NEWS OF MIND

I realise this is probably a hard question to ask yourself - or to ask the client. But the truth is, we can all get easily sidetracked and start focusing on the wrong thing. It's especially true if we tend to be fighting constant fires on a project. Getting stuck in the fireman role as a PM on projects can lead to doing many things out of order or just plain wrong. It can become easy to lose sight of what has brought you success along the way and just get mired in the problem issues of the day. Why? That's what is screaming at you the loudest right now. The key is to keep sticking to best practices. Yes, run down the issues. Yes, answer the customer questions. Yes, write that big press release the customer or your management is waiting for on the latest status of the big project rollout on which you're working. You cannot ignore those critical requests from above. But if they aren't critical, then put them off. Keep in mind - you'll have to try to make that call ...

For a good chunk of this past year, I was suffering with depression. Life felt thick and heavy. My motivation was at an all time low. I cried all the time. My parents were worried about me. One of my best friends passed away, I went through a challenging breakup, and I’m more genetically prone to depression than a lot of people. I was in a multi-month funk and I could feel my brain’s reward centre being totally shut down. The things that used to make me happy didn’t make me happy anymore. When I finally acknowledged that I was likely struggling with some ongoing situational depression, I went into research mode (as I do). The data didn’t look good… Apparently, treated (aka medicated) depressive episodes averaged 3-6 months in length, and untreated (non-medicated) depressive episodes lasted an average of 6-9 months. Being as stubborn as I always am, I thought to myself, “I wasn’t included in this study. Those statistics don’t apply to me.” For me, medication is always a l...

I wouldn't say that life of medical students is a path laden with rose petals, but it isn't full of thorns either. I dropped a year to prepare for medical entrance exams and that was by far the most difficult year of my 18 years on Earth. And then happened college! I got into one of the best medical colleges and life was full of balloons and candies! All relatives were giving my example to other kids of the family, neighbours were coming to our house every other day to congratulate me. I wish this phase lasted a little longer. Because once the daily torture of anatomy, physiology and biochemistry started, all those congratulation gifts were forgotten (JK, I loved anatomy :P ) but the constant tests, tutorials, vivas and written exams were killing me. It was only a matter of time though, because we medical students already face the worst times preparing for entrances, and this new kinda torture doesn't make us give up so easily! Then came the best part! My college is si...