The FUTURE of Study Habits | How to Study Smarter, Not Harder

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today we're gonna talk about how you can study efficiently. Rule number 3 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best. And as always, guys, as you're listening, if you hear something that really, really resonates with you, please leave it in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired. And also, as you write things down, you're much more likely to keep it in here as well. Enjoy!

And you may have heard of the Pomodoro Technique. Everyone talks about it, but in case you haven't, it's simply a technique where you set a timer for about 25 minutes, classically, and then you work only on one task during that 25-minute session. And I think a I know a lot of people do this and it's very useful, but there are some areas for improvement that I don't think a lot of people take advantage of. Let me just rapid-fire give them to you. Number 1, and I talked about how much I'm a fan of the Beeminder app, the Beeminder blog is also a good resource for productivity techniques and experiments. One of the things that they talk about is this thing they do called TOCs. A TOC is essentially a Pomodoro session, except for they use about 45 minutes and then take 15-minute breaks instead of the classic 25-minute, 5-minute break structure. The tip here is to experiment with the time intervals. Don't just set yourself to 25 minutes and assume that that's the only potential interval that you could study at. Find what works for you. And the other one is to put a piece of paper next to you during your Pomodoro session, and whenever anything comes up that distracts you, maybe a phone call or the urge to check Facebook or something, write it down. Now, this lets you do two things. One, you can remember what the distraction was, and if it happened to be something urgent, you can take care of it during your break time, but two, as you continue to do lots of Pomodoro sessions over months and months, you start to see what are the common problem points, what comes up a lot that distracts you, and then you can take steps to prevent these things. So maybe if it's your phone, you forget to put it in do not disturb mode. Well, you can do that now. If it's a certain website that you really want to visit because it's just so distracting and draws you in, then you can use an extension like StayFocusd on Chrome to block it during your study sessions. Very useful stuff.

You have to schedule your time. Don't just stuff studying into cracks in your schedule. Your schedule should be built around studying. What does this mean? This means have an exact set time during the day when you start to study. For me, I remember it was about 6 PM. I would always say to myself, okay, 6 PM, I get back from school, I rest a little bit, and then at 6 PM, that's my study time. It starts. How long does it go? Well, that depends on how much assignments and homework I have, but it would go for at least an hour or two, and sometimes it would go for 4 or 5 or 6 hours. And it would start at 6, and you would usually end like around 9 or 10 or after that, and it would vary. But I think what's really important is to have that starting time, 6, no matter what, 6, sit down and study. Open the books, sit down, study. It doesn't have to be 6 for you, just come up with your own time. And you're doing this every single day. What's important about this is that it leads us to the next point, which is you have to get comfortable and you have to slow yourself down in order to study effectively. You can't rush the studying process. And one of the secrets that I use is simply brute force, right? A lot of the issues as a student that I dealt with, the things that I couldn't understand, I just brute forced them through repetition. And this repetition can take time. Also, you know, you have to be patient with yourself. Sometimes you're not going to understand the problem right off the bat. So you just kind of repeat it, repeat it, mull it over, mull it over, and that means sometimes it takes you longer. So instead of finishing a quick little math assignment in an hour, it might take you 3 hours. But that's worth it if you calm yourself down, get comfortable, slow yourself down, kind of open yourself to absorbing this information. Right, this is where the love of it comes in. If you don't love it and what you're doing is you're just kind of rush studying through stuff just to learn it, like cramming for an exam, that's just horrible. That's horrible, 'cause all you're trying to do is you're jumping, you're like a dog jumping through hoops. That's basically what you are when you're doing that. Because you're saying to yourself, well, I gotta pass this exam in order to get into college to get good grades so my parents like me. That's just hoops like a dog you're jumping through. Don't do that. Instead, what you think about is like this. Okay, this subject matter is really fascinating. Let me study more. Let me learn more. I wanna know how math interconnects with history, and I wanna know how history interconnects with science, and I wanna know how this and this connect, and I wanna know more depth about this thing here. That's how you gotta think.

My general process is, you can think of it as DISS, so D-S-S-S, okay? And the first step is deconstruction, and that entails taking learn X, which is generally very large and nebulous, learn Spanish, and breaking it down into component parts and making it a measurable goal, as opposed to just learn Spanish. I'm trying to learn, because that doesn't have an endpoint, and what that means with no endpoint is that you can't celebrate passing certain milestones. So first is kind of deciding on exactly what you're trying to accomplish, and then asking a set of questions, either to Google and/or to experts, such as, who's good at this who shouldn't be? That's a very important one. So if I'm looking at, say, ultra-endurance running, I would say, who's good at this who shouldn't be? The people who are already built like spiders, they're genetically predisposed to be very good at this. So they might be succeeding despite bad training habits. I wanna find the person who has bad attributes, like somebody who's 240 pounds. Yeah, yeah, I'll leave you the soccer, but it's like you could find somebody who's, and I did, somebody who's like 230, 240 pounds, really big, maybe a little chunky, and they still run 50, 100 mile races. That means most likely that they are compensating for bad attributes with good training. I would say who are the best coaches and who are the most controversial coaches coaches. Ooh, controversy. Mm-hmm, and look at the training methodologies of the coaches, and the most important thing there is not was the coach formerly extremely successful in their chosen sport, although that's helpful, were they able to replicate their results. Great, so I've lost track, are we in the D still? Still in D. Okay, D, we're deconstructing. So deconstructing, that's I would say the most important information gathering phase. The next is selection, and that's doing an 80/20 analysis, so looking at the many different ways you could train for your goal, which you've already defined, or practice for it, say with Spanish, like one-on-one lessons versus textbook versus this versus that versus the other thing versus vocabulary memorization. What are the 20% that are going to get me 80% to my goal? What are the critical few? And then focusing on those. So you would do this selection process, and very often with, say, language, it's the highest frequency Easy words.

