Make Studying EASY

Summary

The video script addresses the common struggle of initiating study or work tasks, suggesting that the key lies in altering one's perception and reducing the initial barrier to entry. It recommends starting with a short, manageable task, like a 5 or 10-minute timer, to trick the brain into beginning the task, which can then lead to a flow state of productivity. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of not waiting for perfect conditions, but rather diving straight into work to achieve greater efficiency.

Takeaways

• 😌 Starting tasks can be daunting due to the perception of a large workload ahead.
• 🏞️ Reducing the initial barrier to entry can make starting tasks seem less daunting.
• 🔄 It's important to change the perception of the task's difficulty to make it seem more achievable.
• 🕒 Using a timer, such as a 10-minute or even a 5-minute timer, can trick the brain into starting a task with a low barrier.
• 🔄 Once started, the intention is to continue working beyond the initial time set, leveraging the flow state.
• 💡 The mindset should be to make the task seem easy and enjoyable to start.
• 📝 Breaking down the task into smaller, manageable parts can make it easier to begin.
• 🌱 Over time, the ability to work for longer periods can be developed and improved.
• 🏡 Morning routines and preparation rituals can be helpful but should not delay the start of work.
• 🚀 The best preparation for work is to start working; routines are secondary to actual work.
• 💡 The key is to have a mindset that focuses on making the task fun and easy, and a plan to achieve that.

Q & A

What is the main issue people face when starting to study or work on a task?

The main issue people face is the daunting perception of starting a task, which can feel like a big mountain to climb, causing them to avoid beginning the task altogether.

How can one reduce the perceived difficulty of starting a task?

One can reduce the perceived difficulty by reducing the height of the 'hill' or hurdle, making the initial step into the task seem easier and less daunting.

What is the psychological trick suggested to make starting a task seem easier?

The psychological trick is to tell oneself that the task will be easy, which can help trick the brain into perceiving the task as less challenging.

What is the practical example given to illustrate the concept of reducing the initial task difficulty?

Setting a 10-minute timer and committing to work for just 10 minutes is a practical example. This low barrier can help one get started and eventually lead to longer periods of work.

Why is it suggested to set an even shorter timer, like 5 minutes, instead of 10 or 20 minutes?

Setting a 5-minute timer is suggested because it presents an even lower barrier, making it seem so easy and non-daunting that one has no excuse not to start.

How does the concept of 'flow state' relate to starting tasks?

Once one starts working, even for a short period like 5 minutes, they are likely to enter a 'flow state' where they become engaged in the task and want to continue working.

What is the significance of starting small tasks like writing bullet points or the first sentence of an essay?

Starting with small tasks can make the overall task seem more manageable and enjoyable, which lowers the barrier to entry and can lead to a more productive session.

Why do some people believe that setting up the perfect conditions is necessary before starting work?

Some people believe that having the perfect conditions like a cup of tea, the right lighting, or a clean room helps them focus and be more productive.

What is the counter-argument to the idea of needing perfect conditions before starting work?

The counter-argument is that the most productive people often don't wait for perfect conditions but instead start working immediately, suggesting that the love for the work itself is the best motivator.

How can one upgrade their ability to start working without relying on routines or lengthy preparations?

One can upgrade their ability by practicing the skill of starting work immediately, setting low barriers, and gradually increasing the duration of their work sessions over time.

What is the final message or advice given in the script regarding starting work?

The final message is to make the task fun and easy to start, and to begin the work itself as the best preparation, rather than spending too much time on routines and setups.

Outlines

00:00

😌 Overcoming the Intimidation of Starting Tasks

The speaker addresses the common struggle of initiating tasks, particularly in studying or work, and how it can feel like an insurmountable challenge. They suggest reframing the task by reducing its perceived difficulty, such as setting a 10-minute timer to trick the brain into getting started. The idea is to lower the barrier to entry, making the beginning of the task seem less daunting. The speaker emphasizes that once started, the momentum can lead to extended periods of productivity.

05:02

🕒 Embracing the Power of Short Time Commitments

This paragraph delves into the effectiveness of setting short time commitments, like a 5 or 10-minute timer, to overcome the initial resistance to starting a task. The speaker explains that this approach can lead to a flow state, where one may end up working for much longer than initially planned. They also discuss the idea of making the task seem easy and enjoyable, and the misconception that perfect conditions are necessary for productivity. The speaker encourages focusing on the task itself rather than on preparatory rituals that can consume valuable time.

