Embrace Simplicity

Serendipitously, just before beginning my third year Integrated Community Clerkship (ICC) at UBC, one of my best friends recommended I read the book: Deep Work by Cal Newport. The third year of medical school is undoubtedly the most difficult but also the most enjoyable and where the most learning and growth happens. However, after reading both of Cal Newport’s most recent books: Deep Work and Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You, my paradigm and approach to studying and learning was transformed.

The overarching thesis Cal Newport posits in his book is that career satisfaction is not about aligning your job with some nebulous pre-ordained passion, but instead developing rare and valuable skills that can be exchanged for a career that is fulfilling. How do you develop these rare and valuable skills? Deep work. Cal Newport defines Deep Work as: “the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It’s a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time.”

How do you develop the skill of applying deep work? I am going to have to defer that answer and implore you to read Cal Newport’s book. What he recommends in that book has dramatically improved not only my effectiveness, but efficiency with my studying. However, I would like to discuss one of his overarching themes: to embrace simplicity.

We live in an ever increasingly noisy and bombastic society with so much distraction. Being a medical student can seem utterly overwhelming when you are trying to deal with this background hum of noise and master the complex nuances of medicine. Embracing simplicity may seem like the last thing you want to do if you want to become an excellent physician as there is so much material to cover, but it is exactly what you need to do.

Yes, there is an incredible amount of information you must have ready access to, but what I am consistently observing from my preceptors is the ability to see the proverbial forest for the trees. Our first two years in medical school are spent amassing and building a database of information, but we don’t know how to apply this information. That is what third year clerkship is teaching us. Therefore, to make the right diagnosis or treat the patient effectively to help them, you need the ability to synthesize all the information into a plan of action and filter out all the noise. So being able to simplify and pay rapt attention is an equally important aspect of medicine as is learning information.

But how do you embrace simplicity? There is no one size fits all strategy, but I am going to share what has worked for me. Although embracing simplicity has improved my performance in school, it has also imbued me with a sense of calm and purpose.

First thing I did was quit social media. Cal Newport devotes a whole chapter of his book to this topic, and I have a blog post about this, so please see those if you want a detailed explanation for this recommendation. Social media is not quintessential in the 21^st century; it is a handful of platforms owned by a few companies that engineer addictive services that often use and repackage your personal information for profit. Do not get me wrong, social medial has value, but don’t just use social media because it has some benefit. Instead, critically analyze the pros and cons and decide if it is positively impacting your life. For me, it drastically decreased my ability to do deep work and enjoy the present moment, so I got rid of it. You have to make this decision for yourself.

Secondly, I have begun to install a shutdown routine before bed where I don’t study. At first, this was so difficult for me as I want to study as much as possible, but if I am being honest, the studying done right before bed is not very effective and it impairs my ability to relax and have a good night of sleep. During this period, I do some yoga or mobility work to relax my body and read a good fiction book or just relax and do nothing. It is remarkable how restorative just spending 10-15 minutes doing nothing is when you are on the go all day.

Lastly, I aim to have a day each week where I don’t study. I find this gives my brain the reset it needs and reinvigorates me so that I am ready to begin studying the next day. Further, I believe this improves my learning since it gives me the time to consolidate all the information I am taking in.

Deep work is the superpower of the 21^st century, however, it is becoming an increasingly rare skill to observe. Take some time to develop a strategy to increase your capacity to do deep work and one of the most effective ways to do so is to embrace simplicity and aggressively attack mindless distraction.