How I Routinely Study With a Full Time Job when I'm TIRED
Summary
TLDRThe speaker shares their personal journey of balancing work, studies, and personal interests while in college and medical school. They emphasize the importance of focusing on high-intensity tasks during peak focus hours, which for them is in the morning, and gradually shifting to lighter tasks as energy levels decrease throughout the day. To enhance productivity, they suggest setting strict bedtimes to wake up naturally and avoid the stress of alarms, and setting firm deadlines to counteract procrastination. The speaker also highlights the value of eliminating activities that do not bring joy or value to one's life, thus creating more time for meaningful pursuits. These strategies are tailored to the speaker's personal preferences and work habits, suggesting that individuals should adapt these principles to their own brain type and personality for optimal effectiveness.
Takeaways
- 📚 Prioritize focus over time: Schedule your day around your most focused periods for the most demanding tasks.
- 🔋 Manage your mental energy: Recognize that focus is like a battery that depletes throughout the day and plan accordingly.
- ☕ Boost your focus: Use techniques like coffee or cold showers to give your focus a temporary boost.
- 🌞 Early morning productivity: The speaker found that studying in the early morning when their focus was highest was more effective.
- 🛌 Set a strict bedtime: Instead of relying on an alarm, adjust your sleep schedule to wake up naturally earlier.
- 🕒 Strict deadlines: Use deadlines to combat Parkinson's Law and reduce procrastination by creating artificial time pressure.
- 🎓 Break tasks into smaller pieces: Make large assignments more manageable and less daunting by breaking them down.
- 🎉 Reward yourself: Use rewards as motivation for completing tasks and to maintain a balance in life.
- 🚫 Stop doing what you hate: Identify and eliminate activities that don't bring joy or value to your life to create more time for what matters.
- 🧘 Reflect and self-assess: Be honest with yourself about how you spend your time and what activities can be cut to improve focus and happiness.
- 🔄 Adjust your schedule: Be flexible and willing to adjust your routine to fit your natural rhythms and optimize productivity.
Q & A
What was the speaker's initial approach to balancing work and studies?
-The speaker initially balanced work and studies by working as a barista, tutor, and at a yoga studio while taking full stack classes. They did not drop work to focus on school despite the challenges.
Why did the speaker's grades suffer during college?
-The speaker's grades suffered because they were juggling multiple jobs while attending college full-time, and they were also distracted by the anime 'Hunter x Hunter' which aired around that time.
What strategy did the speaker develop to manage their productivity?
-The speaker developed a strategy to schedule their life around focus rather than time, realizing that focus is like a phone battery that drains throughout the day.
How did the speaker rearrange their daily routine to maximize focus?
-The speaker started doing the most intense studying in the morning when their focus was highest, then did less rigorous studying throughout the day, and reserved lighter studying tasks for the end of the day when their energy levels were lower.
What is the 'Jedi mind trick' the speaker used to make mornings less awful?
-The 'Jedi mind trick' involved setting a strict bedtime instead of a wake-up time, allowing the speaker to wake up naturally earlier without the use of an alarm, leading to a more peaceful and productive start to the day.
How did the speaker adapt their time management system to a flexible schedule during medical school?
-The speaker set strict deadlines for everything, from studying to running errands, to optimize focus and maintain a work-life balance despite an erratic work schedule.
What is Parkinson's Law and how did the speaker apply it to their time management?
-Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time given for its completion. The speaker applied it by setting strict deadlines, which forced them to focus and avoid procrastination.
What are the three main determinants of procrastination identified in the paper from Japan?
-The three main determinants are the challenge of the task, the rewards or punishments associated with it, and the perceived distance or time until the task is due.
How did the speaker use rewards and breaking down tasks to combat procrastination?
-The speaker gave themselves rewards for finishing tasks, such as going out with friends or having dinner, and broke down big assignments into smaller, more manageable pieces to reduce the perceived challenge.
What is the final principle the speaker suggests for managing a busy schedule?
-The final principle is to stop doing things you hate or that bring no joy or value to your life, which helps to create more time for activities that are fulfilling and contribute to a happier, more focused approach to life.
How did the speaker's approach to time management change when they added a YouTube channel and a research project to their responsibilities?
-The speaker realized the importance of time pressure on their ability to focus and began to cut out pointless activities and commitments that did not bring value to their life, allowing them to maintain their focus and manage their increased responsibilities.
Outlines
😀 Balancing Work, School, and Personal Interests
The speaker reflects on their college experience juggling multiple jobs and academic responsibilities while developing strategies for productivity. Initially, they struggled with managing time effectively, leading to a decline in academic performance. However, they discovered the importance of scheduling life around focus rather than just time. They compared focus to a phone battery that depletes throughout the day and realized that to maximize productivity, they needed to align their most intense studying with their highest focus periods, typically in the morning. As energy levels drop, they would switch to less demanding tasks. The speaker also emphasizes the individual nature of focus, noting that different people have different peak focus times.
