0:00 and that feeling will not be a very happy one so what this book says if the Frog first is frog specifically represents the thing that you have been avoiding the most important task but which you don't like something which is difficult something which you don't like probably but which is important for you and that is the task which we need to do first thing in the morning because if you're able to that do that task then automatically it rewards you you've completed the most difficult task now the tasks that are remaining slightly easier so identify your frog the worst thing that you have to do every day if your frog is solving mcqs then solve mcqs first thing in the morning if your frog is probably reading a particular subject let's say it is biochemistry then start with biochemistry first try
0:47 and identify what are your different frogs and try and complete them first thing in the morning with procrastination uh so anyone would like to just share their views on what exactly is procrastination because this is a word that we commonly use but sometimes it is also misused so what is procrastination delaying the things which are useful for us okay delaying the things which are useful for us and what and would you like to add something is procrastination a state of inaction do you think it is delaying the things which is useful and simultaneously doing something which actually drains our energy and which is not very important
1:33 for us or not very useful for us so that is the state of procrastination so there's a difference you know between let's say someone who is meditating not doing anything like gutam Buddha and a person who is actually doing something which is not important or which he's supposed to not do in that present moment and the person is knowing that I am delaying something which is important and that delaying is going to have some negative consequences then we say it is a procrastination right so you know I had heard in one stand-up comedy show that if procrastination was actually a nation then it would be more populated than India and China put together you know because everybody procrastinates right this is the reality right but the thing is we need to differentiate between what is a general procrastination and what is a
2:21 problematic procrastination so if you look at the psychological definition of procrastination it is the act of delaying or postponing tasks or decisions it often involves choosing to engage in less important activities instead of tackling more urgent or necessary ones so firstly how many people do experience this procrastination as a thing how many people would say that you know they have procrastinated in some of the other ways I think everyone I think everyone would be able to relate to it would anyone want to share their experience you know if they have procrastinated on things and then they have also improved upon so that people can understand and become better because here we are all sharing and learning right so some some strategies which you have used might be useful to others as well so if anyone would like to volunteer guys you can unmute yourself
3:06 and you can please make it more like inter please make it interactive right so that you know we can all learn from each other because this is not like one way teaching learning kind of a session so let's be participating each other right I think people have raised the hands would you like to speak yeah yeah uh anyone would like to just unmute and say or share their experience I turn on my camera in the virtual library so that way I cannot do anything else okay that's great that's great so I think that way probably virtual library is of help to you right like when you know that somebody is observing you you are then able to just focus on your studies I think that's a
3:52 great way to use that that's nice anybody else has face procrastination um I um use YouTube like more than probably two hours every day so then I started putting like timer for the app for an hour so if I go up beyond that it will just log by itself all right that's wonderful right so let's just's try and understand you know different strategies but firstly Also let's look at why people procrastinate so I want to ask you this question why do you think that people end up procrastinating because I'm sure everyone hurts you know after procrastinating so why do people end up doing it what do you think could be the reasons anyone would like to share the reasons shortterm dopamine Rush short-term dopamin Rush very good right so I think you're very close to the
4:38 neurobiological principle behind why the procrastination happens so one of the important reasons why procrastination happens is as someone rightly said the instant gratification part and also there's a constant battle you know that is going on between our limic system and the prefrontal cortex so I was looking at one of the review articles where they tried to enlist what would be the most common reasons why specifically students procrastinate and these were all the reasons I'm sure everyone of you will be able to relate to some of the other reason so the neurobiological basis is that lyic system which is controlling our emotions it just wants to experience pleasure in the short term and then there is prefrontal cortex which we know is responsible for planning for thinking ahead and for delayed gratification now
5:24 what happens is when students start to perceive that studies is not rewarding the instantly automatically then their brain starts to think that okay what can reward be instantly and then they go on to the other activities which are less important to them but in that moment it is more rewarding and this battle is constantly going on and in fact it is said that for a competitive exam like need PG the battle is in the mind more than with the books and this is the battle in the mind which we have to also overcome if you want to win the battle with the books also lot of times it results in what is called as amigdala activation now would anybody tell me what is the function of amigdala what's the function you know of amigdala which would be responsible here emotional feeling connected to the
6:11 memory true one of that right and also it is responsible for the activation of fear response right so whenever our brain pursues something to be fearful that is when amigdala gets activated so when studies become fearful when there is a fear of failure that is associated or the fear that I'll not be B to accomplish it that is also the time when procrastination happens so psychologically if you look at the reasons one of the most Commons is fear of failure then perfectionism overtime management unclear goal setting low confidence in some subjects and multitasking or distractions these are some of the common reasons why as students we tend to procrastinate a lot of things now for different people the gradation of it could be different you know some people might not be afraid of