10:02

🚀 Cultivating a Productive Mindset and Routine

The final paragraph emphasizes the importance of mindset and planning in developing a habit of starting work easily and effectively. The speaker suggests that the best preparation for work is to start working, quoting Alex OSI, and argues against the notion that extensive morning routines or rituals are necessary. Instead, they advocate for a direct approach to work, adjusting one's mindset to find enjoyment and ease in the task at hand, and gradually increasing the duration of focused work sessions over time.

Keywords

💡Productive Tasks

Productive tasks refer to activities that contribute to achievement or progress in one's work, study, or personal goals. In the video's context, the term is used to describe the challenging nature of initiating such tasks, especially when they seem daunting or overwhelming. The script discusses strategies for overcoming the initial barrier to starting these tasks, such as setting a short timer to begin working.

💡Flow State

A flow state is a psychological term for a mental state in which a person is fully immersed in an activity, experiencing a heightened level of focus and enjoyment. The video emphasizes the importance of entering a flow state to make starting and continuing productive tasks easier. It suggests that once a person begins a task and enters this state, they are more likely to continue working without feeling the initial resistance.

💡Perception

Perception in this context refers to the way an individual interprets and understands the difficulty or ease of a task. The video script mentions that altering one's perception of a task can make it seem less daunting, which is a key strategy for starting productive work. By tricking the brain into thinking a task will be easy, a person is more likely to begin it.

💡Hurdle

In the script, a hurdle is used metaphorically to represent the initial barrier or obstacle one faces when starting a task. The video suggests that setting a low hurdle, such as a short timer or a simple initial task, can make it easier to begin working. The concept is used to illustrate the importance of reducing the perceived difficulty of starting a task.

💡Timer

A timer is a tool used to measure a specific amount of time. In the video, the speaker recommends using a timer as a strategy to start working on a task. By setting a timer for a short period, such as 5 or 10 minutes, it creates a low barrier to entry, making it easier to begin a productive task and potentially leading to a longer work session.

💡Mindset

Mindset refers to a person's mental attitude or disposition. The video emphasizes the importance of having a positive mindset towards starting tasks, suggesting that viewing tasks as fun and easy can help overcome the initial reluctance to begin. It's part of the strategy to reduce the perceived difficulty of tasks.

💡Morning Routines

Morning routines are a series of activities that people engage in after waking up, often aimed at setting a positive tone for the day. The script mentions that while morning routines can be helpful, they should not be allowed to consume too much time, potentially detracting from productivity. The video encourages viewers to focus on starting work rather than getting caught up in elaborate routines.

💡Work

In the context of the video, work refers to any productive activity, whether it be studying, business tasks, or personal projects. The script discusses the challenges of starting work and provides strategies for making the initiation of work less daunting and more manageable.

💡Barrier

A barrier, in this case, represents any factor that prevents or makes it difficult for a person to start a task. The video script talks about reducing barriers as a method to make starting tasks easier. This includes setting short timers and choosing simple initial tasks to overcome the initial reluctance.

💡James Clear's Atomic Habits

James Clear's 'Atomic Habits' is a reference to the author's book on habit formation. The video script briefly mentions a four-step process from the book, which includes making a habit easy, simple, and rewarding. While not fully explained in the script, the reference implies the importance of creating low-barrier habits to start tasks.

💡Alex OSI Quote

The quote mentioned in the video, attributed to Alex OSI, emphasizes that the best way to prepare for work is to start working. It serves as a reminder that over-preparation can be a form of procrastination, and the most effective way to begin is to simply start the task at hand.

Highlights

Starting tasks can be daunting for many people, making it difficult to begin productive activities.

The perception of a task's difficulty can be altered to make it seem less daunting and more approachable.

Reducing the initial effort required to start a task can make it easier to get into the work.

Tricking the brain into thinking a task will be easy can actually make it seem less challenging.

Setting a short timer, such as 10 minutes, can be an effective way to start working by reducing the barrier to entry.

The intention behind a short timer is to get started and then continue working once in the flow state.

A 5-minute timer can be even more effective for overcoming the initial resistance to start working.

Once in the flow state, the desire to finish a task becomes stronger, making it easier to continue working.

Starting with a low barrier task, such as writing bullet points or the first sentence of an essay, can simplify the beginning.

The concept of making tasks easy and simple is supported by James Clear's 'Atomic Habits'.

