How I watched YouTube videos in 2021
Ones with a duration within 10–12 mins are gold; Ones under 10mins make for easy choices
I have always enjoyed watching videos on YouTube for over a decade now. YouTube is versatile; looking for and finding content on YouTube is usually not a task.
Recently though, I was struggling to decide what to watch on YouTube — the same way we struggle to find content on an OTT streaming platform. I get it, they are all the same! Yet, I find myself keeping YouTube at the highest pedestal, therefore, this struggle was unacceptable for me.
And so, I ended up coming up with a process that helps me consume great YouTube content. The idea is to control how you choose to start a video, how you decide to stick with it and how you skip watching it if needed.
After a few runs, I realised these are the guidelines that help me control the above three things while I am on YouTube:
- Video title (topic) — shouldn’t be too negative. These videos are built solely to generate rage in you. Waste of time.
- If it’s a topic that I have seen before in some form, I should avoid it, especially if I have set out to constantly discover new content.
- Thumbnails — Good youtube videos for me have thumbnails and preview clips that just work for me. They are subtle and aren’t forcing me too much to click. I go for these.
- As a policy, I keep a tab on how many videos I should skip in an hour. If I have already skipped 4 videos in an hour, maybe it’s just not my day — and maybe I should move on to a different OTT platform.
- If it’s a usual 10–12mins video, I make sure I watch at least 3 minutes of it. This helps me avoid hop n skip needlessly.
- But at the same time, if I see that the video is not going anywhere, I skip and move off it as a rule.
- If I like what I am seeing, I don’t wait for the video to reach its end, before liking it. I make it a point to immediately hit the like button as soon as I see the first aha moment in it. This way, I feel, the algorithm makes better suggestions faster.
- It’s not much heard of, but a good video almost always comes from a channel that has a great channel name. The channel name shows off confidence and improves stickiness, so as a user if I like a video and the channel name, I instantly subscribe to it. In a sea of good YouTube channels, it’s easier for me to remember the ones which have great names — makes it even easier for me to recall the channel when I am trying to be fun at parties (not kidding — it just works so well!) :D
- What videos to avoid: I avoid pseudo-science videos, videos that spew political and religious hatred, fake news videos, fake health tips videos, etc.
- In a general sense, I give preference to 4K / 8K videos because at the least they always look visually appealing and pleasing!
- Which categories are my absolute favourites: Shemaroo comedy, The Office videos, videos that have short history bites and stories with great narration, Watchmojo videos (duh!), and live music videos with good audio mixing (duh-uh!).
- Bonus: I pay attention to YouTube tv app topic headers — these speed up my navigation and I discover hidden gems quickly.
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