What Happens When You Defend Your Study Streak?

Pushing yourself through 12-hour marathons may feel productive, but it usually leads to exhaustion, regret, and wasted days. The students who win are the ones who build consistency. By defending your study streak, protecting your time blocks, and creating systems that run on momentum not willpower.. you can stay productive day after day.

In this video you will learn why consistency always beats intensity, how to avoid the burnout-regret cycle, and the simple daily habits that keep you focused and moving forward.

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⏰ Cutting the nonsense and getting productive.

🧠 Studying smarter, not harder.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Defending Your Academic Streak
• 1:30 Consistency Over Intense Study Sessions
• 2:35 Protecting Your Study Blocks
• 3:35 Creating Productive Focus Scripts
• 5:23 Transforming Emotions Into Productive Action
• 7:50 Summary and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The third thing y'all, y'all, still with me. We're going to defend our streak. So once we set this med, this minimum effective dose, we're going to start actioning it every single day. As we do this, we must recognize we are not going to fall into the track of trying to do I'm going to run five miles today, and then my freaking hamstrings are so sore I can barely sit, let alone get back to run the next day. We are going to defend our streak by focusing on consistency over intensity. I'm going to study 19 hours today, but then what happens, y'all? Today is the day, guys, you're going to take your future into your own hands. You're going to dominate. You're going to be successful. No excuses, just dominate.

Speaker 1: 0:47

You study so hard one day that you're exhausted. You were so busy, you're doing so much time that not only are you exhausted, but you're also frustrated because you don't feel like you had the gains you had. And then you're in this negative spiral of regret of oh gosh, I feel terrible. And then what happens the next day, guys? What happens? You take that academic personal day right. It's a personal day. Why? Because you're so distressed I'm so distressed about the travesty that was my day on Monday that I got to take Tuesday and I got to unplug, I got to distract myself, I got to procrastinate myself. So that way I don't have to think about the terribleness that was yesterday. And so by trying to be so intense one day, you cost yourself multiple days, whereas you could be much more high level if you were consistent over that week. It would be easy, it would be sustainable, it would be productive, right? And this is where we get to that space retrieval. We talk about all these things. That is right. That is where your gains are going to come. So we want consistency over intensity. To do this consistency, we are going to protect our study blocks. How many of you guys violate yourself all day? Right, you that kind of kind of weird? How many of you guys violate your time blocks every single day when you had time set aside for something but something else bleeds in or we're supposed to initiate at a certain time and we tell ourselves, oh yeah, I'm going to start studying at three, but then you know what? I'm a little tired, I'm a little nervous about this, I'm going to go ahead and go on social media for like five minutes, but now you lost five minutes of studying at best case scenario. But more commonly, what do you guys do you go for 20 minutes? Oh my gosh, 20 minutes. And so what we want to do is create consistency. So we want to anchor our small med right, our minimum effective dose, to a consistent cue.

Speaker 1: 2:36

So after lunch I'm going to review these flashcards. Hey, you know what, when I go to lecture, I'm going to sit in the same exact seat. Hey, when everyone else empties out, I'm going to empty out. I'm going to look at everybody and I'm going to sit in the same exact seat. Hey, when everyone else empties out, I'm going to wait until they empty out. I'm going to look at everybody and I'm going to sit there. And then I'm going to do my 10-minute retrieval. When I sit down to study, I'm going to eliminate the distraction that's going to make me less consistent. I'm going to put my phone in a different room We'll talk more about that later.

Speaker 1: 2:55

And then, after every single block, I'm not time and take my knowledge and make it knowledgeable and make it test worthy knowledge by asking myself what are three test questions that I could think of from this material. So now I'm not just saying, okay, what's here in the book, I'm telling myself, how does this book translate to the exam? And so I'm preventing that test, trickery right. And so we're building a productive streak, getting the snowball rolling downhill using momentum, so that way we're not having to fight ourselves and use willpower to get us there. Because the sad truth is, guys, is willpower is not a real thing. We don't have the willpower y'all. But what we can do is create systems and create habit loops that have us doing the right thing by default and therefore, therefore, the momentum is rolling forward. We're going into the. Our default position is the correct position To help cue us and create the consistency.

