Pre Med Student Tance asks some great questions about how to get better grades while holding down a job.
Hello Dr. Dussault,
As a matter a fact I have read your book twice already. It is truly insightful and I am truly glad I purchased it. The only dilemma I have and I hope you can help me with this – I am currently in college, in premed, and I work a full time schedule and the only shift I can work is the midnight shift. There are many nights I feel exhausted and sometimes can’t concentrate on my studies. I need the job to support me and my wife.
The only good part is my job gives me quite a bit of money to pay for school. But do you have any suggestions as far as how I can study better with this schedule?
Thank you so much.
Tance
This is a common issue students grapple with, combining work and study. In my study book, I explain in chapter 4 a 5-step system to get everything done effortlessly. So the first suggestion is go back to that chapter and re-read the suggestions. Once that’s done, I think your challenge has more to do with stamina and endurance than time management.
What happens when you work late and/or long shifts is that you get tired – usually mentally tired. You need to get physically tired and BUILD endurance and stamina – that comes with aerobic fitness. As you know I’ve achieved some pretty incredible results in school and my career. One of the reasons is that I am physically fit. I am currently ranked in the World’s Top 20 Masters Players in the 45-49 age category.
With that level of athletic activity, I have a lot of stamina and endurance to do a lot more than most people.
I know you’d like to hear something complex, but often it is the most elegant and simple solution that gets the best results.
Invest the time to get fitter – that means aerobic fitness – not strength or body building…
One last point:
Two teams are competing to saw a tree with a manual saw. Team #1 takes a 10-minute break every hour. Team #2 keeps sawing non-stop. Who cuts the tree down first?
Answer: Team #1 – they TAKE THE TIME to sharpen their saw.
I know how obvious this is after-the-fact…
Dr D is right about training. To be able to perform your best in an academically-challenging environment like medicine, you need physical fitness as the foundation of such a pursuit. As a medical student, you might well be aware of the obvious results of training – more staying power as you sit and pounder through countless books. more over, training suppress stress hormones and inreases the natural happy drug “endorphine” release in your body. I am a gym junkie and I can testify that in the past couple of years, I took part-time masters of Health Science while working FullTime “an average of 50hrs a week” and sleeping less, I graduated with D/HD average. It would have been impossible to concentrate at work without training, let alone bad mood toward my ever-demanding patients and colleagues. I am self-motivated as far as training is concerned and if you are not, try to do small bits at a time. With your bussy schedule, start with a few minutes a day and low intensity. Keep building up and you will turn this into a good habit that may progress into a good “addiction”. Apply the same approach to training that you apply to being the best doctor you can be. All the best with your pursuits.
Moses.
Moses, thank you for this comment and your previous testimonials – I have created a new page to list them all.
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
I love the story about the sharpened saw. It really sends the message loud and clear that rest and recuperation are INTEGRAL in success. I alos like your verbage of mental endurance. I think of stamina as being a physical thing, but I can definitely see where it would have a mental and academic place as well.
I love your advice about
staying physically fit.
It is so hard to do anything
when you are sick or out of shape.
Being healthy gives you energy
and stamina- both of which I
think are key to success.
Another great post!
I am loving this site.
Phil