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It's just boosting up. Perfect. We're live. Hi, everyone and welcome to another career, live by Med School X. For those of you who have joined us before. Welcome back. And for those of you who are new. Welcome to Med School XS Career Life Series where we talk about topics that you may not have covered um in your medical school journey. For those of you who haven't heard or not familiar with med School A, we are an organization which seeks to teach training doctors and medical students about really pertinent topics in their lives that they were not taught in the traditional medical school curriculum. Feel free to sign up to our newsletter and follow us on social media on linkedin Facebook and Instagram at Med School extra and I'll put in the chat, the link that you can use to access the website and sign up to our newsletter. So today we are talking about juggling extracurricular activities as a busy medical student. And here to talk to us about that is Rsma Ramzi who's an F one at Glan Clwyd Hospital in North Wales. She graduated from Cardiff University this year and is a keen medical educator and an aspiring surgeon during medical school. She was part of various societies such as Bollywood Society, Surgical Society, Neuroscience Society, Oncology Society and many more. So as you can see, she's one of the perfect people to talk to us about that topic today and I will hand it over to her. Well, uh thank you Chantelle for the amazing introduction. Um Can you hear me? Fine? OK. Um So yeah, so uh let me just share my screen first. Mhm Right. Could you tell me if you can see it? Cause I can read the chart? Yeah, we can see it. Amazing. Right. So um as mentioned, um I am a recent graduate from Cardiff University. Um And I'm currently working in North Wales in um and well, I'm just doing this topic because I thought it's uh is one of those topic that people either are curious about or struggle with because as we all know medicine, it, it is quite demanding um in terms of time. So um just uh just so I know the audience a bit better. Um Would you be able to tell me what year you are in and what uni you're in if that's OK, I'll read them out to you when they come in. Yeah, nothing so far. But you know me final year medical student, Cardiff University. OK. OK. Well, that's fine. Um OK. To be shy as well today. But um I was just asking so I know what, whether you're a clinical student or a preclinical student, et cetera. Um, but that's fine. Um Quick Andro, I, as I said, from Cardiff University, I'm working at Glen CCL Hospital. Um, you can find me here if you want. Um, and I hope to be a surgeon eventually. Uh, and my interest in hobbies kind of ranges from like languages, teaching guitar DS, cars not relevant. But, yeah. Um Right. So very quickly, any time you say I am a medical student, I'm pretty sure the world or stereotypically, the world probably think about the following books or always studying placement are always at work. Maybe some might think about Grey's anatomy, which I think a lot do actually um just work and stress and coffee. I'm sure I'm sure you've come across like these stereotypes anyway. But in my opinion, medical student life does not have to be justice. It could actually also include sports, music, dance, um anything drama, whatever you wanted to be. Uh And fortunately this was me in my med school days where I'm hope hoping not to brag too much, but I did um manage to do dance sports like volleyball, table tennis. Um I was in multiple societies for uh medic like medical societies like oncology and neuro neuroscience. And I love teaching. So I've done a bit of teaching series hiking. So things that I enjoy and I have been fortunate to actually find the time to balance both medicine and also my interest in hobbies. Um Also throughout the whole session, feel free to ask me questions. But eventually we'll have a proper Q and A session because I think this the, this is a topic that would probably require more Q and A. Um And whilst preparing for this presentation, I actually did um as always do a did a quick Google search on extracurriculars in med med school. But weirdly, all the options that I got or all the links that Google showed up, Google showed was about what to do in order to get into med school. It kind of made me think about how we do so much before med school, either in order to get into med school or because we're actually interested in. But then after that there no one talks about what happens after getting into med school, but you are in med school now. So what now? And I don't know about you guys, but I definitely did and I'm pretty sure most of you have mentioned at least one extracurricular in your U A applications or your medicine interviews because mm we all have and I'm sure you, if you have, if you got into med school, you would, you would have done something or the other. Well, I think I'm pretty sure you all have some kind of hobbies or extra curricular or interest as well. Now how to balance is the question and I am not sure how many of you already know this. But there is a theory called the 38. It just means you ideally, well, it's called the eight cause eight hour. So