Brain Gain

Last few days have been on and off for studying. I still haven't gotten uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep since my arrival, but I can probably confirm it is a combination of

• my study pattern (30 minutes study, 5 minutes nap)
• sunlight/insect chirping

While I've changed my study patterns to avoid napping and now get uninterrupted sleep, I feel like my mind isn't as fresh and spongy. Sadly, its the payoff one deals with when adopting a polyphasic sleep schedule. Sleep in big blocks, and you start to hit the wall at around 3pm. Sleep in small blocks of 3 hours, and you become more efficient but lose any semblance of typical sleep schedules. Also, there's little I can do for the 6AM start time besides get used to it. That means I need to start going to bed around 11, instead of 10pm, but that presents its own difficulties. How am I supposed to complete the notes from class and read all the lecture notes for the next day in under 5 hours? That doesn't even include time for exercise or dinner. Granted, I could do that in the morning, but timing is optimal. Notes must be made soon after class, before one forgets, and similarly lecture slides must be read a full day before, in order to maximize the spaced memory repetition. I also broke my no-coffee rule today, but only because the fruit juice shack was closed and I was hoping for something to sip on. Yeah, I've been trying to avoid the obsession with caffeine that most students here have. Hell, the students here would be the best unpaid spokespersons for Monster Energy/Red Bull/5 Hour Energy/Giant Caffeine Overdose Product. 

I still feel like I'm behind, and while most med students feel they are always behind, I just haven't had a chance to make notes for a number of classes. The one day I took off, combined with the other day I unspent packing, put me off schedule, and on top of that, I've started losing my focus faster. Right now, its little distractions, phone calls, browsing of the web, but in time it could seriously affect my concentration. While the Stayfocusd extension I use in Chrome helps a lot, it can't do everything. I need to consistently keep focus and apply some basic self-control, as well as use pomodoro timers or the like. That's where I found lists come in handy. This may sound like common sense, but for anyone that knows me, sense isn't all that common in my head. Making explicit, exact and direct instructions on a piece of paper gets me leagues farther than a mental list. This morning, for example, I had a mental list of "make breakfast, clean up, pack bags, head to school." Now, for just about anyone else, this is pretty easy to do, but in my head, I start running into problem branches. What should I eat? eggs, pancakes, cereal? do i have milk for cereal, or should i use the powdered kind? should I make tea/coffee? should i bother showering, or just apply deodorant liberally? what should I pack today, my writing pad and flashcards? where are those flashcards? what color pens/markers? what should I wear? etc.... Oddly enough, these simple tasks really bog me down. What can be done in 20 minutes takes an hour. Last night, I lost 3 hours just because I didn't structure a plan on what to make for dinner, how long to rest, and what to study. I need to keep ever vigilant! 

In a similar vein, I was looking over my existing notes and have spotted a few small errors (nothing that can't be rectified easily), but am more worried about the organization of the slides. While the juries still out on most of the Myer-Briggs testing, I am only confident in one aspect of the test, my need for hierarchy. The concept maps I currently have tend to circle around a central topic, but I realized only today that using a top-down hierarchy is much easier to recall in my mind. Nonetheless, I am quite happy with the notes I have been making, as I can recall most of the details of my studies from the past week, but still have some gaps in the notes that need to be filled in, clarified, or even attached to main concepts. 

I made red lentil soup last night. It tastes just like my mother and great aunt make it, continuing a long-standing tradition, but I didn't bother making the crispy bread that goes along with it. With the big pot that came in, I actually have enough saved up for 2 or 3 dinners. In the midst of it, I decided to just chop all my onions and tomatoes and refrigerate them, as cleanup with each meal is something I won't be able to afford in the coming weeks, and it should reduce preparation time as well, albeit at the cost of freshness. I'm hoping to mash some sweet potatoes tonight, but need a few other easily dinner ideas. I should grab some spinach tonight, and I might try and bake some beans as well. I can feel myself getting hungrier by the day, despite eating the same relative amount of food, and I surmise its due to a lack of micronutrients, but it could also be from the sleep deprivation. I've cut down on the proteins and am focusing on the staples to make up for it, but it could also be from a lack of iron, in which case I'll need to increase the uptake of eggs and beans. Sadly, red meat is at a premium in Dominica.

My clock/radio appears to be broken...the hours keep jumping around for some reason, despite (or possibly because of) the backup battery. The radio still works, which allows me to pipe in the only two local radio stations on the island, as well as the BBC.

Otherwise, all is well. Just need to fit some exercise time in today and hit bed by 11pm, but that seems unlikely.

Thus, the takehome message from things I've been learning:
-keep specific lists
-eat more eggs/beans
-keep mind-maps hierarchical
-always smile and keep positive, it really helps with...
-focus. be vigilant, notice when the mind strays and keep it chained to its post.