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How to Make Productivity Healthier

2021-09-19 · Podcast or interview · Ali, Unjaded Jade · recording, 19:16 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time (also: Learning and studying, Goals, purpose and life design) · mode: Conversation and interview · tags: Lesson from a book, Aimed at students, Feel-Good Productivity thesis, Evidence-based framing

Ali talks with study YouTuber Unjaded Jade about the healthy approach to productivity in her book The Only Study Guide You'll Ever Need: productivity as spending time well, and an equation that multiplies output over time by three Fs, focus (sanctity of space, mental health), forethought (the SAD revision mnemonic, monthly goals, the Odyssey plan) and fun (reframing subjects, enjoying the process).

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Jade, her new book and how the two YouTubers became friends

  • ★★ Ali introduces his friend and fellow YouTuber Jade, whose book The Only Study Guide You'll Ever Need has just come out and become a number one bestseller. — 00:00:00
  • ★ Ali and Jade both started YouTube around 2017 and have followed each other's channels since; for a few years Ali wanted to be her friend but felt it would be weird to message her. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade says her book The Only Study Guide You'll Ever Need is everything she wishes she had read at secondary school: revision methods, evidence-based study techniques and productivity tips. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Ali says other books on studying exist, such as Make It Stick, which he has recommended a lot, but Jade's book is the first of its kind to take a holistic approach that includes mental health. — 00:01:03 · Make It Stick, Mental health

00:01:32 — Toxic productivity, what productivity means, and the productivity equation with three Fs

  • ★★ Ali finds it a bit baffling that he and Jade get flak on the internet for promoting toxic productivity. — 00:01:32

  • ★★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade says productivity is just spending time well, which can mean time with friends, self-care and recharging, or simply enjoying your life. — 00:02:02

    “To us, productivity is just spending time well.”

  • ★★★ Ali thinks of productivity as doing more of the things that matter to him, so hanging out with friends, dinner with friends, board games or playing Ratchet and Clank on the PS5 count as productive. — 00:02:02

    “I think of productivity as doing more of the things that matter to you.”

  • ★★ Ali says time becomes unproductive only when he wants to be doing something else but is not doing it; then he starts to feel like a "waste man". — 00:02:29

  • ★★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade's productivity equation multiplies the classic output over time by three Fs: focus (deep focus, getting in the zone), forethought (how you plan the activity) and fun (enjoying what you do). — 00:02:59

00:03:28 — Focus: sanctity of space, mental health, time-blocking self-care

  • ★★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade's tip of sanctity of space: since the brain links places to activities, keep the place where you study or write for that work alone, making your desk a place to revise rather than to scroll social media. — 00:03:57
  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: To finish her book Jade went to one cafe, never brought a friend and just sat and wrote; she wrote it in eight months while at university and working as a professional YouTuber. — 00:04:26
  • ★★ Ali means to start using sanctity of space too, especially for writing his book: the same nice cafe every day. — 00:04:55
  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade says mindfulness habits such as yoga and meditation may sound hippie, but they, journaling and self-care are really important for sustaining focus. — 00:05:25 · Mental health
  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: To make meditation or journaling happen, Jade advises time-blocking: put, say, 10 minutes to write a journal or try a meditation app into your timetable after you wake, which makes you more likely to commit to it. — 00:05:54 · time-blocking
  • ★★ Enjoying work so much, Ali often forgets to take time for himself in the evenings; he will try scheduling a tennis lesson at 5 or 6 p.m. to force himself to leave work, and time for PlayStation or meditation in the evening. (hedged) — 00:06:24
  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade says relaxing activities recharge you and create a better you, almost an investment in doing classically productive tasks better. — 00:06:54
  • ★★ Ali tries not to think of rest as done for the sake of more economic output, which he struggles with: the upside of meditation, he jokes, is that he can make a video about it. — 00:06:54

