 Alright guys, welcome back to the channel. In today's video we're going to talk about four small things that if you start today can really make the difference between success and failure in medical school. Let's get into it. Alright guys, what is going on? Welcome to the MD journey. The channel is completely dedicated to helping you succeed on your medical journey with less stress. Today I really wanted to touch on some of the biggest and smallest habits that really made a huge difference in my medical journey. Now each of these small things made a huge difference for me as well as other medical students throughout their journey but I also wanted to make sure that each of them were very actionable. And that means for you, you can immediately start taking these tips and applying them to your life and reaping the benefits. So let's get into number one, which is to start with your day with something that matters to you. One of the biggest gripes I hear from medical students as well as anyone on a very busy academic journey is that they have no time for themselves. But instead of trying to make time for themselves now, most students will tell themselves that they'll eventually find time later down the journey. But if you're far enough in your journey already, you already know that one, that finish line never comes and two, you only get busier. And so to avoid your academic and medical journey getting in the way of your personal priorities, make sure that you start every single day with something that matters to you. And so my personal example, I wanted to make sure that I always had time for my personal fitness. And where I went to med school, we had a rec center right next door that opened up at 6am, meaning that I would make sure that I was at that gym around 6 to 6.30 every morning, doing that before I ever got to any of my studying. And to make sure it was something that I actually did and not just said I would eventually do, it was actually in my Google calendar every single day. So if there is something in your life that you're wishing you had more time to do, start now instead of waiting later on to eventually include it because I promise you it will be much harder to do it then. Now the second small thing that truly made a big difference, particularly my grades and a lot of you guys are listening for this, is that I started and ended my day with my most impactful method. Now a lot of us will study with a variety of different study techniques. We also kind of go through a typical form of flow when we're studying through reading the syllabus, taking notes, going to lectures and eventually reviewing them through a variety of different study techniques. But there is a few techniques in your arsenal that you tend to do that are going to give you the biggest benefits for your body. If you're asking yourself, I'm not exactly sure what study method is going to be the best for me, check out some of the programs that we have at the MD journey, most particularly the Rapid Study Accelerator, which is a mini course designed to help you not only understand what study methods you should be using, but in what order and how to make them super efficient from week to week. So that'll be linked down below for any of you guys are interested. But once you understand that out of all of the study strategies that I use, these are my most impactful. Try to start and end your day with those techniques. And the benefit of starting and ending your day in this manner, where you do your most impactful task and the start and finish, comes from the fact that even if the middle of your day doesn't go as planned, maybe you're not able to do everything on your to-do list, get through all your syllabus lectures and reviews, as long as you can do the most impactful thing at the end and start of your day, you know that you're starting and ending on the right foot, and you'll probably have the long-term retention compared to if you just try to go through your typical flow of reading a syllabus, going to class, reviewing. And in particular, this was super impactful for me as a medical student on those days where I just didn't want to do anything. On those days where I told myself, I'm not going to study, I said, well, okay, can you spend 30 minutes doing this activity? Now, usually the thing that was most impactful for me also was the thing that I enjoyed doing. For me, it was personally either flashcards or practice questions. And so if I didn't want to study doing 30 minutes of that, every single day. And so on those days where I didn't feel like studying simply just doing 30 minutes of something that was going to be really beneficial in the long term was at least better than nothing. Now, small thing number three is to create a hit list of your weakest topics. And when you're in an information overload kind of environment like med school, it's very easy to see a bunch of information and try to give each of it the same amount of priority. But as you likely have known from personal experience, there are going to be things that you're great at that I'm probably terrible at and vice versa. And so as you start making your first passes through materials, you'll be able to identify things that are going to easily trip you up and things that you're really good at and don't require as much retention. And so it's this initial list of topics that you know that if it showed up on exam day, you would feel super anxious that you really need to be hyper focused on. And so that's why I recommend to create a hit list, which is to have some form of media, whether it be a Word doc or an Excel sheet, where you're essentially breaking things down by lectures, as well as the topic in that lecture that gives you trouble. And so then when you get into your review later on the week or closer to the week of the exam, you should use this hit list of week topics to be your priority of how you should first start reviewing. So