00:00:00
if you're serious about your learning
00:00:01
and you want to take it to the next
00:00:02
level then you have to try writing mini
00:00:04
essays and I warn you this will take a
00:00:05
lot of time and effort but you'll gain
00:00:07
so much wisdom and perspective in return
00:00:09
they're also one of my most powerful
00:00:10
tools for improving how I write it gives
00:00:12
me the opportunity to practice and to
00:00:14
really develop the skills and become
00:00:16
familiar with the craft but what are me
00:00:18
essays anyway well they're not the long
00:00:19
boring ones from school where your
00:00:21
teachers made you write 2,000 words on
00:00:23
some you didn't care about
00:00:25
these mini essays are actually fun to
00:00:26
write and sometimes they're my favorite
00:00:28
part of the day mini essays are short
00:00:30
pieces of writing that surround a single
00:00:31
idea or topic and in this case you don't
00:00:34
have to get frustrated over choosing
00:00:36
what to write about because it's already
00:00:37
done for you and if that sounds bizarre
00:00:39
it will make so much sense you'll see
00:00:41
ultimately there are a tool for learning
00:00:42
if I encounter something in a book that
00:00:44
I find really interesting something that
00:00:46
resonates with me I write a mini essay
00:00:48
on it and that is true for any piece of
00:00:50
content whether it's a book whether it's
00:00:52
a video an article even tweets or even
00:00:55
something that someone told you one day
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it doesn't matter where these ideas come
00:00:58
from but as long as it stood out to you
00:01:00
it's worth writing about and that
00:01:01
writing takes the form of the mini essay
00:01:04
which is essentially a detailed note and
00:01:06
I write it as if I'm going to teach it
00:01:07
to someone else and you'll see why
00:01:09
that's so powerful very shortly so
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here's a great example I was reading an
00:01:12
article on substack written by Rob
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Henderson who's an amazing writer by the
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way I'll link him down below in this
00:01:18
article he shares a story from Thomas
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so's Memoir and it was about how even
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people who seem friendly and
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approachable at first can actually be
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deceiving and you may not always be able
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to trust them then on the other hand you
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have people who are kind of harsh and
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cold at first but as long as they're
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authentic you can trust them more and it
00:01:34
can be bad enough that those people who
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appear nice actually betray you when
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push comes to shove this idea stuck out
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to me so I took the concept and I wrote
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A minay on it in my own words as if I'm
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going to tell someone else about it and
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it's not just some scribbled down note
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this has a start an end and a middle it
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has structure to it but hold on a second
00:01:52
why go through all this trouble anyway
00:01:54
what's the point yes these are short to
00:01:56
WR but they still take a lot of time and
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effort so what what's in it for you why
00:02:01
would you even bother putting in the
00:02:02
effort to write these I won't deny that
00:02:04
these are an investment they do take
00:02:06
time and effort but in spite of that I
00:02:08
couldn't care less because the reward
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you receive in return is so worth it
00:02:13
every single minute of writing those
00:02:14
mini essays is absolutely worth your
00:02:16
time 100% ever since I started using
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these mini essays in my self-education
00:02:21
you can say which was about 8 months ago
00:02:24
a year maybe I have seen noticeable
00:02:26
improvements in not only my reading
00:02:28
quality but my writing has gotten more
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powerful too it's true that the
00:02:31
investment is large but I see
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Improvement in two areas of life that
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really mean a lot to me and I bet it's
00:02:36
