Medical Student Alarm Clock Guide

Medical students understand the value of owning multiple alarm clocks.  Consider the following novel alarm clocks if adding to your arsenal this season:

1. Mobile Alarm Clock

Premise: in order to turn off the alarm clock, you must first catch the alarm clock.

Pricing: $50 for the original Clocky from Target; $40 for knock-offs

Notes: Watch a video of this critter in action here.

2. Puzzle Alarm Clock

Premise: Alarm clock turns off only after you’ve returned pieces to the base in the appropriate position.  Fancy models fire pieces into the air, scattering them on the ground.  Simpler models  let you scatter the pieces before going to bed.

Pricing: $100 for spring-loaded model; $15 for regular models

Notes: Watch a video of this terror in action here.

3. Flying Alarm Clock

Premise: Alarm clock fires flying component through the air and will silence only after the flying piece is returned to the clock base.

Pricing: $50 for BlowFly model

Notes: Difficult to find in stock

Correlate: Turn your Computer into an Alarm Clock – WakeupOnStandBy

Correlate:  10 Tips for Waking up Early

Goal Setting & Productivity – Deprioritizing the Unimportant

A lot of goal-setting advice focuses on deciding what matters to you. People exclaim, “follow your passions!” or “set priorities.” This is fine, but it misses the opposite, but equally important question: what doesn’t matter to you.

Ask yourself questions like, “If I had to pick 4-5 things to fail at, what would I sacrifice?”

Pick the things that don’t matter. Or, at the very least, decide your maximum input level for those pursuits. If you stop yourself from overcommitting on the small things, you can ensure you have the opportunity to pursue the big things.

Decide What’s Unimportant to You [Scott H Young]

Case Studies – Tackling Common Sleep Problems

The worrier

• challenge:  “My sleep problems are definitely stress-related,” she says …She lies in bed thinking about work, making mental to-do lists, and even listening to random songs that play in her head.
• advice: “She seems to have a predisposition for insomnia, and for people like her, whenever there are additional pressures, like a new job, the insomnia bubbles to the surface,” says Gary Richardson, M.D., a senior research scientist and a staff physician at the Sleep Disorders Center at the Henry Ford Hospital, in Detroit, Michigan …she needs to find ways to handle her stress better so that it doesn’t wake her up at night.
  • Distract her brain by trying a relaxation technique, like focusing on her breathing.
  • Working on keeping her sleep environment quieter, such as using an air conditioner or a fan, as well as blackout shades to block street light.

The night owl

• challenge: She grows more alert late at night, then stays up until about 3 a.m., watching TV, reading, clearing out e-mail, and organizing things for her family.
• advice: To start slowing down and readying herself for an earlier bedtime, psychologist Rubin Naiman suggests blocking blue light. “The blue end of the light spectrum — emitted by ordinary lightbulbs, televisions, and computer screens — suppresses melatonin,” says Naiman. Nicole might consider …reducing the amount of light in general. “Being exposed to too much light at night is the environmental equivalent of caffeine,” says Naiman. So at least two hours before bed, dim the lights. In addition, Nicole needs to find time earlier in the day for catching up on e-mail and organizing.

The slow riser

• challenge: Elizabeth …struggles with an innate tendency is to stay up till midnight, then hit snooze so many times in the morning. “The clock has been known to give up,” she says. Even when she feels exhausted all day, she becomes more alert at night. When she does get into bed, it takes her up to an hour to fall asleep. Elizabeth has tried going to bed earlier so she’ll have less trouble getting up in the morning, but then she just lies awake. She doesn’t drink caffeine, and she reads when she gets into bed, does yoga three times a week, and uses an aromatherapy-oil diffuser in her bedroom.
• advice: While avoiding caffeine in the afternoon and the evening is a wise move, physician and sleep researcher Gary Richardson says that having some first thing in the morning can be helpful for people like Elizabeth, who have trouble waking up.
  • Modulating her exposure to light could reset her internal clock gradually, according to Richardson. “Too much light at night will push her clock even later,” he says, so the key is to keep the lights dim the closer she gets to bedtime. Elizabeth should also maximize her light exposure first thing in the morning. If she can go outside in bright sunlight for some exercise, that would provide a double whammy of wakefulness.
  • Taking a melatonin supplement (0.3 milligram before bed) might help Elizabeth if light manipulation isn’t enough, Richardson suggests. It may help pull her internal clock to an earlier hour so she can get the sleep she needs

How to solve 9 sleep problems [CNN Health]

Correlate: Making Time for Sleep
Correlate: Sleeping Smarter
Correlate: Understand the Mechanics of Sleep

How to Start the Day Right

Get Enough Sleep:

• Going to bed earlier (set an alarm to remind you to go to bed, if necessary!)
• Avoiding caffeine and alcohol in the evening
• Switching off the computer and television and reading for an hour or so before bed – bright screens can prevent you from getting sleepy

Drink Water and Eat (a Healthy) Breakfast:

• I’d suggest holding off on the coffee for at least a little while after waking up, and drinking a big glass of water instead: being slightly dehydrated will knock your concentration levels right down.
• healthy breakfast like baked beans on wholewheat toast, or oatmeal, will give you slow-release energy to see you through the morning.

