How to Learn (a lot)

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00:00:34.000 | - Today, we're gonna talk about learning

00:00:36.660 | and how to learn more efficiently

00:00:40.000 | and essentially how to just learn a lot.

00:00:42.840 | Right now, the world is very big on change.

00:00:47.840 | Most of the work that I do didn't exist

00:00:51.680 | even a few years ago.

00:00:54.600 | And being able to learn and adapt is super essential,

00:01:01.320 | both in terms of just financial security

00:01:04.680 | in the modern world.

00:01:06.720 | And I also think in terms of your own personal fulfillment,

00:01:10.740 | if you are learning, you're usually happier,

00:01:14.900 | at least that's what I find.

00:01:16.320 | However, continuously learning new things all the time,

00:01:21.320 | if you don't do it properly,

00:01:25.280 | it can fry your brain very quickly.

00:01:29.040 | So what I want to talk about is how I approach learning

00:01:33.160 | because every single day I'm learning a ton of new things

00:01:37.240 | and how I do that without hitting burnout

00:01:40.600 | or at least trying to limit it as much as possible.

00:01:43.600 | So we'll cover, I think, five main things.

00:01:47.720 | We're gonna talk about change,

00:01:49.320 | what I like to call the learning energy bar,

00:01:52.140 | sleep, task switching,

00:01:54.240 | and also general motivation and discipline

00:01:58.320 | and how they kind of interact.

00:02:01.000 | So first I want to talk about change.

00:02:04.120 | Now, my experience with burnout

00:02:08.840 | is kind of different to what I see

00:02:11.840 | most people talking about.

00:02:13.200 | Most of these people are like,

00:02:14.320 | "Okay, burnout is when you're working too much

00:02:18.580 | "and don't have any breaks,

00:02:20.000 | "like the volume of work triggers the burnout."

00:02:23.000 | I think it's more like the continuous chipping away

00:02:27.760 | at a task without seeing much progress

00:02:30.760 | and without changing the task.

00:02:32.280 | I think that's what seems to trigger burnout,

00:02:34.080 | at least for me.

00:02:35.040 | So for me to avoid burnout, change is really important.

00:02:40.040 | So the ideal scenario here would be

00:02:43.200 | to find work that is incredibly varied

00:02:46.440 | so that every single day is like a new novel experience.

00:02:51.260 | However, I think that's unrealistic for a few reasons.

00:02:54.640 | First, I think if you need to,

00:02:56.720 | you want to master something, okay?

00:02:59.000 | In your professional life,

00:03:00.120 | you need to master some sort of craft,

00:03:02.320 | and you can't do that if you're not repeating

00:03:04.280 | some things over and over.

00:03:05.920 | And second, my work is pretty varied.

00:03:09.800 | I think more so now than it ever has been in the past.

00:03:14.040 | But I feel like if I relied purely on my job

00:03:19.040 | to provide variation and change in my life,

00:03:23.200 | then I would end up probably burning out.

00:03:26.280 | So it's bad advice if I'm like,

00:03:28.760 | "Oh, you need to change your job

00:03:30.560 | to have a more varied working day or working week."

00:03:35.440 | It's just not realistic in a lot of cases.

00:03:38.920 | Okay, I'm not saying it's not possible,

00:03:40.720 | but there are other things

00:03:42.280 | that we can change much more easier

00:03:44.320 | and get as good as or even better results.

00:03:47.840 | So the two options that work for me

00:03:50.040 | are changing my work environment

00:03:52.400 | and changing my focus.

00:03:55.480 | So trying my sports or doing some sort of hobby.

00:03:59.400 | So what do I do?

00:04:02.080 | One, I travel.

00:04:03.560 | So if you can travel with work, 100% try that.

00:04:08.120 | I know not everyone can,

00:04:09.520 | but I think a lot of us can at least work from home

00:04:12.280 | a few days a week.

00:04:13.400 | So even if you can do that, that's still good, right?

00:04:17.360 | Okay, you can't maybe not travel abroad,

00:04:19.600 | but you can travel within your own country,

00:04:21.920 | or you can even go to a local cafe

00:04:24.240 | and just work from there,

00:04:25.200 | or go to a local library and work from there,

00:04:27.680 | just for a change of scenery.

00:04:29.080 | It helps a lot.

00:04:30.240 | And the other, so changing our focus,

00:04:34.120 | this is something that I stumbled upon

00:04:36.360 | quite early in my life

00:04:38.800 | without even realizing until much later,

00:04:41.480 | which was going to the gym.

