Hey friends, happy Sunday! ☁️
This edition of Sunday Morning Rounds features:
✅ Resources to help reshape your productivity
✅ Fantastic Amazon productivity finds
✅ Powerful techniques for getting things done
…and more!
With summer rolling around and temperatures hitting downright scary numbers here in Arizona 🥵, I’ll be spending a lot of time indoors working on Med School Moose and finding ways to be productive 🤨.
Because this will be my big focus for the next few months 🗓️, now seems like the perfect time to share some of my productivity tools so others can benefit as well 😸! I’ll break these tools up into 2 main categories: gear 💻 and apps 📲.
Most of the gear below are featured on my Amazon shop, as well as other amazing finds and products 👀.
💻 Gear
- Weekly Planner – RICCO BELLO has been my go-to planner for the past several years 📖. I love the clean layout with dates that I can fill in on my own ✍🏾, as well as plenty of space for listing important tasks like my mission critical ☢️.
- Pens – You can't have a good planner without good pens, and these STAEDTLER Fineliner Pens have been with me ever since I was studying for USMLE Step 1 and annotating my First Aid book 🖊️. Between the clean writing and bright colors, these are pens I will purchase again and again 🌈.
- Laptop Mouse – The Logitech MX Master 3S was one of the first luxury purchases for my desk setup, and I have zero regrets 🐭. Aside from being ergonomic and more comfortable for long days working on presentations or doing UWorld questions, it's surprising how helpful a few additional buttons and customizable settings can be. When on the go, I opt for the budget-friendly Logitech M240 wireless mouse 🖱️.
- Pomodoro Timer – For deeper boards studying or focus sessions, using methods like the Pomodoro Technique can be super helpful for staying on task while maintaining consistent space for breaks 🍅. I use a Cube Timer Block 🧊 as a simple and playful way to lock in during my Pomodoro sessions 🔒.
📲 Apps
- Notion – I run pretty much entire life through Notion nowadays 😅. Notion houses everything from ongoing projects to recurring subscriptions to a travel planning ✈️ and beyond. I've even seen students use it to create USMLE study plans 📋. It's free to use, and there's thousands of page templates to customize to your liking 🤝.
- Google Calendar – After testing countless calendar apps, I settled on Google Calendar 📆. Besides also being free 🆓, it looks beautiful and becomes super helpful with keyboard shortcuts and the ability to add tasks. My only gripe is that there aren't more widget sizing options on iOS 😪.
- ChatGPT – There's no way you haven't heard of ChatGPT yet, and it's my AI assistant of choice 🤖. I probably share way more information than I should 🙊, but it's super helpful for creating study plans, summarizing information ℹ️, breaking down concepts to make them more understandable, and so much more 🧱.
- Habit Tracker – Habit Tracker helps hold me accountable when it comes to developing healthy new habits ✅ and getting rid of unhealthy ones ❌. This one does cost a small fee, but there are plenty of free options out there as well.
This is just a preview of some systems I have in place to get things done more efficiently! You can find even more by perusing my articles on productivity.
See you next month! 👋🏽
📊 Eisenhower Matrix: If you have a hard time prioritizing tasks, an Eisenhower Matrix might be your solution. Read more about it here.
😺 Med School & Residency Prep: OnlineMedEd has resources for exam prep, clinical reasoning, time management and more to help you succeed on your medical journey. Click here to learn more and use code Moose25 for 25% off a multi-month OnlineMedEd subscription.
📱 Social Media: Find me at @MedSchoolMoose on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to enjoy more of my content!