How he went from YouTube addict to studying 12 hours a … — Transcript

During COVID, I would stream for 12 hours a day and study for 10 hours, which seems kind of ridiculous to a lot of people, but to me it wasn't that ridiculous. You know what finally worked for me was—

channel if you're new on the channel I make videos to help you optimize your life every so often I get to do these interviews where I can interview High performers and outliers so that you can Implement their strategies into your own

What's up? Welcome back to the channel. If you're new to the channel, I make videos to help you optimize your life. Every so often, I get to do these interviews where I can interview high performers and outliers so that you can implement their strategies into your own life.

year and he wasn't just scrolling on YouTube you could actually see what was on his computer which I don't think anybody else has done on YouTube like there are streams where you see people working or study with these streams but

So previously, I interviewed Ru Yom, who you might be familiar with. But this time, I'm interviewing James Schultz, who's a super unique productivity YouTuber. During the pandemic, he actually live streamed himself studying for 12 hours a day every single day for over a year.

is that he likes to use all this retro Tech not only does he use a dump phone but he also uses a retro looking computer and camera and when you watch his videos it just looks like it's some

And he wasn't just scrolling on YouTube; you could actually see what was on his computer, which I don't think anybody else has done on YouTube. Like, there are streams where you see people working or studying with these streams, but I don't think there's anybody that actually showed proof that they were actually studying for 12 hours a day for over a year. And you can see that all on his channel. One thing that makes him super unique as a productivity YouTuber

channel I'll have time stamps of everything we talked about if you want to skip around but hope you enjoy the podcast all right James uh can you give us a quick background of who you are and where you're at today yeah man uh my

is that he likes to use all this retro tech. Not only does he use a dumb phone, but he also uses a retro-looking computer and camera. And when you watch his videos, it just looks like it's some

currently kind of just doing my own thing uh I graduated and then drove around America for like two months and then drove to Canada and then was in England for a long time shooting a movie and now I'm back and I'm just kind of

other period of time. It feels like you're being transported to a different era. In the podcast, I got to ask him about his personal productivity routine, his philosophy on building discipline, breaking social media addiction, journaling, and even building a YouTube

you talk about productivity and digital minimalism and you've also like shared different parts of your routine like there was a period where you woke up at 3:30 a.m. and there's a period where you worked for like 12 hours a day so I'm

channel. I'll have timestamps of everything we talked about if you want to skip around, but hope you enjoy the podcast.

like 333 a.m. uh during Co I would stream for 12 hours a day and study for 10 hours um which seems kind of ridiculous to a lot of people but to me it wasn't that ridiculous you know I was

All right, James, can you give us a quick background of who you are and where you're at today?

homework so at least to me like 10 hours didn't seem that unreasonable of you know studying but I guess that's what people know me for now um nowadays my routine is a bit different that I'm graduated uh things are like in lockdown and my

Yeah, man. My name is James Schultz. I'm primarily known online for my YouTube channels. I have a few, probably too many, but I recently—well, not recently—I finished university, graduating with a degree in computer engineering, and I'm

and I would drink energy drinks at like or coffee or caffeine in general at like 1: p.m. and it would kind of wreak havoc on my sleep schedule so um nowadays having that consistency of waking up at the same time for me is really important

currently kind of just doing my own thing. I graduated and then drove around America for like two months, and then drove to Canada, and then was in England for a long time shooting a movie. And now I'm back, and I'm just kind of

Haruki mirami daily schedule uh where he wakes up at like starts working at 4:00 for like 6 hours until 10:00 then goes on like a 10 km run or something like that and then just listens to music and

playing a lot of sports, working out, and reading a lot, and focusing on my own companies, you know, outside of YouTube.

of more productivity oriented um read books listen to music which I guess is more of like a Leisure activity I play a lot of sport actually nowadays um I play bedington I climb a lot I'm on like a

