Shadowing Practice: How I went from FAILING to TOP Electrical Engineering Student (Best Study Tips) - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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All right guys, today I'm going to tell the story of how I made my academic comeback
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All right guys, today I'm going to tell the story of how I made my academic comeback
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and the tips that came along with it.
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So in my first year of high school,
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IGCSE, I was doing the IGCSE program.
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In the first year of high school,
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I was the bottom student.
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I was a horrible student.
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I was in the bottom level in maths and I was still failing my exams.
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I was terrible in all my subjects.
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I basically failed pretty much all my exams or I did terribly.
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And I used to look around at the students around me and wonder how they did it.
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It seemed like everyone around me was effortlessly studying and I was the only one struggling.
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It genuinely seemed like that.
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I was bottom level and it sucked because number one,
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as a kid, it sucks when everybody around you is doing so well and you're the only one who's doing so bad.
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Number two, I felt dumb because everybody seemed to be just effortlessly doing well.
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It seemed like they weren't even putting in any work.
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And number three, of course,
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I wanted to do well.
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I wanted to set my future up well,
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wanted to make my parents proud, my teachers proud, everything.
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So it sucked to be like this.
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And then the summer holidays came halfway between the IGCSE years.
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And I was like, okay, I'm going to change.
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Everything's going to be different.
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I'm going to lock in.
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And it seemed like pretty much overnight,
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within those two, three months,
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I made a massive transformation over the holidays.
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I came back to that next school year and it was hilarious.
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I remember one time in Spanish class, we did an assignment.
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I handed in the assignment and my teacher called me over and he was like,
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come over here, Penrose.
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I read your assignment.
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Did you cheat?
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My teacher, like my improvement in Spanish went from literally terrible at Spanish to
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so good that my teacher genuinely thought I cheated on the assignment.
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In this video, I'm going to go through three tips that helped me make this academic transformation.
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Three things that I wish I could tell that version of me who was going through that phase.
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All right, so the first tip I want to give you is this one is extremely important.
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You may have heard about this already,
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but trust me when I say I'm going to go a bit deeper into this.
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I'm going to explain it in a way that you've never heard.
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90% of the time learning your subject should be active recall.
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But basically, I don't talk much about study techniques on my channel.
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And the reason why I don't talk much about study techniques is
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because active recall is literally the only study technique you need to know.
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So what is active recall?
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Active recall is essentially testing yourself or doing questions.
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The best way to learn is not by passively reading the material.
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The best way to learn is not by copying and pasting notes.
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The best way to learn is to actively test yourself and actively do questions.
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that's the best way to learn and that should be 90% of your time
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which I'm going to explain here
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so what you need to understand is there's three kinds of
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knowledge I learned this from the book ultra learning by Scott Young there's essentially three kinds of knowledge
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that you can have in your subject there's procedures
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which is like doing maths questions learning these methods of doing things concepts
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which is like you know understanding the concept of GDP or something and then there's facts,
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like memorizing the four chambers of the heart, whatever.
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Facts, procedures, and concepts.
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So you can do active recall to learn all three of these.
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And in fact, active recall is the best way to learn all three of these.
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So first, I'm going to go through procedural type subjects.
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That's subjects like maths and science,
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those subjects where you need to learn practice questions.
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You need to actually go out there and do the material because procedural type questions,
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they're not something where you can memorize a series of steps.
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Every question is going to be a little bit different.
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So the only way to learn a procedural subject is to do practice questions.
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It's kind of like learning how to ride a bike.
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You can watch a million videos how to ride a bike.
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You can memorize which exact muscles are moving at every single moment.
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But until you get on that bike and try to ride it,
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you're going to fail.
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So for procedural type subjects,
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you have to do practice questions.
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Procedural type subjects are exactly like riding a bike.
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Riding a bike is like 10% theory,
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10% learning how to do it,
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10% watching videos, but 90% getting on the bike,
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constantly falling over and making mistakes, and constantly correcting yourself.
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Maths is the same.
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Here's how I would approach maths.
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I would spend a little bit of time watching the lecture or reading the textbook just to understand the concept,
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and then I would immediately jump into into questions and I would seek mistakes because every time you make a mistake,
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you are learning.
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Your brain is rewiring itself.
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The mistake that many students make,
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and I used to always make as well,
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is we stay in this preparing mode.
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We're like, okay, I need to prepare a little bit more and then I'm ready to do questions.
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I call it preparation mode because most students,
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they're stuck in this preparation mode.
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And let me tell you the brutal reality.
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If you're stuck in this preparation mode,
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it's because it hurts your ego to get questions wrong.
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It hurts to not be able to do questions.