if you divide 24 hours by three, then that would be, that would give you eight hours. But it just means the whole point concept though is that I in 24 hours, you are technically meant to have at least three subsections ie work resting or sleeping or and social time. So most people will have all three. But it depends on who it is and how you balance and how you prioritize, which may or may not work well for some people anyway, but most a lot of people or I'm sorry, not a lot. Some people actually have more social life instead of and spend less time with resting and working. For example, like when, when you hear people saying, oh, I haven't had eight hours of sleep, that means they either prioritize social life or work life a bit more, or some people have prioritized resting or relaxing time more. And they spend more time with that more than eight hours for that instead of work and social time. And some people spend more time with work instead of rest, relaxation or social time. The main thing is uh is about finding the right balance and it doesn't have to be eight hours, in my opinion, for all three. That depends on your preference. And your priority and what works well for you because I do know some people who need their eight hours and then some people only need five or six hours of sleep, for example, but that being said you would have some way of resting and relaxing as well. So moving on to extracurriculars now, um I personally am a very pro extracurricular person because I think it helps you in all sorts of things including skill development, teamwork, skills, creativity, and multitasking, which is all important as a doctor as well. It's not all about work and books anyway. And not only that I was seeing that extracurriculars, um you can actually use it as your relaxation time so it doesn't really have to go under your work time. Um So your hobbies or things that you like to do use that as your own uh self relaxation time. And I would count that as an extracurricular as well. And question is though how, because you, at least for me, I know, I know this was the case and for you, like you have 9 to 5 lectures. So you, you have placements from 9 to 5 and then you need to come back and then do prereading and then you need to revise what you saw or what you learned that day and then you need to prepare for your exams. There's so much happening in uni and there is so much demand within academic in academic itself that you probably do find yourself spending time having sleepless nights or coffee. So question is how do you actually find the right balance and my favorite code Asiata Sense. Genuinely. This is the life motor that I follow. And it's about do what you love and love what you do. Um What I mean by that is if you actually do something and you actually enjoy it, you wouldn't find it as a burden or that's how I see it. So I, for example, I love teaching. So I use that as my relaxation time. So teaching, you guys are doing this webinar that that is the time for me to get out of work if that makes sense. Um So I would not count the count this as my extra checkless work things to do. So, yeah, but then the main thing though is don't force yourself to do something because you have to do it. Just do what you like. Um That will genuinely feel a lot more efficient because you won't feel like you're wasting so much time. So me personally my day looking back as a medical student, um I personally am a morning person so I wake up early. It doesn't have to be everyone and I think it's 50 50 with population probably. Um or if you're an evening person that would be evening for you. But I tend to do get my work done in the morning. So academic work because I find that time the most efficient for me. If you're a night person by all means, that would be nice for me. And then I go into placement or uni and, and then I come back for extra curricular. So that tends to be my distraction from my work life where I do my dance or sports or depending on which day my language classes and then I then tend to have my teaching sessions or committee meetings, all of those. Then the time I have left usually for prepar, preparing for exams or other revision. Um in between, I will have breaks where I socialize with my flatmates or friends catch up all of that as well and then I sleep. So that was me as a medical student. I'm happy to go into more details if you, if you want during the Q and A. Um but the main thing though is going back, the main thing is I don't looking back, I don't think I've actually ever complained about how my day was very busy. Um As I think about it, it's probably because I didn't think of it as a task to do. I just enjoyed what I did and that's exactly what I mean. Do what you enjoy, like what you do. Um um yes, I have had friends who are, who are like, oh my gosh, here, they look so busy. But I never felt that and I do mean it when I even when I look back, I don't think I ever felt that I was busy, but yeah, um I can answer more questions during the Q and a main thing though mental health is as important. Even if that is extracurricular or no, you don't even have to have a big extracurricular like dogs or guitar or whatever. You can literally just go for a