You don't have to learn—

The top 1,000 words, or whatever. Yeah, top 1,000 words are gonna get you through 75%, 80% of any conversation. Then you have sequencing, putting things in the right order. This is, I think, the most neglected secret sauce. It's like, how do you take what you've decided, what you've gathered, and put it into a logical progression? This is where things often fail. Like, doing this first, then this, then this. Yeah, like, for each skill, asking yourself, like, what are the prerequisites to this skill? I'm doing that right now in gymnastics. So like for a press handstand or for a, like a planche, it's a little easier to describe. So planche is like a pushup on the ground. You lean forward so your shoulders are way out here and then you lift your feet off the ground. Okay, so what are the prerequisites to a planche? Like for people who can't do it, what are the prereqs? And if someone says, well, like today we're gonna practice this. Well, what should I be able to do before this? Technically and physically. Maybe even emotionally, right, if you're trying to learn how to be an EMT or something like that. Okay, that's how you piece together this sequence. I spend a lot of time on the sequencing, but this is the exact order that I follow. And the last one, which is almost universally neglected— The third S. The third S is stakes. Not steaks like on a grill, but stakes like through a vampire chest, meaning consequences. You need to build in incentives, because for most of us who are trying to learn something, not always, —Sure. —These are extracurriculars, right? So if you're trying to learn something for your job, the incentive is don't get fired or get a raise, right? You have built-in incentives. But for I'm going to learn fill in the blank, right? I'm gonna learn how to play tennis in my spare time, or try to learn a little bit of French before I go to France like 6 months from now. Those are extracurriculars, and they will get crowded out of your life if you don't build in incentives meaning rewards or punishments. So you can certainly read all about this in The 4-Hour Chef, but the basic idea, I'll give you one example, would be a betting pool. That could be with like a friend, where if you miss a workout, you have to pay your friend a certain amount of money. Could be a dollar, could be $5. [Speaker] Could be $100. [Speaker] I know someone who works at Google, makes a lot of money, who had an arrangement with his training partner, they had to pay each other a dollar if they missed a workout, and that was the first time He stuck with his workout, lost 100 pounds. Wow, fuck. So the amount can have a disproportionate impact. But I also know people, for instance, who get together 4 or 5 friends and they'll have a competition, like who loses the most body fat by X point in time, 8 weeks from now. Great, you wanna learn how to exercise properly with the goal of losing fat? Put some money on the line. You will work infinitely harder to not lose $100 than you will to make $100. The stakes, I think, is, the consequences are very important. You can find, say, accountability coaches through places like stickk.com, S-T-I-C-K-K dot com, coach.me, which I'm actually have, I have some involvement with, and others. But you need incentives. You're only gonna be as faithful to your goals as your incentives compel you to be. That's it. Sweet. So let's, quick recap. Deconstruction. Deconstruct. What's the first S? Selection. 80/20 analysis. Second S? 80/20 analysis. Then the second S is sequencing, putting things in the right order. And the last S is stakes. Stakes. There you go. Diss it. Diss.

Step number 4 is clear your mind of all distractions. I used to hold the record for the fastest to memorize a deck of cards in the United States. And sometimes before I would memorize a deck of cards, my brain would be worried about things in my life or things that were going on. So what I would do to clear my mind of all distractions is I would close I would close my eyes and I would visualize those scenarios the way that I wish they were or the way that I hope they would be one day. And then I would open my eyes, I would be relieved of that stress, and then I would memorize a deck of cards. Clear your mind of all distractions. Maybe close your eyes and visualize the things the way you wish they could be and then focus on your studying.