Nice. Yeah, definitely want to get into all that. But yeah, one of the things I'm curious about, like on your channel,

period of my life where I'm trying to work on becoming like um I'm working on my acting career cuz I feel that as like my next big Venture but my credentials like I have a deg in computer engineering so I kind of have to wait

you talk about productivity and digital minimalism, and you've also shared different parts of your routine. Like, there was a period where you woke up at 3:30 a.m., and there's a period where you worked for like 12 hours a day. So I'm

back on when things get a bit crazier in my life is that a movie that you are making or you're part of somebody else's movie um I'm acting in it so it's someone else's movie oh that's cool yeah it's been in the works for like a

really curious, like right now, what does your daily routine look like these days? Like, when do you wake up, how much do you work, and what are you optimizing for?

what are some productivity advice that you find actually is really helpful I find that most advice isn't very helpful um and it really depends on a lot of contexts like I wouldn't recommend my routine to like a father of

Yeah, so just to, if you guys didn't know, I used to wake up pretty early,

off of passive income so there's a lot of freedom for me yeah and my routin is based on like a lot of people who live off of passive income you know yeah um so Hari Mami um of course and I guess a few YouTubers

like 3:33 a.m. During COVID, I would stream for 12 hours a day and study for 10 hours,

Naval Ravi K oh yeah that's that's one of my favorite books yeah you know that part where he talks about like books Code Media and uh videos or something like that yeah so I'm working on building those four strings and I would

which seems kind of ridiculous to a lot of people, but to me it wasn't that ridiculous. You know, I was

but I'm trying to figure out what I exactly want to expand to um I'm a Onan team here so I can kind of explore as I please and there's not really much of like a financial incentive to make

working as an undergrad researcher doing four hours, 20 hours a week, and then studying Japanese two hours a day, and then listening to lectures as a computer engineering student. That takes up a fair amount of time doing readings, doing

hard as a content creator because I feel like for me I can't just block out YouTube completely because I have to at least access an upload a video uh so what has been your experience with like breaking YouTube addiction and how is it

homework. So at least to me, like 10 hours didn't seem that unreasonable of, you know, studying. But I guess that's what people know me for now. Nowadays, my routine is a bit different. I'm graduated, things are like in lockdown, and my

in 2009 uh so you know that's like most of my life I've been on this website right yeah uh so it's fairly deeply ingrained to me into me at this point what my main uh I guess pitfalls are for

workout schedule is a bit different. And I've found that waking up at the same time every single day, including the weekends, for me is rather important. I know there was a period of time where I was mad addicted to energy drinks,

I would say actually being a YouTuber has made it easier to be less addicted to YouTube because I don't really feel as though I'm missing out on a lot of the experience that has actually added genuine value to my life I can still

and I would drink energy drinks at like, or coffee or caffeine in general, at like 1 p.m., and it would kind of wreak havoc on my sleep schedule. So nowadays, having that consistency of waking up at the same time for me is really important.

watching just like Mindless content that actually adds nothing to my life and um just entertaining myself to death with pointless uh and it's been an uphill battle you know what finally worked for me was finding the important things to me in life and focusing on

And for me, the most sustainable time to wake up is about 5:00 a.m. So it's like about 5 to 9 is waking hours for me, and I

say my life in general has been much better since combating YouTube addiction which for me was I'm Mar in high school and early college how do you increase your comfort with boredom and how does how has it helped you with being more

wake up, do a fair amount of work. This routine is based around the

screens everywhere you know I have like seven or eight screens around me right now and it's important to learn how to live with all these things beckoning for our attention all the time um technical literacy and being able to understand

