Jan 8, 2023 3 min read Dedicated

Day 14 - Dealing With Thought Fatigue

I know I didn't make an official "Day 13- day off" but for future reference, I'm not going to post an update on my off days (Saturdays).

I took a 'mock' half test today, basically, just me taking four blocks of random questions from the 4 sections I've been over thus far: Derm, MSK, Renal, and GI.

Honestly didn't do that great on any of them, more or less than ~50% correct. I think the worst part was that I felt like I wasn't really learning from the questions. I realized concepts that I don't really know well and getting multiple questions on the same topic made me wish I just reviewed each test.

I'm not really going to go too in-depth into what the test entailed nor the study technique, today I really wanna talk about the fatigue I felt after the exam.

Experiencing Thought Fatigue

Now, many of us have experienced fatigue from working out.

Imagine going really hard at the gym after a long time of not working out. You're so sore the following day, that you don't really want to do anything. You just want to sit down in one place and not move because every part of your body hurts. You just want to rest.

I've never quite experienced that feeling about 'thought' until I started Medical School. It wasn't just that I was tired of studying, I was tired of thinking.

I desperately wanted to just lay on a sofa and mindlessly scroll through social media because I felt incapable of focusing on anything.

I experienced a heightened version of that post today's exam. I spent a couple hours just absolutely exhausted from thinking. Practice tests clearly drain me differently from studying.

I desperately wished to go back to the sanctuary of my Anki.

How I Tried To Combat It

I realized early on in Med-school that creative tasks don't strain my mind as studying does. Like having a hybrid car, where studying drains only the gas, creative things feel like they pull from completely separate fuels.

I get asked a lot how I'm able to make time to take photos or work on my house, the reality is that I wouldn't be able to function like I do without it.

It's a form of active rest for me.

It was only after I started working on the reel I posted today that I felt reawakened. Like we found new energy to keep me going.

The Take Away

For a lot of people, doing something outside of studying during Dedicated is guilt-inducing. Trust me, I feel the guilt too. But think about it this way:

You might imagine that a bird struggling to fly through the wind dreams of how easy it might be if there was no air. Not realizing that that's the very thing holding it up.

Similarly, rest, relationships, and even creative hobbies sometimes feel like obstacles on our journey to success. But we forget that they are often the foundation that supports us.

If you're feeling the same strain that I feel, take this as a sign to take some time for yourself. Whether it's a whole day, or even a couple hours. Do something that uses your mind differently.

I'll list some examples of things below if you can't think of anything but until next time, good luck. ✌️