šŸ“” Journal

This is my public journal. Blogging is meant to be good for the soul, so we’ll see how it goes.


All posts by date

The £5 item that made my student life much happier

January 20, 2019

One of the best purchases I made at the start of my university days was a doorstopper. Whenever I was in my room during waking hours, I’d leave the door propped open and occasionally, when people would walk past on their way down the hallway, they’d pop in for a chat. Because of this liberal […]

How to be Excellent

January 13, 2019

On the flight home from Sudan this week, I read an absolutely wonderful paper from 1989 calledĀ The Mundanity of Excellence – An ethnographic report on stratification and Olympic swimmers. The author breaks down (in a very readable but rigorous fashion) the differences in daily habits, practices and mindsets between swimmers in different fields of competition […]

A rule to follow in new situations

January 6, 2019

I’m writing this post from a small town in Sudan where some other doctors and I are helping out with a medical mission running pop-up clinics in local villages (PS: check out the pics onĀ Instagram). When I’m in new situations like this, my default state is to stay in my own head and feel hesitant […]

A simple trick to making New Year’s Resolutions stick

December 23, 2018

You’ve probably heard about how most people don’t end up sticking to their New Year’s Resolutions. They buy gym memberships in January, go a handful of times and then stop bothering. Or they decide to eat more healthily, that lasts about a week, and then they revert back to their default state. A few years […]

The Beginner’s Mindset

October 28, 2018

A couple weeks ago I sent anĀ emailĀ asking you guys to send in snippets/quotes that have helped you in your own life. This week, I want to feature one of the responses from a guy called George who studied at Oxford for 3 years and is now applying to graduate-entry Medicine. From 2015 – 2018, I […]

A simple change to my nighttime routine

October 21, 2018

I want to talk about a simple change I made to my nighttime routine that’s changed the game for me. It came about after I skimmed through ā€˜Why we sleep’ by Matthew Walker, a book that was doing the rounds on tech/entrepreneur recommended reading lists recently. Anyway, the simple change is that I’ve stopped taking […]

“It’s busy, but really fun”

August 12, 2018

We had a housewarming party last night – lots of our friends came over and we had lots of chats and snacks, and played around 3 hours ofĀ Avalon. Paul, one of my closest friends from university and one of the smartest people I know, came up to Cambridge for the party. He’s started as a […]

Don’t believe the hype

July 29, 2018

Black WednesdayĀ is nearly here. It’s the first Wednesday of August when doctors throughout the UK start their new jobs.Ā Supposedly, this influx of inexperienced doctors leads to a 6% increase in patient deaths in August… This past week, most of us incoming FY1 junior doctors have had various training events, seminars, shadowing sessions to ease us […]

How to get stuff done

July 13, 2018

I was chatting with a friend a little while back. He’s a final year medic at Cambridge, goes to the gym like every day, is pretty ripped, plays rugby for the university first team, and is working towards becoming an orthopaedic surgeon in the US. We were discussing techniques and mindsets we’ve found helpful in […]

Say yes to everything

February 12, 2018

I came across some advice during my early university years that really helped me develop as a person. It went something like: When you’re early on in your career/life, say yes to everything that comes your way. Later on, only say yes to the things you’re really excited about. I can remember various opportunities and […]