How to Study With Me (Instructions)
Summary
TLDRIn this instructional video, Justin introduces a guided study method designed to enhance focus and comprehension. The approach involves initial preparation to optimize the study environment, followed by deep breathing for a focus ritual. It emphasizes creating a 'maybe map' to hypothesize connections between concepts, and iterative evaluation to understand and integrate new information into a coherent mental model. The method also includes active relaxation breaks and the use of questions to maintain curiosity and direct thought. This structured study technique aims to improve efficiency and retention, particularly for conceptually dense subjects.
Takeaways
- 📚 The video is an instructional guide for a study method called 'Study with Me', which includes a video to watch while studying to guide you through the process.
- 🛠️ The 'Study with Me' video is structured with different phases to optimize study efficiency, including preparation, deep breathing for focus, and active relaxation.
- 🌿 The preparation phase emphasizes creating an optimal study environment with minimal distractions and having beverages available for comfort.
- 🔕 It's recommended to use 'Do Not Disturb' modes on devices and inform others to avoid interruptions during the study session.
- 🎧 The use of white noise in the video is intended to aid concentration and is best experienced with headphones.
- 🌀 The deep breathing ritual before studying is meant to condition the mind into a focused state and should be felt with each exhale to increase calmness and focus.
- 🔍 The 'scoping' phase involves quickly reviewing study materials to identify and note the main concepts and keywords to create a foundational understanding.
- 🤔 'Maybe mapping' is a hypothesis phase where connections between concepts are guessed to form a basic mental model, even if it's not entirely correct.
- 🔑 The 'evaluation' phase is about understanding each keyword in depth and integrating it into the overall mental model, simplifying and refining the understanding with each step.
- ❓ After the evaluation, creating a list of questions captures current curiosity and knowledge gaps, which can guide the next study session.
- 🚶♂️ Active relaxation during breaks involves low cognitive load activities that keep the mind engaged but relaxed, such as housework or walking.
- 🔄 The cycle of deep breathing, questioning, evaluation, and active relaxation is repeated throughout the study session to maintain focus and efficiency.
Q & A
What is the purpose of the 'Guided Study with Me' video?
-The 'Guided Study with Me' video is designed to accompany viewers during their study sessions, providing a structured approach to studying with specific timings and actions for each phase of the study process.
Why is it important to optimize our environment before studying according to the video?
-Optimizing the study environment is crucial for minimizing distractions and ensuring a focus-friendly workspace, which is essential for maintaining concentration and enhancing the study experience.
What role does the white noise in the video play during the study session?
-The white noise in the video is intended to aid focus by providing a consistent background sound that can help drown out other potential distractions and create a more conducive atmosphere for concentration.
What is the significance of doing five deep breaths before starting the study session?
-The five deep breaths serve as a focus ritual, helping to condition the mind to enter a focused state. It is believed to be helpful for relaxation and focus, and it sets the stage for the study session ahead.
What does the 'scoping' phase of the study session involve?
-Scoping involves quickly going through the study materials to identify and note down the main concepts and keywords. It's about creating a preliminary understanding of the content and what might be most important.
Can you explain the concept of 'maybe mapping' as introduced in the video?
-Maybe mapping is about creating a hypothesis on how the identified keywords and concepts might be connected. It's a scaffolding process that helps in forming a big-picture understanding, even if the initial connections are not entirely accurate.
What is the main goal of the 'evaluation' phase during the study session?
-The evaluation phase aims to make sense of the information learned by connecting each keyword or concept to the overall picture. It involves creating analogies, comparing concepts, and integrating them into a mental model to reduce the need for memorization.
How does the process of 'active relaxation' benefit the study session?
-Active relaxation during breaks helps maintain a productive and intentional mindset without overtaxing the brain. It allows the mind to relax while still engaging in low cognitive load activities, facilitating a smoother transition back into focused study.
What is the importance of creating a list of questions during the study session?
-Creating a list of questions captures the current state of curiosity and knowledge gaps, providing a snapshot of what is most pressing in the mind. These questions can be used to quickly re-engage the mind after a break and maintain the flow of learning.
How does the script suggest dealing with granular details during the initial stages of learning?
-The script advises against focusing on granular details when first learning something new. Instead, learners should master the simple concepts first before moving on to more complex or detailed understanding.
What is the recommended approach for managing detailed information that seems to require memorization?
-For detailed information that doesn't fit into the big picture, the script suggests offloading it onto a memorization tool like flashcards. This allows the learner to continue focusing on higher-level concepts without getting bogged down by specific details.
