Characteristics of an Effective Study Schedule (Cramfighter Review)
Calendars, To-Do lists, Excel Spreadsheets... There are a million ways you could organise your step 1 study. In this article I'll be sharing what I have learned about creating a study schedule, and also why I now let Cramfighter plan all my studying for me.
Whether you're interested in Cramfighter, or creating your own schedule, this is the article for you. Just scroll to the part that interests you! Disclaimer: I am not sponsored or affiliated at all with Cramfighter, I just really like the product 🙌
I will start off with the most important rule - The best study schedule is one you can maintain! To succeed on step 1, you need to pick a study schedule, and stick to it. Consistency with a less than perfect schedule will yield better results than if you keep changing your plan in an attempt to find something 'better'. So keep that in mind when you read this article.
🗓 Why you should use a schedule:
- Alleviates stress, allowing you to balance multiple things at once.
- To keep you on track for a long time studying (6-9 months) that it takes to study for step 1.
- In David Allen’s Getting Things Done, he introduces the key idea that our brains are for having ideas, not for storing them. We cause ourselves a lot of undue stress when our brain’s RAM is bursting with commitments, unfinished projects and half-formed ideas. In this case, the schedule alleviates your thoughts about what you should be studying each day.
Our brains are for having ideas, not for storing them.
- Minimising 'decision fatigue' by not wasting time planning what we're going to study every day.
✅ Characteristics of a good study schedule:
- Flexibility - Every so often you're going to miss a day of studying, or forget to watch that one sketchy video. Life is unpredictable, and by setting yourself a rigid schedule you're setting yourself up for disappointment when you inevitably fall behind. My old excel spreadsheet was terrible at this. Every time I missed a topic I would have to shift every cell down a row manually, wasting valuable time and energy. The ideal schedule should adapt to your life with as little effort as possible.
- Low Maintenance - The worst part about creating a study schedule is dedicating time to manage it. If you're a bit of a perfectionist like me, you might find yourself spending a bit too much time perfecting and shuffling your schedule. If the ideal schedule is as flexible, then re-organising that schedule should be as easy as possible, so you can spend your time worrying about what matters.
- Accountability - It should be as clear as possible to you what the tasks are for the day. I often find that if I start a long day of studying, with doubts about what I should be doing, I am less motivated to complete tasks. For example, Cramfighter provides me with a very clear to-do list every day, that I tick off as I complete the tasks, providing me a sense of progression and achievement throughout my day.
😀 How Cramfighter has helped me:
After experimenting with many types of study schedules, I got to the point that looking at my spreadsheet made me seriously anxious. I discovered Cramfighter when watching a Kharmamedic video about the resources he used for Step 1, so I thought I would give it a go, and I am so glad I did! I feel so much more empowered to balance medicine, with other hobbies like YouTube, and this website.
Below is a collection of ways I think it has helped me 😃
- Does everything for me, I just log on to the app in the morning, and it tells me what to do. If I missed a task the previous day then I quickly 'rebalance' the schedule and move on (a process that used to take me 15 minutes minimum in excel).
- 0 guesswork, even less than a traditional study schedule. Gives me a to do list of everything I need to study each day, with 0 time spent planning.
- Way less stressful. Much less chance of making a mistake inputting data into an excel spreadsheet, translated to sleeping better at night knowing that everything was sorted for me.
So if any of this sounds enticing at all, then you should sign up for Cramfighter today. There is a free seven day trial period so you can decide if you don't like it 😎
If you got this far, thanks for reading such a long post. I hope it was helpful to at least someone out there! If you guys have any specific questions the fastest way to reach me is YouTube comments! 🎬 Subscribe for future newsletters on my IMG journey. Cheers!