6:57 failure but they just are finding it difficult to manage their time or some people might be poor in goal setting or somebody might be having that fear of failure or doing it very perfectly and then not being able to finish things on time and for some people it could be distractions so firstly we need to identify that out of all these reasons that have been mentioned from number two to number seven what is it that you relate to most and I want you to just you know write it down for yourself somewhere so that you ask yourself this question that what could be my reason of procrastinating is it because I'm afraid of the failure is it because I'm afraid of a particular subject where I'm facing low confidence is it because of the poor time management or I'm trying to do a subject very perfectly and then trying to read each and every line remember
7:44 each and every line trying to perfect every concept not giving up on that one McQ which is debatable that also could be the reason why sometimes students said to procrastinate and I'm sure you must have heard a lot of your teachers saying that if there is a debatable McQ don't just keep stuck with that one McQ because I have seen some students what they'll do is they'll start with the McQ practice and one McQ they found to be debatable then the entire day just go waste in trying to find out what is the correct answer to that question that happens with a lot of cases we need to avoid that perfectionistic tendency because here we are starting for a very long term and so many topics so many complex points you're going to remember so perfectionism is not going to be of our help especially in this exam another is po time management people do not know
8:31 how much time to allocate to what subject how much studies to be done in particular order that also affects them and then the multitasking and the distractions are also going to be there so first is to become aware of what could be the most common reason so would anyone want to share what are their common reasons why they end up procrastinating out of these things that mentioned and if any other reason that you have found it to be relatable to yourself I think ad you were saying right like how this virtual library session has helped you right so what were your reasons of you know uh initially procrastinating my reason was I just start reading anything like on Ka or I just start watching a video on YouTube
9:19 so that was actually making delay right so some amount of distraction was happening right like you were I think going tangential even in distraction you were not going completely oppos of that but you were tangential right so a lot of times that tangentiality also happens and I've seen that with a lot of medical students you know that let's say they're starting to read a topic related to myard infection and then they suddenly started to you know use Wikipedia and then go down that rabbit hole that also happens quite a lot of times right anyone would like to share other reasons why they have fa procrastination as an issue um so actually well uh starting when I wanted to solve questions right uh so at that time uh like in the beginning my McQ skills were not so much good and uh the fear of
10:06 failure had come in my mind and I was very scared about the mcqs so uh so so one was the reason where uh I was not doing mcqs and this is an McQ exam so and again there needs lot of um right working out on our McQ working skills so exactly yeah that was that was very true very true and I think you know this fear of failure is so strong sometimes and sometimes we are in denial of that fear I have known someone who used to top in you know medical school first year second year third year mbbs exams but that person was not able to get good marks and then when that person approached me when I looked at how he was studying he said that he has not solved a single McQ he has read all the
10:53 possible notes that were available in the market but he could not solve the mcqs and that was the exact reason with you know because he was afraid of that failure that I'll not be able to solve the McQ so I'll just try and attempt it in the exam now see even if you are very much well prepared if you have not solve that out of a fear of failure then it is going to hurt you because we know right the pattern is such that we need to keep solving as many mcqs as possible so I think that happens a lot of times so very true so I think that fear of failure is something that we need to let go so that we are able to then move on to the difficult task right anybody else would like to share uh fear of failure and uh it's like I'm too lazy to sit even for a hour or two so I ended up wasting a lot of time and uh it's just my mind simply wants to go for watch any YouTube or any
11:39 Netflix and series like that right right right true so that happens and that further adds more stress into my mind and that makes me want to throw away every books and out so that's the reason for me sir right right right you know some people have also mentioned that they have had a bad experience in the past that they've studied hard studied well but they've not got the result that they wanted and that could also be a fearful thing you know because then what a brain ends up thinking is you have already given so much of effort into it and still it has not worked out so possibly this is not something that you should invest a lot of time into see that is a protective mechanism of our brain but we know that protective mechanism is not helpful to us because in a competitive exam such as neat the results are not going to be guaranteed and sometimes we are going to
12:25 not get the results that we want right but what our brain ends up thinking is anything where we have invested some time and effort if you're not getting the result then our brain says don't do that activity because that activity is not rewarding to you and that happens in this particular exam because here no matter how much effort we put in we do not know or we are not exactly sure that it is going to get rewarded 100% of the T and when that happens what leads to that is then our dopamine in the brain that is not released properly because of that our brain then demands all the other activities which will give Instant dopaminergic Crush so anything like watching a video watching a YouTube that will give us instantaneous doamin release here because there is always the Dilemma whether I'll be able to succeed whether I'll not that's why the dopamin is not released properly and that problem in the reward pathway leads to
13:11 us to procrastinate so that happens a lot of times right yeah are there any techniques to get over this procrastinations and uh techniques to relieve us from overwhelming and getting over from like negative thoughts and fear of failure are there any Techni of the technique I know is Jacobson technique which I asked from our Psychiatry PG that was very helpful and are there any other true true definitely you know we we will discuss that so that's what we're trying to discuss I I have enlisted a couple of things which have been very helpful to the students so we'll definitely discuss that right all right so I think somebody has said that getting motivated in the short term and then that motivation does not sustain very true that lack of
