[bttf]

For me it's been mostly a holistic approach:

Making time for deep focus

Prioritizing important work (whether its learning or executing on tasks) for the morning right after waking up

Healthy sleeping and eating habits

There are a plethora of tools out there to optimize your workflow, but I think that is more a matter of preference.

Videos can be hit or miss. The right videos can jam pack a ton of information and get you learning complex topics very quickly. Books and articles have their place too, though I tend to read later in the day into the evening when I'm more keen to winding down.

One common thing I tend to do: I may end my day working on something that leads me to a new pillar of information or complicated topic that I need to grok. In those situations, I stop the day there, and plan to wake up the next morning to research the topic (over coffee), and absorb any videos, articles, material I can get my hands on. Your brain can do amazing things with a little bit of caffeine and deep focus after a good night's sleep.