More study tools made me worse at studying

For a while, I thought the solution was adding more tools.

AI note-takers.
Auto-summarisers.
Flashcard builders.
“Second brain” systems.

Instead of actually studying, I spent more time:

• organising notes
• tagging files
• deciding where things should go

Studying somehow started to feel more complicated than physics itself.

What finally helped wasn’t another smart tool — it was removing friction.

Now my setup is intentionally simple:

• ChatGPT or Claude when I don’t understand a concept (I got ChatGPT Go free for 12 months, so I use it a lot)
• Filex AI - I just share files from WhatsApp or Telegram (or upload them), and everything ends up organised into the right subject folders.
• YouTube You already know.
• GoodNotes For handwritten notes and quick revisions.

That’s my entire setup.

No complex workflows.
No maintenance.

Once the clutter was gone, understanding actually became easier.

Curious:
Are there any simpler tools you use for studying that don’t overcomplicate things?

Submitted December 22, 2025 at 03:45AM by your_lokesh https://ift.tt/pivMFz5