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one-year rule

concept · in 10 sources (2017–2020)

Ali's rule for choosing what to do with time: ask what, in one year's time, you will regret not starting today and doing consistently.

Sources by year: 2017: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2020: 5

Threads

Also named in the threads: Ali's years of playing World of Warcraft

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2020

  • 2020-03-24 · How to be More Productive in Lockdown — recommendation: Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked how Ali started learning the piano, the channel answers that he used random YouTube videos and the learn piano subreddit. — creator comment
    • Ali's one-year rule: to decide what to do with your time, ask yourself what, in one year's time, you will regret not starting today and doing consistently. — 00:00:29
    • Asking himself the one-year question, Ali wishes he were better at piano and guitar, had taken singing more seriously and had learned to sight-read music, which he is now doing. — 00:00:29
    • In his third year of medical school, studying psychology with a lot of spare time, Ali was tempted to restart World of Warcraft, but asked what his future self would want and taught himself the piano from YouTube tutorials. — 00:00:58
    • Ali also wishes he had book reviews on his website, had started new aspects of his videos, and had taken the gym, his posture and stretching more seriously. — 00:00:58
    • Ali says the piano is now one of the best things in his life, and he posts songs of himself singing and playing the piano on Instagram. — 00:00:58
  • 2020-04-17 · Answering your Questions — Ali wishes he had taken music more seriously and got better at music theory: he has played the piano for five years, since his third year of medical school, and can play chords and sing along but never learned to read music. — 00:22:17
  • 2020-05-17 · My Productive Birthday in Lockdown - Day in the Life Vlog — Ali practises reading music on the piano by trying to play the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone soundtrack. — 00:02:44
  • 2020-10-14 · Revamping My Living Room - Day In The Life — Ali credits James with inspiring him to learn to play the piano. — 00:01:56
  • 2020-11-22 · My PRODUCTIVE Apartment Tour (2021) — Ali is learning songs from The Greatest Showman, teaching himself to read music, and now takes piano lessons to get better at the piano. — 00:15:36

2019

  • 2019-02-14 · Valentine’s Day Live Stream — Ali started learning the piano in his third year of university, when he had a piano in his room and was doing psychology, a very relaxed year. — 00:42:55
  • 2019-03-30 · Monthly Favourites #7 - Ali Abdaal — Ali learned the piano by exploration, bashing out notes and playing by ear, and discovering music theory afterwards gave him a profound insight he thinks he would not have had by the traditional route. — 00:05:40

2018

2017