Please seek professional help. Maybe your school has a mental health service for students? Do it. It does help and it doesn’t mean that you have to go there forever or that you have failed. It means that you are taking care of yourself to become what you always wanted. It’s a sign of action and strength.

Not that this is out of the way, I’ll tell you what helped me.

Taking a few days off. I know. You don’t have time to do it. I didn’t neither. But I got way more work done after taking my mind elsewhere for a few days instead of sitting at my desk and not doing the work I wanted to do.

Get moving. Take a walk. It doesn’t have to be miles or fast. Just walking and thinking and relaxing.

Structure and breaks. It really helped me to know ‘I am studying for 30 minutes now - afterwards I am getting coffee’. Having an ending time helped me to give everything while studying.

Study groups. (Also with a reward like getting a coffee afterwards)

Doing something fun every day. Plan it. Look foreward to it. Balance is key. Life is more than studying.

Pomodoro method.

Being proud of yourself whenever learning something new and accomplishing something.

Really think about how to get what you really want. Don’t self sabotage. If your method isn’t working anymore - change it. Get outside. Call a friend.

I feel like I'm going through the same and I'm an MS4 and I can't get anything in my mind and I feel like I've only crammed stuff on my way up here and now I don't remember anything 😓

Definitely seek out psychologist and be honest with them. “Burnout” isn’t just a benign side effect of hard work. I think sometimes what we call simple “burn out” might be clinical depression. Either way you should seek out a counselor if the school offers one.

Are you making time for regular exercise, going out with friends, speaking with family, etc? Seems paradoxical but I believe strongly when you prioritize these things you find yourself being able to keep up in school. It’s revitalizing. Remember you’re a human first, doctor second.

Perhaps burnout is a result of intense pressure and not doing enough of the things you enjoy.

Are you putting excessive pressure on yourself to do well? are you interested in something competitive?

My friend has a good "theory" that the harder you work, the harder you must relax.

People pass comfortably without Anki all the time. Maybe find a way to do a high yield deck, as opposed to AnKing or whatever you are using that's intense? (Like Soze...)

so yeah work hard but you gotta play hard, and the latter might be what you're struggling with?

This may apply to you or it may not, but I can attest that a bunch of my classmates burned themselves out back in the day because they did not keep a sane, regular schedule. They got fine grades, they are fine doctors, they just needlessly suffered during preclinical because they accidentally stripped all genuine free time out of their daily lives.

If you find yourself waking up as late as possible without missing your first lecture/ obligation, then studying alone all day (perhaps highly inefficiently because "you have the whole day to work on it"), then napping, then "studying" late until the night with an inordinate amount of redditing/youtube/insta/whatever, only to turn in at 2am and do it again, you've created 2 issues.

1. You've pushed any potential free time you might have had until late into the night, where it's impossible to enjoy it properly. Your free time is just netflix and doomscrolling before bed.
2. Because you've got no schedule, and you've had no real break in weeks, you've become incredibly inefficient with your studying. You're still getting everything done, but 6 hours of work is now spread over 14 hours because you've fried yourself to a crisp (see 1) and also because you don't feel any urgency to buckle down during the day since "you have all day to do it".

NOTE: You can succeed in med school doing this, it's just the path of suffering. You can make it much more pleasant if you.

1. Treat it like a job. pick a steady schedule, carve out free time for yourself every day, and work when you need to work. You can get everything you need to do done in 7-9 hours I promise, if you're actually working.
2. Pick sensible hours for your free time. I suggest waking up earlier so you have your early evenings free to do a fun hobby. You don't have to- you can carve out any schedule you want, but this is the schedule that most of humanity works on. Evening sports, arts, music, culinary, hobby stuff is usually booked between 6-8 pm. If you'd rather do something other than doom-scroll at 2 am, you probably gotta work 9-5/8-4/8-6 with a mid-day break.

EDIT: For my non-trad drillers, if what I described sounds suspiciously like "being employed", then you'd be right.

Hang in there. Does your school offer any counseling for students? I recommend it to any medical student.

If your preclinicals are pass fail, the key is to do literally the bare minimum to pass, and spend the rest of the time actually living your life. Works for me

Take a day or two off and go do something you enjoy outside of medicine. Also exercise if you have been neglecting that (we all have been there before)

Do something non work related that you enjoy. Sleep when you can. Don’t over work yourself to the extent that you are able. Taking your mind off of schoolwork for a minute can help it reset. I like to bake and just baking for 10 minutes can get me back in the mindset that I need to be in

What year are you in?

POMODORO. Memes. Friends. Novel.

Hi, I feel like one of the most important things I learned in med school was that a few hours a week meant nothing in the grand scheme of things, ie taking a full day off once a week (or a half day once or twice a week if you're too anxious to take a full day) goes a LONG way in decreasing burnout. And honestly those hours are better spent recharging anyway because trying to cram info into your brain when it can't take it isn't a productive use of time.

I don't know about your situation in particular but I've found it helpful to do something not related to medicine at all at least one or two hours a day, like playing music or video games or calling my friends/family to talk.