13:58 motivation some times maybe a reason why you end up procrastinating right but see whenever you are starting the preparation of an exam like neat PG what is the most important thing we need to realize is it's a long exam so you need to have a good strong reason to study for the exam lot of times if that is lacking then you will not be able to study for six seven months eight months you'll be studying for one or two months and then you'll burn out so your reason for studies has to be clear so what are different motivations that you have for studies at this point of time because you know sometimes it might be Scary World out there but we still need to have that motivation for ourselves so would anyone like to share their dream or motivation that they have from this exam you know because we need that strong sense of why we are doing it
14:44 right see a lot of people know how to do it and what to do it but that why is very essential just me I just feel like I need to get out of this race or nothing okay yeah get out of this race okay but I would suggest you know D that have a bigger motivation than that because sometimes that can be scary you know that race itself you know we are defining our goal in a slightly negative way so what would be a positive way in which you would want to you know let's say you've completed your neat PG exam visualize yourself getting a good rank what is it that you finally visualize for yourself sir I don't know sir I don't know how to say it like right any particular dream college or Branch or whatever it could be you know or what you wish to do let's after you complete your md or Ms what
15:30 you wish to do it doesn't have to be necessarily A Dream Branch or something but what is it that you think we'll get out of that right a good lifestyle as somebody has said right to become a doctor and make family proud yeah that is defitely most exactly Financial Independence right I think somebody has said that my mom wanted to see me crack n PG well right I think yeah I salute you for saying this right and I hope you are able to achieve that for me sir I just want to get out of my turn as soon as possible the only right right right right but see D the only thing is with that is because the exam pattern is so uncertain you know you know that they keep delaying the exam unnecessarily you know one day they'll give this deadline and then the other deadline that's why to end the ra
16:16 race should not be the only motivation so also try and find out one positive motivation out of this exam right so that it helps you to sustain even when there are these ups and downs that are happening okay sir thank you somebody has also said marriage right and that could be a motivation why not right that could also be there true could be there could be there but it has to be strong enough right then that it motivates us so yes we need a strong motivation to keep going that is one thing now let's actually look at you know what are the things that we can do to ensure that the procrastination level remains lower right so what has helped for you I think a lot of people have already mentioned some of the strategies anyone would like to share their experiences before we move
17:07 forward I think somebody asked me what was my motivation my motivation was to get into Psychiatry so I wanted to get Psychiatry so you know it was to get a good college preferably a government college that was my motivation because I didn't want to you know go into private college because of the financial issues and all those things so my motivation was definitely that to get a government seat so know you could have different motivation but that motivation has to be a strong one so anyone would like to share their experience of you know dealing with procrastination because I'm sure everyone deals with it and everyone has different ways of dealing with it I started doing a q bank because with every question if I get it right I get a dopamine and if I get it wrong I will get a curiosity of knowing why I was
17:54 wrong so I read the explanation and then I will move on to the next question right right so so whenever you are solving mcqs or question bank make sure that you're not judging yourself all the time that oh I've solved five mcqs I'm not able to get single one I think the word that you mentioned very true you know have that approach of curiosity when you are solving the mcqs so whatever you are getting right that should give you a reward but what you getting wrong that should also give you a reward in a way that I'm now getting to learn new information and possibly this McQ I'll will not make wrong when it comes in the exam so I think that could also be there right I think somebody told my parents to put password on my YouTube and Instagram yeah definitely sometimes that can work regular GS to know where I stand in the race wonderful all these things are
18:40 helping sitting in library will make to read I think that is another important Point another reason why people end up procrastinating is when there are so many distractions available around us so especially a place like Library where you know that there is no other distraction that is available you're just there probably sitting with your books and notes that would be a best best place perhaps to sit down and study and even if you are studying at home or at other place preferably have a separate designated place for your study and keep that place a little constant so that at least at that place you do not have other distractions available to you and when you are using also your devices if it is possible for you if it is visible preferably use a separate device for your studies and that is one thing that I did you know that helped me I kept a separate mobile phone during my
19:25 Preparatory phase where I would watch some lectures and videos and read some PDFs rather than using the same phone where I also have WhatsApp and Instagram and other things andure so I think that is also one thing if it is possible you could do that right how many people actually do this kind of a thing because I think a lot of people also have started doing that I've learned recently from people right so I have a separate device for all your academic purposes I think that really helps and in that device particularly make sure that you don't install WhatsApp or Instagram or other social media apps right there's a strict no for that okay so that's that's one thing all right let's go further I think somebody has also said that in the morning not using mobile phone I think that's wonderful you know and you need to develop that patience and skill to be able to do that it will
