My Extreme Productivity System (Learn ANY Programming Language)

Summary

The speaker shares insights into their productivity system, emphasizing the importance of daily consistency over sporadic, intense sessions. They advocate for an hour a day approach to learning, which accumulates to significant progress over time. The speaker also discusses the importance of finding one's optimal learning method, organizing information effectively, and tracking progress through daily word counts. They suggest starting with a crash course to gain context before delving into daily study routines, aiming for a balance between broad initial understanding and incremental mastery.

Takeaways

• 😀 Consistency is key to productivity; doing a small amount daily is more effective than doing a lot once a week.
• 🤔 The speaker admits to having character flaws that make it hard to stay focused and consistent, yet the system works for them.
• 🎼 Learning an instrument or any skill benefits more from daily practice rather than a long session once a week.
• 📈 The cumulative effect of daily practice adds up over time, equating to substantial focused time over the course of a year.
• 🧠 The importance of focusing on learning per period of time, rather than the total amount of time spent, is emphasized.
• 📚 The speaker's personal productivity system involves writing a certain number of words each day to quantify learning.
• 📝 The use of a tool like Notion for tracking and organizing information is mentioned as an effective method for the speaker.
• 📈 The concept of 'crash courses' is introduced as a way to quickly gain context and motivation for a new subject.
• 📉 The speaker's experience shows that the first hour of focused work is the most productive, with diminishing returns as time goes on.
• 📝 The speaker tracks their word count to ensure they are internalizing and organizing information effectively.
• 🔧 The system can be adapted to different learning preferences, such as writing code examples instead of descriptive text.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the video script?

The main theme of the video script is about the speaker's personal productivity system, which emphasizes the importance of daily consistent effort in learning new skills or improving existing ones.

Why does the speaker describe themselves as 'an average dummy'?

The speaker uses the term 'an average dummy' to convey that they are not exceptionally talented or gifted, and that their productivity system can work for anyone, including those who may not consider themselves naturally skilled or consistent.

What is the speaker's view on the importance of consistency in learning?

The speaker believes that consistency is crucial in learning, stating that doing something daily is more effective than doing it once a week, as it leads to a cumulative effect over time.

How does the speaker quantify their learning progress?

The speaker quantifies their learning progress by counting the number of words they write each day, which helps them track how much they are learning or getting done.

What tool does the speaker use to keep track of their learning notes?

The speaker uses a tool called Notion to keep track of their learning notes, which is code-friendly and allows for easy organization and structuring of information.

What is the significance of writing a thousand words a day according to the speaker?

Writing a thousand words a day is significant for the speaker as it serves as a tangible goal that helps them focus and internalize the information they are learning, with the idea that 500 words can cover a topic.

Why does the speaker suggest doing the opposite of their daily system when starting a new subject?

The speaker suggests doing the opposite, such as a crash course, to quickly gain context and change the way of thinking about a new subject, which can then be complemented by the daily system for long-term learning.

What is the speaker's approach to learning a new programming language?

The speaker's approach involves initially watching a crash course to get a broad understanding and then using daily focused study sessions to delve deeper and internalize the language's concepts and usage.

How does the speaker deal with topics that are challenging or out of their comfort zone?

The speaker acknowledges that when studying challenging topics, they might not meet their daily word count goal, but they emphasize the importance of focusing and doing the best they can within the given time constraints.

What does the speaker suggest for those who are not writers as a way to internalize information?

For those who are not writers, the speaker suggests writing code examples as an alternative way to internalize information, which is particularly useful when learning a programming language.

How does the speaker plan to structure their future content based on the video script?

The speaker plans to continue producing content related to productivity and life hacking, as well as programming, and will announce new content and courses through a newsletter for those interested.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Extreme Productivity System for Learning

The speaker introduces an extreme productivity system aimed at efficient learning, emphasizing the importance of consistency over time. They admit personal flaws such as inconsistency and boredom, yet assert that their system can benefit anyone. The core principle is daily practice, as opposed to sporadic, intense sessions. The speaker provides practical steps to implement this in daily life, highlighting the effectiveness of an hour a day over a week's worth of study in a single day. They argue for optimizing learning per time period, using a hypothetical point system to illustrate the diminishing returns of extended study sessions.

05:01

📝 Quantifying Learning Through Daily Writing

The speaker details their personal method of tracking learning progress by counting daily word counts, which serves as a quantifiable measure of information absorption. They use the tool 'Notion' to organize notes, particularly for a C and C++ boot camp they are developing. The speaker breaks down topics into sections of approximately 5000 words each, finding this method effective for structuring knowledge in their brain. They also track their daily word count, aiming for a thousand words per day, and share insights from their tracking experience, including the variability in word count based on topic difficulty and personal motivation.