00:07:44 — Forethought: planning study and the SAD mnemonic

  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade's second F, forethought, is planning: if you block out time to study without planning what to study and how to study it effectively, you may end up wasting the time. — 00:07:44
  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade's S is spaced repetition: we forget what we learn exponentially unless we review it, so reviewing it at regular intervals makes us more likely to retain it. — 00:08:42 · spaced repetition, forgetting curve
  • ★★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade's first A is active recall: staring at information only feels like time well spent, while planning an active recall technique that pulls information out of your mind gives the most benefit. — 00:09:11 · active recall
  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade's second A is association: she remembers a new person's name by linking it to someone she knows, such as her neighbour Charlotte, and revision techniques that build on associations are more effective. — 00:10:10
  • ★★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade's SAD mnemonic (spaced repetition, active recall, association, desirable difficulty) is a set of questions to ask yourself when you revise, to make sure you are doing something effective. — 00:10:39 · spaced repetition, active recall
  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade's D is desirable difficulty: revise in ways that are hard and challenge you, and if they do not feel hard enough, add more active recall or move to application such as testing. — 00:10:39 · active recall
  • ★ Ali says he will start using Jade's SAD mnemonic when preparing for his future medical exam. — 00:10:39
  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: For the last few years Jade has kept a monthly overview with goals, which helps her juggle her YouTube channel with university and writing her book. — 00:10:39

00:10:50 — Monthly overview with goals, weekly reviews and the Odyssey plan

  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade breaks her monthly goals down into the weeks of the month, then into a daily to-do list, then a to-do list for each activity. — 00:11:28
  • ★★ Ali feels he really needs a weekly review and does one rarely, but each time it gives him so much clarity; monthly reviews are useful too, and doing them is just discipline. — 00:11:28
  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade keeps up monthly planning because without it she feels lost and chaotic, on a treadmill catching up with life; the start of each month gives her the fresh-start feeling of New Year's resolutions. — 00:11:59
  • ★★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade's Odyssey plan: besides your current path in five years, write down an alternative route that is also achievable and the life you would lead in five years if societal expectations and money did not matter; then step back and bring elements of that last life into your life now to make it feel more meaningful. — 00:13:26
  • ★★★ Ali first did the Odyssey plan in December 2019, when Jade put out her video about it; spending half an hour thinking and writing about the five-year plans genuinely changed the trajectory of his life. — 00:14:01

00:14:28 — Fun: reframing subjects, teaching it to someone else, writing a book for the fun of it

  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: To make a disliked subject fun, Jade says, notice what you tell yourself about it and reframe it around who you are and what you like to find something of value in it; every subject has something brilliant about it. — 00:15:00
  • ★★★ When Ali could not find a way to make university material fun, he made it fun by thinking about how he would teach it to someone else, as he always taught students in the years below. — 00:15:29
  • ★★ Ali says that even for boring material, such as a table to memorise, figuring out interesting mnemonics and ways to teach it to someone else makes it a lot more fun. — 00:15:58
  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade says the pressure on her book to perform was crippling, so she focused instead on why she was writing it, just finishing it and enjoying each good sentence, which made it more achievable and enjoyable. — 00:16:57
  • ★★★ Ali finds that taking his writing too seriously sucks the fun out of it, so he treats it as a game: a Post-it on his old monitor reads "this is supposed to be fun", reminding him that it is not the end of the world if a book does not do well. — 00:17:22

00:17:52 — Wrap-up of the equation, Jade's book and Ali's small studio

  • ★★ Unjaded Jade: Jade says the book's becoming a bestseller was truly not her goal: when she finished it she did not care about the numbers, being proud of getting out the message she wanted. — 00:17:52