Haruki Murakami daily schedule, where he wakes up at like, starts working at 4:00 for like 6 hours until 10:00, then goes on like a 10 km run or something like that, and then just listens to music and

um I would say really important as well one thing I always thought was really interesting that you use is retro Tech like a dumb phone and I saw recently you switch to like a e in monitor do you

does it the rest of the day, chills the rest of the day. But yeah, so I'll wake up, work, work out, eat lunch, shower, and then spend the rest of my day

explain it to you cuz I haven't really talked about it on my channel cuz feel like it wouldn't really apply to most people but um I guess like I'm like a really big car guy right so I think of a

how I please, which in general is kind of more productivity-oriented. I read books, listen to music, which I guess is more of like a leisure activity. I play a lot of sports actually nowadays. I play badminton, I climb a lot, I'm on like a

is the engine and when you want to work on your car right I would say like your phone or the ink monitor or anything is like the garage so it's like keeps you safe from like the elements like the

volleyball team with my homies, and I run a lot, and I lift weights a lot. So is there something specific that you're optimizing for right now or just overall this routine?

it can allow you to you know work on it longer at night with lights and when it's the winter you know so I would say like most smartphones are kind of like garages but they just have like a lot of

So it's, I'm kind of in a weird

you're out there racing your car or whatever meditation is like refilling your engine your tank with gas and it allows you to go out there for longer and ideally you know that meditation is high quality high octane so that you don't mess up your

period of my life where I'm trying to work on becoming like, I'm working on my acting career because I feel that as like my next big venture. But my credentials, like I have a degree in computer engineering, so I kind of have to wait

wouldn't really do that but I guess I would in my metaphor I drive a lot so I have to fill up the gas tank a lot and I drive pretty hard so I need to burn a lot of gas so I need to

until this movie comes out that I'm working on to kind of solidify my credentials. And in between that period of like waiting for this film to come out,

his forever uh but nowadays it's more like okay set a timer for 30 minutes do you find it easy to to like stick with this habit because I've had I've had like periods where I'm like super consistent with it and then also period

I've just been kind of focusing on like developing good routines that I can fall

been my hardest to keep track of I have like a he- map over here to my side that has those three habits on um a heat map yeah I don't know if you are you a developer I know sorry uh I I studied

back on when things get a bit crazier in my life.

it's a piece of software online it's called life of discipline it's like a Firebase app and I think the developers are charging too much for the premium version but the free version you can track up to three habits so um okay I do

Is that a movie that you are making or you're part of somebody else's movie?

looks really cool cuz like I had a heap for Ani and that was like a primary motivator for years have it up in your room so you can always see it like somewhere there like a dedicated screen and it like and

I'm acting in it, so it's someone else's movie.

sick that's sick off to the off to the side right where so okay yeah I definitely want to do that are there are there other apps that you use daily or you use often that is super helpful like

Oh, that's cool. Yeah, it's been in the works for like a

actually uh yeah um but I wouldn't say it's like it's like necessary bro I was I had an iPhone that was averaging like 10 minutes a day on it nice before so it's kind of more of like just pouching

year now. I think it's finally close. I can't say much more because the press release isn't out, but I'm really excited for it. With this routine, like is this a result of having tried many different productivity routines? Like

that's like kind of a unique scenario where like I for myself and I don't even like have that many friends who like talk to me like that like text me all the time cuz I usually just communicate like on Discord on my computer so like

what are some productivity advice that you find actually is really helpful?

business hours and I have like the business phone of some people just saved in my had so no Google Maps the Google Maps on this doesn't work very well oh so um I don't know some apps works and

I find that most advice isn't very helpful,

working GPS module is it a e e Inc uh in PH it's it's not an e dumb phone it's a Philips e6810 it's a rebranded chin F21 Pro with like a F22 chassis and uh I used to have an f-21 Pro but I didn't

and it really depends on a lot of contexts. Like, I wouldn't recommend my routine to like a father of six, right? You know, for me this is what works. I'm like a fairly young dude, and I have at this point in my time, at this point in my life, you know, a lot of free time, and I like live

are some of your favorite retro Tech I guess it doesn't have to be retro like what are some of your favorite tech stuff that you got recently that you really appreciate like like recently I started using an iPod which I I really

off of passive income, so there's a lot of freedom for me.