Outlines
📚 Study Preparation and Environment Optimization
This paragraph introduces the concept of a guided study video created by Justin. It emphasizes the importance of preparing the study environment to optimize focus, suggesting a workspace free from distractions and having beverages available. It also recommends using the guided study video with white noise to aid concentration and doing a deep breathing ritual to enter a focused state.
🌐 Scoping and Maybe Mapping for Conceptual Understanding
The second paragraph discusses the initial study phases of 'scoping' and 'maybe mapping.' Scoping involves quickly identifying key concepts from study materials, while maybe mapping is about hypothesizing how these concepts might be connected without needing to be correct initially. This process is meant to create a basic mental scaffold to prime deeper studying and improve memory and understanding.
🔍 Evaluation and Integration of Key Concepts
This section explains the evaluation phase of studying, where learners explore each keyword in depth and consider how it fits into the overall conceptual framework. It stresses the importance of making sense of information to reduce memorization needs and the use of analogies and comparisons to integrate concepts into a coherent mental model. The process involves active thinking and remapping to simplify and consolidate understanding.
❓ Question Formulation and Active Relaxation
The fourth paragraph focuses on formulating questions to identify knowledge gaps and curiosity points. It suggests using active relaxation during breaks to maintain productivity without high cognitive load, such as doing housework or going for a walk. This approach helps to retain the flow state and quickly re-enter it after breaks by pondering over the formulated questions.
🔄 Cyclical Study Process and Progressive Learning
The final paragraph outlines the cyclical nature of the study process, which includes evaluation, question formulation, active relaxation, and returning to the study with a focus on questions. It highlights the importance of progressive learning, starting with a broad understanding before moving into deeper details, and the use of memorization tools for specific details. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the general applicability of this study method for various subjects, especially those with dense conceptual content.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Guided Study
💡Optimizing Environment
💡Deep Breaths
💡Scoping
💡Maybe Mapping
💡Evaluation
💡Nonlinear Note Taking
💡Active Relaxation
💡Cognitive Load
💡Flashcards
💡Progressive Levels of Detail
Highlights
Introduction of a guided study method with a video to assist in the study process.
The importance of optimizing the study environment to minimize distractions.
Suggestion to have beverages available during study to maintain comfort.
Recommendation to use the 'Do Not Disturb' function on devices to eliminate predictable distractions.
Use of white noise in the study video to aid concentration.
The significance of deep breathing as a focus ritual to prepare for a concentrated state.
The concept of 'scoping' resources to identify main concepts and keywords before deep study.
The technique of 'maybe mapping' to hypothesize connections between identified keywords.
Emphasis on the value of creating a mental model even if it's not entirely accurate.
The evaluation phase where learners explore and integrate each keyword into their mental model.
The necessity of nonlinear note-taking for efficient learning and understanding.
The strategy of simplifying and consolidating information to prevent cognitive overload.
Creating a list of questions to identify knowledge gaps and spark curiosity.
Active relaxation during breaks to maintain productivity without high cognitive load.
Resuming study sessions with deep breathing to re-enter a focused state.
Continuation of the evaluation process with a focus on big-picture understanding before details.
The use of memorization tools like flashcards for specific technical details.
The progressive layering of learning from simple to complex terms and concepts.
The applicability of this study method to various subjects, especially those that are conceptually dense.
Inclusion of elements from techniques like Pomodoro in the guided study method for effective time management.
Final encouragement to utilize the guided study video and begin the study process.
