Why Your Schedule is FAILING You

schedules get a bad rap when people think schedules they usually think of something restrictive tedious and boring we want fun freedom and the ability to do whatever we want don't schedules work directly against that not exactly in fact I argue that creating and sticking to your schedule will add more freedom to your life not less yeah you heard that right stay tuned and I'll show you how what's going on guys dr. jabal med school insiders calm first thank you to everyone who voted on the med school insider's channel community tab I made this video because you voted for it if you'd like to vote in upcoming videos as well make sure you are subscribed and without further ado let's get to it the foundation of this video is that every system is perfectly designed to produce the results it gets therefore we must follow a process to create a system that incentivizes us to behave in a way that we want and makes it difficult for us to deviate from that path as jaakko willing says discipline equals freedom and I agree with them in this context we're referring to self discipline which means the ability to control one's feelings and overcome one's weaknesses the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it you see our default state is to be wildly distractible and impulsive doing things that make us feel good in the moment while avoiding those things that make us feel bad seems to make sense right but this is not an effective way to live one's life by practicing self discipline and creating a schedule that you stick to you can create the day and ultimately the life that you want this empowers you to actually choose whether spending three hours of watching TV or browsing Facebook is actually aligned with your life goals or whether it's a distraction that numbs you in the moment but pulls you further away from becoming an effective doctor I've gone over this in countless other videos it's most effective to focus on one of two things at any moment intentionally maximizing work or intentionally maximizing relaxation fun or rejuvenation this is why I advise against having the TV on in the background while you try to work rather focus on deep work and getting into a flow state for two hours crank through your homework or studying or whatever it is then spend the next hour or whatever you designate in your schedule to relax with friends play a sport or meditate this intentional dichotomy of time allocation allows us to maximize the rewards from being productive and the enjoyment and pleasure from relaxation and free time mixing the two simply doesn't work so why is it so hard to stick to our schedules people generally avoid specifying their goals and creating a schedule for three main reasons first it takes upfront effort and planning it's much easier to simply not put in the effort to list out your long-term goals and then put in the work to create a schedule to help achieve those goals it just feels like work second people do not like to specify goals because then they are drawing the boundaries and the definitions as to when they have failed and no one likes to admit they failed so instead we keep ourselves blind Jordan Peterson calls this willful blindness but by setting goals and knowing when we fail we will ultimately come out ahead by not setting goals and therefore not knowing when we have failed we end up just failing all the time third many of us succumb to the phenomenon of learned helplessness and assigning identity to our failed actions I'll spare you the psychology derivatives and the theory of depression what you need to know is that learned helplessness is essentially when we believe that we have no control over what happens to us we've learned to believe that we are helpless we practice a form of this when we assign our identities to our failures for example you get a C in math and then you tell yourself that you're just not the kind of person that is good at math and this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy where you will continue to do poorly in math if instead you remove your identity from the equation and instead say I did poorly this semester in math which means my study habits were not effective and required tweaking you now have empowered yourself to make the changes in the future that will secure the grade that you want I get it this may seem subtle or nuanced or even a little woowoo but believe me when I say that this is tremendously powerful and you're almost certainly not using it to your advantage okay so how do I stick to my schedule first remove the idea or thought that you're a failure from your vocabulary this is key if you start this process and resort to calling yourself a failure you will quickly get discouraged and return to your old ways here's the thing you will not 100% stick to your schedule I guarantee it I consider myself a very disciplined and structured person but even I don't get anywhere near 100% in sticking to my schedule rather we want to work towards achieving as much as possible in the schedule and strive to increase the accuracy week after week and sometimes that doesn't happen but it's better to hit 50% accuracy for an entire year than it is to hit 90 percent for one week but then give up because you focus on falling short by 10% consistency is the key next it's important to be cognizant of how you spend your time for me I only tracked my time for a couple weeks after which I was much more aware and didn't feel the need to track my time as closely my tool of choice was rescue timer on my computer and now Android and iOS offer features to show you how you're allocating your screen time on your phone by understanding how you're currently spending your time and energy you'll be better equipped to figure out what could be sapping more time than you expected you can then determine how to reallocate that time and energy more effectively number three choose and use your calendar and planner of choice for some people like me it's Google Calendar and things three I like digital for others it's an old-fashioned physical calendar or planner