I'm really into eating stuff at the moment um I just find the technology super interesting and it aligns really well with my values I would say it enables people to work better and sleep better at night and protect their eye

Yeah, and my routine is based on like a lot of people who live off of passive income, you know.

which is someone who's like a power user and who's been you know like I've been on Android forever and I've been modding it for a long time and I'm really familiar with it yeah and um in terms of like P hardw I really

Yeah, Haruki Murakami, of course, and I guess a few YouTubers.

like I want stuff but they like I'm not going to use any of the stuff yeah yeah it's so cool though man um yeah and uh I guess I like I don't know technolog is kind of a broad term I'm really into

I would say I have a similar routine to them, I guess, like kind of getting into that passive income. How did you actually build that passive income? Like, what are your passive income—

it man I probably use it for like four hours a day journaling wow um I like so what an important thing for me recently has been um writing like autobiography and I can kind of use it as like a typewriter I just hook up my

Yeah, I don't know if you've read the Almanack by

your Journal that's how I see it man um I don't think anyone else will ever read it but it's been very enlightening and important for reflection which I would say is a rather important part of productivity and personal growth you

Naval Ravikant.

bad and at least for me you know I had like a fairly not going to say it was like super traumatic or anything but it wasn't like the greatest upbringing ever and it helped me come to terms with like

Oh yeah, that's one of my favorite books.

of chapters in general already so like the whole Co thing was like a chapter the whole High School thing was a chapter post lockdown was a chapter postgraduation was a chapter you know yeah um and it helps me find like find

Yeah, you know that part where he talks about like books, code, media, and videos or something like that?

yeah I love that it's like living out the main character of your own anime life I guess it helps me be like a better person for other people too I won't I won't say it's like I'm the main

Yeah, so I'm working on building those four streams, and I would

what what are your summ of your favorite books you I know you mentioned like the almanac of Nal Ravon but what other books that I thought it would be kind of corny but it's a pretty good book yeah um

say that I have videos and media down pretty well, but I'm working on the movies and the code part at the moment. So that would be YouTube, right? Like with media, YouTube.

know I just found it really pretty and really moving it's probably not the most recommendation amongst the productivity self-help Guru type genre on here on YouTube yeah but um as far as like that kind of book um I thought Michael Easter's books

Yeah, and I think I want to expand a little bit,

things that seem kind of pointless but actually help you grow and I kind of could relate to that right yeah I guess like your 12 hour 12 hour day live stream is is like that maybe yeah yeah that's definitely how I

but I'm trying to figure out what I exactly want to expand to. I'm a one-man team here, so I can kind of explore as I please, and there's not really much of like a financial incentive to make

your screen uh I worked in a different way nowadays it's not pomodora so I won't do like 10 hours straight of working with no breaks you know I'll do four hours deep work and then take a go work out

profits immediately, so I can experiment.

yeah the live streaming did add like a self account ability Factor people saw you and we like where are you and they rely on you um but yeah um I you know I would encourage people to probably start a

Right.

depressing to be born with zero goals in your life um yeah zero desires um so maybe F focus on finding what you want deep down I'm sure it's there somewhere first and then once you Orient your goals figure out milestones for

Yeah, one thing I'm also curious about I want to talk to you about is like you talked about YouTube addiction before and like breaking that, especially like I feel like it must be especially

goals even if it's not like the most fun thing at the moment I know in the long term this is what I need to be doing and this is what's fulfilling so yeah I think it' be rather depressing to think

hard as a content creator because I feel like for me I can't just block out YouTube completely because I have to at least access and upload a video. So what has been your experience with like brea—

uh um and I'm still you know I wasn't really raised with a dad and how I've been able to cope with that was just by focusing on developing myself so I can one day become a better father or like a father

that you know I could die and be proud of the kids I raised and uh yeah and I want to be able to retire my mom she's worked so hard for me um she came here from Vietnam uh in high

