the week. And so every week that I do it, I put a check mark in the calendar. So I have a whiteboard right up here and I will go ahead and just give a simple check mark. My personal goal is to read a book a week. And so every time I'm able to do that, I put another check mark. Every time that list becomes longer, it basically feels like it costs you more not to continue to have that habit and continue to stay productive. For school, it may be something very similar. You may want to have a goal that I want to have all my work done by Saturday afternoons. That way I can enjoy Sunday. You know, the goal may be different for you, but having a list of done is going to help you on a daily system. And then taking a step further in having a system to track your streaks is going to keep you motivated for a long period of time. The semester is going to be long. You know, med school is long. And so to have just a simple way of keeping tracks of your wins that really is where the motivation comes, guys. And I promise you, you'll be able to stay productive. I'm gonna give you a quick example in case you're not convinced. When I first started the MD Journey blog, I was writing, I think, one or two blog posts a week. And it got to the point where, you know, I lost motivation, I lost traction, but I had no accountability to continue. And eventually I got back to it, mainly because I started to see that people were being helped by the content. And so then I wrote a blog a week and I started to do the streak system and the list of done. And now I've basically put out something of usefulness, hopefully, on these videos and blog posts for like almost two years now. That it's been able to continue that streak. So understanding that you can apply it at any phase of your life, have something on a daily basis, like a list of done to keep track of how much you're able to do and then transfer that over on like a weekly streak calendar, where you're able to kind of see how long something has been going on because the longer your streak is, the more likely you are to continue that habit. So guys, I knew this was a shorter video that I'm used to making, but if you wanna know how to be productive, it's an easy two-part system that I think you can apply it regardless of where you are at school or wherever you are on your journey. So I encourage you guys to check it out. And if you did enjoy it, make sure you comment down below. I'm curious, what do you currently do to be productive and how do you think you can apply the list of done and the streak calendar to your daily life? Let me know. Maybe it doesn't even apply too. That's totally fine. Just come say hi in the comment section. It also helps this video get out to more people. So with that being said, if you did enjoy this video, make sure you give it a like and if you still haven't subscribed for whatever reason, I encourage you to. Because my goal for 2019 is, this is my impossible goal, is to get to 25,000 subscribers. I need your help, because currently I am at like 1,200 to 1,300. So I got a long ways to go, but I think I can make it. But regardless, I need your help. So share, like, subscribe, whatever it takes. But with that being said, I'm not gonna babble anymore. I'll see you guys in the next video. Thank you guys so much for watching.