If your burnout starts making you feel down and hopeless, I highly recommend talking to somebody, maybe your school counselor if you have one. They're literally only there for you and your mental health. Hope that helps :)

Every saturday I do nothing productive, and at the end of each day ~8pm I make a point of playing a videogame, exercising, or honestly anything to turn my brain off before bed. It has been working well for me

I try to take Saturday off every week (if I can I take the whole weekend off) no matter what deadlines I have or how much work I have. If I don't, I start getting really burned out and unproductive.

Take days off. Do things I love

IV drip coffee

Taking time to scream into the void, whatever that entails for you. As much as I wish that I could keep going and not stop it doesn’t work like that. Take time to do something you enjoy or your brain will take a break for you, usually at an inopportune time.

no. You have to be physically and mentally healthy to be able to adjust to the workload. It's a basic issue of health. If you are exercising regularly, strong, eating healthy food and eating enough, and sleeping consistently at a good time and enough each day (>6 hours), then you will have the energy and stamina to do all your work without getting mentally tired, and will be able to get up easier in the morning.

Sounds like you sleep enough and maybe eat healthy enough. Do you exercise regularly?

One lesson I learned the hard way was learning to give myself a break, and stop comparing myself to others. I got fired from my ER scribe job cause I was honestly shitty at it, but also cause I was so overcommitted. It made me realize I needed to back off, and learn to focus on less things. It took a while, but when I stopped comparing myself to others and realized I was my own person with my own talents, I became a lot better at knowing when to stop overcommitting

Are you taking time to look after yourself? Have you scheduled in time to hangout with friends or do something you enjoy semi-regularly? Are you exercising regularly? Are you going outside and getting some sunshine?

Stress can be hard on us physically and mentally. It's ok to take breaks, especially if you're losing whole days to it already.

You do lol. Two part time jobs, MCAT studying, research project, full time student, volunteer gig 1x week, social life…

Make sure to block out time for yourself in your calendar. Your schedule will thank you! Also don’t be afraid to give yourself full/half days off. Difficult to do but practicing that mindfulness will help you adjust!

Start early for work. That way you can keep it lower than max intensity. You don’t need to work all day everyday. Put your mind to getting the minimum required done. Then after that, keep it low intensity bc that’s just extra. Med school is pass and fail rlly. PIA is bullshit. I’d tell you to quit and go study something else unless you have the dumb thing in your head of wanting to help people that a lot of the rest of us have.

I say this to say, when you realise, you’re not that important where you missing your MCQs for the day doesn’t mean that the world is gonna suffer that much, you give yourself more room to breathe. You missing a day of studying isn’t you disrespecting your future patients or your future self and career. Get the minimum done, and then low effort add to that.

If you focus on getting the minimum done, everything else after you can plan around your life rather than the opposite. Focus on your friends or your family or your health or your hobbies or whatever tf matters to you.

It’s not the end of the world for you or the rest of the population if you don’t become a doctor. One person really isn’t that important.

No one gives a fuck about you. Try to give a fuck about yourself. I say this in the most comforting way possible.

Ps. Coming from a very jaded post finals student. I promise you, you don’t need to study all day. I think I might’ve managed to pass my finals and I really only started being a med student in January of my first attempt at 4th year. I’m not exaggerating. I hadn’t used passmed until then. Med school is a joke. Even after I started studying, if the amount I did is enough to pass, I promise you med school is bullshit. You learn to be a dr once you start working according to everyone I’ve ever spoken to. Med school is just another bullshit hoop you gotta jump through which isn’t really a very accurate metric. The fact I think I might’ve made it means it’s bs. Get through and then commit yourself to trying to learn and improve a bit everyday and keep the patients at the top of your priorities always.

Don’t be exceptional, don’t go to the ward, bare minimum to pass each time. That’s the thing I’ve realised about medicine. You gotta jump each hurdle but if you try and jump unnecessarily high you’re gunna tire and trip over one.

For me, it was learning to brutally prioritise. I’m not going to spend all days on the wards if I’ve realistically gotten everything that I could out of today’s session. I’m not going to go to a 4 hour lecture when I can just do the work at home. I’m not going to bother with any optional communication skills shit. Focus on what is absolutely necessary for you to get where you want to be, put your energy into that, and then just do the bare minimum for everything else.

Take a mental health day every so often. Blank timetable on a random Wednesday? Go for a swim, a hike, the movies, see a middle-distance friend, go shopping, whatever helps you reconnect to yourself and feel truly rested :) it’s good to take a day off.

The biggest thing for me was coming to terms mentally with the fact that I won't know everything, will feel constantly lost, out of my depth and like I don't deserve to be here or aren't smart enough. Nearly all of the battle against burnout is mental, and if you understand early on that these feelings are normal, and that everyone around you feels the same way (even if they don't show it, look like they are coping fine or brag about being so far ahead).

Other things that helped...