Speaker 1: 3:52

I want you to keep in mind this focus script. So screenshot the screen right now. Turn your timer on your study timer. You should have a study timer. If you don't, you should have one. Today I win. And then you put in what works for you.

Speaker 1: 4:06

Today I win by mastering glycolysis Simpler. Today, I win by mastering the first three steps of glycolysis. Today, I win by completing X amount of pages. Today, I win by completing three MCAT passages. Today, I win by writing three test questions after I study. Today I win by doing three questions in the back of the chapter after I study Today, I win by getting my phone out of the room and when the timer ends I stop, that's it.

Speaker 1: 4:46

And I tell myself all of these wins tomorrow, the next day, the future, the A I want, it starts right here, right now. And so I'm linking a future outcome which is amorphous and I'm tying it to something that's tangible today to make it more practical and real and make it something that I need to do. And as I say this to you, right, you're like, well, this sounds kind of like whatever, but this is so powerful, guys, of triggering ourselves into the right emotion. And so, for how many of you guys do you sit down and you're stressed, you're overwhelmed, you're sad, you're tired, you're all these things, and so you don't study, you procrastinate the ability, emotional regulation, emotional quotient, right, eq, these things people talk about Regulating your emotions. There's many, many tools and tactics, but the big outcome is that we wanna be able to take ourselves from whatever emotion we're feeling and trigger a productive, helpful, fruitful, healthy emotion that's going to get us into a better space.

Speaker 1: 5:43

And so, for me, when I used to sit down to study, I could instantly trigger motivation, desire, focus, by telling myself I must study today for my kids tomorrow. I must study today for my kids tomorrow, because if I don't study today, my kids tomorrow are going to have an unstable, chaotic, terrible childhood, and what I want for my kids is to have the best of things. I want them to have opportunities, I want them to be stress-free, I want them to have a full, rich life where they get to have these amazing experiences that shape them as a human being. And so I tied studying, which can suck, to something that I wanted so deeply and so badly in the future, and so by doing that, it made that studying. All I could see was my kids, my kids, my kids, right, and then the outcome I get to stay at a medical school, I become a doctor, and now my kids have this incredible life where they have all these great experiences. We were at Dave Buster's yesterday and now my kids, right now, are at a water park having fun. I'm here with you knuckleheads, teaching live action, but they're at the water park having fun, and that was all crafted from that focus script that I crafted about how my kids needed me.

Speaker 1: 6:56

Yes, yes, do you guys get what I'm saying? So we're going to create the consistency and move ourselves to consistent, productive action. We are live action, guys. I am Dr Andre Pines and I'm here, as always, to make you more positive and more productive as a pre-med and as a student. And today we're talking about how we can create effective change in our life and be more consistent, be more high level and avoid unhealthy perfectionism. If you're here for it, let me know. Y'all Comment in the box, like the video.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Let's keep it going, medic, let's go back and let's review, measure your baseline so we know where we're at. We get that. Realistic goals, establish a minimum effective dose. Okay, what do I really need to achieve right now? That's achievable, that I can do? On my worst day, defend your streak. So we say to ourselves wait a minute. I want to be consistent, over intense. I want to make sure that every day I'm working, everything's done. That's it for another episode of the Pre-Med Productivity Podcast. Show your love by smashing the like button and commenting in the box below.

Speaker 1: 7:54

Today is the day, guys. No more excuses, no more complaining. You're going to take your future into your own hands. You're going to dominate. You're going to be successful. I challenge you. What are you going to do today to make your life better? Get to my website premedproductivitycom, grab a free ebook, sign up for a free webinar and, if you're really ready to transform, enroll in one of my life-changing courses or coaching programs. You have greatness inside you. Let me show you how to unlock it so you can dominate and make your dreams a reality. No excuses, just dominate.