00:04:43.280 | And that gave me almost like a change in focus.

00:04:46.840 | Now, that's good for a few reasons.

00:04:48.960 | Okay, so sports in general are good for a few reasons.

00:04:52.200 | First, if you're more active, your body is healthier,

00:04:56.960 | and you have more energy,

00:04:58.680 | so you can do more essentially with each day

00:05:01.760 | without getting tired.

00:05:03.400 | Okay, so you increase your energy bar.

00:05:05.280 | And second, it gives you something else to focus on,

00:05:07.440 | something else to stop with,

00:05:10.000 | drilling away at the same task over and over again

00:05:13.400 | without any breaks.

00:05:14.560 | So there's two levels and maybe more

00:05:17.600 | to having some sort of sport to switch up your focus.

00:05:20.720 | And as I mentioned, those two points are completely valid,

00:05:24.600 | whether you're lifting heavy weights at the gym,

00:05:28.440 | practicing yoga, or like catching waves at the beach.

00:05:32.520 | All of those things and much more

00:05:35.240 | are all useful for this sort of thing.

00:05:37.520 | Okay, point number two is that we seem to have

00:05:40.840 | like a learning energy bar.

00:05:42.840 | So what I mean by that is with each day,

00:05:45.920 | you can view your learning energy bar

00:05:49.400 | as kind of like a health bar or stamina bar

00:05:52.120 | from a video game.

00:05:53.880 | And the more things you learn

00:05:56.280 | or the more things that you pay attention to,

00:05:59.000 | the more that's gonna decrease throughout the day, okay?

00:06:02.920 | And you only have a set amount of energy

00:06:07.360 | for learning every day.

00:06:09.880 | And the importance of this is if you use that energy

00:06:14.240 | on things that are less important.

00:06:16.080 | So learning something that maybe is less important

00:06:19.240 | as something else, or maybe you use it on not even learning,

00:06:22.400 | but just looking at social media or watching TV,

00:06:26.680 | something along those lines.

00:06:28.440 | Whenever you're doing these non-productive things,

00:06:30.680 | you're still kind of learning, your brain is being simulated

00:06:33.880 | and that decreases your learning energy bar.

00:06:37.000 | So what you need to do is prioritize what you need to learn

00:06:42.360 | and deprioritize things

00:06:43.920 | where you're not actually learning anything.

00:06:45.800 | So you start first thing in the morning

00:06:49.520 | and just try and start learning straight away

00:06:52.440 | or doing the important work first

00:06:55.120 | before you do anything else.

00:06:56.440 | Don't pick up your phone and look on social media

00:06:58.760 | because straight away, you wake up,

00:07:01.200 | you're depleting your energy bar

00:07:02.400 | and you're also setting the tone for the rest of the day.

00:07:04.720 | So I always try to be productive first thing

00:07:07.680 | and be very mindful of that energy bar.

00:07:12.440 | Now, the third very important thing is sleep.

00:07:16.120 | Now, this is very cliche advice,

00:07:20.440 | but I feel that not many people,

00:07:22.560 | including myself in the past, listen to this.

00:07:25.600 | You need plenty of sleep to function optimally.

00:07:30.520 | In the West, and actually, I think a lot of the world,

00:07:33.840 | there's this idea that successful people work hard

00:07:38.640 | and because they're working so hard, working so many hours,

00:07:41.480 | they don't have much time for sleep,

00:07:43.400 | but they're just so driven

00:07:44.720 | that they just push through it, it's fine.

00:07:48.320 | And I can't think of a scenario where this is a good thing.

00:07:52.320 | At least if you need to use your brain,

00:07:54.280 | your brain needs to have sleep.

00:07:56.200 | Sleep is like the oil that powers your brain.

00:08:00.040 | Every time you sleep, it kind of flushes out

00:08:02.200 | all of the rubbish and when you wake up in the morning,

00:08:06.600 | hopefully, your brain should be fresh, okay?

00:08:10.320 | But it's only gonna be like that if you get enough sleep.

00:08:13.160 | And how much is enough sleep?

00:08:15.140 | That's gonna vary for each person,

00:08:17.260 | but I would recommend you start with about eight hours.

00:08:21.240 | Okay, and then you can move up or down

00:08:23.160 | depending on how you feel based on that.

00:08:25.680 | Another thing that's super important

00:08:26.880 | is that you should try and wake up without an alarm, okay?

00:08:31.000 | So if you have to rely on waking up

00:08:32.560 | with an alarm every morning,

00:08:34.160 | that means you're probably sleeping too late.

