Clinical placement update

Things have been going really good on this placement. The hospital is very friendly, as are the other students (both medical and nursing).

Staying in the student accommodation has been a very good experience for me. I am able focus being on a medical student and also rest when I need to (which you can't always do as a parent) which has enabled me to focus. I feel like I'm really keeping up with my local medstudent-peers and meeting expecations of the Interns and Registrars.

The Consultant and seniour staff here at the hospital have all been very forward in suggesting that I would be welcome as a doctor here, although they do all admit the frustrating obstacles with the internship bottle neck and the problem where the hospital is not an accredited training facility (at the moment). I do believe this will change in the near futre as the workload increases in regional areas and the need to invest in workforce stability pressures the government and training colleges to have a rethink. Whether this changes in time for me, I'm not sure.

Lately, I have not been worrying as much about my medical career's future as I have in the past. I'm not sure why. I think maybe it's becasue things are seeming to be working out, I'm more reassured of my level of knolwedge and the welcoming I've had at this site, and perhaps it has been a change in mindset. Maybe it's got to do with my fiancé taking over the primary carer role for our daughter. Maybe it's the fact I listen to podcasts in the car on the way up here and have created a morning routine including saying positive affirmations.

Things just seem to be going my way in all areas of my life, not just medicine.

They say to do the hard things when times are easy, or as I say "Get ahead now while you can".

I feel reinvigorated with my passion for medicine once again. I don't know why.

At the moment, I want to be a GP. I want to work 9am-3pm (school hours) and maybe train as a GP/O+G, or a GP/EM or something like that. Whatever it is, I'll be one of those "good" GPs. I want to have my office decor reflecting my aesthetic (which is quite clinical anyway) and even do housecalls. I'd like to build a relationship with my patients and be one of those old-school family physcicians. I want to keep my training up so I can handle emergencies that come in. I see so many GPs can't place IVs because they never do them, or even interpret 12-lead ECGs. I want to be able to excise skin lesions without referring to a surgeon, and really look after my pregnant and paediatric patients, and even mental health.

This is funny as I rememebr when I did my Basic Clinical Skills workshop the female GP said she was getting out of General PRactice as female GPs do "tears, fears, and smears" Which I think is psych, the worried-well/worried mums, and women's health (PAP smears). Bizarre that those are the things I, once again, look forward to providing for my patient.

Anyway, time to make dinner back in the student kitchen...

Additt to last post

For some reason I felt like I really wanted to talk about the idea of wastage when switching to minimalism.

So, here are my thoughts:

• Things taking up space and time and hassle and that are of burden to your life have a negative value. 
• Discarding absolute junk, and donating the rest as an act of charity, is good. Sell items that still have some monetary value if you desire.
• Once youve done your initial purge, you shouldn't unnecessaarily over-consume to the same extend you have been before. This reduces life-long net waste.
• If you do bring new things into your house that align with your aesthetics, try and purge the same number of items.
• When you do purchase "stuff", you are more likely to do it intentionally, thus minimising waste of money, time, landfill etc. It is much easier to do this when you have less other stuff and therefore you know what you do and do not need.
• You are less likely to duplicate purchases as you already know exactly where everything is.

I think that was it.

Minimalism

Totally non-med school related (or is it...?)...

So I've been doing the KonMarie method of decluttering since January (about 6 months) and am a bit addicted to it. I reassured my fiance it isnt OCD because people with OCD don't want their obsessions/compulsions lol

Our home/my life has been decluttered quite nicely. I did recently write a post on digital decluttering. That went well also. I'm also trying to limited my daily social media use. Sometimes I'm successful, sometimes not.

So now I'm down to wanting to go minimalist. Apparently there are "no rules" when it comes to minimalism.

I have begun with theses steps (some of them are decluttering rather than minimailsm but his is what I've been doing over the past fortnight):

1. Clearing off all surface tops, ie kitchen bench. I threw away (donated) my knife block and the knives just live in the draw now. I've donated a number of ornaments in order to welcome more space.

2. Reducing draw contents to the bare essentials and using divders in the draw for more order. I got some from the opshop! And a new white collander to relace the blue crappy one.

3. I got a whole heap of glass containers from the opshop and have begun taking the things in my pantry out of their packets and putting them into the containers. Apparently the words on the packaging creates mental clutter. I really like the aesthetics we have achieved so far in doing this. Even my fiance was very surprised and happy with how it looks. I also got a spice rack from the opshop (a nice one) and soaked off all the labels. Yep, I just have to guess which spice is which haha but it shouldnt be that difficult.

4. Pens! omg why do I have so many pens! I donated all but four.

5. Wardrobe! Totally my favourite! I begun with "defining my personal style" lol That was achieved with the help of Pinterest, and by thinking about which clothes make me feel really good and why. Many of the minimalists I follow on YouTube like to wear basically just black and white and maybe grey. One had a good tip about not buying tshirts with prints on them.

Ok so "My defined style" is like a smart, tailored casual with a good fitted sleeve and waist, and a slight utilitarian feel/slight WWII era feel. I've settled on my colour palette and it is the monochromes of black, some white (slightly high-maintenance so not overly keen), greys, and also denim blue, earthy olive drab green, and some blush nude. Nudes look fab but they washout my complexion so I need to be careful with it.

Once I decided on the colour palette I discarded any clothes in my wardrobe that weren't in-sync. This may sound extreme but let's face it, it's difficult to put together an outfit when you've got too many colours to work with. How many times do you wear something because you haven't worn it for a while even though you don't actually like it?