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I'm sure if you're the type of person who stays in preparation mode,
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you probably also hate it when you get questions wrong.
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You hate that feeling of not knowing how to do a question.
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You probably go straight to AI or straight to the solution.
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So number one is you've got to actually go out there and seek mistakes.
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If you don't go out there and seek mistakes,
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if you don't go out there and do active recall,
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you're not going to learn.
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The learning is going to be very,
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very slow and it's not going to be deep.
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I've made this mistake.
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I've done math subjects where I did no active recall.
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I just memorized the lecture slides and I didn't do that well.
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So you have to do active recall.
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All right, what about for concept and fact subjects?
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Again, you can do active recall And the best way to do it is teaching yourself by explaining it out loud.
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So what I used to do was I used to read the textbook before bed.
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It doesn't have to be before bed.
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But I would not read the textbook passively.
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I wouldn't just read it like line by line by line.
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I would read it actively.
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As I'm reading, I'm testing myself in my mind.
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I'm asking myself questions.
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I'm trying to explain the material out loud.
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Because when you try to explain it,
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you see the gaps in your knowledge.
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And there's also something called the generation effect.
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The generation effect means that when you actually generate the knowledge,
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when you actually pull it out of your mind,
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that's where the learning happens.
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Passive techniques, rereading the notes, completely useless.
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I can give you a general rule to know if you're studying correctly.
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It should use your brain.
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It should take effort.
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If learning feels passive, like you're just reading the thing over and over again,
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and you're daydreaming, you're getting bored,
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you're probably not doing an effective technique.
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Learning should feel active.
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It should feel effortful.
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If I'm doing intense math problems for one hour,
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I have to take a break afterwards because I'm focusing so intensely for one hour.
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I'm doing questions.
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I'm explaining the concepts.
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It's like I'm doing a heavy workout.
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I have to take a break because my brain literally cannot produce any more information.
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Next tip I want to give you about making this academic comeback is learn deep work.
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Deep work or deep focus is a skill.
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It's the ability of when you sit down in front of your work,
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you lock in, your eyes stay locked into the work,
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your thoughts don't distract you,
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don't pull you away, and you just stay locked into the work.
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When you are in this deep focus mode,
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I'm not kidding, you get 10 hours of work done in two hours.
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And this is a skill you can learn.
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Many people think that they just need to sit down and just focus.
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But deep focus is a skill that you can learn.
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And I've got here a list of the benefits that you have once you achieve that deep focus.
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And I know because this was the benefits that I experienced to this day.
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Number one, your mind doesn't wander.
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Your attention is locked into the work.
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You're immune to all kinds of distractions.
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I can work in a busy coffee shop.
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I can work where there's people walking in front of me because I'm able to lock in and have that deep focus.
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Work is actually enjoyable because you don't have your thoughts pulling you away,
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telling you that you're bored.
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You can sit down and enter deep flow immediately.
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No need to ramp up.
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So if your deep focus skill is pretty bad,
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you need like 20 minutes to get into the flow.
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I can sit down and just drop into deep focus because I've learned the skill.
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Number four, you rest because you genuinely cannot focus anymore.
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It's like a hard workout.
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You're either focusing or you're resting.
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Most students, they have this background static of worry that's constantly in their mind.
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They wake up and they worry that they have to study.
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They're studying and they're worrying about their next exam.
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They're resting and they're worrying about what they have to do.
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When you enter deep focus,
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it's like you wake up,
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you do four hours of deep focus, fully focused.
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And then after that, you know that you genuinely cannot do any more work.
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And you know that the best thing you need to do right now is to rest and replenish for tomorrow's session.
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So that's the benefit of being in deep work.
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So how do you actually learn how to focus deeply?
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Because this is the best skill that you should be learning.
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So number one, you have to understand this.
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I've made a lot of videos on this,
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but the reason why you can't focus deeply is because of your thoughts.
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It's that simple.
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So let me explain how this works.
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Maybe you've never heard of this before.
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So this is the pattern that I want to explain to you.
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Maybe I'll write it down on this whiteboard because I think it might be interesting.
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So here's what happens.
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What happens is you sit down to study, right?
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You sit to study.
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And immediately, can this be erased?
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Yeah, okay.
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You sit to study.
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And immediately after you sit to study,
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your brain looks into your past and it decides, okay, good or bad?
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Good or bad? So let's say maths.
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Maths textbook, okay?
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Maths.
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And let's say you've got a history of constantly failing maths,
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constantly doing horrible in your maths exams.
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Well, what's gonna happen is your brain is gonna say,
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maths is bad, bad, bad.
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And then what happens is you feel a,
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I'm gonna call it a negative emotion.
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Sorry for my handwriting, by the way.