🛌 Adjusting Sleep Patterns for Improved Productivity
The speaker discusses their struggle with waking up early and how they overcame it by setting a strict bedtime instead of a wake-up time. This approach allowed them to naturally wake up earlier without the stress of an alarm, leading to a more peaceful and productive start to the day. They also mention the benefits of adjusting their circadian rhythm by getting light exposure upon waking up, which helped shift their active period earlier in the day. Additionally, they talk about the challenges of managing an erratic work schedule during medical school and how setting strict deadlines for all tasks, including leisure activities, helped them maintain focus and avoid procrastination.
⏰ Prioritizing Focus and Eliminating Time Wasters
The speaker highlights the significance of time pressure in enhancing focus and productivity. They share their experience of adding a YouTube channel and a research project to their already busy schedule, which initially led to feelings of being overwhelmed. To address this, they adopted the principle of quitting activities they disliked or found unproductive. This self-reflection led to the elimination of time-wasting activities and toxic relationships, allowing them to focus on tasks that brought value and joy. The speaker encourages others to use this principle as a tool for self-assessment to identify and remove activities that do not contribute to their overall happiness or focus.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Productivity
💡Focus
💡Time Management
💡Burnout
💡Parkinson's Law
💡Procrastination
💡Circadian Rhythm
💡Pomodoro Technique
💡Side Hustle
💡Toxic People
💡Self-Reflection
Highlights
The speaker developed strategies to balance work, study, and personal interests despite a demanding schedule.
Focus, not time, is identified as the key resource for productivity.
An analogy of focus as a phone battery that drains throughout the day is used to explain its fluctuating nature.
The importance of scheduling tasks around peak focus times is emphasized for efficiency.
The speaker shares personal experience juggling an EMT job, school, and MCAT preparation.
A shift from time-based to focus-based scheduling led to improved productivity and less burnout.
The concept of 'battery saver mode' for the brain is introduced to describe periods of low focus.
Setting a strict bedtime instead of wake-up time can lead to more natural and less stressful mornings.
Light exposure upon waking helps regulate circadian rhythms and improve morning productivity.
Parkinson's Law is discussed in the context of setting strict deadlines to prevent procrastination.
The use of rewards and breaking tasks into smaller pieces to combat procrastination is suggested.
Productive people are highlighted as being adept at transitioning focus and blocking out distractions.
The principle of eliminating activities that bring no joy or value is proposed to create more meaningful time.
The impact of cutting out toxic social engagements and focusing on mental health is discussed.
The importance of self-reflection to identify and remove time-wasting activities is emphasized.
Incorporating more fulfilling activities and hobbies into the schedule after cutting out the unnecessary.
The speaker's system is tailored to their 'brain type' and suggests others may need a different approach.
The video includes a call to action for viewers to learn more about their own brain type for optimized productivity.
Transcripts
back in college i was one of those kids
who always had a job while in school at
first i worked as a barista making
mediocre latte art for poor students
then i added on a tutoring gig for high
schoolers and then front desk at a yoga
studio all the while taking full stack
classes as you can imagine an 18 year
old punk like me didn't know how to
handle that kind of responsibility
especially since that was right around
the time hunter x hunter started to air
and my grades paid the price
any sane rookie would have dropped work
to focus on school but i really liked
having the extra cash to find my
luxurious six dollar specialty coffee
addiction so after years of learning and
experimentation in the productivity
space i slowly began to develop smarter
strategies that eventually allowed me to
work a full-time job and study
consistently by the end of college i was
working over 40 hours a week as an emt
studying for school and preparing for
the mcat all at the same time and i
wasn't burning out i was locked in hey
misty activate focus mode i was able to
carry this system into medical school at
cajun koi academy in my third year i was
working full-time in rotations studying
and grinding on my youtube side hustle
so i want to share the principles i use
for arranging my life so all the pieces
of the puzzle fit and i hope the lessons
i've learned from managing my own time
can help you find balance no matter what
kind of job or academic schedule you
have so the first big mind-boggling idea
i adopted was to schedule my life around
focus
not time
let me explain why with an analogy our
focus is like a phone battery that
drains throughout the day even if we're
not playing pokemon unite or texting
someone we can give or focus some juice
with things like coffee or cold showers
but it's going to drop regardless as the
day goes on
as the brain gets tired our focus is
lost and we enter battery saver mode and
our brain hates being tired it starts to
complain like a hangry child it wanders
it daydreams it starts to feel bored we
get headaches and the more and more we
push the worse our focus actually gets
and the more likely we are to
procrastinate burn out and fall prey to
temptations of more fun activities
before i paid attention to scheduling my
life around focus i used to organize a
workday like this i wake up at 9 30 and
drive to work by 10 am
i'd then work a 10 hour shift head to
the gym on the way home eat a quick bite
and then start studying at like 10 p.m
i'd go until about 2 a.m or something
before just passing out from pure