There weren't many that had to go except a few aqua-greens (I love the colour but again washes out my complexion), and a few other pinks that were too intense for my taste and never got worn in reality. I also realised I only like clothes that have a nice texture fabric, that have a nicely finished neckline that isn't too deep (hello, boobs), and I also avoid animal products like the plague due to ethical beliefs.

Then I listed the activities I do most often and what clothing I need for them (ie work is sorted due to uniform, med school hospital placements, hanging out at home, going on hikes and mini-adventures, and date nights with the man ie dinner and movies). I listed the items I love wearing but need replacing with the appropriate colour palette.

This was the fun part! I went to Target and Kmart (baby-free!) and went down every single aisle, considering my required colours, cut, fabric, and the clothes I actually need in my life. I didn't get distracted by "cute" clothes that weren't in-line with my desired wardrobe. For under $200 I virtually completed my wardrobe. I actually don't think I really require any more clothes now at all. I feel so liberated and free. I estimate I have around 50 items of clothing only now (sounds like more than it is: I challenge you to count your own), all of which I love. All of which go together and are real no-brainers. No stress about what goes with what, what looks good on or makes me look fat (losing weight also has helped this one), what suits me for which occasion. Seriously, who has time for that?

There are only one or two more things I'm thinking: ripped skinny jeans (I may just rip one of the pairs I own, plus I need to take int he waist band an inch to accomodate my large butt and small waist), new running shoes (might be on the xmas list), a new faux leather jacket (I have one I love but it's a bit broken and I'm on the lookout for its suitable replacement), and a blazer. I tried on one today but it didn't feel the right way so maybe that's not really what I want. I light jacket or some sort I think.

That's it! Amazing!

It will also be easier when I go to the opshop to search the garment racks with a clear vision of what I desire.

Digital declutter

*sorry about the typos - bit too busy to edit*

I am going through a major declutter this year. It all started back in January when I read Marie Kondo's book The Magic of Tidying Up. Since then, I've never stopped. I keep refining and refining. Now I'm on a mission to move from decluttered to minimalism.

A digital declutter is what I'm doing when I'm away from home (As I can't declutter my home when I'm away!). First I did my phone and deleted all the apps I didn't use. Then, the remaining apps I put all in one folder ("Apps") and moved it off the first home screen.  If I need to use an app I use the Search function.

Then, I turned off all the notifications for my apps and those annoying red update circles. The only notifications I get to my locked home screen are messages. I get notifications of FB posts once I've unlocked my phone.

I check my gmail ONCE per day now. I didn't bother emptying my inbox or anything as Gmail has such a good filter. I check FB way less often now and I'd love to get it down to once per day. I think I only check it more regualry than that when I'm bored, not because the app is controlling me.

Phone done.

Next, iPad. I did virtually the same as above, however my iPad 2 doesnt seem to have the search function so I had to keep the apps I wanted which were just the one's my daughter uses.

Finally, MacBook. I went into Finder and the Downloads and put everything in order of size. I deleted ones I didnt need. Then, with the larger files I wanted to keep (photos and ebooks) I opened Google Drive and moved them all over to there (drag and drop).

Then I organised the desktop into folders. That is all Iv'e onde on the laptop so far.

Next, Instagram. I started there as I knew it would be the quickest. First my Following list, I scrolled through and made sure I was folloing who I wanted to follow. The more people you follow, the more overwheling your feed becomes. I will just Search for hashtags and people as I wish but without following.   I am still following about 250 people.

Then, my IG profile. I changed my bio to just some symbols. Then, I went through all my photos and deleted the ones I felt no longer fit the overall theme I was wishing to create or were photos that didn't make me feel good for whatever reason.

IG done.

Now I'm onto Facebook. This is by-far the most time consuming for me.

First, I cheked my privacy settings to ensure they were as I want them to be. I tightened them a little.  Then I changed my Bio to just symbiols as per IG account.

Then I removed virtually all of my About details off my wall. I only have my Engaged To left.

Then, I went in and viewed my profile as the Public would see it. I was shocked at how many of my posted we set to Public. I didn't know where to start! I scrolled through my wall and started changing the settings to Friends Only but his is VERY time consuming. I vowed to check the privacy settings on all m y future posts as I post them to ensure this does not happen again.

Then I went into About and removed all those things such as Movie, Books, Pages Liked from my About section. On my wall I also hid my friends list.

Then,  I started going through my photo Albums. I deleted entire albums I no longer wanted, then started curating the others. I t not as overwhelming if you do it by Album. You can also download albums if you want to save them to a hardrive then delete it off Facebook. This is on my list of things to do.

On FB Timeline I regularly Hide from Timeline or I Don't Want To See this, which are options int he little arrow of top right corner of all News Feed boxes. I regularly Hide stuff that makes me feel bad in any way, anxious or disgusted, you know what I mean.

Friends list is a diffult one for me. I have a lot of contacts from work, medicine, netball etc and sometimes I want to be able to conact them via FB if necessary. I do Unfriend and Block when necessary, even if they ar a family member.

Finally, my own Profile Wall. This is by far the most time consuming. Scrolling down through year of posts takes ages to load and makes me feel motion sick. It's aslo something that if you do in small bits you have to scroll all the way back down to where you started each time. I think you can "jump" to certain years.  Some posts I delete and some posts I Hide From Timeline. I have to make sure I don't delete photos I dan't have saved elsewhere.

It is a work in progress.

Ok, I think that's my digital declutter summary.