00:08:36.660 | So you need to bring your sleeping time earlier

00:08:40.220 | in the day before and with that,

00:08:43.720 | you should over time begin waking up earlier as well.

00:08:48.520 | Like initially, sure, maybe you will need

00:08:50.480 | to keep that alarm clock,

00:08:52.080 | but just bring your bedtime earlier, sleep earlier,

00:08:56.280 | and another very important thing

00:08:59.160 | that is very understated when it comes to good sleep

00:09:02.640 | is having a routine with your sleep.

00:09:05.600 | Have a set time every single day,

00:09:07.640 | not just the weekdays, but also the weekend.

00:09:10.560 | A lot of people wake up really early on their weekdays

00:09:14.320 | and then on the weekend, they have a lie in

00:09:17.800 | and that's just not good.

00:09:20.680 | You need to have a routine.

00:09:22.520 | Try and like the same time every day if possible.

00:09:25.700 | Sleep is really important.

00:09:27.040 | It's definitely worth the time getting it right.

00:09:30.120 | The next thing is task switching.

00:09:32.900 | So what I mean by task switching is when we switch

00:09:37.640 | from doing one thing to another thing,

00:09:40.400 | which we do all the time, okay?

00:09:42.960 | But when it comes to your work and learning new things,

00:09:47.320 | I'll use examples for myself right now, okay?

00:09:49.880 | So let's say I need to edit a video, okay?

00:09:54.080 | Or I need to record and edit a video.

00:09:57.260 | And I also need to write an article

00:09:59.760 | on something unrelated, okay?

00:10:02.920 | And then I also need to do some freelance developer work.

00:10:07.920 | Okay, I need to do these three things throughout my week.

00:10:10.960 | What would be a really bad idea

00:10:13.040 | is if I do those three things

00:10:14.680 | or two of those three things every single day.

00:10:17.320 | That's really bad.

00:10:18.200 | What you need to do is cluster the tasks

00:10:22.040 | into bigger time buckets, okay?

00:10:25.680 | So the first two days what I should do

00:10:28.840 | is focus on the freelance developer work.

00:10:31.760 | The next two days I focus on recording and editing a video.

00:10:35.520 | And the final day maybe I focus on the writing the article.

00:10:40.520 | That is how you should break things up.

00:10:43.160 | Just try and cluster each task into the same time bracket

00:10:48.160 | and minimize that task switching

00:10:50.720 | where you're going from one task to another

00:10:52.120 | because every time you do that,

00:10:53.600 | your brain needs to kind of change what it's focusing on.

00:10:57.920 | And you will notice that when you're switching

00:11:01.240 | from one task to another,

00:11:02.160 | your brain kind of needs time

00:11:03.640 | to kind of easing into that other task, okay?

00:11:06.740 | So every time you switch to another task,

00:11:09.760 | you're wasting time.

00:11:11.640 | So minimize those switches as much as you can.

00:11:14.680 | It's not always possible.

00:11:16.100 | And let's say with your work,

00:11:18.720 | you do need to do one particular task every day,

00:11:21.840 | just try and do that at set time every day.

00:11:24.320 | I think that's probably the best approach

00:11:26.720 | if you are forced to switch tasks.

00:11:29.640 | The final point is motivation and discipline.

00:11:34.480 | Now, learning is a lot harder without real motivation.

00:11:39.480 | Now, motivation in itself is a very hard thing to achieve.

00:11:47.020 | And even if we do achieve motivation

00:11:49.420 | on a particular thing, it's a very fragile state of mind.

00:11:54.420 | And you're probably gonna lose it at some point, okay?

00:11:59.700 | It would be very impressive

00:12:00.900 | if you managed to stay motivated forever

00:12:02.740 | on a particular thing.

00:12:03.780 | It's probably not gonna happen.

00:12:05.860 | Motivation will come and go.

00:12:07.880 | And when it does go,

00:12:10.500 | there will be that inevitable moment

00:12:12.140 | when we are not motivated anymore.

00:12:14.380 | We have to then rely on discipline.

00:12:17.700 | And the best way to be disciplined is to have a schedule.

00:12:20.460 | Now, there's a quote I really like

00:12:22.500 | that I read in a book called "The War of Art."

00:12:27.500 | Not the art of war, the war of art.

00:12:30.780 | And it's a quote attributed to a Nobel Prize laureate

00:12:35.780 | and prolific writer, William Faulkner.

