Making time for fun

Medical school takes a lot of time for the typical person (including me). Sometimes when I'm goofing off doing something fun with the family I wonder if I'm taking too much time away from my studies. Yes, balance is important but if you get behind in keeping up with the material it can be hard to catch up and that creates stress ... thus there is an incentive to work hard all along, at least for me. Yesterday we had a class picnic and I never thought about studying -- probably because there was a lot going on in terms of physical activity. Because of the parking situation I hauled a 40 lb bar-b-que gill about half mile or so and go a pretty good workout even before the picnic really started for me. We ran a lot, played frisbee, volleyball and the like. Usually when I work out, I'm back studying after about an hour. This was a multi-hour deal and that was probably key to unwinding. I was always under the impression that is better to spend time throughout the week to work out or goof off. That usually means its going to be fairly short. The picnic showed me that sometimes you need several hours to completely get your mind off things and refreshed.