Shadowing Practice: The Strategy to Save You From Infinite Scrolling - Learn English Speaking with Video

This is my commonplace notebook, a collection of insights that I gather through everything I read, watch and listen to.

Combine this with four other techniques in this video and you have the cure to infinite scrolling.

Because everyone tells you to quit but they don't show you how to replace it with something more wholesome and educational.

This idea I call mindful consumption.

And I know it feels like it but creativity and wisdom are not dead.

They're just buried under mountains of

slop and chow feed whatever we want to call it

but we need the tools to dig it out we need

a way to transform how we engage with the internet as a whole

and make it something worth doing again first comes a commonplace book

and on its own this is fantastic but i put it first

because you are going to need this for the rest of the video this is going to be the tool

that follows you through every single technique the commonplace book is like a journal

but for knowledge so whenever you meet an interesting idea

or quote or passage or theory

or recipe really anything it ends up here i like to see it as a funnel

and at the top of this funnel the widest part you have the entire internet

and all of literature basically everything ever made now that's a big field

and every jim and jane can add their own input into

that so what you end up with is a lot of junk

and i don't mean oh dear we must mix the plebeians no not like that it's not necessarily bad work, but it's not relevant to you,

or it's not interesting, or it doesn't spark your curiosity, or it's just not for you at that time.

As you use your commonplace book to capture ideas, you are narrowing down that funnel.

You're curating, you're kicking out what doesn't need to be there, and finding only the most interesting and personalized ideas that matter to you,

and that make you interested.

And what you end up with is pretty much a personal encyclopedia, something that is tailored to your interest

that you created it's pretty cool now why is this

so good am I just glazing it for no reason well

indeed some people will say yeah this is just performative it's for the aesthetics it's for the nice Instagram post

but it's more than that I promise you you are training yourself here to be more intentional

because there is so much information shatter on us every passing second through life

and what we're doing here is training your eye to see what matters from what doesn't matter.

You are saying, well, why does this quote or idea or passage stand out to me?

And why am I capturing it?

What matters?

And that is harder than it sounds, but you are training yourself here to discriminate and to give meaning and value to certain bits of knowledge.

Now, what you use your commonplace book to capture, that's up to you.

Maybe it's a source of quotes for your dissertation, or maybe you jot down inspiration for future projects

or maybe you just like to think really hard about a certain topic

and this is where all of that gathers

and it gives you direction for the next step of research

and even better it's such a freeing system

because there's no rules at all there's no dogma there's no doctrine you just do what feels right

that sound like a chat gpt sentence it's true though you

just do what feels right you don't need paid courses

or videos or someone to tell you what to do just approach the the content, the resources, and write what feels proper.

I'm very traditional and my system is almost so boring it's painful.

I write the title of whatever I'm viewing or engaging with

and then I take notes on the insights in whatever way I feel like makes sense at the time.

You can use stickers or post-it notes to categorize the type of notes, you know, like subject, type, or something more abstract you pull out on the spot.

I've seen some people use mind maps, I've seen some people use flow charts of their thinking

which I kind of like I do that

and I've also seen some people divide the page in two

and on one side they'll put a direct quote

and then on the other side they will put their commentary

on it their own personal thoughts they'll freestyle a bit just

get started don't think too hard don't watch a hundred videos

and chances are the perfect system for you a is never going to exist

and b it's going to unfold as you write it's going

to reveal itself as you get to know what you like and what you don't.

So don't think about it.

Just go.

Now, if you came to this channel through that one Obsidian video, then this might look familiar to you.

It might look like a paper version of the Zettelkasten.

And don't worry, because I'm not trolling here.

I'm not saying to abandon that now.

And it's also not the same thing.

You can actually use them in tangents.

I use both.

if I want security for my notes, if I want to back them up, if I want to store them, if I want to organize them, if I want to be able to bring them everywhere I go,

then yes, you will use a digital note-taking app like Obsidian.

I have a video explaining how you can balance both and use them at the same time, so I'll link that at the end, don't worry.

And remember, before we move on, the commonplace book is going to be your medium for the next few points in this list.

It's going to be where the thinking happens, so just keep that in mind.

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Now earlier, I left a question unanswered.

If there is so much noise on the internet, how would you cut past it and get to the good stuff?

Because yeah, the commonplace book will capture it, but you need to find it in the first place.

This is where purging and curation come in.

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Purging is almost what it sounds like.

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Instead of disappearing a political enemy, you are cleaning your feed from stuff that no longer serves a purpose.

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And this happens so often, more than you might think.

