How to watch YouTube effectively?

If you are like me, you probably watch YouTube a lot. My weakness is not scrolling TikTok, Instagram or some other social media app. It is YouTube.

My YouTube feed is so interesting that I literally want to click on every thumbnail. Not only the algorithm is really, really good, but also the content creators became a lot better with creating thumbnails and titles. Colors, catchy texts, catchy images - you name it. The battle for attention is brutal.

Furthermore, I’m actually interested in all of the topics of the videos on my YouTube home page. And not only on the home page, but also in the suggested videos section while I’m already watching a video.

If I wanted to, I could go down a rabbit hole of watching videos and until I know it - my day has gone by.

But the worst part is that I wouldn’t be able to remember anything of what I actually watched. Almost all of the content I’ve watched won’t improve my life in any way. Time is lost, information is not used, head is overloaded.

1. The strategy

1. Create two playlists called ‘Watch later (Focus)’ and ‘Watch later (Entertainment)’
2. When you come across a video that needs your attention because you actually want to learn something - add it to the ‘Watch later (Focus)’ playlist. Do not watch that video straight away - just add it to the playlist.
3. When you come across a video that’s more like something you’d like to see out of curiosity like news, state of affairs etc. - add it to ‘Watch later (Entertainment)’ playlist. Still - do not watch it straight away.
4. Have a specific time on a daily or weekly basis for watching the content in ‘Watch later (Focus)’. This could be your time slot for learning in general. At this point you’re not using YouTube as an entertaining platform, but rather as a learning one!
5. While you watch a video from ‘Watch later (Focus)’, have a note taking app open and take notes! Write down everything you find useful from this video. At the top of the note post a link to that video. When you’re finished watching, you might add some of your thoughts on what you just saw or heard. This is important because we need that information to actually stick. If you watch a video, but don’t remember anything after that - you’ve just lost your time.
6. Watching videos from the ‘Watch later (Entertainment)’ should happen always while you’re doing something else - commuting, cleaning the house, washing the dishes, going on a walk, walking on a treadmill, eating, sitting on the toilet, waiting for a doctor appointment, etc. You won’t remember anything from what you watch or hear, so it doesn’t matter. It is almost certain that the information in this video won’t change your life in any way.
7. Periodically review both your lists and remove entries that you’re no longer interested in. You’d be surprised how quickly your interest wanes. Initially you thought something might be interesting, but when you sleep on it after a day - there’s a high chance you won’t be so excited about it.

2. Bonus

If you don’t trust your willpower and you just know you’re going to open YouTube at some point - I suggest using a DNS such as NextDNS. It has a pretty good FREE plan and you can block an application from your browsers, router, phone - everywhere.

This strategy will free up more time. That’s because of three reasons:

1. You won’t be dedicating time for watching entertainment content, instead - you’ll be consuming this while you’re doing something else,
2. You will find yourself watching fewer videos overall,
3. You will be more productive with your other work, since you won’t be consuming entertainment content during work sessions and you’ll have a dedicated time slot for consuming valuable content.

If you think this just adds up complexity to your life and makes everything more frustrating or you feel restricted by having additional rules to follow - please, refer to this article.