Whoa.

I’ve been studying several hours per day every day with no break since the beginning of January for the MCAT. This is on top of my regularly scheduled programming (i.e. Graduate studies, prerequisite courses for medical school, research, volunteering, and my actual job). Also, I recently found out that my graduate program does not give ANY breaks from now until I’m finished…in 2022. I’m not sure if this is because of the pandemic or because graduate students are poor souls, but either way, I’m not excited about it.

The question that I constantly hear is: “How do you do all of this without getting burned out?” As much as I’d love to say I don’t get burned out and I’m Superwoman – it just isn’t true.

I feel burned out all the time. I feel exhausted, beat down, isolated, depressed, and oftentimes very emotional – sometimes all in one day. But I keep going because at the end of the day, this is all for the greater good of what I want for my career and for my life.

The real question should be what will I do when I’m feeling this way? As of right now, I have around a decade left of school and training. This means I need to find a way to mitigate burnout and stress now, rather than later. I can’t be the only person who feels this way, so I will continue to talk about these things openly. And, to keep me accountable, I’ll talk about my plans here.

Mitigating Burnout PLAN

  1. I plan to give myself 1 day off every other week from MCAT studies
  2. On my day off, I will only do small/easy tasks for half of a day and spend the rest doing whatever I want without guilt ←—a key takeaway for me personally
  3. I will no longer be putting off normal human things for studying (laundry, exercise, making food at home, grocery shopping, shaving my legs…ok TMI)
  4. During my most productive days, I plan to do my longest and most difficult tasks first to get them out of the way and get over the hump of “ugh I don’t want to do this”

Maybe I’ll add to this list as I go, but this seems like a good starting point right now. I have 2 months until I take the MCAT and simultaneously have a busy few months ahead with non-MCAT items so I’m hoping this will help.

Wish me luck! I sincerely hope that anyone who reads this can know that it is okay to be equally productive and burned out and it is a process to figure out what kind of breaks are needed for you personally in order to feel relief.

Stay sane out there! Toodaloo <3