my personal example, I had an Excel sheet of all the week topics from all the lectures that I would struggle with. And then during the weekends, I would make sure that whenever I would do lecture one, the first few topics that I would cover, it would be those things on my hit list. And so the benefit from the small adjustment in your study strategy comes from the fact that one, you're focused on the things that have caused you the most anxiety on test day. And two, you're likely also focusing on the things that would cause you the most points on test day. And so if you could look at your hit list of week topics and notice by day by day, as you get closer to exam, that those things are not as big of a deal as they were in the past, you'll likely also do better. And so if you don't already have a hit list of your week topic start today, and then comment down below what results you're getting. And last but not least, before the small thing that really made a huge difference on my medical journey was to make sure that I was constantly reading about things outside of medicine. And when you're a medical school student, it's very easy to feel like you have no time for yourself, but we already talked about earlier in the video how you can do that by simply setting the start of your day at least, and you can do the same thing for the end of your day. Now as a medical student or somebody on their medical journey, you already have so much information given to you that you need to learn. It almost seems kind of naive to focus on things outside of medicine. But if anything, that is probably the most important reason that you should be reading about things like personal finance, personal growth, meditation, breathing, exercise, fitness, nutrition, things that you probably won't have time to do on your medical journey if you don't actively make time for it. Because here's the plain truth. When you're finished with medical school, you are officially now an employed adult and actually will have a paycheck. That means you have to know things about basic finance, insurance, nutrition, budgeting. There are so many simple skills that you have lost the opportunity to learn if you don't actively see them out. And one of the small ways I would make sure that my medical knowledge was as growing as well as my outside street knowledge is to do a simple form of reading through my phone, whether it be through my Kindle app, as you guys can see, I'm about 29 books eventually. So there you go. 29 books so far in 2021. Also use a Scribe app to listen to audiobooks. And I'll link those both down below if you guys want to check them out. But simply focusing on things that you will know you need in the future and just having some fun to educate yourself without any of the pressure of trying to actually apply it. Things like personal finance, nutrition, personal fitness, relationships, emotional intelligence. There's so many books and courses and things to learn on YouTube. But it's very easy for again for us to be a 24-7 medical student. So one of the small things that I really has helped me become a well-rounded individual and kind of to know what things to do once medical school is over is to make some dedicated time to learn outside of medicine. And if you're listening to this and you're like, well, I know that that sounds good, but I don't have enough free time. Go back to the initial things that we talked about earlier in this episode and understand that the things that are most important to you, you can make time for us. And so just how I gave my personal example of finding time to exercise every morning, you can find little blocks throughout your week that you just dedicate for outside learning for your personal growth. And I promise you your future self in a few years will thank you very greatly. But those guys are four small things that I did on my medical school journey that truly made a huge impact. Things that I still do to this day in some form or capacity. And so hopefully you guys can take some of these tips and action items and start applying them into your day to day. And if you're one of the few that do decide to take action, come back to this video and comment down below what the results you're getting. And if you're like a majority of people, if you're like me, when you watch videos like this and you hear the great tips but you may not immediately take action, then the duration that it took you to watch this video in entirety if you take simply one tip and apply it to your day to day, I promise you'll be able to see some results. But with that being said guys, thank you so much for watching and listening to today's episode. If you're watching this on YouTube, my simple request is that if any of these videos really stick out to you, then simply help me out by hitting that like button down below. Ideally, these videos can get out in front of more people that may also benefit from the tips. And if you haven't already joined the community by subscribing to the YouTube channel, get two videos just like this on a weekly basis. And if you're listening to this as a podcast, consider hitting subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast listening platform and consider leaving an honest review on iTunes. And as I mentioned before, if you do want some more step-by-step guidance as well as a little bit hand-holding on your medical journey, check out some of the programs that we have down below for you at the MD journey to help you succeed on your medical journey with lost stress. And with that being said guys, thank you so much for making to the end of this episode. If you did enjoy this episode, you'll probably enjoy this episode on my full step-by-step breakdown of how to use onkeys like a pro. But as always, my friends, thank you so much for being a part of my journey. Hopefully I was a little help to you on yours and I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.