the same for you so let me show you
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exactly how mini essays are so good for
00:02:40
your reading and writing now the first
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huge benefit of mini essays is something
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that every reader would kill for it's
00:02:46
the ability to remember and understand
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what they read enough to close the
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covers of the book and say I am
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confident in what I just read and I can
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now go and use this and recall the ideas
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in my daily life many essays help you
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achieve that by exploiting something
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called the fman technique and you've
00:03:02
probably heard it before but if you
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haven't it's a technique named after the
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famous physicist Richard fman he's
00:03:07
incredibly wellknown and he was a Nobel
00:03:09
Prize winner so if he uses it as the
00:03:11
backbone to his success then you bet you
00:03:13
can too it's something that anyone can
00:03:14
use whether you're a high schooler or a
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college professor it's flexible it's
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simple and arguably it's the best
00:03:21
learning strategy ever now the first
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step involves the learning itself which
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is straightforward you pick up a book
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you watch something you listen to a
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podcast anything so long as you're
00:03:30
actively learning and I would recommend
00:03:32
taking notes in the process cuz that's
00:03:34
actually how you force your mind to
00:03:36
think and the second thing you do is you
00:03:37
actually teach what you learn to others
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and when I say that I don't mean going
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out and giving a lecture on it but
00:03:43
you're teaching an imaginary audience
00:03:45
you're producing something as if you're
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going to tell someone else about it and
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you can see where this is going with the
00:03:50
mini essays and this is where the fun
00:03:51
part is because you can use any medium
00:03:53
you want you can write on a whiteboard
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you can write notes to yourself you can
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film videos or even record audio
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whatever suits you best to communicate
00:04:01
this point and understand it better now
00:04:03
in this case we're using mini essays
00:04:04
because I found that they're the
00:04:05
simplest form of teaching they're easy
00:04:08
they're accessible and anyone can do it
00:04:10
almost anywhere and if it sounds
00:04:11
intimidating there's no worries because
00:04:13
I'm actually going to go into a a
00:04:14
step-by-step process later on now this
00:04:16
works because teaching what you learn is
00:04:18
actually incredibly powerful for your
00:04:20
own learning because not only does that
00:04:22
mental work of writing Force the ideas
00:04:24
to stick but it also let you spot gaps
00:04:26
in your understanding and this is the
00:04:28
magic of the third step when you write
00:04:30
your mini essays you're forced to think
00:04:33
when you put ideas onto paper they're
00:04:34
exposed to the world and you can
00:04:36
confront them clearly because there's
00:04:38
been so many times where I've read
00:04:40
something and it was quite insightful
00:04:42
and I thought I understood it I was like
00:04:44
yeah well that makes sense I'm happy
00:04:46
with my reading but then I find that
00:04:49
someone asks me about it or I try and
00:04:51
talk about it on paper by writing and I
00:04:54
realize I actually have no idea what he
00:04:57
was saying I can't put it into words I
00:04:59
can't articulate it but all that time in
00:05:01
my head I thought I knew it and it's
00:05:03
only until I started writing that I was
00:05:05
able to see all the gaps in my
00:05:07
understanding and even though this
00:05:08
sounds annoying it's actually a really
00:05:10
good thing it's a gift in Disguise
00:05:12
because now you have the opportunity to
00:05:14
make amends you've shown yourself that
00:05:16
you're clearly lacking something and now
00:05:18
the next step is to just return to the
00:05:20
source material and kind of patch those
00:05:22