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You're, you know, I'm looking through my phone and I think, why am I following you?

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I don't care about you, I don't care about your life, you're useless.

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Okay it's harsh but it's true.

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Now obviously don't think that about me, let's not be silly here but in general this is a chance to unsubscribe, to unfollow, to block, to mute,

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to just get rid of the stuff that doesn't add anything to your life.

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The stuff that weighs your spirit down, that makes you outraged for no reason.

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Even just stuff that doesn't interest you anymore, doesn't entertain you because it's not all about learning and that can all go.

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Now I know I sound like a toxic boyfriend here you

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know just cut off all contact to the outside world

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but i can get specific

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so what is this content i'm thinking about well i'm thinking outrage porn stuff

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that exists just to farm engagement and anger

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and get people arguing in the comments like those panel debates

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i'm thinking e-drama just pure tabloid slop i'm thinking endless gear reviews

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or stuff that you know you don't need but you keep buying

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because it's forced onto you 24 7 that's the sort of thing we're talking about maybe it's just me

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but you'll know what this looks like for you

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you know what weighs you down what pisses you off what

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makes you spend more money what black pills you what just

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doesn't have a healthy spot in your daily consumption to purge your feed is to audit your digital life

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and to cut off anything

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that doesn't deserve to go through your eyes as photons now you might be thinking well

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that works if we have a choice over what we see

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but we don't anymore most of our content comes to us through algorithms

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and yes we can influence it through simply watching or subscribing to people, but most of it is completely unprompted.

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And we're pretty much at the mercy of whatever these tech giants wants or, you know, Larry Ellison or these other very influential people.

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We click on stuff that makes us angry, that gives us cheap, quick comforts or entertainment,

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that makes us fearful or nosy or envious or greedy or stuff that makes us feel like we're missing out on something.

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This is not good for us.

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And yet that's what we choose to have in our algorithm, often subconsciously.

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And that's it.

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With one wrong click, one minute of watch time, your feed is now full of it.

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It's full of crash outs and magic pills and slop

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and e-drama and all of this garbage that we didn't sign up for.

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And yet it's here.

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It's at our front door.

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And of course, creators know this too.

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They clip farm, they fan the flames, they create artificial conflict.

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and they even trick you into engaging sometimes by commenting

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or liking like you know double tap this video for good luck fuck off shut up even someone as humble

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and pure-hearted as me has to play to the algorithm can

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you believe it you know i have to think about the title

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and the thumbnail and the packaging and the script and that's

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because if you don't no one's going to watch the video

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and you'll make less money and you will grow your channel slower and it just doesn't work Luckily for you,

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the viewer, there are solutions to this, to taming your algorithm.

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There are browser extensions and plugins and programs that would actually block entire parts of, say, YouTube or X.

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Like, for example, you can block the recommended page.

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You can block suggested videos.

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You can just make the algorithm less intrusive and more about you.

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For example, I've used it on YouTube to block my Shorts feed because it's not what I've subscribed to.

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It's not what I'm interested in.

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And I don't want to get stuck in this cycle of endless scrolling.

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Now, there are loads of these programs and I don't know all of them very well.

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So I'm going to do my best to find some and link them down below, including the one I use on YouTube.

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Now, at the end of this purge, you should have a feed that is full of good,

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wholesome, high quality work from people that you actually trust and look up to and wish to emulate, maybe.

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And that's the rule of thumb.

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If their work is great, if it makes you think, if you want to be able to produce that yourself or to do what they do, it deserves a place in your feed so keep

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that in mind now step two curation is essentially the maintenance

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of this high quality you are slow to subscribe you are slow to give your attention to others

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and you are very strict with what you consume and

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when you use your intellectual and artistic filter to keep out the slop

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and you know maintain some discipline over your feed

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and only let in what really counts

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and what really can add value to your life

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and this is where the commonplace book re-enters the conversation

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because now you have a place at the end of this funnel to put the ideas, to curate, to keep things quality.

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Even somewhere as corrupted as Instagram

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or X have a lot of value to add to your life and your education if you know where to look.

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You know for me it's Caffeine and Philosophy for Insights on Homer, it's Brandon Lee for Filmmaking Skills, it's Faria Faragey for Historical Music.

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There are a million others.

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There are a million other great people with great content, great work that are just waiting to be discovered.

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So find them.

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Now one of the biggest problems you'll face with mindful consumption is that it's very time consuming.

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Because even after you are stricter with what you read and watch, there's still a lot out there.

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And if you add on the note taking and the thinking, that takes ages.