exhaustion and let me tell you this
absolutely sucked i'd be totally blasted
after work my mental battery was
depleted so my focus was shot and i can
never finish studying and i remember
thinking geez i wish i had like five
more hours every single day so i could
actually get through my studies but that
wouldn't actually work either because
contrary to conventional thinking i
believe our most valuable resource is
actually not time it's focus if i can't
even read a paragraph because i'm
running on e hallucinating after a long
work day then it doesn't even matter if
i have five more hours or 500 more hours
my battery is fried but then i had this
crazy idea
what if i moved this study block from
here
to here
so i was studying when my battery was
actually full
such a simple idea but i never thought
about it that way before i always
assumed that as long as i scheduled in
time to study during the day i was good
but i didn't take into account my
fluctuating focus
so to maximize focus i wake up and do
the most intense studying before i even
go to work and as my energy levels drop
throughout the day i'll do less rigorous
studying in the pockets of time i can
find at work like brain dumping concepts
under my notes app or redrawing mind
maps from memory and then late in the
day when my energy is low after work i
can relax with easier light studying
like reading or burning through some
flash cards i'd break up my day by focus
and tackle the most intense studying
what my focus is highest because it
demands the most brain power and then i
can allow the natural progression of my
energy throughout the day to determine
how to study optimally and efficiently
and reduce burning out but i do want to
point out that for me
my focus is highest in the morning
contrast that with my best friend over
here whose focus is actually highest at
night time while my battery drains
throughout the day there are some mutant
night owls whose batteries start drained
and then slowly charge throughout the
day he's definitely not a morning person
obviously akuma come on misty
the alarm it takes a while to wake up in
the morning so for him his schedule
might be opposite of mine so he can move
his study block from here back to here
but the whole idea is to plan our study
intensity according to when our battery
is fullest but like many degenerate
students i'm a chronic snoozer i'm one
of those roll out of bed five minutes
before class that head and lecture kind
of rookie so even the thought of getting
up earlier is triggering to me but i
eventually figured out a jedi mind trick
that helps make the mornings feel less
awful and it's another easy mental
kickflip instead of setting an alarm in
the morning or having a scheduled
wake-up time i only set a strict bedtime
to me mornings sucked because i felt
rushed and sleepy going into work and of
course this patch would bombard us with
emergency codes right when i clocked in
it's like they were waiting for me the
goal of this flip is to sleep earlier so
my body naturally wakes up in the
morning not to the soul-crushing sound
of an alarm and not on any particular
schedule that way i could enjoy a
productive and peaceful start to every
single day so if i needed to get up to
study before work i wanted to be
studying by 6 am to get at least 3 hours
of focused work in
but using the trick i'd move my bedtime
earlier by one or two hours so if my
normal bedtime was midnight i'd get to
bed by 10 pm this way it doesn't matter
if i get up at 4am 5am 5 30 or even 6
a.m i'd naturally wake up when i do on
my own terms fighting demons and the
morning would just be less awful overall
even after a couple days of using this
rule i noticed a huge difference in my
overall mood during the day too i don't
feel rushed so i'm not stressed out i'm
optimistic because i've already studied
early in the day and i don't even have
to think about it when i get home from
work later and honestly i never thought
i'd say this but there's something very
peaceful about the wee early hours of
the morning no one's awake social media
is dead it's quiet and there's just less
distractions once i realized that waking
up earlier actually worked for me i
could start to shift my circadian rhythm
to align it earlier in the day and there
are some evidence-based ways to do this
one of my favorite ways is getting light
exposure preferably natural lighting
about half an hour to an hour when i
wake up and absorbing that natural light
into our eyes actually helps us move
that clock forward if there's no natural
light early in the day where you live
then overhead lighting is more optimal
than low lighting like a desk lamp or
something so after i began medical
school i no longer had a full-time job
but being a medical student on rotations
was basically the same thing plus we
still had to study after work too but my
work schedule was much more erratic some
weeks i'd work night shift some weeks
i'd work early morning shift and
sometimes i'd work weekends
as a kitsune i loved this spontaneous
work schedule but that also meant that
in order to optimize for focus and
maintain a strict early bedtime i had to
add another layer to my time management
system so to work with a flexible
schedule i had to start setting strict
deadlines not just for studying but for
everything from running errands to meals
to even my free time and i didn't know
this at the time but this was actually
really useful because it touches on two
very powerful psychological ideas
you may have heard of this theory called
parkinson's law which states that work
expands so as to fill the time given for
its completion basically if i had to
finish something like write an essay and
the deadline is in one week i'm most
likely gonna procrastinate and spend the
entire week writing that essay whereas
if the deadline was in one day i'd have
to finish it by then but regardless of
what the task is we're programmed to
drag out our responsibilities to fill
how much time we allow ourselves to work
on so setting strict deadlines addresses
parkinson's law because it capitalizes
