Hi, I’m a new “old” premed, and I am hoping for some input on time management and hobbies during med school. I am a doctoral candidate in biology and throughout grad school I have been careful to make time for a hobby, for my own mental health. I realize that medical school is a very demanding and time consuming commitment, but I have heard mixed opinions on whether or not you can maintain a hobby. One side says there’s no time; the other says you do need to make some personal time, mostly to maintain sanity and motivation. What do you think?
I am completely ok with reducing my hobby time if necessary, but making some time for it each week has definitely been helpful in graduate school. If you’re curious, my thing is dog agility, which is great mental and physical exercise as well as bonding time with my wonderful canine athlete.
Thanks for your input!
Speaking only from personal experience, i’m in the camp that you need to make personal time. There’s always going to be something to study, but a lot of your time management will be based on a) how much info is in the block of study, b) how fast you learn it, c) are you a continuous studier or a crammer, d) are you trying to be #1 or trying to pass (know the material but not all of the nitnoid details), e) how much sleep do you need/like to get. The advice you get will largely be dependent on how that person answers the above questions… (I’m a continuous studier and am in the camp of wanting to know as much as possible to be a good doctor, not to be better than everyone else, I’m a medium-paced learner that does a lot of work to understand vs memorize, and I live on an average of 6 hours sleep/night).
There are weeks when I have a lot of free time, and there are weeks when all I do is study, eat, and put the kids to bed. Lots of people in my class do hobby type stuff, ranging from a weekly art class to home renovation, so it’s really up to you. Assuming dog agility is maybe an hour a day with more time on the weekends, that’s definitely doable.
Thank you very much for your insight!
Having free time was nice, you’ll definitely have enough in medical school to do things you enjoy to relax. Nowadays I run the cost-benefit analysis of eating vs showering vs sleep. Yeah, getting studying done in whatever time is leftover is really difficult. It sucks. Let me just repeat that time in medical school was not an issue. Enjoy the time you have now. Good luck to you on your journey!
Thank you!