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And you are looking at thousands of unread articles, thousands of unwatched videos, exactly like I have.

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It's a mess.

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But these read later or watch later filters are fantastic because they act as yet another filter of quality.

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Let me explain that.

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Now we use them because we can't just drop what we're doing

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and immediately watch a one hour documentary the second we see it on our feed.

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That's not happening.

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So we save it for later when we are more prepared to digest it

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and to take our time and to make it worth it.

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What also ends up happening is that

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when you come back to your watch later

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or read later list you realize you know what half this stuff i don't care about

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and you delete it and that happens because

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when we add things we do it by impulse we're like a monkey picking out shiny things

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and we have now the hindsight

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and the room to see okay does this actually serve me

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am i actually going to invest my time into this

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or is it just an impulse that i had the first time i I saw it.

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You get rid of the recency bias, the bias of the first impression, and now you have the room to make a proper decision for yourself.

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Is this worth the time?

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The main one everybody recommends is Readwise, and I might link a few others if I find them, if I'm feeling generous like that, but honestly don't overthink it.

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You can just use your notes app, you can use a plain white piece of paper.

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The point is you are saving something and then viewing it later.

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That's it, it's that simple.

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Now what if scrolling, this evil thing we talk about, what if it could be productive.

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Because look, I'm not a purist, neither are you, let's be real.

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And I always think, how can we make something terrible less terrible or just bad, I guess?

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I'm not really selling it here, but you'll see what I mean, trust me.

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Instead of scrolling through Instagram or Twitter, why not shift that to something more insightful?

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Places like newsfeeds, substacks, language apps, even Wikipedia articles.

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I mean it, I'm serious.

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Wasting time is never good, but at least if you redirect it to the right places, you can end up learning something.

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Or you can keep up to date with the news or something, just anything.

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If you combine this with strict app timers, like the ones built into your phone, I find it works really well.

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Because when you are blocked from using Instagram or Twitter, you know, your phone says that's enough, I end up doom scrolling bullshit.

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I'll find myself on my banking app or my settings page.

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And obviously, your monkey brain isn't impressed by that.

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So what's it going to do?

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It's going to look somewhere else.

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And if that doesn't entertain you, good.

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You stop scrolling.

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It's a win-win.

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I know it's a bit unorthodox.

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It's a bit weird.

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A lot of people would say it's stupid, but I think it works for me and I just want to throw it out there.

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This final idea applies to anything practical

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and it will stop you from getting into

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that doom spiral where you watch a million videos on a skill you want to learn, but never actually do anything to improve on that skill in the real world.

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And that is gutting.

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That is a horrible feeling to go through.

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The idea is that whenever you learn a new piece of advice, you refuse to watch or read anything else relating to

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that skill until you've gone out and applied and practiced the first one.

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Now that's a bit wordy, so it's going to make more sense with an example.

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I mentioned Brandon Lee earlier, a very talented guy, and I saw a video of his on filmmaking where he

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would use the manual focus on his camera plus a monitoring app on his phone to film himself cinematically

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and I was inspired that was that was groundbreaking to me

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because I'd never thought about doing it

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that way I just said damn it I need to practice

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that myself I need to learn how to do

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that in the next few days I practiced with some b-roll some training shots

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and with some creatures

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that I found lying around now mind you was I tempted to binge his entire YouTube catalog yeah absolutely

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but what purpose would that serve I would have this mountain of information dumped onto me

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and it would be overwhelming I wouldn't know where to start I wouldn't know what to do.

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I'd feel all the pressure to perform and to make sure absolutely everything was right.

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So I didn't.

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I said, no, I'm going to focus on this.

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I'm going to learn it decently well.

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I'm going to make sure I understand it.

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I'm going to go out and practice it.

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That's the hardest part.

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And only then will I then watch another video

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and learn something else and gradually stack these skills on top of each other.

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You should see this as a game of Pong.

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Action and theory, action and theory, not just theory theory theory mountains of theory that never get you anywhere

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and again use your commonplace book write down what you want to practice write down the two

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or three bits of advice that you're going to focus on

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and go out and do them

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and write about how it went write about what you can improve upon this is where it happens

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that is mindful consumption and it's a bit of a weird niche topic

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so i want to hear what you have to say in the comments get a discussion going

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and i'll link that video i mentioned early on screen and thank you so much for watching

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.

Shadowing Practice: The Strategy to Save You From Infinite Scrolling - Learn English Speaking with Video

Context & Background

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

Step-by-step Shadowing Guide

What is the Shadowing Technique?