One of my favourite things about starting a new school year is getting a new agenda (or day planner if that's what you're used to calling it). I remember back to my first agenda; I was thrilled when our teacher handed the big holographic-covered coil books out to my Grade 3 class. Over the years my agendas have gotten smaller and their covers more boring. My enthusiasm for agendas, however, has not diminished one bit.
Last weekend I looked through Target's selection of agendas and didn't see one that I really liked. On my walk home from the hospital today, I decided to pick up a free one put out by the university's student society. It actually has better quality paper than some of the Target ones and a great pink coil; I'm happy with it (and its price).
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| my free student agenda |
I've used a free agenda each year during university. The first thing I do is cut out the information pages (I do skim them; I like to know about my campus) and advertisements. That whittles the book down to almost half its original thickness!
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| thinned out |
Next, I go through and write in the top corner of each page what block/rotation I'll be on that week. This makes it easy to quickly figure out what I'll be doing on any given date. I then write statutory holidays in (but I don't cross the days out, as I still want to be able to write tasks on them; also, who knows if I'll be on call). Finally I look at my academic schedule and write in any important dates (e.g. exams, travel, etc.). I use colours to make it pretty :)
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| to-do lists (50 Q means do 50 QBank USMLE practice questions) |
I use my agenda as a daily to-do list. I make a list of goals that I would like to accomplish and cross them off as I go (I never used to cross things out because I thought it looked messy, but it's so darn satisfying I'm glad I lightened up!).
Sometimes I need more than a to-do list. Particularly leading up to exams, I need to schedule my days to the hour to make sure I fit everything in. When I wrote my licensing exam in May I created my own agenda, with the days divided into hours. I created an agenda template on Word, printed the pages double-sided, folded them over, added a card-stock cover, and stapled through the spine. It was perfect for me during those busy few weeks.
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| DIY agenda |
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| planning my life by the hour |
Most of the time I prefer having an old-school paper to-do list to an electronic one. However, I do sometimes use Taskos, a checklist app, on my phone. I like its simple interface and the fact that I can cross tasks off. A fun feature is clearing completed tasks from the list by shaking the phone!
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| Taskos app |
If you're interested, here are other posts I've written about how I study:
On getting organized to study:
On studying:
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You're so sweet; thank you so much! And congratulations on getting those interviews! Applying to medical school is an annoying process...and honestly I think it's a bit of a lottery and a lot of it comes down to luck, so don't let that rejection get to you and rock that next interview :) Wishing you all the best!
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