Ducks-in-a-Row Daily Schedule...and April Goals

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Today I'm getting my ducks in a row. I hope that by writing out these details, I'll be increasingly motivated to actually stick to it. 

Last night I had a dream that I had a beard. I was relieved to find when I woke up that I do not have hair growing from my chin, and I thought, "Well Subconscious, Happy April Fool's Day to you too."

So it's the first of April and 57 days until Boards. It was a great day to write a schedule and some goals. 

Ducks-in-a-Row Daily Schedule

Morning

5-6:30 (or earlier) Exercise/Get Ready/Devotion

6:30-7 Boards Study (DIT, Qbank or First Aid)

7-7:30 Breakfast, Pack lunch

Late Morning

7:30-12 Class or Class-related Studying

Afternoon

12-12:30 Lunch

12:30-1 Boards Study

1-6:45 Study (or go to required labs/lectures)

      (2-4 hrs) Class: Review lectures, Make Flashcards

      (2-3 hrs) Boards: First Aid, Qbank

Evening

7-8 Dinner and a break

8-9 Boards Study

9-9:30 Relaxing activities: Reading etc.

9:30-5 am Sleep

Total Study/Learning Hours:

   Class: 6-8 (including lecture)

   Boards: 4-5

   Overall: 10-13

__________________________________

Boards Weekly Goals

Working 6 days a week

150 USMLEWorld Qbank Practice Questions with review (separate from practice test)

90 pages First Aid USMLE Step 1

30 Doctors in Training Review Q's

30 pages Pathology or Physiology Review

1 Practice Test with 150 Questions

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April Goals

1. Family: Talk to them every week (continue)

   I want to keep doing this like last month; I feel it was pretty beneficial.

2. Fitness

   a. Enjoy the half-marathon in just a little over a week. 

   b. Maintain some kind of exercise schedule after the half-marathon, but give my ankles/feet some time off to rest. I'd like to increase my strength training to 3x a week, because I'm kind of a slacker when it comes to strength training, but I really like the results. 

3. Boards

   (see above) I'm not setting goals in terms of scores for school or Boards, because the only thing I can control is how much time I put in, and that will hopefully reflect in my score, but I'm going to have to be proud of myself if I put in the time I want, whether it leaves me feeling completely prepared or not.

4. Expense Tracking

   This is a new one for the month - I want to track all my food expenses to see specifically what I'm spending to most on and whether I want to cut back or increase certain areas. I'm going to do it by category: groceries, eating out, coffee shops and we'll see how it turns out. 

Besides writing a schedule and studying, it was also a gorgeous day with some great food.

Lunch: Salad and an apple in my undergrad cafeteria. I was visiting a professor, but it was strange being back. It made me feel old. 

Some campus, beach and bluff-walking:

And for dinner, we went to California Pizza Kitchen. It was surprisingly vegan-friendly: the thin crust is vegan, all their soups are vegetarian, and the spaghettini is vegan. I got the Vegetarian with Japanese Eggplant (no cheese) on Thin Crust, and our server, who was also vegan, suggested I add the balsamic on top and it was a great touch. I ate 2/3 of it, so I'll have some for a snack tomorrow. Another vegan in our group got the Pear Gorgonzola with No Cheese, add Balsamic, on Thin Crust as well. 

On other cheeseless pizzas, I've felt the flavor's been lacking, but this was everything it should have been.