school and worked super hard so I could go to like better high schools that like my cousins weren't able to go to and was able to provide me nutritious food that I could eat after I go running and you

know help me out when she wasn't like always there for me but you know I know she was fighting for me so yeah she deserves the best yeah that's awesome what I mean this is like a hard hard ter turn but this is like a

question I have written down but it's like kind of related to like the tech stuff that we were talking about earlier what are some of your best purchases under $100 that you think have like actually improved the quality of your

life like doesn't have to yeah $100 man I would say the smart bulbs in my bedroom are very useful because you can set like time for them to turn on and I'm sure you watch Andrew hberman but he's a like

get sunlight in the morning but I don't have sunlight that early so you get the bulbs to turn on before you wake up and it's like way cheaper than the sunrise alarm clocks that are like 100 bucks or

whatever you can get cheap bulbs for like $15 and you can get like a e-reader for pretty cheap and you recommend like that that one you have this one's not $100 unfortunately you can get a $100 on you

can get a used Kindle and you can um I don't know if I should say this you can like pirate boat super easily on them yeah yeah yeah pretty easily it'll it'll pay for itself pretty quick yeah um what else I don't know my my

channel was like built off of a $100 laptop and like a $100 camcorder that I had from high school you know I say you don't I would say restrictions invoke creativity so you have 800k Subs and then you have like

two 200k subscriber channels like what's the what's the idea with having so many different channels uh so I started off with one channel the James Schultz channel and yeah I don't know if you watch the streams but I don't know I

just kind of lost my passion for having such like a large community at least for me um I prefer like you know when I stream like knowing regulars in the chat and like having like a conversation that spans multiple days

which I realize is asking a lot as like a streamer but um I think at the time it's kind of I haven't really verbalized my feelings about this so it's kind of hard for me to explain there are sever reasons that I have

several channels and the first one the biggest one I've kind of abandoned um I'm thinking about bringing it back at some point but I really want to produce like really special content on that channel like hi budget stuff that would

you know people would recognize that this is a different person than uh I was 3 years ago that was started in 2020 and I think I stopped posting in like 20 20 like and the 2021 or something like that so um forget your

question actually I apologize no I guess just like going over um the reason with having different channels but you kind of touch upon it with like trying to build a more niche kind of a tighter Community right it's

kind of strange for a YouTuber to be like I want less subscribers I guess um right yeah yeah so like I guess like once I so for context I've streamed to like three people for like six months straight or like you know and these are

people who like I knew like we would chat after the stream and stuff and it was mad fun during Co and I would like enjoy their presence um and I think I kind of lost that as the channel grew

larger and um I think like up to a point my goal originally was I was doing this for like myself because I wanted to help other people and I found the work really fulfilling but once like things started

to grow um I found myself like I don't know I was like you know I could the people I looked up to I be I could become bigger than them and um up to that point it was kind of scary for

me because it's not really doing it for like my best interest at that point it's kind of feeding my own ego and I feel like that's kind of a risky game when you're like yeah I will be better than

this person versus I will be better than myself you know yesterday and like either way if you're comparing yourself to other people that you look up to it's like a lose lose either like you become arrogant and cocky or you become like

envious and jealous and yeah so I decided that I need to like pivot a bit and you know um humble myself a bit yeah one thing I like about like all your channels is that it feels really authentic and that

you're not you're never like click baiting people to to watch a video like uh a little bit oh yeah just a little bit actually I noticed like uh in your in JV show some like one of the thumbnails maybe like more than one it's

like it that's not your Des set of I think in the video I don't know I'm like really bad at taking thumbnails man so I just grab B screen thoughts and it seems to and it works how does that work I

don't I don't know man like my channel seems to defy a lot of rules I guess people have for making successful channels but it seems to work so I don't know do you have any advice for people starting out

with succeeding on YouTube it's a hard question man um cuz like first you have to figure out why you want to be a YouTuber um for me it was a right choice because it allowed me to help people in my own way during the

