As I spoke about on the Med School Insiders
channel, money does actually buy
happiness up to a very significant
multi-million dollar net worth. But
students are poor but you don't have to
be rich to use your money wisely. There
are certain cheap purchases that can
definitely improve your quality of life
and happiness.
The theme here isn't to buy entertainment or amusement but
rather use money to reduce friction and
key areas of your life. If you can buy
yourself more time or decrease the
negative effects of stressors in your
life and it's reasonable then I say go
for it. We're gonna discuss six items and
you can find the links to all of them
down in the description below. Now as you've seen
me talk about on Med School Insiders on our
sleep playlist sleep is so so so
important for every aspect of your life --
your mood, your energy, your ability to
perform physically, your mental clarity,
your mental performance, how you do in
school -- all these things. So for that
reason having your bedroom be this
sanctuary the safe space where you can
really prioritize recovery is paramount.
And light can actually be highly
disruptive to your sleep even when you
don't notice that you may not wake up
but the actual quality of your sleep is
compromised. So you can get blackout
curtains on Amazon for like thirty
dollars and they actually insulate your
room so they keep out the hot or keep
out the cold at your windows but more
importantly they keep your room really
dark so you can get better Z's. I
purchased my first set back in college
been using them for several years. That
apartment back then was kind of
janky - very poor insulation, so those
black curtains actually helped a lot to
you know regulate and maintain a more
reasonable temperature but also helped
my sleep. But these became even more
useful in medical school because
sometimes you're on call and you work
during the night so then you have to
sleep during the day or you just have
irregular hours. And it was amazing that
when I would go to sleep during the day
you know 12 p.m. super bright, pull my
blackout curtains -- pitch-black, much
better sleep. Which brings us to point
number two - eye mask and good earplugs. Now even when you're not at home you still
want to prioritize a good sleep. Whether
that's in a hotel that's really noisy or
you're on a plane or maybe on an away
rotation that doesn't have good sleep
conditions -- these come in clutch. These
aren't as ideal as using black out
curtains because it's not as
comfortable to have something on your
face compared to nothing, but they are the
next best thing.
The other thing is make sure you get
contoured eye masks - these are much more
comfy because your eyelashes don't touch
the fabric and trust me it's a game
changer--  these are super cheap like 10 or
12 bucks. Now my all-time favorite
purchase for less than $100 is this a
Kindle Paperwhite. I actually got mine
from Craigslist it was less than $100.
You can get a new one though on Amazon
for like a little over 100. Definitely,
definitely worth it. Now reading is one
of the highest yield activities that has
these massive compounding returns and
having a Kindle at least for me made it
so much easier for me to read regularly.
Before I used to kind of read books
occasionally and then this just made it
super convenient you have all the books
you would ever want on this single
lightweight super slim super super
portable device and it's just a joy to
use. Now shout out to Dr. Randy McKnight
who is a kick-ass advisor at Med School
Insiders, and he also went viral on this day
in the life of an orthopedic surgeon
vide. But back in med school I was
looking at a Kindle and I was gonna get
the cheaper one the regular Kindle not
the Paperwhite. But he's like, "Kevin, spend
the extra money get the paperwhite
because of the backlight so you can
actually read it you know in the dark is
so worth it" and I'm very glad I listened
to him. The other thing I like is you can
highlight with your finger and then
export those highlights and notes to
your computer. And that's actually what I
do for all of my book summaries on the
Med School Insiders Channel.
I'll read the book export the highlights
and then look at the highlights and then
just write my video script. Next up a
grocery delivery service. Our most
valuable asset is time but you do not
have to be rich to buy your time back.
Back in med school I was on these
challenging away rotations in plastic
surgery where you're working 90 or
hundred hours and you're in different
cities so sometimes you don't even have
a car. And you know I had a bike but
going to Costco or getting groceries on
your bike is not ideal and then you're
so busy working the hospital that you
don't even want to spend the time to get
groceries. You need to be in the hospital
or studying or sleeping. So back then I
was using Instacart and Google Express --
they were super clutch so glad I use
them. Nowadays actually use Amazon Prime Now so they deliver groceries from Whole
Foods and if you are a Amazon Prime
member then there are no additional fees
as long as you buy $35
worth of groceries in your order. Next up
a bicycle. If you follow me on instagram
then it's no secret I love cycling, or
rather anything that has speed as a core
component. The other cool thing about
biking is that it's super efficient --
you're killing two birds with one stone.
Not only are you getting transportation
but also cardio and exercise. Now cycling
has a lot of benefits first of all it is
a great way to start the morning so even
if you're on you know a tough rotation a
surgical rotation you need to get into
the hospital by 4:00 a.m. and you're
cycling it's pitch black and you're
tired and whatever. it just puts you in a
good mood. You got the wind in your face,
the roads are empty. I loved it. It's way
cheaper way more affordable than driving
a car and it's usually more fun. I mean I
love cars I love driving but driving is
only really fun if you're on a good
driving road and there isn't traffic.