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So negative emotion if it's bad,
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good emotion if it's good.
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So you sit down to do maths,
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you open in that maths textbook,
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Your brain remembers maths is bad.
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We always used to fail it.
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Teachers used to humiliate us for it.
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And then you feel an uncomfortable feeling,
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maybe anxiety, maybe a drop in your stomach,
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maybe whatever it is, an uncomfortable feeling,
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a feeling of agitation, a feeling of stress.
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And then what happens next?
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You escape. Or thinking.
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Your mind starts to worry.
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Your mind starts to focus on the future and the past.
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just starts to happen.
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So this is exactly why you can't focus.
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It's because your brain is associating studying with something negative.
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Pressure, overwhelm, negative past experiences,
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whatever it is, those negative past experiences are triggering anxiety or an uncomfortable negative emotion inside of you.
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And that negative emotion is triggering you to escape or it's pulling your mind into deep thinking,
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into thinking, into worrying.
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That is the reason why you can't deep focus.
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And let me explain to you,
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by the way, what happens when you learn how to deep focus.
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What will this look like?
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What's going to happen?
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Well, it's very, very simple.
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What's going to happen is you're going to open your maths textbook.
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You're going to look at maths and your brain is going to see, okay, maths, good.
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It's good.
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It relates to our purpose.
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It relates to our goals.
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It relates to making progress.
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It makes us curious.
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Maths is good.
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Good associations.
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Good associations.
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And you get a positive feeling in your body instead of a negative feeling.
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So maybe you feel light.
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Maybe you feel calm, excited,
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whatever it is, something positive.
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and then deep focus happens.
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So for deep focus to happen,
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you need to not be reacting to these negative emotions inside of you.
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That's how you consistently enter deep focus.
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That's how you learn that skill.
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I've never heard anybody, a bit of a weird angle.
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I've never heard anybody explain this before well.
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So hopefully that makes sense to you.
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That is how you master deep focus.
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You need to retrain your nervous system to not run away from negative emotions.
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And after you do that,
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eventually what's going to happen is it's going to associate studying with positive emotions.
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That's how you retrain your nervous system.
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So I'll give you an actionable step to this.
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Next time you think about studying or next time you actually sit to study,
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notice in your body, in your mind, how you feel.
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Do you feel calm?
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Do you feel excited?
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Do you feel light?
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Or do you feel heavy?
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Do you feel stressed?
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Do you feel anxious?
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Do you feel frustrated?
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Do you feel restless?
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Because if you're feeling those negative feelings,
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then it makes sense why your body wants to escape.
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It makes sense why your body runs away into these thought loops,
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these thought spirals, because it's scared of the work.
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It's associated the work with danger.
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That's why.
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So trust me, forget all that advice out there about all these supplements or do this habit or this habit.
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The way to learn deep focus is to retrain your nervous system's relationship to studying.
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When you do that, I promise,
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your brain will pull you into deep focus.
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The reason why in my engineering degree it was so easy for me to get straight A's,
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it's not because I was special.
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It was because my nervous system had a different relationship to studying than most people.
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I looked forward to studying.
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I didn't need to force myself to do it.
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I didn't need to have these time management techniques.
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I just naturally got pulled towards working towards my goals.
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I naturally got pulled to the curiosity of maths.
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I naturally got pulled to making progress.
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That's what happens when you master deep focus.
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So hopefully this explanation makes sense to you.
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If you want to learn more about it,
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I have a full 40 minute course down below for free
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that you can check out in a free community with people working on deep focus.
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So check that out.
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I don't know how long it's going to be free,
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but first look at the description.
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And look, I was thinking of what third tip I could tell you guys.
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But genuinely, if you do active recall,
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which is the right technique and you do deep focus,
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you will genuinely make a ton of progress.
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It's like this.
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Pick the right boat.
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You know, you've got like 10 boats,
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pick the right boat, the fastest boat you can and row as fast as you can.
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That's how you get to your destination.
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You don't really need much else.
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You just need the right method and you need to execute the method as fast as possible.
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Active recall is the right method and deep focus is how you execute that method as fast as possible.
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I'll give you one more tip here,
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by the way, on how to master deep focus.
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A habit that has helped me so much with learning deep focus,
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I'll write it here, meditation.
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I don't even know why I need to write it.
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But meditation has helped me so much with deep focus.
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Because when you meditate, you essentially are just aware of what thoughts are coming into your mind.
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You're aware of what feelings are coming into your body.
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And you learn not to react to them.
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This is the same skill you need to master deep focus.
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Because some kind of uncomfortable feeling will arise inside of you.
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And you learn to not react to it.
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So meditation is a really,
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really great habit that you can do.