1. don't feel like you need to be present on placement constantly. Until the very last rotation of 5th year when you have passed all of your exams, being on placement 9-5 isn't going to be the best use of your time. I used to spend half the day on placement and half the day studying, and this was my golden ratio.

2. little & often > cramming always. Start early, map out your revision and you will thank yourself later. For finals in May, I started revision in September, I did a little a week and come April, a month before the exam, I had covered everything, had time to go over the bits I still struggled with. I'm glad I didn't cram as it's killer for your mental health.

3. find a study technique that works for you. I personally found flashcards (anki or physical) the best alongside questions on passmed. I ditched notes early on and was very thankful.

4. ALWAYS have a day each week study free. It works wonders for your mental health! Make this, and spending time with friends and family a priority and you will have hacked med school life!

Hope this helps... From a GP trainee who avoided burnout in med school by doing the above.

Run. Ski. Take my daughter on hikes.

A big one is to avoid procrastination. I've always been an academic and work procrastinator, but it was clear to me that this process would demand more than I could give if I was always waiting until the last minute. I've had to clean up my act, plan, and execute.

Hypo-mania.

Jk, the best way to avoid application burnout is to start as early as possible. The most successful applicants who aren’t amazing writers start writing their personal statement, secondaries, work/activities many months in advance. They feel confident in their work way ahead of time so that when the time comes they can pretty much just copy paste and hit the submit button.

Edit: it’s kind of late to “start early” but prewrite secondaries as much as you can. Once all your apps are complete start prepping for interviews. You want to be steps ahead at every step if that makes sense.

exercise, eat right, get some sun everyday.

Sex.

ngl I need help too 😭 trying to study for MCAT after graduating this semester and I’m so tired. during school I was so busy so when I would take the time to read or knit it was like a little gift, now I’m lacking structure and just… bleh all the time.

Preventing burnout has to do with work-life balance, and with the self-insight to identify when you need to rest.

A lot of us are really self motivated so, for me, if I'm having trouble getting myself to do work, it's because I'm risking burnout.

I have advisors who are not really anal about me being in the office or lab every day as long as I was reasonably productive. I took lots of vacations, breaks, worked remotely from my parents house, and time off generally which I think really helped. My field famously has everyone go to at bare minimum 5 conferences per year anyways, so that also was fun.

There are thousands of things that can help you but here are some of my top recommendations.

1. Have a routine. Variations are expected during deadlines and crunch-time but generally try to have a routine that is in sync with the rest of the cohort.

2. Have something to do outside the programme. Whatever it be. Gaming, Sports or what not. Make sure you do it balanced. If your PhD throws away your whole work-life balance, chances are you won’t finish it.

3. Physical exercise. Mandatory. Whatever it be. Gym, running, biking. Preferably something that involves non-trivial amounts of cardio.

4. Help the others in the cohorts with their projects. Constantly working on your project often results in not getting any new ideas and what not.

5. Diet: learn what things the human body needs and be active in ensuring that its met. A PhD is quite exhausting (depending on the field but still) and the last thing you need is to learn halfway through the programme that your blood pressure is below average thanks to lack of salt intake.

The most useful thing for me is that it's not my life. I have a real job, I have a home that's a better workspace than the profs have on campus, I have hobbies, people I know, things I do, books I read... I do school to the extent I need to get it done and the rest of the time I have a life. If I had nothing else going on than the department I'd certainly be depressed.

Just turned in my dissertation so I can say that I survived the 6 years without burnout! But I got close to it and when I stared into the void and it stared back at me, I realized that nobody is above it.

My advice is twofold, and they interrelate:

1. it's 50% work and 50% survival

Prioritizing work means that you're holding yourself accountable to externally-imposed standards and being intellectually honest. It means not letting even legitimate excuses catch up to you. Prioritizing survival means that, as much as 50% of your momentum can come from the natural rhythm of your body and your academic context, and on some level your job is to make sure you're fed and rested, simply showing up, being a community member, putting your body in places where you can be open to receiving boosts and inspiration.

2. the pareto efficiency principle has been true for me and my wily monkey mind: I get 80% of my work done in 20% of the time allotted for it

This means that it's okay to take care of yourself and prioritize the "survival" element, because when it comes time to doing the work, you can afford to get worse sleep some weeks. But you have to be 50% on both sides to be ready to adapt to either mode. It's like a grindset applied to slow living :D

My new motto is "pursuing academic excellence is no longer an excuse to ignore my health." So I'm prioritizing the "trunkNotNose Triathlon," which is walking, biking, and drumming, every weekday.

I got tenure and am saying “whatever, fuck it” a lot.

Boundaries. Hobbies outside of work. Taking space when I need space. Shutting off emails at a reasonable hour. Exercise.

Also a fan in my office because it is sooo hot - never worked in an academic building that was so hot. Dying over here.

Care less. Caring for students (who are now apparently customers) is called emotional labor. Admin leveraging care to close the gap between what students should get and what they pay is exploitation. Fuck. It.

My institution has said there will be no raises for the next two years, regardless of performance. So I intend to put in the absolute bare minimum effort required not to get fired.