New challenges of time management in medical school

In the past, one of my greatest strengths academically has been my ability to learn relatively large amounts of information in a short period of time. In secondary school, I could often leave studying until only a night or two before tests, and still score among the highest. In undergrad, similarly, I found myself able to miss many if not most classes, study from the text or notes for just a few days, and still receive A's. For the most part, I therefore did not have to deal with significant academic time management challenges in prior stages of my education.



Medical school has been in many ways very different. The academic rigors have increased dramatically. On many days we may cover as much as double to triple what we might have covered in similar lectures during prior stages of education. Keeping up with the challenges of medical school has therefore forced me to adopt time management skills I never truly needed in years prior.



Learning has become a task I now attend to daily. Every day when I get home from school, I take the time to go back through CBL cases, SLMs, and any lectures I might have missed or felt uncertain about. Then in the last 1-2 weeks before an exam, I work that much harder to try and not only keep up with the material that continues to come daily, but also review again material from weeks past.



Over the past two years, I have found myself getting better and better at working and pacing myself in this way. It has been a challenging process, but it is also one I believe I have adapted to well. As a result, my grades have remained consistently strong, increasing over the past two years to my most recent best unit score of 91%.



I expect that in the coming years the challenges of time management will only be amplified. So far, I have been able to continue making satisfactory time for personal diversions I enjoy like socializing, music, TV, and movies. I wonder how possible that will still be once a clerk, when we are spending as much as 8 hours a day at the hospital, and are still expected to study beyond that.



I am in medical school because I love it and it is my priority. I hope that the skills I am developing now will prepare me meet those added challenges when they come, so I can continue to maintain a good balance.

At the start of our medical training, I thought there would be considerably less time spent on community involvement due to lack of time. Ultimately, I realized that I am even more involved now than during my bachelor’s degree. Since last year, I have been the coordinator of a philanthropic initiative for preventing injuries in young children within the community. As coordinator, I have to recruit medical students and teachers in primary schools in the region. I also have to prepare the budget, train students and perform various tasks such as compiling statistics, obtaining media coverage and attending numerous meetings. It is a pleasure for me to take part in this type of project. What I find difficult isn’t the nature of the work, but managing the group of organizers. Because the medical program is so competitive, we are trained to be unusually busy and to choose where we want to invest our time. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between people with good intentions and those who have rather utilitarian intentions, with the aim of obtaining the competitive residency program of their choice, and who have no real interest in the project. Community involvement has always been a source of great joy in my life, but I realize that I did not appreciate this experience as much as others I had in the past, before medicine. Does this mean that I have reached a new stage in my life? Could it be a sign that I should invest my time elsewhere? No, I don’t think so. I believe it is the result of the conflict between my expectations regarding what I experienced before medicine, and the reality of the nature of the program in terms of lack of time. Maybe if I adjust my expectations in terms of time investment to something more realistic, it would make the whole thing a more enjoyable experience. However, this is not the only variable. I have realized in recent years how much I place value on the intentions of the people I’m working with. When I work with someone who shares the same intentions and objectives, it is almost invariably a wonderful experience. Consequently, I will try to cultivate these relationships when they present themselves given that, particularly in the field of philanthropy, people often come together through a shared vocation.