22 Sep How to Study for 8 hours in Med School and Learn NOTHING
I’m sure you’ve all been halfway through an unproductive weekend and found yourself so guilty on the Sunday that you actually wake up early for once, make yourself a healthy breakfast and find a nice spot in the house for a big day of study. And despite your best efforts, in my experience this day can go one of two ways:
Option One:
8:30 am – Watch 4 lectures at 2x speed
10:30 am – Finish DHC assignment you’ve been procrastinating for the last 3 weeks
12 pm – Lunch
1 pm – LOs / Anki (I don’t know how you study lol)
6 pm – Dinner
8 pm – Netflix reward until bed
And whether or not you feel like that would be a productive day or not depends on your level of gunning but for me, a typical Sunday would look more like –
Option Two:
8:30 am – While eating breakfast, might as well watch some YouTube videos from my recommended
10:30 am – Moved onto watching The Office Clips
12 pm – Lunch while watching Dinner Party (for the (n+1)th time)
1 pm – Realise it’s been half the day already
~oh well~
6 pm – Dinner while watching Buzzfeed Unsolved True Crime
8 pm – Ashamedly do the 2000 Anki cards that built up over the week
11 pm – Write this blog in protest of my lack of diligence
Ok maybe that timeline is a bit of an exaggeration (I probably spend about three hours watching The Office every Sunday), but I do find myself on occasion falling into a phenomenon I’ve termed Generation Z meditation. If you’ve ever found yourself with more than four tabs open on Chrome, you’re either doing a DLEPP exam or you might unknowingly be participating in this kind of meditation.
So, you might be wondering, what exactly is this phenomenon? I define it as concurrently using two or more applications at the same time while keeping up some semblance of productivity. For example, have you ever caught up on Anki cards while playing Hearthstone Battlegrounds and also been listening to why Pierre Gasly needs to have a seat at Red Bull in the 2022 Formula One season? No? Just me? Ok. Sometimes, I’ll even switch it up; Anki and Boards and Beyond at the same time – Dr Jason Ryan’s sweet voice lulling me into the false sense of security that I’m actually learning something. All the while my learning capacity is at about an eighth of its full potential given the constant alt tabbing, which also feeds my headache and justifies my midday naps.
Look, you might have read up to this point and thought, “What is this guy on about and how does he have so much time to procrastinate?” And I ask myself the same questions every day – in fact, maybe my habits of Generation Z meditation are simply to divert my thoughts away from the worries of adulthood and med school. But who needs to think about that when you can just watch The Office again.
Interested in writing for the GUMS blog? Email our Publications Officer, Ashraf, at ashraf.docrat@griffithuni.edu.au