My day with Craft: Life as a Chief Medical Resident

Craft is used as a deeply nested “second brain” to keep a chief internal medicine resident on top of weekly communications, student onboarding, clinical follow-ups, research writing, and day-to-day patient documentation—without getting trapped in folder chaos. The core advantage is how documents can be nested as deeply as needed and linked together, letting the resident jump between related materials instantly while keeping everything in one place.

A central example is a self-made “chief resident survival guide,” built to support recurring weekly emails and program logistics. Weekly drafts start by separating past work from new ideas, then pulling in timely resources such as podcast links and practice questions. Drafts are duplicated forward using a keyboard shortcut so each week begins with the same structure. Sections are color-coded and arranged using Craft’s block formatting for a clean, scannable layout. When the email is exported, attachments can be included in a way that remains accessible via web links, and highlighting helps distinguish key text from surrounding context.

Beyond emails, Craft becomes the control center for coordinating medical students. Student rotations are organized in a collection sorted by start date, with custom views that hide completed items and focus only on upcoming rotations—optionally limited to the next 30 days. Categories track onboarding progress through checkboxes, preventing people from “sliding through the cracks.” The system also supports follow-through: tasks and reminders are used to schedule email follow-ups, with Craft sending custom reminders at the right time.

Craft also supports longer-form academic work. Research writing is tracked through a staged document workflow—rough draft, refined draft, first submission, suggested edits, and final version—ending with a PDF for quick reference. The workflow benefits from Craft’s nesting so drafts and supporting materials stay connected rather than scattered across separate folders.

For clinical knowledge, Craft functions as a reference library for internal medicine. Notes are taken while reading guidelines and research articles, with rich linked content and embedded guideline figures—for example, heart failure staging and symptom classification—organized into collapsible toggle lists. This design keeps information accessible without forcing constant navigation between pages, and it adapts visually for mobile or larger iPad/MacBook screens.

Finally, Craft is used for operational tracking during overnight shifts. A “today” template is inserted via a slash command, and a “night log” shortcut applies consistent formatting to quick patient updates (e.g., recording a fever with room number). Those entries are summarized for the day team, and the resident can track which team members have admitted patients and which tasks remain incomplete, including setting short-interval reminders (like 20 minutes) to ensure follow-up happens.

Overall, the transcript frames Craft less as a note-taking app and more as an integrated workflow system—email engine, onboarding tracker, research pipeline, clinical second brain, and shift log—built around nesting, linking, templates, reminders, and structured collections.