Productive people often disregard the need for perfect conditions and start working immediately.

The most passionate about their work tend to start it as soon as they wake up, without any preliminary routines.

The best preparation for work is to start working, as suggested by Alex OSI.

Morning routines and other preparatory activities can sometimes waste time better spent on actual work.

Finding a balance between necessary preparation and immediate work start is key for productivity.

The ability to start working and maintain productivity is a skill that can be developed and improved over time.

The mindset of making work fun and easy is crucial for overcoming the initial hurdle of starting tasks.

The transcript emphasizes the importance of starting work as the best form of preparation for productivity.

Transcripts

okay today we're going to go through the

question of how to start studying in the

first place right A lot of people who

talk to me struggle with the concept of

starting in the first place when they

once they start they can get going but

starting in the first place just seems

like a very daunting task to them and

they just never get into it right and so

today I'm going to discuss how we can

get over that problem because it is

definitely a problem I have felt in the

past with studying with work with

business with whatever it's hard to get

into those productive tasks right

because it feels like such a a big

mountain to climb that you just don't

want to do it right you look at that and

you think okay that's I don't want to do

that right and that's the thing right

it's how you look at it it's literally

how you see it right like the eyes emoji

it's how you look at this thing right

and how that thing even is in real life

right so let me tell you what I mean

there I've just talked about some things

that are a bit abstract what I mean by

this hill is how

hard it actually is in real life

right how hard it is to start it or how

much energy it requires to get into the

task right how hard or how much energy

right so you can do one of two things

the first thing is reduce the height of

that hill right if it's this tall and

not that tall it's a bit easier to get

into right

easier now this doesn't mean you can do

less work okay and I'll come to that in

a second okay it just looks easier right

the first little introductory like

entrance into the task that you're doing

is easier okay just the start of it just

the start of it right and then there's

the perception of it right so you can

look at

this and think wow that's easy and you

can even tell yourself it's going to be

easy right you can kind of like uh trick

your brain that's what most people say

about this kind of thing you can say

this will be easy right and it genuinely

works this will be easy right if you

think of it as this amazingly hard task

if you think about all the work that

you're going to have to do in terms of

like the length of it like okay I'm

going to have to work for you know 4

hours long and you're thinking about all

the hard stuff you're going to do you're

going to have to write so much and think

about so much and speak about so much if

you're thinking about that then it will

seem hard it will seem like this bigger

Hill

right so that's the first concept right

the little Hill you have to kind of

climb over right the little hurdle if

you've ever done like hurdles before if

you you ever even like horse riding

stuff like that if you set the the

hurdle really low the horse can jump

over it pretty easily right and then it

can keep going

right so a practical example of what

this might look like in studying or

productivity or just general work task

in general is for example you can set a

a 10-minute timer and just tell yourself

I'm just going to work for 10 minutes

right it's a similar kind of way of

tricking your brain to thinking okay

let's just work for 10 minutes and see

what happens right in reality you know

that the the intention like the secret

intention here is to work for you know a

bit longer than that right you don't

know how long it's kind of vague it's

kind of a vague concept here like okay

I'm going to work for longer than 10

minutes but I don't know how long the

only concrete idea you have to look at

is a 10-minute time segment right I'll

work for 10 minutes and I'll see what

happens that is a low barrier to climb

over a low hurdle to jump right set the

Bell low and I know you're tempted to

think here okay why not 20 minutes why

not half an hour why not 1 hour the

whole point is that it has to be small

I'd even go in the opposite direction

I'd even say set a 5 minute timer right

that's even more effective right because

here's the thing you know you can do the

work you know you're capable of it but

starting just seems daunting so what you

need to do is make it seem less daunting

so if you tell yourself I'm only going

to work for 5 minutes then that doesn't

seem daunting at all you can do that you

have no excuse for that right but the

thing is by the time you finish that 5

minutes right and the time run out time

Runs Out ding ding ding you will be in

in a flow state right you'll be in the

flow of doing work and you'll be like oh

W I'm just let me just finish this

sentence let me just finish this

paragraph let me just finish this video

let me just finish this speech let me

just finish this putting together some

you know carpentry creation whatever it

is right you started now you want to

finish now finishing seems desirable to

you because you're like okay I've

started something right so you've jumped

over the over the low barrier you're in

the Flow State now you can just work

until that flow runs out until you feel

like oh I can't I want to go eat

something I want to go take a break I've

had enough of this I'm getting

