How to optimize YouTube for learning

A digital minimalist's guide to watching YouTube.

Jason Chin
December 17, 2024

Welcome back to The Digital Minimalist. Each week, I share actionable tips to stay productive in our cluttered and distracting world.

You might agree that YouTube is better than social media for finding inspiration and learning.

Therefore, we would like to share 4 steps you can take today to avoid distractions on YouTube.

Review your YouTube subscriptions and unsubscribe from channels that don't align with your goals.

If you still want to use YouTube for entertainment, consider creating a separate account.

YouTube Subscriptions page

Unhook is a browser extension that hides YouTube features like the homepage, Shorts, recommendations, and comments.

I suggest at least hiding Shorts, while other settings depend on what you find most distracting when using YouTube.

Unhook browser extension on YouTube

To avoid impulsive viewing, make it a habit to only watch videos you've added to your Watch Later list.

Simply click the three dots next to any video title to save it to your Watch Later playlist, a default playlist on every YouTube account.

YouTube Watch Later page

Use "Not Interested" or "Don't Recommend Channel" options to filter out unwanted content from your recommendations.

You can reveal these options by clicking the three dots next to a video title.

YouTube feature to mark a video as not interested

“A bird sitting on a tree branch is not afraid of it breaking because its trust is not in the branch but in its own wings.”

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Strategies, applications, and people can support us, but we must learn to trust ourselves.

I hope you enjoyed this issue, and I will talk to you soon next week.

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