As of my own personal experiences I can recommend:
1. Most stress arises from the very simple fact that medical school is demanding and can be tough. The only working answer is to have an actual program of studying, than cram until the eleventh hour at exam days. Once you know what are the requirements, you can do other things in your life stress-free. I've come to accept that 5 hours per day should go to studying no matter what, and once I keep that promise, I can do whatever I want and still ace my studies.
2. Have a life outside hospital, or you're very likely to get absorbed into it, and I promise you, that won't do you any good. Especially during clinical years. Hospital stuff remains there, outside life remains outside.
3. Reward yourself sometimes! There will come a time that you'll do a great job and hardly anybody will notice. You'll find other who are half as competent as you and get twice rewarded! Don't lose it there! You're just great, and keep the heat up.
4. Get yourself a good personal diary book or an app in your phone that does the same. Be sure to know when you're on-call!
5. My Golden Rule. I always write the exam days two days earlier in my calendar, and study like crazy for that day; although the actual exam time is two days later. Then I have 48 hours quality time to review and ace the exam! I know that all of us wish there was 5 minutes to review this or review that. This makes life a lot better an a lot easier.
6. No all-nighters! Research says cutting on sleep causes grey matter damage. And it will damage your brain if you are chronically sleep deprived, just don't do it. Organize your life.
7. Exercise! There's a local mountain in my town that I climb each weekend. You have to find what works for you. Some people jog early, some at evenings. But work with your body. Med students are very prone to a sedentary lifestyle and unless you actually actively fight it, you'll end up there! Exercise eases up stress like nothing else does.
8. Make peace with yourself. You can't heal the world unless yourself. Are there emotional holes in your life? Some bad break-up? Romantic issues? Carrying the baggage around will not change the reality and how hard you think and overthink it, you'll be damaging yourself, and wasting valuable time. If you find yourself going such things over and over, spend a weekend on it, evaluate whether this relationship is worth salvaging and if so, make amends and how that you care. If they don't respond, that's their problem, and you have to get on with your life!
9. 90% of material lies within 10% of books. I don't say read nothing except review books, hardly anyone gets the picture that you get after reading Robbins! But, don't go obsessive-compulsive over minutiae. That'll hurt your understanding. And even trying to master 1000-15000 Anatomy books might be possible, but what are you gonna do with door-keepers like Harrison's? Basics repeat over and over, and if you know intricate molecular pathways for atherosclerosis and you can't diagnose and MI, you are in big big trouble! And guess what? Trouble leads to more stressful life!
10. Every once in a while cut yourself some slack. You can have time for that if you have organized your time, but if you have not, you won't even enjoy your break and your mind will keep wandering on the work that remains.
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF Good Doctor! You're gonna make it, you know what? This Doctor Can!