10:02

📚 Balancing Daily Study with Crash Courses

The speaker suggests a two-pronged approach to learning: daily study for incremental growth and occasional intensive crash courses to gain comprehensive understanding quickly. They find it beneficial to immerse oneself in a new subject to establish a foundational understanding before proceeding with daily study. The speaker shares their experience with learning new programming languages using online crash courses and emphasizes the importance of this initial immersion for setting the stage for effective daily learning. They encourage viewers to share their own productivity systems and express interest in creating content that balances lifestyle tips with programming topics.

Keywords

💡Extreme Productivity

Extreme productivity refers to a high level of efficiency and output in a short amount of time. In the video, it means achieving significant progress in learning or skill development through a consistent and focused daily routine, even for individuals who struggle with consistency and focus.

💡Consistency

Consistency involves maintaining a regular and steady approach to tasks or activities. The video emphasizes that daily practice is more effective than sporadic efforts, as consistent effort leads to cumulative progress and skill mastery.

💡Focused Time

Focused time refers to periods of intense concentration on a specific task. The video suggests that an hour of focused time each day can yield significant results over time, as this period is highly productive and free from distractions.

💡Learning Rate

Learning rate is the efficiency at which one can acquire new knowledge or skills. The video discusses optimizing learning rate by focusing intensely for shorter periods, leading to better retention and understanding compared to prolonged, less focused study sessions.

💡Daily Practice

Daily practice involves engaging in an activity every day to build and reinforce skills. The video advocates for this approach, using examples like learning to play the piano or exercising, where regular, shorter sessions are more beneficial than infrequent, longer ones.

💡Crash Course

A crash course is an intensive learning session aimed at quickly acquiring a broad understanding of a subject. The video recommends starting with a crash course to gain initial familiarity, followed by daily practice to deepen understanding and skills.

💡Notion

Notion is a digital tool used for note-taking and organization. In the video, the speaker uses Notion to track their learning progress by writing detailed notes and organizing information, which helps in retaining and structuring knowledge.

💡Word Count Tracking

Word count tracking involves measuring the number of words written as a metric for productivity and learning progress. The video mentions using this method to ensure consistent output and to quantify the amount of information being processed and retained.

💡Optimizing Learning

Optimizing learning means enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the learning process. The video suggests focusing on high-quality, concentrated study periods and tracking progress to maximize learning outcomes over time.

💡Motivation

Motivation is the drive or desire to achieve a goal. The video discusses maintaining motivation by starting with intensive learning sessions (crash courses) to build interest and momentum, followed by consistent daily practice to sustain progress.

Highlights

This system is for extreme productivity, even for an average person with minimal daily time commitment.

Consistency is key; doing something daily is more effective than doing it once a week.

One hour of focused work per day can add up to 365 hours in a year, equivalent to nine weeks of full-time work.

Efficiency in learning is more important than total time spent; focus on optimizing your learning rate.

The first hour of study is the most productive; subsequent hours yield diminishing returns.

Identify your optimal learning method, whether it’s through videos, books, coding examples, etc.

Track your learning by quantifying it, such as counting the number of words written each day.

Use tools like Notion to organize and keep track of your notes and learning progress.

Writing down your knowledge helps internalize and structure it in your brain.

Studying a topic intensely for a single day can complement daily studying by providing a crash course overview.

When starting a new subject, a crash course helps shift your mindset and provides context for deeper learning.

Daily studying is like chiseling away at a block, gradually becoming smarter over time.

Combine crash courses and daily studying to maximize learning and retention.

The speaker tracks their writing with a goal of 1,000 words a day, adjusting based on topic complexity.

The system has been effective for the speaker in building a C and C++ master course.