holes and the benefit to Don't Stop
00:05:23
pouring in because when you correct
00:05:25
yourself when you revisit the material
00:05:27
and find out what you missing that very
00:05:30
act helps you remember more it's just
00:05:31
like in school when you made a mistake
00:05:33
you didn't really make the same mistake
00:05:35
twice and if you can repeat that process
00:05:37
you can learn anything you can walk away
00:05:39
from any book any video feeling
00:05:41
productive and satisfied with your
00:05:43
learning it makes your progress as clear
00:05:45
as it can be and that is really the
00:05:46
backbone of a a good life of learning
00:05:48
and I guarantee if you can take some of
00:05:50
the most powerful ideas from a book you
00:05:52
love and write many essays on them you
00:05:54
will be unrecognizable Down the Line
00:05:56
This is truly deep learning and there's
00:05:58
nothing that Eng engages you more with
00:06:00
the book than writing mini essays so
00:06:02
just for that reason alone mini essays
00:06:03
are wonderful but that's only half of
00:06:05
their value now I'm on a journey to
00:06:07
become a better writer every day I try
00:06:09
and improve my skills and see where I
00:06:11
can go and along the way mini essays
00:06:13
have been my most precious tool for
00:06:14
getting there there's three main
00:06:15
benefits to them that combine into this
00:06:18
perfect trifecta of writing the first
00:06:20
benefit is volume many novice writers
00:06:22
and this included me but they start with
00:06:25
a burst of energy and confidence they
00:06:27
have this excitement to become a writer
00:06:28
they tell every one that they a writer
00:06:30
they come up with plans they brainstorm
00:06:33
ideas and topics all these different
00:06:34
things but in spite of all this action
00:06:36
and busyness they don't write anything
00:06:40
it's sad and ironic probably the worst
00:06:42
form of procrastination too now I'm not
00:06:44
saying to be a writer you have to have
00:06:46
written a bestseller or grown an email
00:06:48
list to 10,000 subscribers but every
00:06:51
writer has to have something to show off
00:06:53
even if it's not the best quality work
00:06:55
at least it's something and then you
00:06:56
have to ask yourself the tough question
00:06:58
are you a writer or are you a wannabe I
00:07:00
was a wannabe but many essays offered a
00:07:03
solution a way out of this black hole of
00:07:05
procrastination because the only way to
00:07:07
escape it and become a good writer is to
00:07:09
put in the Reps you don't get strong and
00:07:11
build muscle by going to the gym once a
00:07:13
month and you don't become a good writer
00:07:16
by spitting out 200 words once in a blue
00:07:18
moon there are no hacks or tricks in
00:07:20
this game and even though that sounds
00:07:22
Bleak it's good news because the only
00:07:24
thing that will reward you is effort
00:07:27
consistent sustained effort every single
00:07:29
day it guarantees that if you have that
00:07:31
patience and that consistency you will
00:07:33
become a good writer that's a promise
00:07:34
from me to you and from every other
00:07:36
great writer out there I make sure to
00:07:38
write every day and I have been for a
00:07:40
while now and over those months I can
00:07:43
see a visible change it's like
00:07:44
practicing an instrument if you practice
00:07:46
every single day you won't really be
00:07:48
able to tell the difference from day to
00:07:50
day but if you stretch that time frame
00:07:51
out over the weeks months even years you
00:07:55
suddenly see how much you've changed and
00:07:57
the progress becomes real and tangible
00:08:00
and it's exactly the same in writing
00:08:01
many essays are not a hack but they are
00:08:04
a tool for helping you get that volume
00:08:06
in and by putting that practice in you
00:08:08
do get better but how comes how's that
00:08:10
possible well a common hurdle for
00:08:12
writers is not knowing what to write
00:08:14
about and this is something that really
00:08:16
affected me in the past I would be
00:08:18
sitting there with a blank screen and
00:08:20
I'd be confused not knowing what to
00:08:22
write and you can just sit there for an
00:08:24
hour with nothing happening but with
00:08:26
mini essays this pain is completely
00:08:28
absent it's gone it doesn't exist your
00:08:30
writing topic is chosen for you already
00:08:33
it's simply the interesting ideas you've
00:08:35
read in a book and that frees up your
00:08:37
mind to just sit down and actually write
00:08:39
and get those damn reps in through the
00:08:41
Synergy by combining my reading with
00:08:43
writing mini essays I can easily clock
00:08:46
about 800 1,000 words a day and if that
00:08:49
doesn't sound like much to you it is to
00:08:50
me because before I was doing less than
00:08:53
500 a day so with one change to my
00:08:55
routine I've almost doubled my writing
00:08:58
output and in theory that means I'll
00:09:00
improve my skills twice as fast so if
00:09:02
you can fit mini essays into your
00:09:03
everyday learning habits you will see