A lot of people just jump in, they say, "Oh, I wanna learn faster, I wanna learn speed reading, I wanna learn, you know, a new language, I wanna learn all these new skills, I wanna learn all these things." And what is happening is people are very transient with their learning goals. What do I mean by that? I mean they're kind of phony about it. They really don't want to learn. They say, "I'd like to learn this. I'd like to learn that. Someday I'd like to learn this. Someday I'd like to learn French. Someday I'd like to learn how to do photos. Somedays I'd like to blog. Someday I'd like to do video." And they never actually learn it because learning doesn't happen someday. It has to happen consistently. And that's the thing. If we're really going to get to the point where you learn something faster, we have to approach learning itself differently. It can't be these one-off little goals of little things we want to learn. That doesn't work for people. They don't stay consistent, just like people don't stay consistent on a diet if just their goal is to lose 5 pounds. There has to be a broader vision for who they are and what they want to be about and what they want their life to be about. If they're gonna stay on a diet. Same thing for learning. If you're going to stay on a learning habit, then you have to have a bigger vision for yourself. So let's start with this conversation. If you wanna learn something faster, you must first and foremost know the connection between what you wanna learn and your dream life, your real lifestyle that you want to have. I tell people all the time, like, don't just come up with things you wanna learn, 'cause guess what? We wanna learn everything. By human build, we are curious animals. We're deathly curious. I mean, we are literally the curiosity killed the cat sort of society right now. Everyone wants to learn 50 new things immediately, but no one ever learns anything. Why? Because it's not real for them. It's a transient desire. If you want to become a great learner, it has to be attached to a dream life of yours, a true lifestyle that you see to see for yourself. Let me give you an example. Lots of people say, I'd like to learn some French. Ah, someday I'm gonna learn French. Someday I'll learn how to talk French because it's a romantic language, I like the food, and they give lots of allowances on cheese and wine, I like that, right? So, I'm French, I can say a little bit of that, okay?

So, I have a little piece of French in me, I should say.

So here's what's happening. If I don't have the vision for myself someday going to experience France, or someday going to a place where they speak French, or someday having real interactions with a human being speaking French, and it's important to me, and it's a deep sort of dream, desire, vision for that, I'm never going to do the work to actually learn French. There's no why there. You have to know what you want of your life before you become a master learner. Let me say that again. You have to know what you want of your life before you become a master learner. Until I know what I want my life to be about, what I want to experience on a daily basis, what I want my dreams to be, who I want to be, I don't know what to learn. I'm just gonna be curious about things and I'll dabble in them. But that path to real true mastery is that part where we say, "Okay, what do I want my life to be about? Now let me develop the knowledge, the skills, the competencies, the capabilities to build into that life." and that's where you get someone who becomes a master learner. Now, I'm not saying you have to know your ultimate purpose in life before you can learn anything. I'm just saying if you want to learn faster, start figuring out that purpose. Start figuring out your direction.

You'll learn a lot faster. My favorite study hack in university was to listen to music. Not just any music, specifically it was the Phantom of the Opera instrumental soundtrack and the Jurassic Park instrumental soundtrack, and I listened to those over and over over and over and over again, and I didn't know why. I just felt like it helped me be more receptive to the information. I felt that I absorbed it more and I could study better, and I just looped those tracks over and over and over and over and over again. Now, science has shown us that listening to instrumental music, especially Mozart, if you can handle Mozart music, that really can get you in the zone and really open your mind up and be receptive to information coming in. We've gone so far as to even make playlists for studying that you could check out in our Entvibe series. And so music, I feel, is really important. I think music sets the tone for a lot of things, whatever you're trying to do in life. If you want to be motivated, you can listen to inspiring soundtracks. If you want to focus, you can listen to instrumental classical music. For studying especially, I found that that really, really, really helped. And so I would encourage you to make a playlist that is focused on instrumentals. You could try the ones that we put together, or you can create your own. Just make sure that they're instrumental, there's no lyrics because the lyrics can distract you, and that you're playing the same songs repeatedly over and over and over and over again so you don't get too distracted and go somewhere else. So that was my biggest study hack that really helped me through university, and I hope it helps you too. Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Ruchita Dargar asked me to. So if there's a topic you'd like me to cover in the next edition of Believe Life, leave it down in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know what did you learn from this video? What was your favorite takeaway? How are you now gonna study more efficiently? What did you learn or do you have a tip to share as well? Please leave it down in the comments below. I'm excited to find out what you guys have to say. Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Wolf Suka. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, "Your One Word." It really, really, really means a lot to me and I hope you're enjoying the read. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love, have an amazing day, and I'll see you soon.

Nobody's born smart. We all start at zero. Can't talk, can't walk, certainly can't do algebra. Adding, reading, writing, riding a bike. Nobody's good at anything at first. There was a time when Einstein couldn't count to 10. And Shakespeare had to learn his ABCs just like the rest of us. Thankfully, we're born to learn. Slowly, surely, you stumble, slip, crawl, fall, and fail, and fall. Frustrating, confusing, trying, struggling. Until one day, you walk. One foot in front of the other, one idea on top of the next, each wrong answer making your brain a little bit stronger. Failing is just another word for growing, and you keep going. This is learning. Knowing that you'll get it, even if you haven't gotten it yet. Because the most beautiful, complex concepts in the whole universe are built on basic ideas that anyone, anywhere can understand. Whoever you are, wherever you are, you only have to know one thing: You can learn anything.