on this other principle about time
pressure there's this interesting paper
from japan that analyzed why people
procrastinate on things they found three
main determinants for procrastination
how challenging it was the rewards or
the punishments for doing it and how far
away it was but the most interesting
thing they found was that regardless of
how challenging it was or how punishing
the consequences were
time pressure was always the main
determinant for taking action
and that actually makes sense right if
my presentation is tomorrow i literally
can't procrastinate on it it doesn't
matter how challenging it is it doesn't
matter what the reward is it just needs
to get done so i would focus and i could
do it so medical school my
responsibilities were starting to pile
up but i also wanted a good work-life
balance to see friends and go to the gym
produce music and stuff like that so
setting firm deadlines for studying or
for projects forced me to focus and not
procrastinate but i also wanted to make
use of the other two principles for not
procrastinating too so i'd give myself
rewards for finishing like going to see
friends or going to dinner or something
and it also break down big assignments
into smaller bite-sized pieces to reduce
how challenging it was and after doing
this for a bit i realized that it
actually took me a lot less time to
finish studying than i once thought
before i was just letting parkinson's
law drag out all of my tasks but using
things like pomodoro and setting strict
deadlines helped me focus and fit all
the studying and hobbies i wanted to get
in a strange paradox about productive
people began to make sense to me the
most productive people do so much every
single day all because they can quickly
transition their focus and block out
distractions it made me think about all
those rookies i knew in college who were
athletes on the school team
running multiple clubs working a
part-time job dating the hottest babes
on campus and also maintaining top gpas
or thinking about some of the doctors i
worked with who were clinicians faculty
professors residency directors parents
they got kids you know and they all
still find time to work on side hustles
and enjoy their own hobbies they were
all way ahead of the game and i think
it's because they understand how
important time pressure is on our
ability to focus and this is a good
segue to the final principle i follow
which might trigger some of your rookies
but it's to stop doing you hate by
this point i hope you all realize that i
think focus is the most crucial asset to
managing a busy schedule of work in
school but to me focus no longer only
applies when i sit down to study it also
applies at the macro level at the big
picture you know regarding my whole life
in general in med school i also added on
a youtube channel as a creative side
hustle i was also working on a research
project and studying for school there
was a lot of responsibility on my plate
even with the strict deadlines
optimizing focus and all that other jazz
i was struggling to keep up with my
studies and i was on the edge of burning
out and because there's no way to create
more hours in a day the only option left
is to create time from cutting out the
pointless stuff quit doing you hate
quit doing the stuff that brings you no
joy and no value this lesson was a slap
in the face it hurts because it requires
honest reflection to admit that i waste
time doing a lot of pointless stuff but
once i did accept it it was liberating
how many times have you gotten wrapped
up or roped into doing something and
felt like
dang this is a complete waste of my time
or think wow it's already 1am what did i
even do today i think that even if it
requires spending a little extra money
or some time up front to
stop doing these pointless things it's
gonna be so much more worth it in the
long run to maintain your focus over
your life and so taking a look at my
schedule i saw that there were a lot of
tiny pockets of wasted time for example
i used to go to the school gym to work
out and it was a 40-minute drive
round-trip and i hate traffic so i
identified that i sucked it up and i
bought a basic gym membership that was
right downstairs another example for me
was rallying my geriatric self to go out
and get drunk with friends but then i'd
spend the entire next day hungover and
i'm not really about that anymore and
that's not bringing any value to my life
so it's gonna get cut or spending time
with toxic people i don't enjoy being
around who destroy my mental health
sorry yeah that's also gonna get cut
that last one in particular was tough
because i had to stop caring about how
someone else would think about me but if
it's hard for you to say no to people
there's no need to be a jerk about it
just be clear and have some self-respect
to prioritize your own time it's been a
great first step for me to build a more
fulfilling life one that i actually
choose of course there are obviously
some things that you hate and you have
to attend to
but at least use this principle as a
self-reflection tool
that way you can see what things in your
life you can actually easily cut out
that will contribute to an overall
happier and more focused approach to
life and with that carved out time
sprinkle in some more studying or
activities that you find fun fulfilling
like side hustles relationships and
other hobbies so those are the four
principles in my system as i plan my
schedule to make sure i fit in all the
study i need alongside work
as you can see it all comes down to
playing tetris with the time we have
each day whether moving things around
optimizing focus or cutting things out
completely that drain our focus and to
reiterate this system works for me based
on my brain type and my personality as a
kitsune so a different looking schedule
might be better for you
if you have no idea what i'm talking
about and you want to learn more about
your brain type then definitely check
out this video right here
[Music]
you
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