20:11 not happen immediately but if you resist using mobile phone initially for the 10 15 minutes you can easily put it across to 20 minutes 30 minutes 40 minutes and that 1 hour in the morning when you wake up you'll be really fresh and not panicking by needing all the notifications and other things that are going around so I think that would be wonderful if you could do that so one is to become aware as we have discussed what is your reason of procrastination if you are able to understand that then you'll be able to Target it as we discuss some people who have fear of failure fear of solving mcqs or let's say fear of particular subjects like you know one of my friends he was afraid of reading pathology and related subjects so he would just you know keep procrastinating pathology microbiology biochemistry such subjects he would keep procrastinating he would keep on reading the same subjects over and over again
20:58 and that was was not actually helping him so because he was so good in surgery and so good in medicine if he just kept reading all that over and over again but kept ignoring the things which he was having low confidence then that was again not going to help so again if you are doing the same thing where you are just reading your favorite subject all the time and constantly delaying something that you dislike or having a low confidence then that also would be one of the common reasons for procrastination so Target that subject which you're finding it difficult I know it will be hard it will cause some anxiety but once you able to complete that the rewarding effect it will have will be longlasting so please do that first is awareness second is I want to talk about this very famous book about procrastination how many of you have heard about this book have you
21:44 heard of the name of this book eat that frog or anyone who would have read this book uh you have an idea anyone yes sir would would you like to share that sir it tells about that do the more difficult task first then go through the easy T later exactly exactly M you know and lot of times we have the opposite tendency we start with the easiest task because we are thinking that okay let's me just complete two or three chapters so that I'll think that okay I have rewarded Myself by completing two or three chapters and that one chapter which I knew was difficult which needed my most attention most emotional energy I've kept it for last now what will happen happen is by the time You' have
22:29 completed two or three easy subjects two or three easy chapters by the time you do that difficult chapter you will be running short of energy and again you will then end up delaying it to tomorrow but your mind knows it in your subconscious mind it is registered that you have delayed that and that feeling will not be a very happy one so what this book says if the Frog first is frog specifically represents the thing that you have been avoiding the most important task but which you don't like something which is difficult something which you don't like probably but which is important for you and that is the task which we need to do first thing in the morning because if you're able to that do that task then automatically it rewards you you've completed the most difficult task now the tasks that are remaining are slightly easier so
23:15 identify your frog the worst thing that you have to do every day if your frog is solving mcqs then solve mcqs first thing in the morning if your frog is probably reading a particular subject let's say it is biochemist then start with biochemistry first try and identify what are your different frogs and try and complete them first thing in the morning it gives two advantages first is once you have completed that your brain will reward you automatically because you've done the difficult task and the second is in the morning when you're starting fresh you have already a lot of energy Reserve lot of emotion and lot of energy available to give to that particular topic and you'll be able to complete it much easier rather than when you do it at the end so these are the two important reasons and you know one of the key things about our dopaminergic
24:01 pathway is when we do the difficult thing and accomplish it the rewarding effect is much more than the rewarding effect which we get by doing the easiest task you know that's the reason why the dopamine Rush that probably you will get after climbing let's say second or third floor of your building and compared to that the rush that you will get after climbing Mount Everest will be completely different right because climbing the Mount Everest your brain knows how difficult it was and it will give you a very high kick of dam but it will not get the same gig after you climb two or three stairs it will not that's the reason why do the difficult task and get the reward for that that is one thing another is to realize the parto principle so this parto principle also called as 020 rule it says that you have to identify the 20% of the tasks
24:49 that will give you 80% of the results which basically means if you're starting a new subject let's say you're starting Psychiatry now you need to identify which are the 20% of the most important or the most frequently Asked topics out of this subject as a whole try and list them down and then try and complete those tasks first give maximum amount of energy and time to those tasks rather than you know reading something just because you are interested into reading but that probably does not hold a lot of importance in the McQ exams so every subject you need to identify what are the 20% most important things if I just had two or three hours to read a subject what are the most important points that I would read from that subject you need to ask that question because those 20% tasks will yield 80% of the results to
25:36 prioritize those so most important topics of each subject and also as you know the pyqs right because they are again a high yield topic whatever has been asked in the past years and topics related to that those are topics likely to come in the next exam as well so identify those 20% task so whenever you start your study session in the morning tomorrow before you start your study session find out out of all the topics that you're going to read today which are the most important ones in that 20% what will come and start to read possibly those topics first that will give you a rewarding effect also and you'll be able to recall and remember those information as well that is the Paro another thing is why some people struggled you know with maintaining their schedule is they've kept a very
26:22 unreasonable unrealistic goal for themselves so whenever we are setting a goal we need to set a smart goal would anyone want to share their understanding about this concept smart goal have they heard of it have you heard of smart go yes sir right would you like to share yes sir uh actually this was a like um not a very good story about the keeping goals this thing but uh actually I want to even learn that I'm still learning like I'm still rectifying where I'm uh lacking in the matter of uh keeping the uh goals per day and taking
27:11 that baby steps and uh I failed actually many times many times I have failed um by uh I had keeping a major Target I was concentrating on the major uh goals then I got to know no actually what we have to do is taking baby steps every day and keeping that goals per day and concentrating only on one day that is important than the major goal a big mountain that is ahead of us so very true very true I think that's very true and even rather than you know considering the entire day for a lot of students I recommend them to divide that day into also sessions you know they can have a morning session afternoon session
