Spend 1 Hour Studying to Save 20 Hrs Later

something a little different today I'm

going to be doing a very very quick

pre-study just priming myself on a topic

I've only got basically 1 hour uh that I

can spend on doing this and I want to

get through as much as possible and I

know that I'm not going to have time to

go through everything in detail so what

I'm aiming to do here is a little bit of

a different technique but it's really

leveraging off the layers of learning

idea that I talk about in the course and

showing how really a small amount of

time can be leveraged to increase your

learning Effectiveness by quite a lot so

the idea here is that I'm just going to

build that basic organizational

structure and so like I always talk

about in my videos you know your brain

is like a warehouse you want to make

sure that you try to organize things as

much as possible and even if I'm not

able to get the fine nitty-gritty

details of exactly how everything is

organized you know at the at the final

level and even if I'm not able to

actually put the information in the

shelves correctly you know

metaphorically speaking I can still at

least evaluate what it is that I'm about

to be learning and then hypothesize

various different organizational

structures and then fill them with

really the biggest items the biggest

heaviest kind of items and what that

will do is it reduces the load it it

gives me time to consolidate and it

means that later when I'm introducing

smaller packages smaller details smaller

facts and when there is a discussion or

a lecture or or a class about it I'm in

a much bit position to engage in that

and get out a lot more from it it's hard

to engage in a learning experience or a

class or a lecture or even a

conversation if you're going into it

with absolutely no idea about what's

going on having this organizational

structure teaches you how to think about

it which actually equips you to learn it

more effectively and something like

spending time on priming and

organization uh which allows you to have

a higher quality of encoding is

something that will pay off much more in

the long run compared to just spending

this hour smashing through and creating

a bunch of flash cards which at the end

of the day does not teach me how to

think about it creates no organizational

structure information still exists in

isolation High chance of forgetting it

my rate of information Decay is going to

be very high the only thing that I will

be able to use to save it off is active

recall and based repetition which we

know is unsustainable when there's a

high volume of content or when I just

don't want to spend literally all of my

time doing endless flash card so that's

what I'll be doing right now and I'll

show you a quick demonstration of how

I'm going to do that using a combination

of textbook material articles lecture

slides and recordings so uh let's try to

make this a productive

hour so we've got some lecture slides

here and um at the very beginning there

is a list um as you can see of all the

different things that will be covered in

the lecture now I'm going to be using

this list as you know possible

categorizations of the ways that I can

learn it and I'm really trying to think

okay why do I need to know about each of

these points why are they important and

how are they related and I feel like if

I'm able to understand that I'll have a

really good foundation for building the

backbone of what will eventually become

my organizational structure so I'm I'm

I'm staying I'm keeping some time on

these keywords and my main questions

that I want to get answered is why are

each of these important how can I group

them together what are the relationships

between them by the way yes I know I

could be screen recording however this

is just faster and easier uh and I just

don't have much much time to be messing

around with lots of different files and

recordings so this is how I'm going to

be doing it but you know there's no

problem with that really now actually I

want to run you through the framework of

how I might be thinking about something

like this in a little bit more detail so

when I read these words right um I can

get it already like some kind of sense

of flow so for example emotional

literacy what does that probably meaning

I know the word literacy and I can kind

of make a guess about what emotional

literacy sort of means emotional

intelligence similarly I can make a

guess about what that kind of means and

I can sort of tell that tional literacy

and emotional intelligence are going to

be connected to each other right

emotional literacy is probably going to

allow emotional intelligence and then

that is probably going to be related to

Social and emotional learning like for

example some aspect of emotional

intelligence uh is going to be the

foundation about what social and

emotional learning is about and then

it's going to move on to Frameworks

about it uh theories of implementation

and some context about why it's

important so I'm already seeing that

this context of why it's important is

something that I might want to have

earlier on because it's going to allow

me to understand why all of this stuff

is important to begin with so already

I'm forming some basic flows of

information this leads to this which

leads to this and then the final thing

that ties all of this together is how do

we use it in real life these Frameworks

and theories about implementation and

then assessment of it so that's kind of

how I'm thinking about this topic now

I'm going to be doing what's called

syntopical learning here now you may in

the past have already heard me talk

about this thing called syntopical

reading which is basically reading

multiple sources of information

simultaneously because it's going to

allow me to develop a more robust and

holistic understanding of the topic more

so than what would be allowed if I were

to just read a single source and then

read another source linearly after that

you can see how both sources may talk

about similar ideas maybe from slightly

different angles and then it will be

actually a waste of time for me to do

them one by one uh since I'm just

focusing on this organizational

structure it actually makes sense for me

to review all the other headings and

categorizations and groupings and

keywords that are in the other ones as

well simultaneously so that I can make

sure that the organizational structure I

get to at the very beginning is as