it doesn't really matter what you choose true whichever option you prefer but just stick to it get in the habit of using your calendar and planner every day and not just for boring work things but even planning out fun and activities with your friends number for schedule and flexible items first if you're in school make sure you mark off all the class time in your calendar this is something that is not negotiable if you have a work schedule mark that off as well because that too is non-negotiable if you're in medical school and classes are optional however intentionally decide whether or not classes are a good use of your time and reflect that in your schedule accordingly I personally attended lecture during my first year of med school but stopped attending lecture in my second year if you're not sure run an experiment for yourself and then decide which brings us to point number five run self experiments figure out what you want to test for example does attending lectures in medical school help you or are you better off studying alone we can sit here and describe the pros and cons of each the group setting enforces focus and reduces the temptation to fall behind therefore attending classes is great for students who are prone to procrastination skipping lecture and opting for the solo studying method allows flexibility with your time the ability to speed up your lectures and the opportunity to pause and look up concepts if you are lost in the middle of lecture it's hard to know exactly what works best for you until you put it to the test for a week change only that single variable being whether or not you attend lecture every day keep a journal as to your thoughts of how you are doing do you feel that it is working for you are you staying on top of each lecture or are you falling behind how's your retention do you feel more or less tired do you feel lonely for not seeing your friends in class after you have run this experiment on yourself you'll be better equipped to make a decision number six schedule flexible items but be realistic once the non-negotiable items are set it's time to fill them the rest of your schedule with whatever you want as a student I recommend two hour blocks of studying utilizing be Pomodoro Technique at longer breaks sky gymtyme dinner running errands or other breaks that are rejuvenating not just 30 minutes of Facebook now there are two traps that people often fall into when creating their schedules and I am intimately familiar with both the first is not allocating enough buffer time for things like time and transit packing and unpacking and things of that sort for example I used to give myself only one and a half hours for the gym without factoring in transportation and other buffers that meant I needed to spend 15 minutes going to the gym five to ten minutes unpacking putting my things in the locker etc another ten minutes for warmup then at the end of my workout another five to ten minutes to pack things up and another 15 to get back from the gym in the end that one and a half hours allocated for gym time only gave me 30 minutes to actually work out I now block out two hours of gym time in my schedule the second trap is being too ambitious with how much significant work you can get done each day without burning out this is an insidious trap that is difficult to escape especially if you're in med school or residency where you feel like you're perpetually behind and playing catch-up after a certain point the more you work the more your efficiency will drop that decreased efficiency slows down your rate of progress which makes you feel like you need to work more to make up for it it's a dangerous cycle so instead focus on quality of setting time not the quantity and allow sufficient time to unwind relax and recover it's tough to do but you'll find that scheduling shorter blocks of intense studying and longer blocks of relaxation is actually more fruitful than depriving yourself of adequate relaxation and simply pounding on the books for hours on end and number seven review and adjust daily remember that all plans even the best require regular adjustments day of remember that you can change your schedule as needed it's not set in stone but at the same time do your best to stick with it otherwise you defeat the purpose of scheduling in the first place the key isn't to create one schedule and stick with it indefinitely rather sissie is key review your schedule for the day what worked and what didn't work it's a series of experiments where you develop a hypothesis test and collect data analyze readjust and repeat using that knowledge make tweaks to your own schedule moving forward soon you'll have a schedule dialed in that maximizes your productivity and your fun now I invite you to enjoy the process there are no shortcuts to magically sticking to your schedule it's simply a matter of implementing a series of steps and creating a structure in place that incentivizes you to live the life that you want to live run your ownself experiments watch yourself improve and appreciate the process and the results you achieve let us know down in the comments some of your own scheduling tips that we did not cover in this video I've consistently been impressed by in the comments you all leave and I'd love to learn more from you thank you all so much for watching if you like this video make sure you subscribe so you too can vote for upcoming videos and I'll see you guys in that next one you

Channel: Med School Insiders

Views: 623,434

Keywords: Pre-med, Premed, Med Student, Medical School, Med School, Medical Student, art of manliness, how to plan your week, schedule like a pro, schedule your day, schedule your life, stick to your schedule, how to get into medical school, productivity hacks, productivity tips, study tips, how to schedule your day, jocko willink, self-discipline, how to get better grades, don't break the chain, stop bad habits, build better habits, success secrets, scheduling tips, doctor, surgeon

Id: nHekURJBR0o

Length: 12min 18sec (738 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 28 2018