Transcripts
hey everyone it's Justin here this is a
instruction video for the guided study
with me that I've created you can find a
link to that one in the description the
idea is that you watch the guided study
with me video while you are studying and
it's going to go through the timings and
what you should do at each stage and
then you can well study with me I guess
uh and then this video is the one that
tells you what to do during those phases
the difference between normal study with
MES and then the one that I've created
is that the techniques are not the most
straightforward or intuitive to use
unless you've already had prior training
or you've been watching a lot of my
content so I'm going to go through and
explain how that guided study with me is
structured why it's structured that way
what you should do at each phase and you
can go away and watch that study with me
video while you're actually studying and
not get distracted by uh explanations
and instructions during it so the idea
with that study was with me is that it's
broken up into a couple of different
phases the first thing is the general
prep phase and during the prep phase uh
it's just about making sure that we're
in the best situation before we start
studying what we're really talking about
here is optimizing our
environment so making sure that we've
got a nice workpace distraction free uh
you know we're able to focus in I would
recommend having something like water or
tea or coffee or something with you I
usually like to have one hot beverage
and then one cold beverage it just makes
me feel good don't ask me why the next
thing is to make sure that we are
proactively trying to eliminate any
distractions that we can predict so this
means putting your phone and things on
do not disturb your computer on do not
disturb telling people that maybe
physically around you don't disturb me
uh and just doing what you can to make
sure that during your focus session
there isn't going to be something
preventable to take you out of flow the
other thing that I'd recommend is that
in that video there is some white noise
that's playing as well this is designed
to help you focus so I would recommend
watching that video with headphones on
if you can the next part after we've
done the preparation is to do five deep
breaths and the reason we're doing these
five deep breaths is uh to create a
focus ritual it's like a routine
activity that you do before you enter
into a focused State not only is there
some evidence to say that really deep
slow breaths is helpful for helping us
focus and relax but it also can be
created as almost like a prefocused
ritual which means that the deep breaths
over time slowly help us to condition
ourselves into entering into that focus
zone it's not enough just to do the deep
breaths um you have to actually try to
let yourself feel that as you breathing
out you are getting a little bit more
calm a little bit more focused and more
zoned in with each breath I would also
recommend doing a like Max inhalation
and the way that you do this is you take
a deep breath in you try to use your
diaphragm to Brea breathe in so don't
breathe in like like that but breathe in
outwards you can't see cuz you can see
here there you go so you're
breathing outwards with the diaphragm um
and then once you breath in all the way
then you breathe in again
so and then that allows you to get that
extra level of inhalation to get that
maximum breath and then a slow exhale
and then you do that five times and
across the each breath you try to think
of yourself getting more and more
focused in after you do your deep
breaths
which naturally doesn't take that long
uh we're starting our first studying
phase which is
scoping scoping should only take a few
minutes and the idea with scoping is
that you're just going to go through
your resources and you want to have
really all of the resources laid out
already this might be a textbook it
could be a you know lecture slides it
could be a um you know a course guide
articles online whatever it is go
through very very quickly and just pick
out and write down what you think are
the main most important Concepts so uh
you you'd create essentially like a Word
document you might type this out if
you'd like with just a list of the most
important Concepts and keywords you
don't have to get it fully right it
doesn't have to be like Mega
comprehensive if you can get what seem
like generally the most important that's
going to be enough to work with again
again you really can't do this part
wrong I would recommend that if you're
doing a reasonable study block aim to
get at least 10 different keywords on
this page and probably not more than 20
or 30 so again it's not about getting
every single bolded word on there it's
about being a bit more Discerning about
what you think is the most important and
and starting with that so after we do
that for a few minutes we're then moving
on to the next step which I've talked
about a lot of my other videos and I've
decided to just give this a name which
is called maybe
mapping and I say maybe mapping because
what you're doing here is just a
hypothesis the idea with maybe mapping
is that we're going to take the items
and the keywords that we had just scoped
out we're going to look through those
words and we're going to create a
hypothesis on how we think those words
might be connected with each other we
want to try to create some very basic
scaffold that's a technical term for it
the idea here is that it's just a maybe
you don't have to be right in fact
you're almost definitely going to be
wrong but it's just getting our brain
thinking about how it all fits together
in a big picture and having that big
picture reference point is going to be
hugely beneficial as a priming step
before we get into the deepest studying
it's going to make content less
overwhelming it's going to make our
memory better it's one of the most
beneficial things that you can do for
studying and it's one of the things that
less efficient Learners commonly skip
because they don't understand the value
of it they're just like oh I just need
to get through the content I don't want
to waste time doing this it's not a
waste of time because when you invest
your time to create a hypothetical
scaffold and a mental model for you to
think through even if it's wrong even if
it's completely wrong there is a strong
benefit to helping you manage and
process any new information that comes
in after that
so uh just spend I would recommend
spending around about 10 minutes or so
trying to create a map you're going to
be wrong try to do your best if there
are words that you're looking at and you
don't even understand the meaning of
that word at all whatsoever then just do
a very quick Google search and just read
like literally a couple lines you should
never be reading or thinking about it