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I do two hours a day.
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I found that much benefit in it that I do two hours a day.
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You know, you don't have to do that much,
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but you could do five minutes a day,
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but it has benefited me that much.
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And not just in my focus,
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but in so many areas of my life.
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I know I'm going to see comments below that say like,
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oh, bro, that's cool, but I'm addicted to my phone.
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I need time management, whatever.
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Trust me when I say the reason you can't use time management
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or the reason you're addicted to your phone is because of the same habit here.
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Your phone is just another way that your brain escapes the negative feelings from work.
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So maths, your brain associates it as bad.
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It gives you anxiety and your phone is used as a way for your brain to escape
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that anxiety because it gives you temporary relief.
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So you don't have a phone addiction.
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You have a nervous system retraining problem.
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What about time management?
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I'm going to go over that briefly.
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Time management doesn't work because even if you tell yourself 3 p.m.
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I'm going to study, you sit down to study at 3 p.m.
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The bad feeling arises inside of you.
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Sorry, your brain associated to studying with bad.
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A bad feeling arises inside of you.
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Your stomach drops or whatever.
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you feel anxiety, you feel boredom and you escape.
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Your brain logically convinces you that
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that time management plan you made is a waste of time or you completely forget about the plan.
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If you've ever made a plan and just the next day you somehow forget about it,
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that is this habit in action.
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It's called an autopilot habit.
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What happens is this habit literally controls your thinking.
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Have you ever gotten home and just like a robot,
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you went onto TikTok.
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You knew you were doing it,
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but you couldn't control your behavior.
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That's called the autopilot response.
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That's why you need to retrain your nervous system because your autopilot has taken over.
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That's why time management doesn't work for you because your autopilot just
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logically convinces you that time management is not needed in that moment.
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For 99% of students, this is what they need to focus on.
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I know because I've coached a bunch of students and it always comes down to this.
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This is always the thing holding them back.
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It's always the root cause of their problems.
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Once you can actually focus for a few hours per day easily,
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time management can help you get to that next level.
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But if you can't even sit down and focus,
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time management is not what you need right now.
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It's a distraction.
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It's going to actually add more stress,
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more mental turmoil to this entire pattern.
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So don't focus on it.
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I hope that video helped.
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If you, again,
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40 minute course below if you want to learn deeper about these patterns
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and it's a free community like-minded students check it out and
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if you want to work with me personally second link in
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the description you can apply to work with me i will help you overcome this
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but that's all apart from that see you later guys
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Context & Background
In the inspiring video titled "How I went from FAILING to TOP Electrical Engineering Student (Best Study Tips)," the speaker shares a personal journey of academic struggle and transformation. Starting as a poor-performing student in the IGCSE program, he describes feelings of inadequacy and the desire to improve. His story highlights a pivotal summer where he decided to implement change and foster his study techniques. The experience led to remarkable achievements and facilitated a sense of accomplishment, especially in subjects like Spanish where he notably excelled. This narrative not only motivates but also teaches valuable study strategies that can be applicable to anyone, particularly those preparing for exams like IELTS.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “I want to change.” - A powerful declaration of intent that can resonate with anyone seeking to improve their skills.
- “I need to lock in.” - A phrase that emphasizes the importance of focus and dedication in learning.
- “I felt dumb.” - A relatable expression reflecting common fears among learners, particularly when comparing themselves to peers.
- “Did you cheat?” - This quote illustrates the surprising reactions one might face when achieving remarkable progress.
- “Everything’s going to be different.” - A motivational mantra to remind oneself that change is both possible and necessary.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To leverage the insights from this video effectively and enhance your English speaking practice, consider implementing the following shadowing technique steps:
- Choose Your Material: Select transcripts or videos similar to the one shared, preferably related to your interests or studies. This will keep you engaged and motivated.
- Listen Actively: Play the video or audio segment and listen for the nuances of pronunciation, intonation, and pacing. The speaker's story is rich in emotion and inflection, making it a perfect subject.
- Annotate Key Phrases: While listening, jot down key phrases (like the top phrases listed) that resonate with you. This will not only bolster your vocabulary but also aid in remembering context during dialogues.
- Practice Shadowing: Use a shadowing app or simply repeat what you hear in real-time. Focus on mimicking the speaker’s tone and rhythm, even if it feels challenging at first. This practice is especially beneficial for IELTS speaking practice.
- Review and Reflect: After shadowing, consider recording yourself and comparing your pronunciation and intonation with the original. Reflecting on your performance can help identify areas of improvement.
This structured approach to using the shadowing technique can immensely enhance your English proficiency. Utilize these methods regularly on a recognized shadowing site for consistent progress towards mastering conversational English.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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