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It's not your phone. Here are the 3 real reasons, and the fix for each.
By Dr. Marish Asudani · Published
Because of a lack of structure. When you don't know exactly what to do every hour of the day, you waste time figuring it out. And if what you're doing doesn't give you better scores, you keep wasting time. The fix: a daily checklist, UWorld and First Aid done the way that produces scores, and never 2 things in the same time slot. When you keep seeing results, you keep wanting that dopamine hit, and you stop getting distracted.
Read this firstYou open your books. 10 minutes later you're on Instagram. You delete the app, put the phone in another room, and it happens again with something else.
That's because the phone was never the problem. It's just the nearest thing to reach for. Here's what you're actually reaching away from.
When you don't know exactly what you're supposed to do every hour of the day, you spend time figuring it out. That's the time you lose, and it's exactly when you reach for your phone.
The fix is a daily checklist: your plan, built from your exam date and your hours, day by day, with tasks you tick off. That's what your USMLE Vault schedule is. On the Vault, the Accountability Partner shows you the morning list and chases what's still open in the evening.
Want a day-by-day schedule that tells you exactly what to study next? The Vault builds it around your exam date.
Build my schedule on usmlevault.com/schedule →
Read next: how to actually stay consistent · motivation fails, systems win · the part nobody plans for
If what you're doing doesn't result in better scores, you'll keep wasting time, and that causes a lot of problems. Your brain goes looking for a reward somewhere else. These are the 2 methods that do give you scores:
Try it on renal, freeEvery renal page in the First Aid Guide: what to focus on, the walkthrough, and that page's MCQs.
Open renal free →UWorld with a YouTube tab open. A video while you "also" do Anki. Each slot gets 1 task, and 1 resource.
It's the same rule I give for pharmacology: watching the Sketchy version, then the Osmosis version, then the Dirty Medicine version of the same drug doubles your time and adds nothing. One topic, one resource.
How to know what goes in each slot? Your daily checklist already gives every slot 1 task. How to name every hour →
1 slot, 1 task, already writtenThe Vault schedule gives every day its task list, from your exam date and your hours.
See today's list →When you keep seeing results, you keep wanting that dopamine hit, again and again. And when you keep wanting it, you stop getting distracted.