for more than like 30 seconds it's just
enough for you to get a very very very
general superficial understanding of
that word to construct a maybe map and
again it's not that you're trying to get
it right it's that you're trying to
figure it out create some kind of model
and then you can work off of that if you
find this process really difficult and
you're like kind of paralyzed there not
able to map anything out at all this is
a very very high yield thing that you
will need to work on it probably means
that you're not used to relational
thinking or higher Ro of learning in
general and that's actually going to be
a limitation for your studying
efficiency for life this is something
you have to learn to be able to do if
you want to become a more efficient
learner very black and white so after
we've done a maybe map we should already
have a general understanding about how
some of these ideas might relate to each
other and that can in some cases make us
naturally more curious about it as well
the next step after doing this is the EV
valuation and this is the first round of
evaluation that we're doing the
evaluation is the part where we're now
going to go through and learn more about
each of the key wordss if you are more
comfortable with this you can actually
start at whatever keyword you feel is
the most relevant for you if you're a
beginner at thinking in this way just
start at the beginning but every time
you learn about one keyword or a concept
I I want you to take a step back look at
your overall picture and ask yourself
how does this fit inside the overall
picture and there are a number of
objectives that I want you to have on
the front of your mind you may want to
even just have this like literally front
and center on the study with me video
you'll see that this actually pops up
during the evaluation process all the
time on screen so you've got it as
reference the idea with evaluation is
that you want to make sense of the
information you want to make sense of it
which means we're trying to make it more
obvious we're trying to reduce our need
for memorization so anything that you
feel man I need to repeat this and do it
again and again for me to stick it in my
brain that's a red flag we want to think
how could I think about this how could I
connect it create an analogy for it
integrated into a network so that I
don't need to do that repetition or at
least I don't feel like it's slipping
away
imminently so we're creating analogies
we're actively comparing that concept
with other Concepts and we're asking
ourselves how does it fit in the big
picture you want to do this after every
concept or every keyword because if you
go through three or four Concepts and
then you take a step back to see how it
integrates it's much more overwhelming
because you've got so many more pieces
that you have to try to think about it's
much easier to say do one concept take a
step back integrate it with the big
picture see how that changes our mental
model maybe if we've mapped it out first
uh then we can we can redo
it uh if you're at a point where your
nonlinear note taking skills are still
relatively new then this may be
something that you find a little bit
more challenging but just keep pushing
at it nonlinear note taking again is one
of those things that you really need to
get good at because linear note taking
is just so so limited if you have not
even tried nonlinear note taking before
in the first place then I would very
strongly recommend checking out my video
on uh nonlinear note taking before doing
the study with me because otherwise you
you're really going to struggle a lot so
this evaluation process involves a lot
of back and forth your going to your
keyword list that you've created you're
going to your textbook references or
lecture slides or Google search you're
exploring it and after you've understood
that concept you're then straight away
going okay take a step back how does
that fit within my big picture you're
remapping moving things around adding
other arrows thinking about it a lot of
this time is spent in your head just
thinking and trying to put the puzzle
together okay it should feel like you're
trying to put a puzzle together and then
once you feel like okay I think that's
how it fits that makes sense to me then
you're going to move on to the next
keyword and then go back evaluate you
know learn more about it and then add it
to your map and then think okay well how
does that fit with what I've already got
on my map all the other things how does
it fit in the big
picture you know refine it a bit add
more arrows move things around and then
once you feel like that makes sense
we're going back to the keyword so we're
doing that process again and again a lot
of this time is spent just in our heads
thinking and then refining and
consolidating and simplifying the map as
we go you absolutely absolutely want to
have the feeling that as you are
learning more the map is becoming easier
and simpler to understand the amount of
overwhelm you feel should go down as you
keep studying if you find that as you
are studying it's getting harder and
harder to keep track of what's going on
it means that you're either not pulling
out to look at the big picture and like
often enough or when you are you're not
simplifying it to a level that makes
sense enough before you move on this is
something that we call multiple element
interactivity which is part of cognitive
load Theory which is the idea that when
there are too many things that our brain
is trying to process it struggles and
enters into overload which is a
detrimental effect on our learning
memory efficiency understanding so we
want to make sure that when we learn
something we're then exerting mental
effort and time to simplify it and
consolidate it to a point where we can
look at it and think yep I feel like
that makes sense to me and then we're
ready to move on we don't want to just
be overloading overloading overloading
and overloading because even though we
may be covering content physically very
quickly in terms of what's happening in
our brain we're actually going to be
operating a very low efficiency and
you're going to have to pay the
consequences of that in future sessions
because you forgot on half of everything
that you've learned and that's
ultimately the biggest waste of time so
after we do our evaluation period which
lasts usually at least 30 minutes maybe
potentially more if you're really
focused then we move on to questions
when we do the questions part we want to
deliberately think about what are the
gaps in my knowledge right now what are
the things I'm most curious about and if
you're not really curious about
something try to be curious about
something and we're going to create a
list of questions that are the most
pressing on our mind that reflect the
direction that we're thinking in because