How to Get Your Morning Off to a Great Start [Life Optimizer]

Forum Filter: Simplify Cooking

by typography: I’d like to get into cooking but all my attempts so far have been defeated by one of three things:
-Too much cleanup.
-Too much time.
-Too much equipment or too many special ingredients.
Is there a cuisine I can learn that alleviates some or all of these concerns?

Ritchie: I was going to suggest Italian, as I like being able to put together the absolute basic essentials of pasta, olive oil, and garlic (and, usually, onion) in about 15 minutes with minimal cleanup (2 saucepans and a colander)

telstar: Two cuisines spring to mind: Mexican (the original fast food) and Middle eastern(falafel, hummus), the latter tastes just as good after storing in the fridge, so you can make up a bunch and then coast on your efforts. For Mexican, I like tacos. Make and store taco components, then hunger-to-cooking-to-eating time is minimal.

Kololo: Most asian food is by definition about ‘fast cooking’. Buy pre-cut veggies (if you really want to eliminate that ‘chopping’ step), a selection of chinese-ish sauces or flavourings, and keep some sliced up protein your freezer, and you can make stir-fry or soup in less than 15 minutes, with nothing but one saucepan/frying pan/wok to clean up.

desuetude: My “not requiring thought” dinners revolve around this basic pattern: Saute onion or garlic or shallot or ginger or all three in oil. Add veg or meat or both. Add whatever spices are desired. Meanwhile, make some sort of grain or starch (Bulgar, pasta, risotto, basmati, whatever.) Combine, possibly add cheese, season well with salt and pepper.

I’m sick of scrambled eggs, but can’t deny their cooking appeal [MetaFilter]

Turn your Computer into an Alarm Clock – WakeupOnStandBy

WakeupOnStandBy (Windows)

Wake your system from Stand-by mode or Hibernation at a predefined time and run any file or program.  It can also be used to run scheduled operations daily, or on specific day(s).

Productivity Pitfalls

Habits worth avoiding:

8. Send emails that require them to hunt down information and people. leave out information like telephone numbers, last names, or company names, etc. The true experts at this tactic know how to make it look as if the information is complete while leaving off something very vital (like an area code).

9 Ways to Devestate Productivity [Productivity 501]

How to Muscle Through Distraction

The (10+2) x 5 productivity method proves especially useful for those tasks susceptible to distraction (e.g. computer work)

What you’ll need

1. a timer (must be easy to reset)
2. a reduced subset of your to-do list ([ideally] tasks that can be worked on (not necessarily completed) in blocks of 10 minutes or less)

How it works

• 10 – Work for ten minutes with single-minded focus on moving toward completion on a single task. Ten minutes, and that’s all you’re allowed to do is work, work, work.
• 2 – After ten minutes of sweaty, dedicated work you get a 2-minute break to do whatever you want
• 5 – You’re going to iterate this four more times for a total of one hour’s working/breaking

rules

• You do not need to finish your task or your project in ten minutes; you just need to move it forward
• If you finish a satisfying amount of work in fewer than ten minutes, STOP, and go right to your 2-minute break, than start another 10-minute dash
• you can and eventually will skip breaks

Procrastination hack: ‘(10+2)*5′ [43folders]

Correlate: Productivity: Understanding Parkinson’s Law

Correlate: Conquer Procrastination

Quick Productivity Tips

1. Leave the house. Go to a working environment, It it may be the library, coffee shop or a designated study area on campus. Regardless, leave the distractions behind

2. Disconnect. Get off Facebook, Twitter and turn off your cell phone. These time sinks are useless… Most coffee shops make you pay for WiFi, take advantage of this fact.

3. Isolate. Put on your headphones, put in some ear plugs, listen to white noise. By blocking your hearing, you eliminate a great deal of distractions. The feeling of isolation will help you get your work done.

4. Get dressed. Act like you mean business… Take a shower, do your hair, get dressed for the day, eat breakfast and get in the working mood.

5 Quick and Dirty Anti-Procrastination Tips [Hack College]

How to Avoid Procrastination

• What will happen if you don’t progress? It won’t hurt to scare yourself a little…

Develop your plan, list..

• Major, realistic steps – A project is easier when it is built in stages;
• How much time each will take – A schedule helps you keep a progress chart and reinforce that there are way-stations on your path
• What time of day, week, etc. you dedicate yourself to work – This helps you develop a new habit of working, build a good work environment, and distance distractions
• Rewards you will have at each station – also what you will deny yourself until you arrive at each station

Avoiding procrastination [Study Guides & Strategies]

Correlate: Conquer Procrastination