How I Study With a Full-Time Job: My Strategic Scheduling

Sorry about the loud background music! I completely crashed my laptop with this heavy edit, and after a few rounds of failed exports, I gave up trying to figure out how loud it was and just went ahead - I now realise it really should’ve been lower, but oh the bright side, and no background music at all, here’s my video on how I organise my digital workspaces and your free link to try SigmaOS too: go.sigmaos.com/elizabeth xx

When I study for an exam, I create a list of different methods for revising a particular topic. These methods include active recall, mind mapping, reading related but non-academic articles, solving past papers, reviewing quizzes, and so on, depending on the subject. Then, when I schedule my study time blocks, I allow myself to choose the revision method based on my energy level and overall well-being at that particular moment. Ultimately, this approach helps me become less avoidant and more engaged in my work.

I am not a neurodivergent person but I have struggled with anxiety and by extension procrastination. Strict schedules never worked for me because they would just produce more anxiety (via perfectionism). I really like her approach to productivity and have picked up a few techniques here and there that have proven so helpful. Thanks Elizabeth.

I told my therapist that I found it hard to follow a schedule and she told me to put specific things on my schedule like “study Chapter 4 at 10-10.30am”. It was super hard to follow because of my interest-based productivity. This was much more forgiving and made more sense!

About 10:19 : Forest has a stopwatch mode ! Instead of studying for a set amount of time, you can just start the stopwatch when you start studying and can end it whenever. It helps with the rule of not having a hard stop time, while still being able to get the benefits from Forest such as tracking your study hours and blocking distracting apps

This is naturally how I schedule things and I've always felt like a failure not timeblocking and scheduling the way everyone else does. Thank you for validating this approach of working intuitively and WITH your brain instead of against it.

I'm a parent and still helpful. Spent not understand why I couldn't be disciplined like other people. Didn't know about interest driven nervous system. Chile now I'm not scared of my life and actually start cultivating excellence. Thanks for these videos

This video is so important! I'm tired of these productivity youtubers saying "put EVERYTHING into your calendar"! This usually does not work for most jobs and activities (only for youtubers, I guess...). This video, however, gives a really helpful KNOWLEDGE of how motivation works and how we can make our calendar work. Thanks!

I just wanna say that you are a total lifesaver, Elizabeth. Thank you for all the work you do in creating this invaluable content for us. As a person who has had difficulty all their life juggling multiple commitments and staying organised, your ideas really resonate with me and encourage me to keep going. I find I usually fall short when I try to implement mainstream strategies. I'm really grateful that you cater for neurodivergent individuals and anyone else who has tried a lot of learning/organisational approaches and is at the end of their tether. Keep up the tremendous work and God bless you.

One novel tip that always stuck with me, which I read in one of those "How to Succeed at College" books many decades ago, was that highly successful people schedule their leisure time in addition to their work time. That was such a 'mind blowing' concept to me, because neither of my parents ever taught me that growing up. They taught me to schedule my work/activities, sure, but when it came to my free time I could just "wing it" and relax. While not exactly what you're talking about here, this video does remind me of that, and I noticed it was a habit practiced by all of my most accomplished peers at school.

👋 My summary: - 00:00 🌟 Introduction and Background - Elizabeth introduces her hectic life as a medical student with multiple jobs and additional commitments. - She expresses the need to make changes in her scheduling due to stress and overwhelm. - 01:23 📅 Importance of Understanding Your Schedule - The importance of understanding what falls within a schedule is discussed. - She explains how both work and non-work activities impact each other psychologically. - 03:12 🕐 Types of Reward Reinforcement Schedules - Elizabeth explains the four types of reward reinforcement schedules: fixed interval, fixed ratio, variable interval, and variable ratio. - She highlights the significance of these schedules in shaping motivation and behavior. - 05:04 📆 Creating a New Type of Calendar - Strategies for creating a more effective calendar are outlined. - The importance of adding buffers to task start and end times, avoiding strict schedules, and project switching is discussed. - 07:13 🎁 Randomization of Rewards - Elizabeth introduces the concept of randomizing rewards after completing a task. - She explains the selection of reward activities and how it helps manage stimulation levels and energy throughout the day. - 15:49 🌟 Acknowledging Individual Differences - Elizabeth acknowledges the limited applicability of their approach to specific circumstances and invites viewers to share techniques that suit their unique situations. - A closing message of self-compassion is del

I clicked on this one because I am a world-class procrastinator. I stayed for the editing. The way you edited this video was freaking amazing! Great work. Great content too, but yeah, really loved the edit.

This is exactly what I needed. There might be many people it doesn't work for, but nothing I've been given has worked for me yet, so this is genuinely amazing. Making videos like this for people with interest-based nervous systems and sensitive to stimulation is amazing. Thank you for using your experiences to make these informative videos despite having a lot of other things on your plate! I aspire to be like you and able to do all sorts of things I want to while not overwhelming myself.

Thank you for your existence! I'm in fact a parent, mother of two, and this video was reaaaally healpful! So don't distrust yourself too. What you do here has SO MUCH worth! I hope someday I can help people as a content creator myself and if I do 10% of what you do to help others I'll be proud of myself.

4 types of reward systems: after a fixed time interval after a fixed number of tasks after variable time (when you don't feel like working, when someone calls, etc.) (preferred) after variable number of tasks (preferred) Identify your reward activities: good work done reward no work done reward (scrolling probably) first thing you do in the morning what you do right before you sleep what you do to calm yourself down building your calendar: don't have a hard start or hard stop time give yourself a huge buffer to complete a task start when you want to and stop when you're tired or you don't feel like it switching between huge tasks takes a lot of mental energy. take a short break before you start with the next task don't schedule specific tasks. let it just be study, work, etc. know your energy levels and work accordingly the special effects: choose a set of reward tasks and choose one task as your reward randomly (to maintain that novelty) let the nature of the reward be complementary to your work. (if studying for you is reading a book alone, get out and socialize as a break)

My favourite covert ADHD self-help channel 💜 Thank you

This is exactly what I needed. I’ve been having troubles following my schedule for the last two weeks even though I was super motivated before. I used my calendar more like a to-do list, I thought this might be the problem a couple days ago and it’s good to hear this kinda confirmed! Also love the idea of the reward dice, definitely need to try that!!

I`m so impressed by the editing. It gets better each time. Never the same. The videos are like a piece of art. There is a sense of refinement. Gorgeous!

Thank you for putting your work out into the world. Everything you say on your videos resonates so strong with me and helps me feel so much better about the way my brain works. I am implementing so many of your strategies and they’re making a MASSIVE difference for me.❤❤❤

I barely navigate my time without full time job in a med school. Bc in my case I ought to stay in the hospital whole day. So you are my hero.