12 Intellectual Girl Habits You NEED to EXIT YOUR FLOP ERA

• We need to talk about this 16-year-old girl who was an academic terror.
• Discover the 1212 intellectual habits to end your academic flop era.
• Learn the importance of starting early and developing a study routine that works for you.
• Explore the significance of visualization and pockets of passion in your learning journey.
• Understand the value of surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals and building good habits.
• Never compare yourself to others; focus on your unique goals.

We need to talk about this 16-year-old girl. Sweet, innocent, like butter wouldn't melt. No. This girl was an absolute academic terror.

I was getting sent out of classes. Up until the age of 18, I never started anything early. All my homework was late, and I was getting low marks in everything. I didn't ask questions in class, and I am pretty sure that all my teachers hated me.

So how did we get from there to the fully qualified doctor sitting in front of you here today? I'm going to give you the 1212 intellectual girl habits to end your academic flop era right now.

Number one, the Miley Cyrus habit. Starting early. Aptly named after the wonderful piece of work that is The Climb. The biggest mistake that I used to make, even up to some of the years that I was in medical school, was picturing this day that I would become a good student as this huge big deal. When I was 16, 17, 18, flopping my A-levels and nowhere near on track to getting into medical school and becoming a doctor, I had two personalities.

There was the FEA for the majority of the year who didn't incorporate studying into a daily routine, who saw it as a chore, who saw it as something to be left for when it was actually needed. Then there was my second personality, which was my exam personality. I would pick this day when I would suddenly turn into this exam version of myself, and that day would be hanging over me like a death sentence—no one likes it.

Change is difficult for all of us, but not only that. When you leave things to the last minute, it becomes a mountain to climb. Hence the Miley Cyrus reference. What changed for me was actually seeing myself as a studious person. And thus, because it was who I am, it became part of my everyday. I wasn't just starting early; it was more of a constant throughout the entire year.

Number two, Death by Anki. The habit to incorporate is a study routine that actually works for you. Anki, my friends, is the most mind-numbingly boring yet frustratingly effective study tool known to man.

This weekend, I was speaking at a talk and I was speaking to a medical student, and she told me, "I hate Anki." I hate Anki. Every medical student in the world is telling me how amazing Anki is, and it just doesn't work for me. You know what that is? Okay? The worst thing that you can do is make studying into a chore. When something is a chore, it becomes so much harder to get it done. If something else works for you and you enjoy it, then stick to it.

That being said, you have to enjoy it, and it has to work. Which neatly brings me on to habit number three, Death by reading. This habit is forming a steady routine that is backed up by science. Of course, it is so important that you're not forcing yourself to do something that you do not enjoy.

However, let me tell you, I started enjoying studying so much more when I stopped failing. We enjoy things that we're good at, and if you're studying by reading and you enjoy it, but it is known to be one of the least effective ways to study, you're not going to enjoy it so much when you're failing your exams.

It's about finding a balance between the evidence base of what actually works along with what you enjoy. I've spoken about it to death. The two methods that I used to go from this 16-year-old who was flopping her A-levels to a qualified doctor were active recall and spaced repetition.

Active recall is actively recalling information. So flashcards that appear to be the most popular on social media and honestly what I used. But also, there's practice questions, there's explaining things to a friend, teaching, or even reading a page of information, covering over the information and timing yourself to see how much of that information you can then recall onto a blank piece of paper.

So many more options than Death by Anki, and a lot of them are probably a lot more enjoyable. Spaced repetition is gradually spacing out the length of time between actively recalling information so that it's becoming progressively harder for you to retrieve that information from your brain.

For example, you might do a deck of flashcards: one day, two days, then four days, then eight days, then a month. Whatever. The reason everyone loves Anki so much is that it is probably the most time-efficient way to actively recall information. And of course, spaced repetition is built into the program.

However, it can be mundane, it can be dry. And finding the perfect balance between what is something you enjoy and what gets you results is a personal decision that only you can come to.

For me, I found Anki really, really, really dry. So, I would try and just sit there for half an hour because any longer than that, and it would be Death by Anki. For me personally, what worked was studying in the library where all my friends were. That made it a little bit more enjoyable.

I would limit my Anki sessions to about half an hour. Then I would move on to practice questions just to break it up and keep things a little bit more exciting. But I would also do things like Quizlet, where you can use your own flashcards or others' pre-made flashcards that can be automatically put into a game, which again just makes it a little bit more fun, a little bit more interesting.

I'm here to gift you with a bonus habit free of charge because I completely forgot to talk about one of the most important habits for me for achieving any of my goals. And that is visualization. Because if you can't visualize it, how on earth do you ever hope to achieve it?

I've used Vision Boards for years and tried so many different tools and methods, but my favorite by far is using Milanote. I wanted to show you how I use Milanote for free to create a motivating yet aesthetically pleasing vision board that can double up as your phone and laptop background.

First things first, I start by creating a new board on Milanote. You can start off from scratch, or if you'd prefer, you can use a template like the Vision Board template that I will link below.