Transcripts

today I'm going to be revealing the

truth about my extreme productivity

system now this is not an extreme system

it's a system for extreme productivity

meaning even an average dummy like me

can still learn new things and get

better at a skill with a very small

amount of time per day I mean let's be

honest I'm not the sharpest tool in the

shed the brightest light bulb in the

Light Bulb Store

I'm just kind of I have some serious

character flaws that make it very hard

for me to get anywhere with my goals

specifically I get bored I switch what

I'm interested in about every day I'm

not very consistent it's very

challenging for me to do something

consistently and I don't have some

magical Talent from birth by no means I

think I've kind of struggled my way to

learning how to code and kind of being

okay at software development

maybe I'm kind of being harsh on myself

but the reality is this system can work

for anybody now to be honest some of

these are going to be obvious like be

consistent and avoid burnout the same

stuff you've heard over and over again

but I'm going to give you some actual

practical steps to do this in your daily

life and what you can do starting today

and it comes down to one principle which

is doing something daily is more

effective than doing it say once a week

fairly obvious but let's say you wanted

to learn piano seven hours on Saturday

is not going to be as good as one hour a

day similarly if you want to you know

get some muscles you're not going to

work out seven hours on Saturday

you're going to do a little bit each day

or you know every other day or whatever

it might be but that consistency truly

helps because over time it adds up and

I've thought about this so many times if

you just do an hour a day of whatever

you're trying to achieve in the course

of a year you've collected 365 hours

which is like nine weeks of full-time

work 40 hours a week for nine weeks but

it's not just nine weeks of full-time

work it's nine weeks of the most potent

focused time imagine if you went to work

and you focused from beginning to the

end that's what it would be like if you

just did an hour a day of purely focused

time so you can actually get quite a bit

done in just an hour so this is

basically the system I've been using for

learning anything I want you know when I

was in school I spent an hour before

school to study C programming it didn't

take long for me to actually learn more

doing that than what I would learn in

class for multiple hours a day it's

because that hour was the most focused

it was the most productive of the entire

day so the secret here is that you want

to optimize for learning per period of

time so if we just made up some

arbitrary point system to quantify your

learning let's say if you did it as good

as you could it would be a hundred and

if you basically learned nothing it

would be zero if you study something for

say eight hours and each one of those

hours you have about fifty percent Focus

50 points you're going to have a total

of 400 points well what if you did the

same exact thing for four hours but you

did 100 on each of those 400 points

still

you can see that it doesn't really

matter the total amount of time you

focus and learn something what really

matters is how efficient your time is

being spent in your total learning

across those hours by optimizing for

your learning rate how much you learn in

a particular period of time let's say an

hour that is going to get you where you

want to go faster if you can optimize

your rate of learning and get as much

done in that hour as you can you're

going to get much farther than if you

study all day at a very low Focus slow

rate in my experience the way it works

is that first hour I can usually give it

a 100. if I study a second hour it's

like 80. a third hour 70 and 60. and it

just goes down by hour eight I'm

basically just sitting there I'm not

actually learning or retaining any

information so that time is wasted there

is a scenario when studying more than an

hour a day makes sense and that is if

you are optimizing for total amount

learned you know if you need to learn

something very quick quickly giving 100

in that first hour and then 80 in the

second hour you get a total of 180

across two hours which is like 90 per

hour

not trying to make this like too

mathematical or conceptual but I think

for most people it would make sense just

to get that 100 hour and do that every

day for a long period of time the next

thing I want to talk about is let's say

you start that hour what do you actually

do well you should figure out what's the

best way you learn and this might take

some experimenting maybe it's through

videos maybe it's through books maybe

it's through you know stack Overflow

just reading conversation or maybe it's

through coding examples that is really

up to you and you can experiment to see

what feels the most effective

then you have to think about how do you

actually log that information where do

you put it how do you organize it in

your brain for me the system that has

been working very effectively is

counting how many words I write a day

you can kind of quantify information in

words so you can have a better idea of

how much you're learning or how much

you're getting done if you see how many

words you've written now some of you

might not be writers that's fine it

doesn't necessarily have to be well

Polished Work but that's my way of

keeping track of my learning basically

taking notes so I'll show you a real

example of this for my C and C plus plus

boot camp I've been working on which

hopefully I'll be releasing here very

soon what I do is I basically wake up I

pick a topic that I want to learn about

and let's just go with types you know

the basic stuff and I start writing

everything I can about that subject I

break each one of these sections up into

about 5000 words and this tool I'm using

here is called notion which is just a

way for me to keep track of stuff so you

can see this one's 5500 words and I can

go through here and I like this because

it's very code friendly you can just use

like three backticks to write a code

section and that makes it very easy for

a software developer to take notes

but yeah you can see you can throw

pictures in there and examples and yeah

it's pretty thorough

and that's because I'm trying to

actually you know make something that is

public facing yours doesn't have to be

as fancy as this but I feel like having

this way of outputting all my knowledge

