I'm feeling overwhelmed. Any advice?

[kenykj49]

I overloaded myself this semester, on purpose. It is important for me to develop the right skills to handle a heavy workload. So no surprise, I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed. For context, I am taking 20 credits, scribing 20 hours a week (+CS promotion I got, so training for that), and training for a duathlon (running/biking ~7 hours a week). For the first time in my life, I truly feel like there are not enough hours in the day to do everything - without sacrificing quality.

I have been waking up a 5 am every morning to study for a couple of hours and go exercise before classes; classes usually last most of the day. Roughly speaking I'm spending 20 hours in class a week, 20 hours scribing, 15 hours studying, and 8 hours exercising. Plus additional hours doing other misc. obligations.

Long story short, I feel really busy and don't feel like I have enough time for everything. I wouldn't say I'm super stressed, but I'm definitely more stressed and anxious than usual. I'm not exactly happy with my work-life balance. I don't have a single day completely off from school/work. I don't have time to read or explore other intellectual interests or have a social life outside of study groups and class acquaintances.

I really feel like I'm falling more in love with medicine the more I go through this process which makes me fear failure even more. How can I balance all of this while remaining happy and balanced? Any advice?

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[Dr. Faust]

You are doing a ton! Do you think you can handle it all? If not and money isn't an issue, cut down on the scribing hours. Exercise is an important stress reducer but maybe right now a competition is not necessary for attaining your long term goals.

 

[Lifeblood_20]

Easy. Drop some commitments. If you want to read or have a social life, you gotta prioritize those. If you want to prioritize training and work and school instead, you’d need to come to terms with not being able to do other things.
Down the road you’d be making all sorts of commitment decisions. Relationships, family, hobbies, career. Nobody has it all. It all comes down to what you value more in your life.

 

[Moko]

Drop a class (take a W if need be), cut down on scribing hours, and/or delay the duathlon until next year. You are doing yourself no favors by going overboard with your schedule and placing your physical and mental well-being, and GPA at risk. Adcoms look for evidence of sound judgment in applicants.. this is not an example of that.

 

[Naruhodo]

Wow, you are doing a ton! No one but you can really tell if it's too much or not, but I'd say be kind to yourself whenever possible. There's probably a sweet spot of business that allows you be more efficient with the things you do, but at the point that it means not seeing friends or having any time to relax you may want to consider a readjustment.

I will say I've felt overwhelmed for most of med school. Honestly, even though there is a lot to learn and many demands on your time, it's important also to recognize that it's OK not to do everything perfectly and generally things still somehow work out for the best. Knowing how to feel OK and function even when you feel like you're underwater is unfortunately probably a skill that will come in handy along your chosen career path.

 

[DNAJB6]

What does that 20 credit hour load consist of? Research credits? Any pass/fail?

 

[907914]

Reminds me of the only time I ever felt completely overwhelmed when I had my daughter during both full-time school, full-time work, and army reserves...(haven’t told that story in several months lol). Here is what I did when I felt overwhelmed, hopefully you can get an answer out of it:

I dropped from school, I switched from day shift to evening shift to have more time with my family, and I dropped a volunteer position with my unit. By dropping activities, I was able to regain focus, learn how to organize my time, and most importantly learn when to be content with how much I am doing.

In the end, I was able to switch to a part time job, regain most of my positions at my unit, restart school, and work in sync with my wife. Taking a step back showed me what I truly valued and how to prioritize my time towards that end.

It is better to give 100% of your effort to 5 things then 5% of your effort to 100 things. Hopefully you are able to glean some sort of wisdom from this anecdote.

 

[Rachapkis]

You stated that you "overloaded" yourself on purpose. That may be a good strategy for becoming better at dealing with being overloaded. However, it is not a good strategy for achieving work life balance. And, it may not bet the optimal strategy for achieving success. In general, I would try to seek work/life balance at every stage of your development, without letting your work fall below a threshold that is acceptable to you. Do well in the present and the future will take care of itself.

 

[Lucca]

Don’t overload yourself on purpose, that is an extremely easy way to play yourself. When it comes time to apply nobody will care that you took 20 credits a semester but they will definitely care if you have no ECs or worse a low GpA because you spread yourself too thin taking a bunch of coursework.

This is going to sound weird but don’t worry at all about preparing yourself for Med school at this stage. The learning environment is just completely different and no number of UG classes will prepare you for it. Focus on taking the courses you need, being extremely well prepared for the McAT. There’s always more time to beef up the CV, but you only have one chance to be a stellar undergraduate, don’t waste it by sabotaging yourself. Take a much, much lighter load of classes and do extremely well.

 

[Goro]

I overloaded myself this semester, on purpose. It is important for me to develop the right skills to handle a heavy workload. So no surprise, I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed. For context, I am taking 20 credits, scribing 20 hours a week (+CS promotion I got, so training for that), and training for a duathlon (running/biking ~7 hours a week). For the first time in my life, I truly feel like there are not enough hours in the day to do everything - without sacrificing quality.

I have been waking up a 5 am every morning to study for a couple of hours and go exercise before classes; classes usually last most of the day. Roughly speaking I'm spending 20 hours in class a week, 20 hours scribing, 15 hours studying, and 8 hours exercising. Plus additional hours doing other misc. obligations.

Long story short, I feel really busy and don't feel like I have enough time for everything. I wouldn't say I'm super stressed, but I'm definitely more stressed and anxious than usual. I'm not exactly happy with my work-life balance. I don't have a single day completely off from school/work. I don't have time to read or explore other intellectual interests or have a social life outside of study groups and class acquaintances.

I really feel like I'm falling more in love with medicine the more I go through this process which makes me fear failure even more. How can I balance all of this while remaining happy and balanced? Any advice?

Successful medical students are masters of time mgt. You appear to have yet to learn how to do this. Over-extending yourself is not a good idea. Cut back.