How To Better Manage Your Time During Your Medical Studies

Among some of the busiest studentsout there are you, medical students. You balance a full course load with clinical experiences, and endless amounts of studying -- and you are also supposed to be developing that all too precious professional network in all of it.

How can you manage your time?

Let's take a closer look at some medical school study habits that will help you not just make it through, but stand out from the crowd.

1. Find the most efficient study method

Your most efficient study method isn't someone else's. You need to find the best, most efficient study method for you.

What does this mean? It means you need to try a bunch of things. Remember: what worked in undergrad might not work here.

As a med student, you may find yourself reviewing and learning outside of the lecture hall and clinic. Figure out how you best retain information. If you need to rewrite your notes directly after lecture or clinicals, do that. If you need to let it simmer for a while, do that.

Learn best from lecture? Or maybe reading? Or doing? Figure out what's going to make you tick and retain all of that new information best.

2. Create a schedule

Schedules are helpful, especially if you stick to them.

If you are the type of person who needs flexibility in your day, that's fine. At a minimum, you should plan when you sleep, study, attend class, eat meals, and socialize.

Structuring your day around what you need to do and what you want to do gives you a plan and a sense of how your day is going to go.

Prioritize your study time at your most productive time of day. Don't know when that is? Start keeping a diary of how you spend your days. The pattern will emerge and crystallize. Go from there.

The beauty of it is if you have an off day every now and again, you are going to be ok.

3. Develop a routine

Think of your schedule as your daily advisor and your routine your weekly one. Be as consistent as possible, exercising, eating, and going to bed at roughly the same times every day.

Don't force your body and brain to adapt to new routines every day. Figure out what is going to work. On lecture-heavy days, structure your schedule accordingly so that your body adjusts. For example, if Tuesdays are tough, your body and brain, which are amazingly adaptable to environment, will remember what to do -- and how to rest a bit on Wednesdays. Work it into your schedule.

4. Prioritize your tasks

Make a to-do list every morning of every single thing that you have to do, even if it's in your schedule already. Then, prioritize those tasks. Cross off the ones that aren't going to make it.

Definitely, do those things on your list that are required and that give you joy. Put nothing off.

5. Forget about social media

It's alluring. It's tempting. It sucks you in. Don't let the siren call of Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or anything else prevent you from studying. Stay focused on your school work.

If social media is that important to you, then schedule it into your routine. Make a promise that you will only look at it after your work is done.

Know how to connect, disconnect, and reconnect. If you struggle to do this, you can get apps which manage or even totally block your social media for certain periods of time.

Need help? Ask student services for help in making a personal schedule.

6. Use your body

Are you a morning person? Or more nocturnal? While you may not be able to control when you have lectures and clinical experiences, you can control when you study best. If you are a morning person, get up early and use some study tie then. Prefer to study at night? Plan on it.

Whatever you do, let your body dictate some of your routine.

Bottom line: do the hardest things, the studying you most want to put off, at your most efficient times. You will be thankful you did.

Looking for more study tips? Read here. And read here for some more out-there study ideas!

Learn more about medical school.