accurate and as close to what it's going

to need to be in the final stage as can

be so we'll have a look at some of the

headings and things from the textbooks

to see if it's different or if I can

keep the same flow that I've theorized

from just reading through that

introduction slide so the textbook

chapters are the first two chapters here

so there's quite a lot of reading I mean

this is

now that one chapter finished and then

there's another chapter these references

and this is the next

chapter which goes

on for quite a bit

obviously for quite a bit uh and it's

finally finished okay so that's uh

decent number of pages it's like 20

something Pages uh in the text

book um but I remember now you know most

of the time students would feel like at

this point is overwhelming there's so

much information how can I possibly get

through it the idea is that we're we're

not aiming to read through literally

everything what we're trying to do is

get an organizational structure and what

the remarkable thing is that when we get

an organizational structure and we layer

on the learning uh instead of just going

linearly one by one then actually all

this information will will be processed

much faster than you'd be able to think

I mean you wouldn't say that 20 pages of

reading like your favorite fiction book

is necessarily heaps you know and

cognitively draining and this because

you know how to think about the story

and context but usually when we're

learning stuff we don't bother to think

about the context and the story behind

it so when we build this organizational

structure in our minds um we know how to

think about the topic it makes learning

all this stuff very very straightforward

and and you'll be very surprised at how

much easier it gets a lot of the

overwhelm is actually because people are

using an incorrect technique uh so I'll

be skimming through this to help refine

my organizational structure and I'll be

looking through this article as well so

I need to read this uh whole article

which as you can see is also fairly

long yep so those are the references so

that's uh quite a long article too so

I'll be reading through

that uh and then I'll be reading through

this article too which is not quite as

long

um okay so that's not too bad uh and now

I've got another 45 minutes to go to get

through all of this stuff so again what

I'll be doing is I'll be going through

each of my um sources of information and

I'll be looking at each of these and

trying to figure out what the

organizational structure is and the

thing that's important to mention here

is I'm really leveraging off of this

thing called higher order learning and

and the way that higher order Learning

Works is that your brain has different

ways of processing and consuming and

mastering information and now lower

order learning according to Bloom's

taxonomy or solo taxonomy generally the

the themes are that the information is

very isolated it's very fact-based and

recall based and that's where most

students sit if you're a young student

going through Primary Elementary early

stage of secondary school then yes it's

you know you can get away with that but

it doesn't really build anything for the

future and also later on in your life

there's very little information that you

need to learn that way because of the

fact that on the job learning really you

have access to that information on your

phone so it's more about that conceptual

understanding and also more difficult

test questions especially in the later

years especially in University um they

do tend to test you based on your

understanding and your understanding of

the relationships and your ability to

not view information in isolation so

this way of of thinking about of these

points is from the very beginning it's

important to make sure that we are

thinking about each thing not in terms

of what is it and just trying to

understand like I'm not just trying to

understand what is emotional literacy

and emotional intelligence you know what

is social and emotional learning that's

not the point I don't know I don't care

about the what I only care about the why

is it important and how do I create

organization with that in comparison to

other ideas now most people say well how

can you do that without knowing what it

is and the answer is that you can't and

that's the best part is that I don't

have to try to know what it it is I can

skip straight away and do the higher

order learning which is usually

evaluative uh looking and comparing

between different ideas um and by doing

that it allows me to actually be through

all the lower stages so your brain

doesn't need to try to be on Lower order

learning to do lower order learning in

fact it's actually faster to achieve

memorization and understanding when you

immediately set your sites on a higher

order learning so by doing that I'm not

only saving time but I'm giving more

clear and focused direction for my brain

to work work which is ultimately going

to make the entire learning process much

much easier so whenever I read any of

these keywords that's the that's the

question that's going to be going on in

my mind why is this important how can I

create groups around it and how can I

relate these groups together if I'm able

to answer that I'm happy and I'm able to

move on so I'm going to go through and

churn through all of this material and

then by asking that question it's going

to allow me to find patterns

similarities differences and I'm going

to end up with various chunks and

different relationships between the

chunks and I'll represent that in a flow

on my mind map it's not really a mind

map so I call it a chunk map because I'm

not really sure if there is a term

specifically for this process I've never

really seen it before all the variations

of my mapping that I've seen haven't

really covered this exact process um

concept mapping is also not very not the

same thing process mapping is definitely

not the same thing uh so I just call it

relational priority chunk mapping it's

the way that I teach it um and you know

it's the way that I teach my students so

I'll be going through that and Di I'm

putting that on my chunk map and then

after that I can apply you know one of

those things like my grind framework um

for those of you that haven't seen the

the the video my six steps to the

perfect mind map you know that's that's

kind of actually a later stage version

once you are able to do the basic chunk

