Medical training is tough! As someone who has gone through residency recently, I found it challenging to balance the time constraints of a resident-life with what I loved to do outside of medicine.

Here are the 5 things that helped me:

1. Schedule a work-out class with friends. This may seem silly, but it really knocks two birds out with one stone.

2. Call friends and family on commute home from work. I walk about 20-30 minutes to work. My walks in the morning consist of podcasts and music, but in the evening if I have the bandwidth I try to call someone. Bonus points if it’s someone outside of medicine.

3. Invest in a white noise machine and black-out curtains. I truly cannot emphasize this enough. I’ve linked my go-to white noise machine and black-out curtains here.

4. Minimize distractions when trying to work. This one is so much easier said than done, but if you take off the TV in the background, you may be able to finish those discharge summaries in no time at all. Then, you’d be able to actually enjoy the newest season of Love is Blind…

5. FINALLY - Give yourself a break. Residency is hard, and sometimes you won't have the energy to cook that dinner or make that work-out class and that is okay.