after the questions we're going to take
a break so the questions are really good
as almost like a here's a current
snapshot of what I'm thinking about
where I'm curious at where I want my
mind to be directed towards and then
when we come back into the session we
can use the questions to springboard
ourselves back into that deep Flow State
very quickly and pick up from where we
left off you can have you know as few as
three or four questions I would probably
not spend you know too long on this just
a few minutes writing down some of the
pertinent questions after we have
written some questions we're now going
to enter into an active relaxation
period active relaxation means that we
are doing something in our break the
active relaxation part is important
because we don't want to then go off and
watch like a like your favorite Netflix
show or uh get into like a really deep
meaningful conversation with someone
that's going to take ages or play your
favorite online game those are not
things that even though they may be
relaxing they're not things that are
going to help you to get back into a
flow state after the break obviously if
you don't have any more time to study
and that's your session done you can go
do whatever you want but if you need to
come back into another session straight
after this then uh you want to make sure
you're doing something that's somewhat
productive during this time but not
mentally taxing so what that means is
that this task needs to have a low level
of
cognitive load otherwise known as mental
effort however it should be something
that is generally productive a great
example of this is actually housework
cleaning your room organizing something
these are methodical you could think of
them as almost like tedious but mindful
tasks that don't require lots of
thinking if cleaning your room makes you
Mega stressed then maybe
don't do that do something else instead
another really good one is to just take
a walk go for a stroll getting some kind
of movement or physical activity
in is really
beneficial and in fact you can even take
the questions that you wrote before your
break with you on a walk and then while
you're walking just generally think
about those questions and what the
answers might be we're almost creating a
mini maybe map just in our brain and
again we don't want to be like super
super focused on this we do want our
brain a chance to just relax cool off
but still stay in that productive
intentional mode once our active
relaxation time is up we're then going
to move back into the next session and
as before we want to start with having
some nice deep
breaths and just as before trying to get
into the Zone with each
breath and then after your fifth breath
we're then moving back in and this time
we're starting straight with the
questions that we had left over we'll
spend some time to explore the questions
and try to see what the answers to those
questions are this may naturally lead
you into the next phase which is another
round of
evaluation essentially what this means
is that we're picking up from where we
left off we're moving on to the the next
key concept the next key word the next
part in our material and we're going to
just continue going through that exactly
the same process as before and just
continuing to build on our map and get a
deeper and deeper understanding of
things but still keeping things
relatively big picture depth complexity
technical detail these are things that
happen in layers and only once you've
got a broad understanding at a big
picture then do we move on to a deeper
understanding add a big picture and then
we move into the progressive levels of
detail you should never ever really be
focused on F granular detail when you
are first starting to learn something if
you can't already explain it in simple
terms don't move on to trying to explain
it in more complex terms work with the
simple one first Master the simple then
Master the intermediate and then Master
the advanced and work in that way across
the entire topic and it's going to be
much more beneficial for your learning
efficiency as well as for your memory
another thing that we can do during this
evaluation period which is different to
what we were doing before is that we can
potentially start offloading some
material if we need to onto a
memorization tool such as flash cards so
if there is a particular detail that you
think this is really detailed I don't
see how it fits into the big picture
really at all it just seems like a very
very specific technical thing that I
probably have to end up root memorizing
then we can make the decision to then
put that into our flash cards as we go
and not have to worry about it too much
we can continue to move through that big
picture higher level conceptual stuff
instead and again we do this process uh
for the the bulk of the session and we
move back into leaving ourselves some
questions exactly like we did before
thinking about where our gaps might be
and then we move into another round of
active relaxation and this cycle
basically just repeats themselves this
is a cycle that we would continue to
work through every successive cycle and
when we move on to a new topic that is
now falling outside of what we initially
had scoped out before then we would
start again from this stage where we're
actually scoping it and if obviously
it's a whole new day a whole new session
we have to start from the beginning
where we're actually doing the
preparation as well so this General
cycle of studying is something that you
can apply really for any subject that
you're learning it is stronger for
subjects that are conceptually very
dense uh so for some subjects like
studying mathematics uh coding things
that are really procedurally heavy this
type of flow may not work the best for
you there's variations to this that uh
might be more relevant but for any type
of conceptual material uh medicine
Anatomy uh you know basically all the
stem subjects really uh history
economics philosophy accounting these
subjects are going to be ideal for this
type of flow it involves a lot of
scaffolding it involves active
management of your cognitive load it
involves elements that are made famous
by things like pomodora or fodora which
is the work rest timing and taking
active relaxation we've got priming
involved in it we've got nonlinear
relational note taking so there are a
lot of things in this that are going to
be very very beneficial for your memory
for your engagement you actually even
enjoyment of studying the topic and
ultimately it's going to save you time
and make you a better learner so with
the instructions out of the way you are
now ready to go and do your actual
studying check out the guided study with
me video the link is in the description
and happy
studying
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