27:57 evening s session and a night session so then that each day has four different sessions that is available so what will happen is let's say even if your morning session went very bad you were not able to accomplish anything you still have three other sessions available to yourself the afternoon session the evening session and the night session now try and make sure that at least out of these remaining three sessions you are able to hit two sessions very well that also will give you a sense of reward because you've completed your goals in two of those sessions of the day otherwise what happens is lot of people I see if they have not started the day well one or two hours of the day they've not been able to study well then they just end up thinking that okay my day is now over I've already wasted it I'll not be able to achieve my daily Target and then what is the purpose of starting further and they give up very
28:44 easily in the middle of the day itself so rather than you know thinking of it as a day try and divide it into four different sessions depending upon what time you are reading you know if you are reading it late into the night then you can divide night into two sessions right like one before dinner after dinner something like that can also be done so try and divide your day into four different sessions probably these sessions could be of one hour or two hour or half an hour see if you are starting your studies recently and you're not able to sit for long hours it's fine you know you study half an hour in the morning half an hour in the afternoon half hour in the evening half hour in the night and for that then set only goals which are achievable in that half an hour so don't keep a very high goal to begin with the goals that we set should be that they are achievable to us
29:29 because every time you achieve a goal that is when your brain realizes that okay you know now this person has achieved the goal so I need to reward that person with the release of dopamine but if you've set a very unrealistic goal which is not achievable to you then what will happen is your brain will constantly think that you know you have lost that day or You've Lost That session and you are a loser and you are a failure then it will not release that dopamine and that dopamine depleted state will again lead you to a lot of distractions and then procrastination cycle just keep keeps on continuing so try and use this strategy you know divide your day into four different sessions and keep a goal for each session you know let's say for my morning session my goal is I want to complete 20 mcqs that's my goal now if I'm able to hit that goal that's great if I'm not able to complete it's okay I'll not carry the same thing over to
30:16 the afternoon and then burden my afternoon session no in afternoon I also read to read two chapters and also read 20 mcqs no I'll not do that so once that goal is over you able to complete it or not that's over focus on the next session and next session should have a different goal so by that way you have four different goals for four different sessions during the day that will also give a sense of excitement to your brain that okay you know we have missed one that's fine we have another thing that is available to us you know just like you know if someone plays Cricket right in every over there are six balls that are available so even if let's say you not able to middle and time first ball it doesn't mean you know that you'll not be able to do it on the second or third ball second ball is again a new ball but for that you have to just focus on that second ball you cannot be thinking
31:01 about oh in the first ball I wanted to play this shot so again I'll try and play the same shot no you'll have to look at the ball and plan accordingly so in the same way for every different session you keep a different goal that will give you a sense of novelty also because that borom and that burnout happens because we do not have a novelty going for ourselves so to keep that novelty have a different goal as I said you know mcqs in first session probably a couple of chapters in the next session trying to revise some definitions in the third sessions and then again looking at some pyqs or probably trying to solve some other questions in the fourth session so depending on that you could keep a different session or you could keep a subject-wise session right like in the morning I'm going to study biochemistry in the afternoon I'm going to study medicine you could keep that Target as well but try and divide your day into again different sessions so
31:47 that realistically rather than you know thinking in terms of oh I have only 10 days left for the exam you will start to think that okay I have 40 sessions available for myself for studies and that will also give you a sense of relief right so that is also sometimes very important so when I was talking about the smart goal concept what smart goal specifically means is it is a nemonic and every word of that smart every letter of that smart is actually saying something so what it is trying to tell us is s stands for something that is specific when do you want to do it what do you want to do it where do you want to do it who do you want to do it with let's say specifically you know you want to study biochemistry but what is it out of specifically biochemistry you to study let's say genetics the two chapters of genetics you want to study now this two is a measurement you need
32:34 to also measure how much amount you're going to study right it is about Pages it is about solving number of questions or it is about chapters so that it will give you something that you can measure then a stands for something that is achievable it has to be achievable see if you are currently just starting your studies and you know that you're just able to sit for half an hour then don't keep a very high goal which you know is going to take 2 hours oft time no that will then be unachievable so keep an achievable Target then R stands for relevant relevant is which is going to be important for your exams so definitely you know keep only those topics which you know are going to be very very important for the exams don't keep some random topics which probably are not helping you to score well in your exams and T it is timed so you know what is the timeline by which you need
33:21 to complete it and be accountable to it you know it's a simple example that uh one of our professors in medicine used to GI that if there are two people with diabetes and they tell you that one person tells you keep I'm just going to start exercise and lose some weight and by that I'm going to control my blood sugar levels this is person a and then there's a person B who says that from Tomorrow onwards I'm going to start running for five days in a week I'm going to ensure that I run at least 20 to 30 minutes per day five days out of seven days and at the end of the you know at the end of the month I'll make sure that I lose my weight and maintain my diabetes levels so out of those two people only the second person had a smart goal and he has a more realistic chance of completing that goal because