00:09:05
your writing skills s now the second
00:09:08
benefit to mini essays is novelty when
00:09:10
you scroll through YouTube shorts or
00:09:12
Instagram reals why are they so
00:09:14
addictive what is it about them that
00:09:16
keeps you glued to the screen every few
00:09:18
seconds you can expect to see something
00:09:19
new and that keeps you entertained
00:09:21
whereas if you were to watch say a 2hour
00:09:24
lecture on YouTube because nothing's
00:09:26
really changing throughout that two
00:09:28
hours you really you have to have a
00:09:30
stronger attention span to stay focused
00:09:32
by writing mini essays you're harnessing
00:09:34
the power of novelty to keep you writing
00:09:36
for long periods of time and you know
00:09:38
what that means it means you write more
00:09:39
every day it means you get better every
00:09:41
day and it means you improve at a faster
00:09:43
rate than ever before see you and I
00:09:45
we're humans right we have different
00:09:46
interests if I sat here and told you
00:09:48
that you need to stick to your
00:09:50
specialized field and you need to talk
00:09:52
about this one topic all the time you
00:09:54
wouldn't do that and I would hate to do
00:09:56
that I would hate to bottle myself in
00:09:58
into to one topic and manyi essays are
00:10:01
completely against the idea too because
00:10:03
in the space of 1 hour you can write
00:10:05
about five different topics all of which
00:10:07
are wildly interesting to you because
00:10:09
each mini essay takes about 10 or 20
00:10:11
minutes to write all in the space of an
00:10:13
hour I can be writing about content
00:10:16
creation drug cartels Pride or some
00:10:19
literature I read I can switch between
00:10:21
all these vastly different topics so
00:10:22
quickly it keeps writing fun accessible
00:10:25
and refreshing and that allows you to
00:10:27
just do it for ages the third benefits
00:10:28
your writing is that Min essays help you
00:10:30
build a bank of ideas a lot of writers
00:10:32
dread the blank page they sit at their
00:10:35
computer screen paralyzed not knowing
00:10:38
what to write about not knowing where to
00:10:39
start trying to squeeze out an idea but
00:10:41
nothing happens nothing comes out of it
00:10:43
I know that feeling in action hurts and
00:10:45
there's no good reason why you should
00:10:47
suffer from it and even though I can
00:10:48
relate to that feeling I haven't felt it
00:10:50
in over a year just because of mini
00:10:52
essays ever since I started using them
00:10:54
I've never been stuck on what to write
00:10:56
ever if anything I have too much to
00:10:57
write and of course I'm not complaining
00:10:59
at all about that and this is all
00:11:01
because I built a bank of ideas that I
00:11:03
can draw from whenever I need I use this
00:11:05
note taking app called obsidian and with
00:11:08
just the click of a button it slaps me
00:11:10
in the face with this massive network of
00:11:12
knowledge and because I tagged every
00:11:13
note and connected it to similar ones I
00:11:15
can just jump anywhere into this network
00:11:18
and find some inspiration on what to
00:11:19
write about for example if I felt
00:11:21
inspired to write about a meaningful
00:11:23
life I can click on the meaning tag and
00:11:25
it shows me everything about meaning
00:11:27
that I've written ever and from here I
00:11:28
can look around and see what makes me
00:11:30
curious and what I can maybe expand upon
00:11:32
so for example here there's a note
00:11:34
called meaning justifies suffering but
00:11:36
then I also see a note about education
00:11:39
and how we have to take it into our own
00:11:40
hands immediately in my mind I see hold
00:11:43
on a second maybe I could connect those
00:11:45
two ideas somehow maybe how meaning
00:11:47
applies to our self-education and being
00:11:50
lifelong students for example these are
00:11:51
two wildly different ideas coming
00:11:54
together to form something new and
00:11:55
exciting and that example is with a
00:11:57
narrow view I can open up this entire
00:12:00
graph to reveal a 100 maybe a thousand
00:12:03
different entry points of writing
00:12:04
there's just so much to talk about that
00:12:06
you really never run out of ideas with
00:12:08
this and as a bonus tip you can actually
00:12:09
use each mini essay to help you write
00:12:12
the final piece of work so for example
00:12:14
if I want to flesh out an idea more I
00:12:16
sometimes look back at the mini essay I
00:12:17
wrote and maybe I really liked how I
00:12:19
phrased something there or maybe I used
00:12:21
a quote that was really powerful and
00:12:23
Punchy or perhaps I like the structure
00:12:25
and I want to kind of copy that into my
00:12:27
bigger piece of work the mini essays
00:12:29
always give you that foundation and that
00:12:31
starting point I always think of it as
00:12:32
my own personal writing assistant in the
00:12:34
pal of my hand it's brilliant I couldn't
00:12:36
live without many essays and if you
00:12:38
think it's time for you to also step up
00:12:40
your reading and writing game then you
