I recently had the chance to share my *non study related* approaches to tackling Step 1 with one of my mentees.

Since he found it useful, I thought I’d share them here.

#MedTwitter
#MedStudentTwitter 1/

Disclaimer: my school gives us 8 weeks of dedicated starting at the end of February. But I started working on my dedicated habits around this time of the year so that they were set by the time I actually needed them. 2/

1.) Protect your space and your peace:

Distance yourself from anyone who’s presence alone brings you stress.

Some of my closest friends in med school, I didnt talk to once second semester of 2nd year because all they could talk about was school...even when I didn’t want to. 3/

1b.) I did a similar less dramatic thing with my immediate family in which I sent a notice letting them know that such a stressful academic time was approaching, and as such I would not be as available as I was previously. And they were going to have to be okay with that. 4/

1c.) In doing this, I also intentionally kept my friends who brought me peace even closer. Additionally I purposefully scheduled hour long conversation with some of my family and distant friends on my days off. And made sure the conversation had nothing to do with my studies. 5/

2.) Sleep is an important part of the learning process:

Be intentional about your sleep patterns and develop an overall healthy sleep hygiene.

During my 2nd year, I really forced myself to have better sleep practices. 6/

2b.) For me this meant:

No electronics in the bedroom. No phone, laptop, or tv (and this includes in the day time even when I was not sleeping, my body needed to associate my bedroom with sleep). 7/

2c.) Developing a steady sleep cycle. I would get in bed no later than 10pm every night.

I got a real alarm clock to avoid bringing my phone to bed and would get out of bed no later than 7-8am every day. 8/

3.) A healthy body nurtures a healthy mind.

On my days off in the week, I got out of the house and stayed physically active!

I would go on solo 5-6 hikes alll the time. No studying, just spending time with myself and listening to music or nonacademic podcast. 9/

3a.) I also became more consistent with my exercise habits.

I initially started working out 3-4 times a week, even if it was just running; allowing myself grace to grow into this new pattern. Eventually, I peaked at working out 6 days a week. 10/

4.) Find healthy ways to escape:

Find ways and times in which you can get away from the people and topic of medicine all around.

That may actually be hanging out with people not in medicine who you can talk to about just their lives. 11/

4b.) My favorite people to talk to were either my brother, who’s a chef, or my best friend, who’s a computer scientist and pilot. 12/

Those were the 4 major habits I built to stay well during dedicated.

I acknowledge that it was tough initially. But like all routines, it got easier with time.

It’s important to be proactive about it, to build healthy habits when I didn’t need them so they’re ready when I do.

Full candor: I had major test taking anxiety all the way up until I actually took step 1.

These habits were my major keys to combating test anxiety while studying for step. I’ve used them for every major exam since then, and they still work tremendously for me. 14/

Hope this helps some of you guys as you prepare to conquer your dedicated period!

#MedStudentTwitter 15/Fin