and information it's a little bit more

organized and actually more structured

in my brain so this is what I do and

this is what all of these look like so

this one here is you know roughly 5 000

words and you can see multiple examples

of whatever it might be there's only so

many Concepts in a programming language

so if you just keep doing this in theory

eventually you're going to cover the

majority of important things now I

decided to actually track how much I've

been writing because I wanted to see

what I was doing up until I started

tracking I just kind of did this in an

unofficial way where I would just try to

focus on whatever I'm studying a little

bit each day

but I really wanted to see if I actually

tracked words what it would look like

with the goal of writing a thousand

words each day which for me I think of

500 words to be a topic and a thousand

words would be like two topics so you

know one might be on a raise one might

be on 2D arrays and obviously starting

out I was pretty dang motivated and also

I was starting with some of the more

beginner content so getting a few

thousand words a day wasn't too big of a

deal you can see there's a few days I

kind of went on some writing sprees and

that's usually when I'm in flow and I

can basically cover a topic from

beginning to end there are days where

things are a little bit more challenging

if I'm studying something new like April

15th I only did 540 Words which was not

my thousand goal but I had a lot of

stuff going on that day it was a new

topic and I really didn't get that much

time to do this if I really focus and

it's a topic that's not completely out

of my comfort zone I can usually get a

thousand words like let's say on a April

12th I did a little over a thousand I

can usually do that in an hour or two if

the Topic's really easy sometimes I can

get even more words written you know

maybe two thousand and this day April

5th I already had some notes written

from a while ago so I basically just

edited those notes so that's why this is

much higher it really didn't take that

long it's not like I spent 10 or 20

hours you know writing that single day

so in this example I already have 42 000

words written for just C programming

which is quite a lot of information for

reference the first Harry Potter book I

think is roughly a hundred thousand

words so I'm almost to fifty thousand

it's like writing half of the Harry

Potter book this is just how things work

for me you can obviously modify this to

whatever you like you don't even have to

write if that's not your thing but there

has to be some way that you can

internalize that information if it's not

writing and describing things in words

the most likely alternative is going to

actually be writing codes examples which

makes sense if you're trying to learn a

programming language so instead of

wasting your time writing describing

what you're coding you could spend the

time actually just writing out examples

showing various inputs and what the

expected output would be almost like

test cases in a way but it doesn't have

to be so formal where you're like oh

here's every single scenario but you

know writing out a giant program that

shows different inputs and outputs and

just basically testing the different

scenarios for a programming language you

know what happens just for some examples

when you add numbers too high for an

integer does it overflow does it crash

what happens if you have a system for

basically writing down the knowledge you

learn then you have a way to basically

organize it and I think you'll

internalize it better too then when it

comes to figuring out what to actually

study just pick up a book go through the

table of contents that's going to give

you the general structure for how you

should learn and then as you're going

through that anytime you see something

new just write it down and go back to it

at some point in the future I personally

haven't been tracking the word count for

very long and I think long term I

definitely won't have an average quite

this High it'll probably be closer to a

thousand or I might even drop it down to

500 if I get into a lot of new stuff

that might take a little bit more time

now with the idea of taking an hour a

day and doing that for a long period of

time there is another step I suggest for

you and that is to do the exact opposite

and learn as much as you can in one

single day so this sounds contrary but I

think both of these can complement one

another specifically when you want to

start with a new subject I personally

find it very helpful to basically crash

course that subject in a single day or a

weekend or a week to get as much context

for that as possible so watch a crash

course online read an entire book

whatever it might be that's going going

to basically shift your mind to think in

that topic if it's a new programming

language you'll start to think in that

language or this could really be applied

to anything I've personally done this

for learning programming languages this

is what I did when I wanted to learn

react I basically found some crash

course online I watched essentially the

whole thing in a weekend coming out of

that video I didn't really feel like I

knew how to do much but I knew how react

would be used and some of the things to

look out for so when I came into a topic

later it wasn't completely new to me it

was something that I already learned at

some point in the past so I recommend

starting with that crash course and then

doing a little bit of studying each day

for a longer period of time the daily

work is more like chiseling away and

becoming smarter over time that crash

coursing is really to get motivated and

change your way of thinking and

basically give you a crash course of a

subject

so let me know your thoughts what

systems have worked for you this is one

I've tried a few other things before but

this one has been working very well for

what I'm trying to do right now which is

build a C and C plus Master course which

if that's something you're interested in

I will have a link to get on my

newsletter that's where I'll announce

new content and courses that I release

so definitely stay tuned for upcoming

content if you want more of this like

lifestyle life hacking productivity

stuff drop a comment or we'll just stick

to some more programming stuff but I

think I'd like to throw some content

like this in every now and again thank

you so much for watching and stay tuned

for the next video Peace Out And

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