Normally when you're commuting you don't
have either.
So cycling definitely wins out here. Now
in terms of cost it's probably gonna be
a little bit over $100 but if you get
used it should be pretty close. Go on
Facebook go on Craigslist, do your
research. You can save a lot of money
that way. Definitely do not buy a new
bike from a department store. If you do
want to go new then go to an actual bike
shop. Next up, smart lights with a smart
assistant. This one is so much fun. I have
Phillips Hue across my entire apartment.
Like this lamp right here there's
another lamp on that side and in my
entire bedroom. Now changing colors is
not only fun but it's actually very
practical close to bedtime because close
to bedtime you want to reduce your blue
light exposure so you want to use warmer
colors. And I actually make my bedroom
red at night to minimize the light
exposure because blue light suppresses
your melatonin and you need melatonin to
get restful sleep to fall asleep quick
etc. Now the automations is where the
magic really happens. So every morning I
actually wake up from a simulated
sunrise through my Phillips hue smart
lights. I don't use any auditory
alarm. This is a nicer way to wake up
peacefully and gently and because I have
like our curtains I can use them at any
time of day. So, whether it's at 4 a.m. I
need to simulate sunrise or 10:00 a.m. I
want to simulate sunrise it does it
doesn't matter what's actually going on
outside with the real sun. You can also
have geofencing so if you or your
girlfriend or whoever is coming home
then you can tell the lights to
automatically turn on if it's it's like
after sunset for example. You can make
your lights blink when an alarm goes off
which is what I do.
And you can even make the lights turn blue
when it starts raining outside. Pretty
cool. Now my favorite one that I just
installed yesterday and posted it on
Instagram is a motion sensor night light.
Middle the night lights are off you want
to get up .... BAM. So late at night you want
to go to the bathroom you don't want to
turn on all your bedroom lights and wake
yourself up so I have a motion sensor
that gets triggered when I step out of
bed and only the light strips underneath
my bed turn on. The other lights stay off
in my bedroom and it's like a dim red so
it's enough for me to see but not enough
to wake me up. It's just such a fun
thing, I love it. You can also control all
your lights entirely by voice you don't
even have to use your phone. I use my
Google home. I used to use Amazon Echo
but she's not as competent. And the cool
thing is you don't even have to look at
your phone. You just use your voice you
say bedroom this color that color these
lights on or off. Super cool. Now big
shout-out to Withings for sponsoring
this video. There aren't a lot of smart
devices that are less than $100 but this
BPM Connect is, and I've been enjoying it
for the last six weeks. There are a lot
of body measurements that I track so I
want to automate them because if there's
a lot of friction with like measuring it
and writing it down I'm just not gonna
do it. So I want to automate everything I
use the Withings Body+ scale for my
body fat and my weight - I do that daily. I
use my Oura ring to track my sleep, and I
track my HRV with the Wahoo Tickr chest
strap. And now I also track my blood
pressure almost daily with this BPM
Connect. And the reason I track all these
different parameters is that this is
good data that I can then send to my
fitness coach and then he and I together
make alterations on my nutrition, on my
sleep, on my workout intensity, on my
recovery based on these various
measurements. I used to think that
measuring my blood pressure was useless
because hey I'm a young guy I'm
physically active who cares. But two
things change my mind. First off I've
been getting these Remicade infusions
every six to eight weeks for like ten
years and when you're at the hospital
gonna be infusions they do blood
pressure readings. And what I noticed was
that when I was on a more stressful
rotation like surgery I would be hitting
like the 130s even though I was like
sitting in this chair comfortable. You
know 130s is not good for a 22 year old
so I began to see value in monitoring my
systolic blood pressure as they loose
proxy of sorts of you know my stress
management, my recovery, things like that.
Now the other thing
was back in med school during a skills
lab we were learning how to measure
blood pressure. I was measuring my friend's. You know, we're young guys, like 21-22 at
the time and I was measuring
130s consistently on him. And he's like
Kevin you must be doing something wrong, you don't know what you're doing.
So he goes and gets the instructor to come
retest him - same thing. 130's systolic and
in this young guy. Definitely not
ideal. This prompted him to tighten up
his diet and up his cardio and then a
few months later when we re-measured him
he was getting a much more reasonable low
120s in his systolic. Now like other
Withings devices it uses Bluetooth or
Wi-Fi and that way you don't have to
even look at your phone you just use the
device and then boom it magically syncs.
And it's super quick to use you slide
your arm in, you press the button once to
turn it on, press the button again to
start the measurement, and boom you're
done. It's rechargeable via a USB and it
lasts up to six months on a single
charge. If you want to check it out use
the coupon code MEDTECH for 20% off your
purchase of $99 or more.
Click the link in the description below.
So what do you guys think? Any other
awesome purchases under $100 that I
missed? Let me know with a comment down below. Much love, you guys in that next
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