Then, I'm going to collate images that reflect what I want to achieve. We're going to have some study setups to romanticize a task that often, let's be honest, isn't that inviting. Motivational quotes, of course, and people who motivate you. You may notice the fictional character of Elle Woods features prominently in my vision board.

Then just arrange in a way that you find pleasing. You can even add further motivational quotes as captions or as text, and even some doodles if you want. If you're feeling extra organized and productive, you can also create a sub-board to keep important information.

If your vision board is the overall goal, then sub-boards can serve as the nitty-gritty details of how you're actually going to get there. But if you're making an academic vision board, say you might want to keep the dates of your exams in one sub-board or even a rough study plan in another.

Or I really love to use a sub-board to keep screenshots and useful memory aids inside. And finally, you can save super easily to create a phone or laptop background to keep your goals at the forefront of your mind all the time.

As a visual person who can sometimes be quite chaotic in my thinking, Milanote is easily my favorite tool for creating and organizing projects in a way that works for me. As I mentioned, it's also completely free to use, so I will link it down below. Make sure to give it a try.

And if you do give it a try and you love it, please let me know in the comment section, and I hope you enjoyed your little bonus.

Habit number four: Pockets of Passion. The habit for this is regularly exploring beyond the curriculum. This is something that I sorely neglected. For the whole time I was in education, I felt really guilty about the fact that I wasn't doing it. Obviously, we know that the people who read beyond the curriculum are generally the people who do best.

Teachers like them more. I felt really guilty that I wasn't one of those people. I just wanted to study to do better in the exam. That guilt made exploring beyond the curriculum seem like a chore, which then stopped me from doing it, which then made me feel more guilty. And it just became this vicious cycle.

In my first year of being a doctor, I didn't have any exams to sit. But what I found is that sometimes a patient would come in with something quite interesting, and it would spark this intrigue and thirst for knowledge that I'd forgotten exists when we stop focusing purely on exams and results.

But what is neglected is how actually exploring those pockets of passion does help us do better in exams, in essays, in our careers. This is really what sets apart people who are intellectual versus those who just get good grades.

If you're maybe doing a question or reading a textbook, or you're in a class and you hear something or read something that sparks that intrigue in you, follow that path. At some point, it might get boring, and that's okay. It's not on your curriculum; you don't need to know it. But follow that intrigue.

Explore and then take the joy that comes from learning. Because in institutionalized education, the joy is really sucked out of learning. And there's so much stress attached to getting good marks and good grades that we forget that as humans, this undeniable thirst for knowledge is part of our human nature.

Remember that. It gives you this sense of freedom that we don't always get when we're in a classroom, but it will also help you stand out above the rest.

Habit: Mindful breaks. I have an entire video coming out soon about how I don't take breaks when I study. Now, this is a half-lie because I don't just sit at my desk constantly flicking through flashcards when I'm preparing for an exam.

But I do have quite specific criteria for what I like to do in my breaks. For that reason, I prefer to call them breathers. I do have a full video coming out about this or will be out now. If this video is already out, then I will link it up here somewhere.

If not, I'll give you a brief summary. So when I was studying in school and I was still at home with my family, my mom was really, really, really good at enforcing breaks on me.

So, she would make sure that I was eating three meals a day. Every hour she'd pop in and see if I wanted to go for a walk, wanted a cup of tea, and to be completely honest, I never really studied past dinner time.

Now obviously, I did not really meet my potential when I was in secondary school, but I managed to get my place at medical school. In my first year of medical school, I kind of followed a really similar structure. I was having regular breaks, I was eating regularly, and on the lead-ups to my exams, I was studying for about six to eight hours a day, which is similar to a full-time job and I don't think is necessarily excessive.

Fast forward a couple of years, and I'm surrounded by my friends in medical school. A lot of them are studying from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to bed. So I copy. What was really interesting is I did not see a remarkable increase in my grades in medical school despite studying many more hours than I did in my first year.

I think it's so important to remember that our brains do get tired, and when they are tired, the quality of learning isn't the same. What really worked for me is treating studying like a working day. Six to eight hours is a lot, but you still have at least a couple of hours to recuperate for yourself in that day.

What I would also do to give myself a breather, a refresher, is every half an hour or sometimes an hour, if I'm in a flow state, I would just get up, not look at my phone, and I would just walk around the library. I might look a little bit silly, but it was enough for me to then sit back down at my chair and crack on with studying, feeling refreshed without having been sucked into my phone and getting distracted, and my five-minute break turning into an hour and a half.

Habit: Flow state. Not interrupting the first 20 to 30 minutes of focus in order to get into flow state. I do not stress out about flow state, guys. And there is a reason why I do not shut up about flow state.

Flow state is basically the point in which you're so immersed in a task, it actually starts to become enjoyable. I know studying becomes enjoyable—who would have thought? But when you are constantly flitting between your phone, talking to someone, going to get a snack, going to get a drink, doing your online shopping, you are not allowing your brain to become fully immersed, and therefore you're depriving yourself of the feeling of actually a small sense of enjoyment.