walk or meditate all of these. I would count it as an extracurricular too. Um, exercise, going to the gym, whatever helps you rest. That would go, that would, that, that I think is quite important in any anyone's day. Um And as I said, you can use extracurricular to reduce the stress and not no and not add to the stress. And I think that's the best mindset to have because then you won't burn out, but then you'll also be efficient and you'll get to do more things. Um Just to wrap off. I do think this meme is quite true. But yeah, Q and A oh not Q and A just summarizing the main point that I wanted to bring across. This is all about the mindset and you can actually be efficient and you can balance your extra curricular and your work, the whole work life balance aspect if you have the right mindset and if you don't think things as a checklist or you are compelled to do things so enjoy what you do use extracurriculars as your break from work um or break from academics, um whatever you like, whatever you enjoy, do what you enjoy the Yeah, Q and A perfect. Thank you. That was really good. Um So we have a couple of questions coming in. The first one being, what time did you wake up in the morning? And what time did you go to sleep? So, um obviously if I question is, do you want the honest answer or the non honest answer? But basically it changed for me, it changed over the years, but I will tell you what worked for me eventually. So I ideally would have woken up at like five or five thirtyish. And I think most of the days I did to be fair there. Obviously, there were some days where I probably slept in, um and sleeping time probably like around 10, 10 30 11. That was probably my bedtime. So, um that's what I mean. So I was fine as long as I had my six hours of sleep, but this depends on people. Some people would probably be better off having more sleep. Some people are fine with less sleep, which is completely fine. It does not put you in any disadvantage or not. Um I sleeping six hours is fine. Perfect. Ok. And yeah, sleep times differ for everyone like I need to have at least eight, but she's always been great with like six. The next question is, how many hours a day did you manage to study. Um probably probably minimum two hours or like around two h 1 to 2 hours minimum every day. And this is uh yeah, I will send to a friend about this actually in med school. So I think the people who did really well in our med school um actually had a structure to their life uh sorry, structure to their day rather than um cramming everything. So, and I know people who have had like, so probably like 1 to 2 hours every day compared to like 10, 14 hours to the day before. OK. And the next question is, did you participate in any societies? Yeah. Um Do you want me to listen? Yeah, you can, you know me. Yeah, you can. Um Good. So year one, I was in a couple of dance societies, a couple of cultural societies. Um and I wouldn't say I'm very sporty, but I did try and go for like some taster sessions here here and there. Um And I had a regular language society thing going on. Um That was year one and then year two onwards, I started off with um medical societies as well. So year two for me was more like a bridge between um dancing and medicine and all of that. But then COVID happened. So we skipped that year. Um Third year onwards, I was going to medical societies and teaching. So that's where my whole teaching career developed. Um I do remember third year was my be peak peak in terms of society. So I remember being in four different medical committees which looking back turned out fine. Um Although I don't know how I managed to do that. Looking back. Um So that was, I think I was a vice president, vice president for Oncology Society, uh academic lead for Neuro Society uh and research society and then teaching lead for surgical society. Um on top of having a one year long t uh one year long surgical teaching webinar, which I was co-founded. Um and Matt still kept going with my dance and had a couple of running sessions. Um Yeah, yeah, that was third year, fourth year. I did cut it down a little bit but I was still in so um but that was also our final exam year. So I was trying to get the right balance for that. Yeah, perfect. OK. And someone asked, do you think you did well at medical school compared to your cohort? Uh I would say so. Yeah, not gonna say the Marks and Rs yet but yeah. No, it's fine. Um How did you structure your study periods? And how did you balance your meals during the day? Um Right. Meals, meal prep or at least in my head I did. Um So II think my plans, my plan for myself is to cook every Sunday and just cook for the whole seven days. Um And then study periods. Oh, Yeah. Um, this is the other thing I probably should have mentioned. So I personally do do this thing where, as I said, I'm a morning person so I wake up in the morning or the night before. Um, that's why I sound very nerdy but it is quite effective. Um, I make, I actually make a plan for a day. Um, I could show you my diary potentially but, um, I list down everything I want to do that day, including all the meetings, whatever, but also things I want to do and have to do and um revision stuff as well. So