mapping so a lot of comments on that

video were saying oh this is not

possible it's too difficult you know how

can you achieve this and the answer is

well you can't really achieve it if you

don't have the fundamental cognitive

process down first um so that's me sort

of demonstrating this now so anyway I'm

going to I'm going to go through this

material and we'll see where it ends up

so as a brief update um you know what

I've learned so far in just a few slides

actually is that uh emotional literacy

and tional intelligence uh used

interchangeably but um we like the idea

of literacy because it's something that

uh shows that it's a learned behavior

now why is that relevant to me you know

this slide is called developing interest

in emotional literacy now it sounds like

a very boring dry topic potentially but

remember in my mind I'm thinking how

does that relate to everything and I'm

thinking how do I use this information

why do I even need to know this and I

know that there's going to be something

to do with the importance of context

incl and like how we can use it and the

the slide over here

says that students student mental health

engagement improves when tud students

are taught uh seal so the idea here is

that you know there is a real benefit to

mental health and engagement and I have

experience working with students so this

is something that's relevant to me and

so I'm thinking okay well maybe that's

one of the applications maybe I can even

take what I'm learning uh and apply that

to my own practice now you can't always

do that for everything I've kind of

locked out here and that I have a real

world personal idea about how I might be

able to use this information but even if

I didn't i' you have to find some link

to something so this is again how I'm

viewing the information and already

connections are being formed in terms of

mental health uh andal and then what

some of those real world applications

might actually be so I'm getting an idea

about what potentially those other

articles might even be talking about

without having actually even read them

and this is how the learning starts

growing and snowballing and becoming

faster over time now one of the things

that I want to mention is that when you

study and learn in this way you'll find

that it's much easier to hold on to

information in your head uh without

having to write down notes on everything

so it's penty of research showing that

when you write longer more wordy notes

and especially when you're typing them

you don't get as much good learning out

of it and yes I'll talk about that at

length in other videos maybe I already

have depending on when this was uploaded

uh but the idea is that we want to do as

much of the processing in our head as

possible because that's actually where

the learning happens you know the

learning is not happening on the paper

the learning is happening in our head

the idea behind learning in this way is

that because so much of that heavy

lifting happens in our head we been

trying to create that organization

actually becomes easier to remember uh

this information because it's actually

fundamentally organized it's not as

overwhelming as you might feel that it

is it just means that every now and

again you have to sort of stop think

compress organize relate everything

together and then you can move on again

and and that's actually a very normal

part of learning but most students have

never really learned that way and so it

can be very uncomfortable as a feeling

even though it is actually effective and

so students can often be averse to that

discomfort because they think it's it's

wrong it's not meant to be uncomfortable

but actually management of cognitive

load and COG itive load optimization and

the theor surrounding that tells us that

actually there is a linear relationship

between increasing cognitive load and

the amount of learning that you can get

to a certain point um and so being able

to manage is actually a fundamental

skill of any high level learner and

therefore for me being very used to the

discomfort I'm I I enjoy and I thrive in

the process of feeling a little bit of

confusion figuring it out organizing it

and then Moving on but um I recommend

that you give this a go because you will

feel in yourself that it's you know

quite difficult now if you are

struggling with any of the techniques

that I'm demonstrating you know the the

learning time to learn these techniques

is not you know usually minutes it's

usually days to potentially weeks

potentially even months if you don't

have any guidance um and if you're

struggling with this you want more of a

step bystep uh you know handheld

experience in terms of exactly what

techniques you need to learn in what

time uh what order and then actually get

me to you know give you feedback and

have that sort of um guidance then I

recommend that you check out the course

that I've made it's a very full-on um

you know interactive experience where

you get to engage with me and get to

engage with the rest of my team uh and

have that sort of step-by-step guidance

I can guarantee you'll improve faster

than just by watching these videos uh

and and and trying to do it by yourself

it's kind of like learning to play an

instrument or play a sport without

having a coach and just being selftaught

or watching YouTube videos is obviously

going to be a bit of a difference so if

you are interested check the links below

uh in the description uh and then you

know you can sign up for that but anyway

let's uh keep studying

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so in this slide there's quite a lot of

detail and additional information and

almost getting into kind of examples and

definitions and things at this stage in

time I'm not really ready for that type

of learning and being able to control

when you're ready to receive certain

types of information is also a

fundamental skill of a high level

learner so I know that I'm going to go

back to this later anyway the purpose of

my current session is just to build that

organizational structure as good as

possible so I don't really want to waste

time on this stuff I'm just going to get

the general idea and the trend from this

slide and I'm going to move on uh

there's no point struggling over it now

it will make a lot more sense later on

when the organizational structure is

more in place and I'm more comfortable

with thinking about the

[Music]