Threads in this video

  • restate · Should productivity be about efficiency or about enjoying the work? — Jade says productivity is just spending time well, which can mean time with friends, self-care and recharging, or simply enjoying your life. (00:02:02)
  • refine · How do you rest without feeling guilty? — Ali thinks of productivity as doing more of the things that matter to him, so hanging out with friends, dinner with friends, board games or playing Ratchet and Clank on the PS5 count as productive. (00:02:02)
  • restate · How do you rest without feeling guilty? — Jade says relaxing activities recharge you and create a better you, almost an investment in doing classically productive tasks better. (00:06:54)
  • restate · How do you improve your focus? — Jade's tip of sanctity of space: since the brain links places to activities, keep the place where you study or write for that work alone, making your desk a place to revise rather than to scroll social media. (00:03:57)
  • refine · How do you improve your focus? — Ali means to start using sanctity of space too, especially for writing his book: the same nice cafe every day. (00:04:55)
  • restate · Should you meditate? — Jade says mindfulness habits such as yoga and meditation may sound hippie, but they, journaling and self-care are really important for sustaining focus. (00:05:25)
  • restate · Should you time-block your calendar? — To make meditation or journaling happen, Jade advises time-blocking: put, say, 10 minutes to write a journal or try a meditation app into your timetable after you wake, which makes you more likely to commit to it. (00:05:54)
  • refine · Should you time-block your calendar? — Enjoying work so much, Ali often forgets to take time for himself in the evenings; he will try scheduling a tennis lesson at 5 or 6 p.m. to force himself to leave work, and time for PlayStation or meditation in the evening. (00:06:24)
  • restate · How do you study effectively for exams? — Jade's SAD mnemonic (spaced repetition, active recall, association, desirable difficulty) is a set of questions to ask yourself when you revise, to make sure you are doing something effective. (00:10:39)
  • restate · Should you cram or study a little every day? — Jade's S is spaced repetition: we forget what we learn exponentially unless we review it, so reviewing it at regular intervals makes us more likely to retain it. (00:08:42)
  • restate · Should you highlight and reread when studying? — Jade's first A is active recall: staring at information only feels like time well spent, while planning an active recall technique that pulls information out of your mind gives the most benefit. (00:09:11)
  • restate · Should you set goals, and how? — For the last few years Jade has kept a monthly overview with goals, which helps her juggle her YouTube channel with university and writing her book. (00:10:39)
  • refine · How should you plan your week? — Ali feels he really needs a weekly review and does one rarely, but each time it gives him so much clarity; monthly reviews are useful too, and doing them is just discipline. (00:11:28)
  • restate · How do you design the life you want? — Jade's Odyssey plan: besides your current path in five years, write down an alternative route that is also achievable and the life you would lead in five years if societal expectations and money did not matter; then step back and bring elements of that last life into your life now to make it feel more meaningful. (00:13:26)
  • refine · How do you design the life you want? — Ali first did the Odyssey plan in December 2019, when Jade put out her video about it; spending half an hour thinking and writing about the five-year plans genuinely changed the trajectory of his life. (00:14:01)
  • refine · Should productivity be about efficiency or about enjoying the work? — When Ali could not find a way to make university material fun, he made it fun by thinking about how he would teach it to someone else, as he always taught students in the years below. (00:15:29)
  • restate · Should productivity be about efficiency or about enjoying the work? — Ali finds that taking his writing too seriously sucks the fun out of it, so he treats it as a game: a Post-it on his old monitor reads "this is supposed to be fun", reminding him that it is not the end of the world if a book does not do well. (00:17:22)
  • restate · How do you get past perfectionism and the fear of starting? — Jade says the pressure on her book to perform was crippling, so she focused instead on why she was writing it, just finishing it and enjoying each good sentence, which made it more achievable and enjoyable. (00:16:57)

Mentioned

Central: Odyssey plan · productivity equation · SAD mnemonic · sanctity of space · The Only Study Guide You'll Ever Need · Unjaded Jade

Also: Works: Make It Stick

Concepts: active recall · desirable difficulty · forgetting curve · meditation · Mental health · mnemonics · spaced repetition · time-blocking · weekly review

Products: PlayStation 5

Also centred on Odyssey plan: I'm Moving to America 🇺🇸 - Life Update · 20 Lessons that Improved My Life · How To Figure Out What You Want To Do With Your Life

Also centred on productivity equation: My Simple Productivity System - The Equation

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