Health Science Reviews

By August Herbert

My grandfather always said: “Life sucks and then you die” although a bit more crudely than that. To be honest, this year has been, as others have said, a whirlwind. From techniques courses to lectures to exams and now lab work, it just does not seem to end, and with a measly two-week break in between it feels like the universe…ity is out to get us.

Now don’t get me wrong, I (and I’m sure everyone else) am extremely grateful to have this opportunity, and we should be proud of ourselves for making it this far. We have the chance to work with esteemed, highly renowned academics in well-equipped research facilities, in the top university on the continent. However, this all comes with an expectedly high workload. And so, how do we maintain our sanity in the face of this daunting obstacle?

One word. Seven syllables. Compartmentalisation.

This isn’t some grand idea. Most of you already do this. Planning, schedules, calendars, et cetera, et cetera. However, maybe just someone else saying it can help cement the idea.

To “compartmentalise” is defined as:
The act of dividing [something] into separate and isolated categories, sections, areas, or compartments.
So, in practice, it’s breaking down the immense volume of work we have been handed into discrete and manageable tasks. In an emotional sense, if the needle is our sanity, we are pulling apart the haystack to find it. To efficiently deal with anything, we need to approach it piece by piece. If we don’t do this and instead try to tackle the mountain in Crocs (i.e. unprepared), being overwhelmed and burnt out is the rule, not the exception.

Maybe it’s my autism but I love tables and lists. And you know what goes great as a checklist – compartmentalised work. Being able to tick items off, strikethrough, or if you’re feeling risqué, delete things, works wonders for our little lizard brains. Putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys) and writing out what you need to do, alongside planning for the future, really puts things into perspective. There’s a reason why furniture assembly pamphlets and Lego manuals are a step-by-step guide (unless you buy from Mr Price Home and then they put everything on one A6 piece of crudely annotated paper just to spite you). The symphony of thoughts within our heads when provided with huge, inescapable tasks inevitably turns into a cacophony, but with a little logic and scheduling, you can be the maestro of your mind.

By being smart and managing your time well, you can turn the overwhelming insanity of Honours into a truly rewarding and enjoyable learning experience. I mean, that’s what I’ve been doing, and I have only gone a little crazy in the process.

In any case, we are all going through this endeavour together and despite how lonely and isolating it may be, the core point is that we all collectively know how it feels. While it is important to efficiently manage the time we have, the beauty of being independent in our research journeys is the ability to realistically factor into our schedules time for ourselves and others. So maybe, just maybe, compartmentalising life into little boxes can be at least a tad freeing.

P.S. I still need to watch Everything, Everywhere, All at Once so if the title doesn’t make sense with the context of the movie, then I humbly apologise.