34:06 whatever he said was specific it was measurable it was also achievable because 20 30 minutes you can go for running if he says that no I'm going to run two hours it is not practically possible right so if somebody says that I'm going to walk 20,000 steps a day that is not achievable every single day if you say 6,000 7,000 that is achievable so start with something that is achievable and time bound at the end end of one month right so you've given a deadline and also during that also you've divided into let's say I'm going to do it for five days out of seven days so that is a smart goal and that is the kind of goal that I want you to set for your studies whenever you sit down and keep it small see it's very important to keep a goal which is smaller people will often tell you that you know try and hit 100 mcqs every day or 100 mcqs or
34:52 whatever chapters every day which you know is a little unrealistic and little unachievable so keep a small Target to begin with try and complete that small Target for some several days till the time you are comfortable with it let's say you have kept a goal that I want to complete 20 mcqs every single day now for next 10 days if you are able to hit 20 easily go for 25 or 30 and gradually keep on increasing it do not directly jump from 20 to 50 to 100 don't do that otherwise when you're not able to achieve that goal automatically your brain will start to think that your performance is not up to the mark you're a loser you're a failure don't want to get into that mindset as we were saying divide into smaller tasks so one of the things that you can again use here is a technique called as a Pomo technique has anyone
35:38 heard of this Pomo technique would anyone like to share their understanding of it you can unmute yourself and 25 minute work and 5 minute rest right or you could you know even reduce it further so if you struggling with 25 you could even start with 10 minutes that's fine but what the purpose is during that 10 minute or 20 minute timer that you have set for yourself there should not be any other distraction that is available to you so you could start by keeping the alarms in your mobile phone itself that I'm going to study for 25 minutes and then I'm going to take a 5 minute break so let's say if I start my studies at 10 p.m. I have another alarm at 10:25 and another alarm at 10:30 the 10:30 alarm is for me to remind that my break time is over otherwise sometimes that break keeps on extending so let that not
36:24 happen and when you're taking break make sure that you're not digitally distracting yourself you know don't do anything that is passive you could just take a walk go Ahad and have a sip of water go and talk to a friend of yours or you know read a newspaper or anything but don't do something that is digitally very distracting and very passive during that five minute time and then immediately once you have completed 10:30 is there you come back again set an alarm for 10:55 and 11 so that two cycles of pomor you are able to complete ideally 255 would be a good way but if you're struggling with 25 minutes also start with the smallest thing start with 10 minutes start with even five minutes and then take a two minute break and gradually keep increasing challenge yourself that okay this time I studied for 5 minutes at to stretch for the next I'll going to study 10 minutes at the stretch keep challenging yourself and
37:09 then you will see that your potential to sit for long hours starts to increase and don't you know study at a stretch of two hours or three hours because then that leads to a lot of fatigue and burn up at least up to 45 minutes or 1 hour take a break of two five minutes walk around do some stretching have a sip of water and then come back and study so please ensure that you know you're not studying for two long hours it could be rewarding in the short term but we are again here studying for a marathon so even if you are studying two hours or three hours at a stretch and then you're burning out at the end of it it will not serve any purpose so make sure to take some scheduled braks and these braks have to be scheduled why the word scheduled is important is if there are unscheduled braks then it breaks the Rhythm and then you end up into distracting yourself so if you know that
37:55 45 minutes I have to study your brain will automatically start to get tuned to remain active and alert during those 45 minutes right so that is the reason why I take a scheduled break so that is about the Pomo technique by you know dividing stask into smaller ones and studying during that duration right let's Gove further so another thing that you can do is make your own deadlines so sometimes when we know that a task is going to take two hours of time then don't give a deadline of 5 hours or 6 hours because then you'll be unnecessarily continuously delaying it so there's this principle called as the Parkinson's law of time management has anyone heard of
38:41 this concept Parkinson's law of time management would you want to share uh anyone who has heard it so Parkinson's law of time management says that the work that we are doing it keeps on expanding till the time that is available to it so let's say a task which was going to take only two hours but you have given an entire day to it then you will just keep on delaying it delaying it and finish it by the end of the day so don't give too much of time to things which you know can be done in a very short period of time at the same time do not give too little time for something that you know is going to take more time so that is the principle of Parkinson's law so give appropriate time
39:28 and how you can decide that is let's say sometimes if you are confused you just look at the number of questions that are coming from a particular subject or how many pages you need to read about that particular subject and then try and see what is your ability if you're able to read 10 pages in one hour that is your goal and see how many pages now you need to read and give appropriate time to it do not give too much time do not give too little time and that way you can make your own deadlines that I want to finish this chapter by the end of the evening that is your deadline for other things also you could keep an accountability partner and decide that okay this subject we both are reading we reading with it for the first time we'll try and you know finish this chapter in two days time and on the third day we'll try and discuss some important points
