What’s inside:

• ⏳ Time Saving Tricks
• 🩺 Med-Diaries #5
• ✏️ Insights - This week’s podcasts, movies, books and other cool things

---

Productivity culture can be quite toxic at times, so today I'm keeping these tips simple and to the point - Everyone can do these to save time.

Disclaimer: I like to take my time with things. I'm not one to rush through life. The tricks I talk about in this post are to use when you have little time.

I don't think doing these things regularly are a very healthy way to live, but if you need to squeeze a little more time out of your day, this one's for you.

---

Time Saving Tips

Round Numbers

Round numbers seem very nice to start and end tasks with, but they make us waste quite a lot of time in the long run.

If I wake up at 07:52am, I usually think 'I'll get out of bed at 8am'.

That exact same thought process happens so many times during the day.

If you do this too, count how many times you do it on a daily basis and factor it up to a week or a month. You'll find that you actually end up spending hours of your life waiting for the next round number before actually getting up.

We're so accustomed to these round numbers on the minute hand (15, 30, 45, 00) that we let those 2 numbers dictate our actions.

If the minute is 46 we wait for the next hour. If the minute is 41 we wait for 45.

Why do we waste those precious minutes?

I think it's because school, university and work all base their timings off round numbers, so we automatically think it's how we should be allocating our time, but it actually ends up wasting time when you follow this in your daily life.

Instead of starting your task by the next round number, when you see the clock say 07:52, ask yourself 'How much can I get done by 08:00?'

As I'm writing this the clock just hit 11:30. I started at 11:18 and thought 'Man I wonder if I can finish this post by 11:30 or 11:45'. I just saved 12 minutes by not waiting for a round number.

---

Parkinson's Law

Tasks often need less time to be completed than we allocate for them. If I gave you 6 weeks to complete an assignment, it would get done in 6 weeks, but if I gave you 2 days to do the same assignment, you'd probably get it done in 2 days - I'm sure we're all familiar with those night before completions.

The same applies to most tasks. If you give yourself 4 hours to do something, it’ll probably take you 4 hours.

Give yourself less time to get things done and you can create a sense of urgency that will make you work faster.

This will help you save time.

---

Compound Activities

If you feel like you have little time in the day, try to look for dormant periods where you could be doing more.

When I make dinner there is always time spent waiting while the food cooks, simmers or cools down. In those little pockets of time I wash the dishes, wipe the worktops or sweep the floor.

It's these micro-minutes that build up over time to save you an hour or 2 each day.

---

Less excuses, more action

I don't have time.

This is such a common excuse we're all guilty of at some point, but if you have a look at how much time is spent idle in the day just waiting for the clock to hit a certain time, laying around doing nothing, glued to our phones, it's no surprise we don't have time - it's being wasted!

Worst of all, if you struggle with time, complaining about it isn't going to magically turn the clock back.

You have to make change yourself to see a difference.

---

🩺 Med-Diaries #5

Date of entry: 11/04/21

Hey guys 👋🏾

This week I've found my rhythm with exam season. I reached that point where I covered more than half of the content and I feel motivated to do my work every day. The pathology and physiology of different diseases are starting to fit together nicely in my head. I've been using the AMBOSS website (FREE and amazing for disease summary pages) along with ANKI and the occasional YouTube video.

Each day I try to do a new section of Resp, CVS and Anatomy - I cycle between the 3 in 30 minute periods so I don't get bored.

I've managed to sort out my morning routine 🌄, so I have my breakfast and bang out a couple of hours of revision right after, leaving the rest of my evening to relax 🌃

Yesterday I started OSCHE practice with my (8 year old) sister. It's way more fun and explaining things so she can understand makes me learn it all that much better. Year 1 OSCHEs are things like hand washing🤝, CPR💓, wearing PPE😷, history taking✍🏾 and the Respiratory & CVS examination procedures.

Until next week, stay healthy 😄

---

✏️Insights of the Week

I normally include new things here each week but I've been sticking to the same book, audiobook and Netflix series for the past few weeks, so there isn't much new to add so I'll just update on those!

🎙️Podcast: The Huberman Lab Podcast

Links: Website​

I'm honestly so obsessed with this podcast I really don't want to listen to anything else. I've been slow with it (I'm on Ep5) but that's because I'm applying most of the things I've learnt about sleep and circadian rhythm. I'm trying to make a habit of applying the content I consume rather than just reading and listening.

📽️ Netflix: The Office (Series)

Links: Netflix​

Reading non-fiction is nice but it's important to have a break from that sort of stuff. Enter The Office. I'm on season 3 and I've gotten to know all of the characters and I'm low-key invested in their fictional lives. It's really good though, the acting is great.

🎧 Why We Sleep - Mathew Walker (Audiobook)

Links: Audible​

I read this a few years ago but never quite finished it. Sleep has always been a fascination of mine and revisiting this has only reinforced the importance of a good night's rest. I've been pairing this with the lessons from the podcast above to form a SUPER sleep routine and it is honestly working. Today I slept without an alarm and I woke up at 8:20am without an alarm - this is after a few weeks of sticking to routine, gettting early sun exposure, low light exposure in the evening and meditation. I'm still experimenting though so I'll do a post on this in a month or so.

📚 Can't Hurt Me - David Goggins

Links: Ratings​

I'm on the last chapter of this book. After each chapter there's a challenge that I've been doing (and re-doing). I've been trying to implement the mindset shift from this book lately but it's tough. The lessons from this book will stay with me for life. I will definitely revisit some of them in the future. I'm equally sad that it's about to end, but also excited to start a new book after!