00:12:42
might be wondering how can I actually
00:12:44
apply this how can I actually write them
00:12:46
and where should I write them and all
00:12:48
these different questions so now I want
00:12:49
to dive into the raw details that can
00:12:51
help you actually apply this concept and
00:12:53
start writing your own so first what
00:12:55
makes a mini essay what the dos and
00:12:57
don'ts well first and most importantly
00:12:59
they have to be short because if you're
00:13:02
writing too many words then they just
00:13:04
become full-blown essays and that's good
00:13:06
in itself but it kind of defeats the
00:13:08
purpose of this as a notetaking
00:13:10
technique so if you feel that desire to
00:13:11
write a fullon essay do that but keep
00:13:13
the other mini essay shorter and more
00:13:15
concise mine are roughly 100 to 300
00:13:17
words long which is just a few
00:13:19
paragraphs as a good rule of thumb I try
00:13:21
and fit everything on one page without
00:13:23
having to scroll this is important
00:13:25
because it stops you from Rambling which
00:13:27
I have the tendency to do it helps you
00:13:29
practice being brief which is such an
00:13:31
important skill for any writer out there
00:13:33
exactly how you structure these mini
00:13:34
essays is completely up to you in my
00:13:37
case I write these knowing that I'm
00:13:39
going to release them to the world at
00:13:40
some point in time so because of that I
00:13:42
try and keep it informative entertaining
00:13:44
and actionable but of course that's just
00:13:46
me you might have completely different
00:13:48
needs and the structure of your mini
00:13:49
essays should reflect what you want so
00:13:52
for example you might be practicing your
00:13:53
storytelling so maybe you want to
00:13:55
include a story in each of your notes or
00:13:57
maybe you love Pros or poet
00:13:59
and you kind of want to integrate that
00:14:00
element into it this method is yours and
00:14:03
above all it should serve you to achieve
00:14:05
your goals and that means you adjust it
00:14:07
to your needs and you have that
00:14:08
confidence to to carve your own path of
00:14:10
learning and that remains true but
00:14:12
there's one tip in writing these mini
00:14:13
essays that will save you from a bunch
00:14:15
of stress and that's to keep them
00:14:16
restricted to a single concept or idea
00:14:19
so what that means is every single mini
00:14:21
essay should be about one thing and one
00:14:24
thing alone and this is important
00:14:25
because as soon as you try and integrate
00:14:27
many different elements Concepts it
00:14:29
starts getting complicated you start to
00:14:31
lose the clarity of the message and it
00:14:33
just becomes a jumble i' save the
00:14:34
connections and the more complicated
00:14:36
stuff for longer pieces of writing I
00:14:38
know it's tempting to pull other ideas
00:14:39
in sometimes but trust me on this one it
00:14:41
will make the process so much easier if
00:14:43
you stick to a single concept the final
00:14:46
question is where do you write these
00:14:48
essays I use a free note taking app
00:14:50
called obsidian and that's where you've
00:14:51
seen all the footage I put on the screen
00:14:53
I would recommend it because it can be
00:14:54
used offline and it has this really nice
00:14:56
graph feature that just lets you see all
00:14:58
the notes you've ever made in a visual
00:15:00
format and of course it's simple it's
00:15:01
minimalistic it keeps things focused on
00:15:03
the writing rather than all these other
00:15:05
gimmicks and features and after a whole
00:15:07
year of using it it's continued to serve
00:15:08
me well but of course the options are
00:15:11
endless really there's so many not
00:15:13
taking apps out there I would just
00:15:14
recommend that you use something that a
00:15:15
allows you to connect notes which is
00:15:17
important and B allows you to use it
00:15:20
offline that means you can of course
00:15:21
connect ideas and form new ones and keep
00:15:23
your knowledge somewhat arranged but it
00:15:25
also means you can use it wherever you
00:15:27
are and you don't have to rely on having
00:15:29
an internet connection but whatever you
00:15:30
choose the most important thing is to
00:15:32
stay consistent the platform is not the
00:15:34
important part the important part is
00:15:36
showing up every day to write if you
00:15:38
make many essays a habit I promise you
00:15:40
you will become a better reader but also
00:15:42
a skilled writer it's my favorite way to
00:15:44
kill two birds with one stone and really
00:15:46
make this life of learning I can be
00:15:47
happy with I hope you can find Value in
00:15:49
this method and of course if you have
00:15:50
any questions on how you can set it up
00:15:53
or which note apps to use or anything
00:15:55
anything at all related to this my email
00:15:57
is open the comment are open and as
00:15:59
always I'm happy to help you there I
00:16:01
hope you enjoyed the video and of course
00:16:02
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