40:14 that we have read about this subject this is also something that you can do you know you have a virtual library of people around if you find someone who has a similar reading learning style as yours you could also have a designated partner with whom you could discuss some important topics of a particular subject so that will also keep the accountability going so make your own deadlines in such a way don't wait for the deadline oh when the N PG exam will be there before that one month I'll start to study no because you know that you know the exam dates keep on changing even at the last moment so don't do that keep your own deadlines you have your own deadlines you follow that and see the magic happening
41:01 another thing is keep accountability as we're saying if you think that there's no other friend of yours who is keeping your accountability and you are struggling to do that you could also talk to it to your Mentor or to your parents or to any other non-medical friend also that you know I was going to read this topics but I was not able to achieve it be honest with that one person whom you are accountable to so try and find at least one person you are accountable to if you think that you might end up cheating yourself right at least that person you should not cheat another thing very important don't try and Chase perfectionism this is not an exam which will reward perfectionism this is not an exam which will reward that okay you are perfect in surgery but you know you have not studied pathology no this will not reward you there you have to know something about everything
41:47 here this is the example for that so don't aim for perfectionism even if some topics you're struggling to understand and it is taking a lot of your time don't just keep struck on that one topic try and ask help for that topic or just skip it and change it to the next topic and complete those topics first so don't chase perfectionism and finally important to realize is eliminate distraction people you your age because you have been exposed to a lot of social media other things it is very easy for us to get distracted the cheap dopaminergic sources are so easily and readily available that distraction can happen to anyone and everyone and that's why when we are talking about that Pomodoro Technique when you are setting an alarm for 25 minutes during those 25 minutes there should not be anything else around see it is okay to do nothing
42:34 rather than you know wasting your time into distractions because let's say if you if you have just your book in your hand and no other thing to distract yourself even if you are lost in your thoughts you'll not be able to do that for more than five or 10 minutes you know 11th minute you'll again come back oh I was reading this book and I just got lost on your thoughts and you will start studying again but if you instead use your mobile phone then you will not have an idea how 10 minutes became 20 and 30 and 1 hour so it's very important that rather than doing something which is Trivial which is distracting don't do anything be in a state of nothingness that is fine but don't distract yourself especially during that specific time that you've given for your studies and for other things you schedule your time so I'll not say that you know during
43:20 your need PG days don't do any social media or don't be connected to friends no if you really wish to you can decide one or two app apps that you're going to use and that too you can use only during the time that you permit yourself you should be the in charge of these apps and not these abs should be taking control over you so let's say you have decided that okay half an hour every day in the evening before my lunch before my dinner I'm going to scroll Instagram that is fine but then it has to be happening only in that half an hour before your dinner or half an hour after your dinner whatever you have decided not in between the day so that self-control will only happen when you start to give your time so schedule your time when you're going to use social media schedule your time when you're going to talk to your parents schedule your time when you're going to talk to your friends so that your constant
44:07 notifications are not disturbing you constant phone calls from your friends or family members are not disturbing you tell them very clearly that okay I'm going to speak to you post my dinner for 10 minutes or 15 minutes that's my time that is going to be there so that I'm not constantly looking at my phone right so eliminate as much distraction as possible study at a place whether nothing else apart from your books and notes so that even if your mind wanders off into some thoughts when it comes back there's nothing else to which it can anchor to but if you give mobile phone or other things to Anchor to then it just gets lost so don't do that and finally as we're talking about motivation One important principle about motivation that I wish to speak today about here is most people think
44:52 motivation Works in this way that you first get motivated then you do some action and then you get more motivation but this is wrong how motivation really works is you do the action first that action itself motivates you and then the motivation keeps increasing so to say simply one person who says that no sir I have no motivation for exercise rather than saying waiting for that motivation to arrive what you do is you do that exercise for just two minutes you do the action for two minutes or even one minute or do some stretching of one Upper Limb and then do the lower limb and then see the motivation gradually developing and this is exactly how motivation Works once you take an action it gets converted to motivation and it leads to more motivation so don't wait for the motivation start with the
45:38 simplest of action and then you see your motivation increasing day by day so all those people are saying that you know you're feeling amotivated just do that one thing that you're are not feeling the motivation for just five minutes and then ask yourself after five minutes do I wish to do it again for five minutes more or do I wish to do it for s minutes or if not 5 minutes do I wish to do it for two minutes gradually just try and challenge your brain and automatically you will realize that you have already completed that difficult portion for 15 minutes or 20 minutes that's the way to trick our brain because our brain sometimes ends up playing a lot of tricks on us but we have to make sure that our brain is under our control especially during the exam time so that's what I wanted to share with you related to procrastination and some of
46:23 the common strategies which you can use if anybody has has other strategies that you have used and want to be helpful I think someone can share I think somebody has also mentioned working out or hitting the gym helps me with procrastination definitely it it does so if you have some physical activity going again that is going to release a lot of endorphins and dopamine so very useful to have one physical activity going even if it is taking a walk going for a run going to gym whatever it could be just do one little exercise and again if you're struggling with exercise do it for two minutes to start off okay anyone would like to ask any questions de if you there yes sir it
