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Friday's Digest - The Newsletter for Doctors & Scientists
Friday's Digest - The Newsletter for Doctors & Scientists
For two decades, I've been developing tools that have improved my practice in medicine, dentistry, and scientific research.
Join me every Friday to discover a new tool you can integrate into your workflow as a doctor, a scientist, or both.
I believe in sharing knowledge, embracing automation, boosting productivity, and finding joy in the process.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Life Update
Tools and Tips
Readers’ Favorite
Stuff
Life Update
Life Update
Tired but happy
Tired but happy
Looking at my life right now, I'm pleased with how things are going.
Before coming back home, I often thought about how my friends and colleagues looked like shortly after returning from their fellowships.
They were overwhelmed 😨.
Like something really heavy struck them and they couldn't shake it off.
That was my main concern after coming back— that I would be overwhelmed too.
But that didn't happen.
How come?
I did things GRADUALLY
I did things GRADUALLY
I postponed anything that could be delayed.
My main priority was to have as little on my to-do list as possible.
If you know me by now, this is the opposite of how I usually manage my time.
But it worked like a charm, and I wasn't overwhelmed. Not even for a second.
Nonetheless, there’s one thing I am:
Tired.
I sleep between 6 and 7 hours every night, and that's not enough.
I want it to be 8.
When I get 8 hours of sleep, there's a world of difference.
My usual bedtime is 22:00 (10 pm for my American readers), and my wake-up time is 5:00.
I don't want to give up my evening leisure time, and I don’t want to give up my deep work time in the morning.
So, right now, I accept the fact that I don't sleep enough.
That may change in the future.
Number 130!
Let's dive in.
Tools and Tips
Tools and Tips
When people give advice, it's usually very specific:
How to manage your money, how to prioritize your time, how to structure your family life, or how to choose a career path.
I give specific advice as well.
Over the years since starting this newsletter, more and more people have sought my advice on various topics.
But there's one piece of advice that I consider the single best one.
One insight I wish someone had shared with me in my 20s.
One principle that has proven right every time I've followed it.
Are you ready for it?
Drumroll please 🥁
Work for free.
Work for free.
I know, that’s a very broad concept.
So let me break it down into 3 examples that illustrate what it means:
🔵 Reach 10,000 Hours
🔵 Reach 10,000 Hours
To master something, you need to practice it over and over again. And again. And again.
After 10,000 hours, you become an expert.
As an expert, you enjoy your work more.
It becomes effortless.
Others seek out your expertise, and often, you earn more money from it.
So, your goal should be to reach those 10,000 hours as quickly as possible.
But if you limit yourself to 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, it will take you about 10 years.
Take teaching, for example.
By age 25, I already had 10,000 teaching hours under my belt— most of them unpaid.
That investment has opened countless opportunities for me. And it continues to do so to this day.
🔵 Get Into Impossible Programs
🔵 Get Into Impossible Programs
We all have dream programs or jobs we'd love to join.
But the competition is so harsh that we often get rejected.
Others get accepted, and we are left with a dream.
There's a shortcut, though.
A way to break into your dream role:
Work for free.
Take my research fellowship, for example: it was meant to be a paid position, but new institute regulations prevented that.
Instead, they offered me an unpaid position.
Saying yes became one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
🔵 Shadow a Mentor
🔵 Shadow a Mentor
Everyone has someone they admire.
Someone whose knowledge they want to absorb.
Someone to spend time with.
But more often than not, we give up on that idea.
Why?
Because we need to earn less to create time with our chosen mentor.
My advice— do whatever it takes to get that in-person time. Call it an "observership" if you prefer.
I've done this several times throughout my life.
And in retrospect, I wouldn't trade those experiences for any amount of money.
Readers’ Favorite
Readers’ Favorite
How do you prepare for the most important lecture of your life?
Here I shared the 4 principles you can use to transform it into something extraordinary.
Stuff
Stuff
💡Gear I use - Nespresso Essenza Mini Coffee Machine
This is my second coffee machine (I got it for my office).
We still have the first one we got in 2017, also a Nespresso.
By the way, I still haven’t found any capsule coffee that beats Nespresso.
I’m open to suggestions…
Epilogue
Epilogue
That’s it for this issue.
If you received this newsletter from a friend and would like to join Friday's Digest, visit https://newsletter.shaysharon.com
See you next week!
Shay
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