I normally just plan it on the morning off. So I literally go seven pm to eight pm. I'm gonna work, I'm gonna rely on the eight pm to nine pm. Um I'm not the teaching session. Oh, the other thing I was gonna say was you can actually use your extra, sometimes you can use your extracurricular to add to your academics too. So for me, uh the older societies I was in that actually helped me with revision as well. Um Like neuroscience, we were having like mouss, we were having teaching sessions and whilst hosting these sessions as well, I was learning things. So that kind of helped quite a bit with my, my own revision but also doing my extracurricular and planning events. And obviously, for me teaching, I would have to prepare ahead as well. Perfect. OK. And just two more questions. Did you work any part time job? Yeah, I did. Um, I broadly forgot to mention it. Um, I have been working regular part time job for the last five years. I would say, um, as a tutor with one of the education companies based in London. Um, but, but that was a flexible job. So I just take my time and space and when I'm, when I'm free and, and it was mainly Sunday, I dedicated Sundays for part time. And then all the other days it was for other stuff. Yeah, medical students tend to thrive on jobs where you can choose the hours rather than the hours being given to you because our curriculum is just very unpredictable. Um And then the last question is, did you feel as though you managed to stay fit and active enough, maintaining a balance of exercise? I would like to say. So, um now reflecting back, I did have my ups and downs. Um I know third year was probably not my healthiest. Um But fourth year and fifth year, I did work on it all I, all I would say is this is all trial and error, try, try and see what works for you and what, what doesn't work and then you have five years, just try and figure it out over time, set, set your own goals. Um If you have any questions, I am happy for you to um email me. Uh I'll send the email, Chantelle. So that's my personal email. So you can just uh email me or find me on Facebook actually. Yeah, but this might be more ba just find me a Bassen if you do want. Um That's my name on Facebook and you can just message me with any questions you have on messenger and we have another question, any tips for apps that you used for planning or time management? I used a diary. Literally, I have a big fat diary where I woke up in the morning and wrote down what I need to do and how it including including the time I plan on doing it and to be fair, I won't lie. That actually helps quite a lot with F one training cause that is what you do as an F one in the ward. OK. So no apps but mainly like your calendar. No, I didn't. Oh And I had Google Google calendar. So mhm um I have one that I can suggest which is called focus matrix and it's based off of the Eisenhower Matrix. So basically, it's like a tile and you have four different colors. So it splits it up into um urgent and important, not urgent but important, not urgent and not important and then urgent but not important. So like you can just think about your tasks throughout the day and fill them into each of those slots and it's free on um Apple and Android. Um So you can try that as well, but there are definitely apps as well that lock your phone. Um if you set a certain amount of time to study. Um and I'm sure if you go into like Apple Store or Google Play, it'll just and type in productivity, you'll see a whole list of them as well. Um Those are all of the questions that the um audience put in the chat. Thank you so much for being um, so active. Um, sma was really keen to answer any questions you may have had. I have one more question which is if you're interested in a lot of different things, how do you prioritize which extracurriculars you actually take part in and stick with? Yeah. Um, as I said, use your five years to trial and error. You, you need us the time where you can actually try different things out and new things and then you, you can then easily realize that that's not something you want and then you can leave it. Um, and that was exactly what I did from year one. So year one, I joined probably a lot of societies and then I realized that I had to cut it down. So year two, I cut it down. Um, year three, I started focusing it to what I like, um, which narrowed it down quite a bit. So it just more of a trial and error. I don't know the answers, answers your question. Yeah. It does. Um, and that is it. I don't think anyone has any other questions if you do just pop them in the chat really quickly. Um, and if not, thank you so much for coming to the career live, as I said before, feel free to, um, join our mailing list and, um, cruise the website where we have um, different on demand in both on our med all page which you can look back on or the, um, you can subscribe to the website. It's three lb 99 per month, unlimited access, um, to all the information that we post about finances and things like that. Um, thank you so much, Arima for taking the time to talk to us today, um, about extracurricular and we hope that everybody found it useful. Thank you. Perfect, I think. Um. Mhm. And I, I'm gonna end it there.