47:11 was Sir I have an issue of starting of iner right an inergy then I I overcome theer then I thought sing but before that to overcome that it become difficult a lot of one mcqs you know you tell your mind that okay I probably have a lot of inertia I'm not able to have a lot of motivation I'll just start with one McQ and then just read the information related to that McQ and then ask yourself how am I feeling after solving that one McQ start with the simplest of things you know just do it for two minutes first and again check how your motivation is rather than you know waiting for that inertia and if let's say you're feeling motivation for other thing then at least do that one thing let's say at that moment you're not feeling motivation for studies but you're motivated to go for a walk or
47:57 motivated to listen to some music at least start with that activity get into action mode rather than you know staying in an inactive or an inertia mode that is what I would advise anything else specifically related to you know motivation and procrastination as we've been talking about uh sir how to De with burnout sir right so could you explain what you mean by burnout because everyone has a different definition of burnout right so so last year I was interning and immedi after internship uh there was like a two Monon gap for studying so I start I started studying and it was solid preparation I was doing questions and everything then theam got cancelled yeah
48:47 then then again the date came then again I sat and studied then whole hungama with the test City change and everything and then I gave up fly right right right so we have to see this this was unfortunate thing that happened you know FAA that it should not ideally happen this way but now that it has happened I want everyone to be prepared that okay this thing may happen again you know because we cannot trust them the exam conducting authorities are not very up to the mark so we have to be prepared that they are going to delay the exam so rather than keeping that as a deadline what we could keep our deadline is is you know you just keep a goal for yourself that okay for the next 15 days this is my goal after the end of 15 days I'm going to solve a GT and keep continuing with that cycle till actually
49:32 the exam day comes so don't take exam day as something very special lot of times we give too much importance on that one date and that becomes problematic in such a scenario so don't give too much importance to that particular date you just keep studying in let's say cycles of 15 days because even if they have to conduct exam randomly also at least 15 days they will give right so you could just do that right for 15 days you study and let's say 15 day cycle is complete then 16th day you could decide to take a break that is very important sometimes that burnout happens because we've been studying continuously at a stretch with a lot of intensity so for you it's very vital that if you've known that in the 15 days have studied very hard then you do deserve to take that one day break and in that break you could do something
50:18 which helps you to relax so that on the 17th day you again start that cycle I think that helps a lot of people so try and make sure that you take some break and even during the day do take some breaks so somebody as right to mentioned you know it could be going to gym it could be playing a sport it could be anything that keeps you active alert and is relaxing don't consider any break which involves making you passive because that will again lead to procrastination and you will not derive the dopamine and the endorphins out of it so it's not that scrolling on mobile phone is a break no that will not be a break you rather do something actively like a hobby that you have or going to gym or going outside in fresh air that could be something that you continuously keep doing for yourself so that you know you're not relying on that just one exam
51:13 date anything else yes anyone I it was amazing session thank you the thing is I study well for some days and the other and the next day I just procrastinate and when I think of relaxing I I get anxious that I might not read I might the anxiety increases so what to do for that so you schedule the breaks for your relaxation right see if you know that there is some activity which helps you to relax let's say it could be watching a favorite web series or watching a favorite or listening to a favorite song of yours you decide firstly what is your relaxing activity going to be and then you decide that okay I have studied for four hours or five hours today then only I'm going to watch that particular thing so that
51:59 you're not also feeling the guilt of doing a relaxing activity use that as a reward for yourself you know that I used to do that I I used to love friends so I used to watch an episode of Friends every day after I've completed my preparation my studies and I am satisfied with my studies today I'm going to watch an episode of Friends so that used to be my thing for my preparation day so it could be something different for you but reward yourself you know after You' have completed that task reward yourself so that you don't feel the guilt and also you feel a sense of pleasure thank you sir hello sir I have a doubt sir uh every day I can study maximum 5 hours but those five hours are 100% from my side but whenever I see that others are studying 8 plus hours 10 plus hours I start doubting myself my own ability sir
52:46 how to tackle it so see the best way sh to know that how we preparation is going is to probably give your GTS and see how your scores are doing or if you've not completed all the subjects give subject specific test and see you know how your performance is so even if you are studying less number of hours but you're getting sufficient marks and you're happy with it and the progress that is going around then that's a good number of hours you don't need to compete with the number of hours if you know that your quality of studies was good then I would say that you start challenging yourself so if you're doing five hours continuously just do five hours 10 minutes from Tomorrow onwards that 10 minute extra that you do now you will start to feel the reward of that because your brain will think that okay you have done a difficult task to rather than studying for 5 hours you studyed for 5 hours and 10 minutes and then gradually keep increasing that time till about
53:33 which you are comfortable with let's say you comfortable with 7 to eight hours that's fine reach that level but gradually reach that level thank you sir I think there are other questions also I think we can keep those questions uh you know can probably try and arrange some specific things related to that yes we we will do in next sessions all the question will arrange thank you so much Dr deas for your time this session was personally very helpful for me especially that eat the Frog just now I order just now I order blinket in 10 minutes it will come I will read it diali and after you read it can share more insights also I I will share I will
54:19 share my experience thank you so much thank you so much thank you so much happy to everyone right
