From Today Until January 11: Entering Full Exam-Prep Mode, Please Do Not Disturb

From today until 10 a.m. on January 11, I will be in full exam-preparation mode. From the 4th through the 11th, seven straight days, I have an exam almost every day, running right through 10 a.m. on January 11. I hope readers will kindly leave me undisturbed during this period.

During the exams I will still write every day, but the posts will be very short, because the time I can spare each day is limited. I have studied Chinese medicine for nearly twenty years, and now, at age 46, I have gone back to university to study Western medicine—something even young people find taxing—while still handling some work to support my family. Yet I keep publishing an article every day. The workload is extraordinary, so anything nonessential has to be cut wherever possible.

Back in junior high, my older brother told me that a person must learn to divide things into important and unimportant matters, finish the important ones first, and learn to set aside even the unimportant ones that look urgent. I have followed that principle ever since and have never forgotten it. It is the key to efficient study and work; if you cannot tell the important from the trivial, you will waste a great deal of precious time.

Many readers have sent me casual chat messages over the years, which I have not answered; once too many pile up, I simply block them to avoid further interruption. I truly have no time to spend on such things, and I hope everyone understands. Over the next few years my studies come first, so I ask friends not to occupy my extremely limited time with nonessential matters.

My memory is not what it was when I was young, yet the central task of a medical education is memorizing the knowledge points of every professional course. Clinical medicine has more than fifty professional courses, each textbook a thick brick; students here say every year is as tense as the year of the college entrance exam. I can only devote far more time and energy than young people to master our courses and build a solid foundation. So I genuinely have no time to waste on things of little consequence.

Everyone has their own aspirations. Mine is to integrate Chinese and Western medicine and also master psychiatry, becoming a well-rounded medical learner who deeply understands the illnesses of body and mind. Such a goal demands enormous effort: I must overcome my own inertia and be strictly self-disciplined, or it will all be empty talk. I enjoy making friends, but this life is fated not to be as leisurely as most people’s. If you value our friendship, please understand this and keep the necessary boundaries.