00:12:39.400 | William Faulkner describes this concept pretty well.

00:12:42.780 | When asked where he gets his inspiration to write from,

00:12:45.760 | he responded, "I only write when inspiration strikes.

00:12:49.100 | "Fortunately, it strikes at nine every morning."

00:12:52.940 | Now, the sort of joke or point

00:12:55.060 | that Faulkner is trying to make here is,

00:12:57.540 | okay, a writer is a creative discipline.

00:13:01.260 | You need to be somewhat inspired in order to do your work.

00:13:05.140 | But you can't just rely on that inspiration

00:13:08.340 | 'cause it's very much, it's the same as motivation.

00:13:10.580 | It can come and go.

00:13:12.320 | Instead, he relies on a disciplined approach

00:13:16.380 | to that inspiration or that motivation.

00:13:19.260 | So by almost scheduling that inspiration every day,

00:13:23.260 | his mind gets into that sort of mindset of,

00:13:25.860 | okay, it's nine a.m., I'm sat at my desk.

00:13:29.100 | Now is the time to work.

00:13:30.300 | Now is the time to be inspired.

00:13:31.980 | And even when he is not inspired,

00:13:33.740 | at least he sits there and he tries.

00:13:36.140 | You'd be surprised.

00:13:36.960 | It can actually trigger that motivation.

00:13:39.820 | It can trigger that inspiration.

00:13:41.560 | And even if you cannot trigger it,

00:13:43.380 | you at least try your best, okay?

00:13:45.780 | Maybe it will not be the best quality of work

00:13:48.420 | when you're not as motivated or inspired,

00:13:50.340 | but you will at least get something out.

00:13:52.740 | Now, both discipline and motivation together

00:13:55.940 | are both incredibly important for both learning

00:13:59.020 | and producing high-quality work.

00:14:01.820 | Now, there are the five points.

00:14:03.540 | And just to summarize,

00:14:05.680 | I think the active application of the brain,

00:14:09.060 | the brain is the biggest consumer of energy

00:14:12.180 | in the human body.

00:14:13.460 | So the active application of this massive sink of energy

00:14:17.980 | is hard, and you will use a lot of energy.

00:14:22.140 | But this ability to learn and adapt,

00:14:26.220 | it is our unique selling point in nature.

00:14:30.280 | And in industry, in tech, and in any other place,

00:14:36.040 | it is also your unique selling point, okay?

00:14:39.640 | If you can learn and adapt faster than others,

00:14:42.320 | you have a advantage to other people.

00:14:46.480 | And at the same time,

00:14:48.600 | if you're able to learn and adapt quicker,

00:14:51.320 | you can kind of scramble your way into doing something

00:14:54.640 | that you actually enjoy and something that fulfills you.

00:14:57.520 | And that's probably, I would say,

00:14:59.540 | the more important side of things,

00:15:02.320 | like trying to find something that you enjoy doing

00:15:05.000 | and being able to learn quick is,

00:15:07.920 | at least from my point of view, the way to do that.

00:15:10.700 | Now, learning to learn optimally,

00:15:13.440 | as far as I'm aware, never gets easy.

00:15:16.120 | It's always, like every day,

00:15:17.920 | it's almost like an upward, uphill struggle.

00:15:20.640 | You're always gonna be pushing the boulder up the hill.

00:15:23.880 | And I don't think that will ever end.

00:15:28.360 | But applying yourself in this way is incredibly fulfilling.

00:15:32.920 | And it's the way to achieve what I think

00:15:35.480 | most of us want to achieve in our lives.

00:15:37.640 | So even if it's just a little bit every day,

00:15:40.080 | just try and focus on learning.

00:15:42.480 | It pushes you up that hill.

00:15:43.760 | It gets you further along and makes your life progress.

00:15:48.200 | So that's it for this video.

00:15:50.760 | If you're interested in more videos like this,

00:15:52.800 | I feel like I have a lot to say on these sort of things,

00:15:55.840 | either on travel, learning, tech,

00:16:00.680 | you know, a huge number of things.

00:16:02.240 | So let me know if you're interested

00:16:03.460 | in hearing something else in that area.

00:16:06.680 | But for now, that's everything for this video.

00:16:09.960 | So I hope it has been useful.

00:16:13.200 | Thank you very much for watching,

00:16:14.360 | and I'll see you in the next one.

00:16:15.960 | Bye.

00:16:16.800 | (gentle music)

00:16:19.380 | (gentle music)

00:16:21.960 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

How to Learn (a lot)

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