topic okay so I have just finished um

reading through all of the this material

uh it's been about 50 minutes roughly

about 50 minutes that I've been reading

through this stuff and um over those 50

minutes I've had lunch as well I've you

know I haven't been particularly

stressed out in my mind or anything

because what's there to stress about I'm

just doing my best that I can in the

hour that I've got now I've haven't

written any notes yet and some of you

may be thinking how is it possible not

to write notes after reading things for

an hour and still remember things uh

you'll note that when I do write my

notes that it's not not that difficult

when you have the system in your head

down now you could have written a few

notes partially here and there as you

were going to help track your thoughts

and actually for most beginners or inter

even even intermediate you know unless

you have a at least sort of I would say

you know a couple months of practice

with using this skill you may want to

write a few notes as you go because it

will just make it a little bit easier

for you to manage that but uh when you

get B and B your dependency on writing

notes just reduces more and more more um

so when I write these notes you'll see

that it is very simplified you'll

probably think how is it that it's that

simple um but if you do look really

really carefully and you think about it

you will probably see that there is

quite a lot of um relation relationships

there and it does seem like there is

quite a clean structure and I feel a lot

better about this topic now um I feel

like I'm able to have a conversation

there's definitely stuff that I missed

I'm not claiming that I learned you know

this whatever like um 40 pages of

reading material in the last hour um but

I am saying that I I have a very good

way of thinking about it now um I feel

much more confident about the topic I

feel like when I go back in a proper

study session to go over it a little bit

more um I'll be able to learn it and

understand and process and remember that

detail much more easily because I know

how everything kind of fits in and I'll

probably be a lot more engaged and

curious about it because I have you know

questions that come up from other things

that I know about this topic whereas

before I don't know anything about this

topic so I wouldn't have any of those

questions one more thing is that uh I'm

also more primed for when I listen to a

lecture so I've got a lecture downloaded

here it's pre-recorded I'm actually

going to go to the dentist soon which is

the reason why I'm doing this but I'm

planning on just plugging in my um

earbuds in the uh in the dentist while

I'm getting my stuff done uh and then

I'll just listen to the lecture

recording while I'm on the chair

um I don't know how that's going to work

because like okay I know this is strange

for a doctor but I am actually terrified

of needles I don't mind needling other

people but um getting needles myself is

something I just have an irrational fear

of and I understand that it's irrational

CU it's not the pain it's just it's a

concept okay anyway uh that that's

that's the idea so now I feel like when

I listen to it I'm going to really be

able to engage with the topic through

listening because there's already a good

organizational structure that's primed

it's more like I'm having a conversation

just not saying anything with the

lecturer rather than just listening to a

bunch of new information and I just have

no idea how to even think about it let

alone what it even means so let me just

go and write my notes I've got about 5

minutes left before I need to head off

so I'm going to really quickly smash

through these notes you'll see me do it

and look at look at my process and again

if you want to see how I do this process

everything that goes on in my head how

I'm writing my notes the technique that

I use for the mind maps a lot of that

stuff is just too detailed uh and

requires a very order of learning that

skill so if you want to know the start

to finish process of how I manage my

time and how I study then you can check

out the link again below to sign up for

the course and uh give that a go but for

now let's write some

[Music]

notes so as you can see there are a lot

of gaps between things leaving me room

to fill it in later uh the basic

structure is there you can kind of see

the overall flow of information of how

it kind of works together uh and I and I

know that there are going to be you know

a lot of things that I need to fill in

here but you know this amount of

structure which honestly it doesn't seem

like a lot but this is actually the

hardest and probably the most important

part of learning when I see students

struggling with studying uh the vast

majority of students are unable to get

their organizational structure even

close to as clean as this and usually

will struggle with the just holding on

to information for so long in their

heads uh without writing it down but

again if you are struggling with that

you can just you know you can offload as

you go and then you can consolidate it

later like that it just will take a

little bit longer you know if that's the

Skool level you're at then you got to

start there and you just you know build

slowly so if you're interested in seeing

how that my map uh well not really my

map technically but you know chunk map

turns out after I finish studying

everything then let me know in the

comments and I can do another video

going through how it evolved from that

to the next stage uh and again if you're

interested in learning a little bit more

about this process start to finish

exactly how I use the techniques and how

you can train yourself from wherever

what whatever level you're at now uh to

getting to the point where you're able

to do this uh that that change process

usually takes our students round about

uh 2 to three maybe up to 4 to 6 months

depending on your level of diligence and

you know if you rush it obviously you're

you're not going to learn it as well and

so you'll have issues later on which

makes it take longer ironically

hopefully you enjoyed that if you did

please leave a like um and if you're

interested in seeing more content on how

to learn and how to manage your time

more effectively make sure to subscribe

if you have any ideas for uh future

videos and future things that you want

me to do um then please I'm I'm all ears

uh I would love to know know your

thoughts leave a comment down below and

I'll see you in next one

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