frustrated a little bit and you you'll

find that if you block the timeout for

it you can work for hours in this way

right just starting with that 5 minute

timer that 10-minute

timer right starting in the first place

right so this vague nebulous idea by the

end of it you'll be like oh

that was you know 3 hours of work right

incredible amazing right so what you

want to focus on is the low barrier and

what that means is a very short time

period or a very short task it might not

even be a time period might be like okay

I'm going to start writing this essay

I'm going to write the bullet points of

what I'm going to say or maybe the first

sentence or maybe the title right or

maybe start doing some research about

the topic that I'm I'm going to write

about I'm going to write about Henry VII

right so let's just watch a video on

Henry VII and see if I can write down

some bullet points cuz that seems easy

to me right make it

easy make it easy simple I'm pretty sure

there's a a four-step thing that James

Clear has in atomic habits make it easy

make it simple make it uh what is

it like rewarding I think but you get

the IDE like you don't you don't have to

know the four words there you get the

idea of having a low barrier making it

nice to do making it easy making it like

making it so that you want to do it

right some other things I want to

mention that are maybe less important

are conditions you need for work right A

lot of people think okay I need to have

the perfect conditions I need to go get

my you know my cup of tea and I need to

you know set the lighting and everything

and clean my room and all of that and

yes that's helpful right so I write

those things down

tea room and all that and you know maybe

do like a morning routine of like

meditation and all that kind of stuff

I'm not saying this is bad but the most

productive people don't care about any

of that stuff right they don't care

about their tea they don't care about

their room they don't care about the

meditation they just go straight into

work right they wake up and what do they

do the first thing in the morning do

they brush their teeth do they take a

shower do they have go to the toilet no

they just do work right and that might

seem very extreme to you guys but this

is what I've seen from the most

productive people the the people that

care about their work the most because

if you genuinely love your work you'll

just get started with it the first thing

in the morning you don't care about

anything else you wake up and you're

like work let's do work right and so

that is another facet of what it is to

just get started with work just do it

right just do the first thing don't

worry about setting things up having

your cup of tea having your cup of

coffee hot chocolate cleaning a room

having everything looking nice and doing

a meditation session and going for a

walk and all that this takes time okay

this takes time away from your

productivity I'm not saying these are

bad things to do but this can use up or

waste dare I say you know 30 minutes

hour two hours right

and that can be a waste when what you're

trying to do really is work so if you're

trying to do work just get to work all

right I know that's going to be a bit

controversial for some of you guys who

love your morning routines but just get

to work it's just a waste of time trying

to set things up and you know do things

in the perfect

way and listen there's a medium ground

here okay if it takes you one minute to

make a cup of tea then fair enough all

right if you genuinely think it helps

you fine fine okay but if it takes 30

minutes if it takes 2 hours then maybe

you need to think about that

right and that's pretty much all I have

to say about this right the main thing

being the perception of how hard this

thing is to do right make it look easier

and make it genuinely Easier by reducing

the hardness of the thing in the first

place so for me the best way is a timer

5 timer 10 minute timer and you can make

it easier for yourself so if you're

writing an essay go watch a video about

that essay topic which is easier simpler

it's more fun to do and then with that

low barrier once you get over that first

task you can flow a bit more easily

because you will want to finish the task

and you'll find yourself working for

hours not just minutes right and that

can upgrade over time like maybe you

will feel burned out after half an hour

when you first doing this and then an

hour the next week right and then you

can work for 90 minutes and then you can

work for 2 hours you will get better at

this over time everything like this is a

skill you can

upgrade right so mainly it's a mindset

it's a mindset and a plan right the

mindset is let's make this fun and easy

to do and the plan is what am I going to

do to make it easy and

fun and then the morning routines the

routines you want to kind of

do to set up your

work not necessary just get started

right there's a famous well not a famous

I like this quote from Alex OSI who says

the best preparation for doing work is

to start the work right the best kind of

he says something particularly the best

routine

or I can't remember like whatever you do

to prepare for your work the best thing

to do to prepare is to do the work to

start the

work that's the final message right so

make it fun make it easy for yourself

make it so that you you can get into it

very easily and then once that is the

case the stuff you do before it is just

start the work don't waste too much time

with your routines and your meditations

and your cleaning a room and getting a

cup of tea just start the work all right

hope that helps thank you for submitting

that question and I'm glad to answer it

I'll see you next time take care

knowledge is power and the power is

yours nice