I think the Forest app that I love—again, I'm very sorry. If you've been here a long time, you're going to be like, "Fairy, we've heard this a million times before." But for those of you who may be new, I'm going to explain.

I use an app called Forest. I love it. It doesn’t work for some people. Basically, you turn it on, and a tree starts to grow. If you go on your phone, the tree dies. For some people, that doesn’t work— that’s okay. But the minimum time that you can set the forest to, I think, is 20—20 or 30 minutes. I would highly, highly, highly recommend you don’t go less in order for you to reach the godly heavenly peace of the flow state.

Habit number seven: Formulaic quitting. This is the habit of prioritizing. There is a formula that Stephen Bartlett uses when he looks at quitting that I will put on screen now. But something I'd also like to add when it comes to quitting is to remember that there is an inherent tendency to do better in the things that we enjoy.

And that is a lesson that I learned far too late, and I wish I'd understood sooner when I chose to drop maths instead of history.

Habit number eight: Child's play. This is the habit of making studying more enjoyable. And there are so many different ways that you can do this. Studying with friends, as long as it does not become too distracting. Using the Quizlet game mode, quizzes, time yourself, trying to explain things to friends. I know that does sound really, really, really nerdy.

I do promise I do make time for things that are a little bit more fun in my spare time—drawings, cute coffee shops. Side note: I have worked with Loop in the past, but this is not sponsored. My Loop earplugs can make virtually any environment conducive to studying.

Habit number nine: The average. This is the habit of surrounding yourself with people who have similar goals as you. This is so important. There is a saying that goes something along the lines of you are the average of the nine closest people in your life.

Anecdotally, I have experienced this firsthand. I genuinely credit my friends at medical school with my ability to complete that degree, and I will tell you why. As someone with ADHD, I have quite severe ebbs and flows—more accurately, periods of my life when I overcompensate followed by severe periods of burnout.

The whole of my life in education, I was never able to be consistent. This all changed when I was in medical school and I was surrounded by people who paced themselves, who studied early and regularly.

I honestly credit this to how I maintained consistency because a lot of the time, I just followed what they were doing. If they were going to the library, okay cool, I would go with them. If they were talking about deadlines and what they were doing to meet those deadlines, that would bring that into the top of my mind.

Surrounding yourself with people who want the same things as you is literally the easiest way to make achieving your goals easier, but also make it more fun.

Following on from that, number 10: Consistency. This is quite apt coming after the last point. The habit is the habit of building good habits. I think I am going to do a full video on how to build a good routine and build good habits. But if it is live by the time I put this video up, I'll put it here.

If not, the summary is that the ultimate way to make habits stick is essentially the entire point of the book Atomic Habits. The first part of the habit loop is the cue. Then, we have the craving, the reward, and then the response, and then the habit loop continues.

Another key thing to remember when you are trying to create a good habit is to change your identity. If you currently see yourself as someone who isn't intellectual, isn’t particularly studious, you will never be intellectual or studious.

Change how you view yourself to be someone who does get good grades, who does succeed academically, and who does enjoy studying. As I mentioned before, I personally really, really, really struggle with consistency, and I think a lot of that does come down to being a little ADHD babe.

And I think a very important thing about trying to build a habit system is ensuring that it aligns with your personal goals and your personal energy levels. If your goal is to cure cancer by the time you're 40, then obviously sacrifices will have to be made to ensure that you are able to study enough to get to that goal.

Your habit system would have been completely different from mine in medical school. Even though getting through medical school was quite challenging, I also had the goal of wanting to make sure that those were years of my life filled with positive memories, good times, and life experiences that I'll never forget before I entered the NHS as a full-time doctor.

11: Become an ocean babe. This is the habit of being organized. And I’m not saying that you have to use Notion. Some people hate Notion; I have no idea how, but some people hate it.

But this point isn't about Notion. It's about being organized—knowing when all your deadlines are, having a system in place to keep track of your progress, your gaps in knowledge, and any extracurriculars that you might be doing.

Okay, this may not be Notion, but guys, the notes app on your phone is insufficient. Other people have already created incredible templates for tracking your deadlines and your progress and your curriculum for your college subjects. Steal them, and a lot of the time be free.

Finally, point number 12: The thief of joy. This is the habit of never, ever, ever, ever comparing yourself to anyone else. I would say I'm pretty proud of my academic achievements. I got into medical school after being rejected four times.

I managed to turn it around and get a good enough exam grade that I got into my first choice deanery, which was London. In terms of what I set out to achieve, I achieved it. But I will never compare myself to some of the people who finished medical school with me who graduated, having published several research papers.

Work on your goals and what makes you unique, not what other people tell you you should be working on.

This video over here is basically all about why I never make a study plan and what I do instead, which you may also find useful. And this video here is just a vlog if you wanted to see a little bit more of my life. If you did enjoy the video, then please don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe.

I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful week, and I will see you in the next video.