So after finishing this course I decided to take a whole new approach thanks to Andrew's/Mr. Beasts advice. Here's what I tried different compared to my other videos:
Cut out ANY dead time/points of low interest in my video
Started with idea that I think alot of viewers would be interested in
Made the video much shorter than my usual vids
Tried to focus on making a title and thumbnail that would get high CTR
No intro/outro just cut straight to the point
Added "questions" into my video that the viewer would want answered
Used actual question marks to help insinuate it.
Delivered on what the title and thumbnail said
Overall just tried to have full audience retention the whole video
RESULTS
The video has only been up a few days but it got almost double the CTR of my normal videos!
It was a shorter video BUT it managed to get a much higher average viewer duration than normal. (Usually 10-20%. This one was 50%+)
And the most important: I learned alot! Focusing on CTR and AVD completely changed how I structured my videos. Learning to focus on THE IDEA more than anything else is so crucial. Thanks Andrew!