lockdown you know and it was a way that I can make passive income and pay my rent while still working which was important to me CU that was my first apartment and uh so like I don't know people like nowadays a lot of kids want

to be YouTubers and I will say it's very risky in terms of like career longevity in terms of mental health in terms of you know um Financial stability it can be very up and down right so yeah um first figure

out why you want to do YouTube and then um you have to provide information or valuable information at the end of the day um and that can be you know a variety of things that can be humor that

can be educational content technological content um make sure you're providing value and if you do provide value make sure your audio quality is good that's about it right so you think audio is the most important than video quality

definitely definitely bro like I watch Like a video and it has like audio I'm not watching it but video it's fine yeah that actually makes sense I think a lot of people actually just listen to to videos like I I know I

sometimes I'm not even watching people just leave it in the background while like working or something and you might pop up and you know surprise them somehow yeah do you focus on the editing at all or that's a good question yeah uh

my my channel isn't I would say very produced uh yeah like you said earlier it has kind of like the more home homegrown feeling to it which I've kind of leaned on so for me my channel it's kind of important to have like you know

me stuttering at times or like giggling or messing up a little bit but I could see someone like who makes very produced videos with like a large team editing that kind of stuff out and that works for them so um play to your strengths it

can be either or just if you're like a super professional video guy and you're like stuttering every 3 seconds and right that's that's not very you know yeah yeah and I guess like with um with the passive income side how do you

actually monetize your channel is it with AdSense or I don't I don't see you like taking on many like sponsors if any it's a weird story man um I took on one sponsor a few years ago and I was really I really did not

enjoy the experience I felt kind of dirty accepting money for a product that I really didn't know too much about so I just stopped I was like this is not me um I know that's how most YouTubers make

a majority of their income for my channel I don't even leave video ads on like half my videos because they're like study with me and if like someone studying and then like a video starts playing then that's just like a worse

experience for the person I'm trying to like you know help so um most of my videos just have banner ads and that's been enough for me uh I probably make like one tenth of what I could be making

115th to be honest I know you interviewed another half asian I talked to R before and she makes like a bowet of money so yeah um yeah I don't make anywhere near that I sell my own stuff what do you sell right now I'm

selling a planner and it was pretty it did well for me um $7 a unit and I think I sold a few thousand or something so you know um and for me you know I can feel proud of the thing I'm selling and it

aligns with the people who watch my videos and I can feel as though I'm genuinely helping them out with something that might you know make their life better so kind of where I'm going heading towards at the moment yeah I've

been thinking about this a lot too like I've been getting more more sponsorship offers yeah man it's tempting though cuz the bag um but kind of to wrap things up like my this sort of like interview series I'm doing occasionally is like

called the outlier series like people who feel like they're sort of outliers the person listening to this might be ambitious and wanting to achieve more like whether that's that's probably why they're interested in productivity and optimizing their life but like I guess

like to those people what sort of message do you have or advice you have for them I would say find metaphors that work for you in your life and stories that find work that work for you um for

me it was like the car thing and I would say find Role Models I might sound kind of crazy when if I do say it but I'll just say it like my main role model is like a car engine like a very specific

engine it's the 2J Z it's like a old Toyota engine that's pretty notorious in the drift community so I guess like a long the the way I saw it myself for a long time was like I really want to be

like this engine like I really want to be able to take a high amount of um pressure while still remaining super reliable and I want to be able to like take ideologies and like ideas and view those as like parts that I can improve

my engine with and I can improve my conscious to become like a better driver and learn how to drive my subconscious better and like whenever I'm like running or something or like doing something hard I'm like I got to be like

this engine man like I can't red line but I have to be able to take high pressure and not explode that's like what's important to me if you enjoy this one maybe you'll enjoy the interview I did with ruy

but if there's anybody else that you think I should interview let me know in the comments I'll reply to every single comment especially if you made it to this part of the video but I'll see you next week in a regular video Let's Get

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