Habits you wish you had broken/formed prior to med school

[MusicJunkie]

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I was reading a thread about things med students wish they had known before med school and I came across this post:

The best thing to do to prepare for medical school is to get your personal life in order.

Have any bad habits? Start breaking them now.

Don't exercise? Start figuring out a good exercise program and begin doing it.

Eat like crap? Learn to make easy and healthy meals.

Have any mental issues? Work on 'em.

This actually isn't something I hear often, but I thought it was interesting advice.

Is there any habit you wish you had broken, or maybe formed, prior to med school? Maybe better organization, getting in shape, calling your friends/family more, etc? They can be personal or professional.

 

[secants]

Good sleep hygiene. It's getting hard sleeping in on weekends and then trying to get to the wards 6am on monday.

 

[sakata8242]

Second sleep hygiene. I love staying up late screwing around on the computer and generally being unproductive after about 9 or 10pm. Having to wake up at the ass-crack of dawn after you stayed up an hour too late watching that next TV show episode on Netflix -- it sucks.

 

[tantacles]

Double dipping. It's hard to get called out.

 

[loveoforganic2]

Second sleep hygiene. I love staying up late screwing around on the computer and generally being unproductive after about 9 or 10pm. Having to wake up at the ass-crack of dawn after you stayed up an hour too late watching that next TV show episode on Netflix -- it sucks.

3rding sleep hygiene. I still don't have mine down after second year. Thank god I'm going into a gap year and not wards

 

[mcworbust]

SO many thing I wish I would've changed that I'm now trying to change this summer b/t M1 and M2:

- I "4th" the sleep habits, still tough for me, can never get up - next year we have more required classes so I bought a "clockie" that will roll off a shelf and hit me in the head to finally wake me up. Also don't fall asleep watching the tv/computer..
- Also get in a exercise regimen before starting school, its very hard to add things to your day once med school starts
- Finally, (for me) stop pulling all nighters - did this 1st semester M1 year (in addition to adequately prepping for exams) and it helped me get honors on tests I would have done marginally worse on, but caught up to me a bit 2nd semester M1 year...

 

[Jay K]

i wish i had been more promiscuous.

 

[magdellan]

When I left home for med school I gave up my computer games. I miss them so much but it was for the best.

 

[Corriefangirl]

Eww. haha

 

[sakata8242]

When I left home for med school I gave up my computer games. I miss them so much but it was for the best.

^^

I played so much WoW during my grad school years, and I suddenly had to quit when I returned to clinical years. It did sort of help that my guild quit raiding at the same time though. 😛

 

[yehhhboiii]

When I left home for med school I gave up my computer games. I miss them so much but it was for the best.

so did i but not on purpose
just didn't have time
no more bashing masters noobs at sc2

 

[Corriefangirl]

.

 

[Anastomoses]

my eating habits - I wish I had figured out what kind of diet gives me the most energy and makes me alert. I'm still struggling to figure that out.

 

[CallMeDoctorLov]

Kind of a different direction and maybe irrelevant to a lot of readers, but I quit chewing tobacco in the middle of 1st year and my grades suffered. I was tired, grouchy and couldn't focus on anything for about a month from my quit date, then life got better. I would suggest that if you smoke or dip, quit before school starts. d

 

[hiyaman]

I wished i broke my habit of breaking habits 🙁

 

[jakeislove]

Finances in order. Especially for returning or non-traditional students.

 

[tartrate]

You try, we try, everyone tries...

But it's very hard to break old habits. What does work though is replacing one thing (an addiction) with another.

Habits, exercising, and eating is something you probably work on for a lifetime, not just something to quickly "fix" before medical school.

Something in that quote that people didn't really elaborate on much is the part that says "Have any mental issues? Work on 'em." I think this is really important and deserves special recognition. It can be anything from anxiety to depression or just ways of relieving stress. You may not find a solution immediately, but I think it's a good thing to keep in mind.