Productivity and time
How to plan, prioritise, focus and get work done: days and weeks, calendars and to-do lists, procrastination, energy, burnout and the Feel-Good Productivity thesis. It is about getting things done in general; studying for exams is “Learning and studying”, and motivation and discipline as states of mind are “Mindset, motivation and happiness”.
The main topic of 6 sources; one of the topics of 5 more.
Videos
| date | video | format |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-06-10 | Music, Reading and Note-Taking - Productive Day in the Life | Vlog or day in the life |
| 2024-05-15 | Struggling with Work-Life Balance? Watch This! 👀 | Short |
| 2024-05-16 | The Simplest and Most Important Productivity Tip 😉 | Short |
| 2024-05-17 | Overwhelmed by Your To-Do List? Here's Your Solution! ✍️ | Short |
| 2024-05-22 | This is why writers track their word count ✍️ | Short |
| 2024-05-23 | Positive emotions create energy ⚡️ | Short |
Also touch on it
- 2017-11-18 · Speaking at a Medical Tech Conference - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #13 · Vlog or day in the life
- 2018-03-21 · Q & A - 5,000 Subscribers! · Q&A video
- 2018-04-24 · Study with Me + Revision tips from friends - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #32 · Study with me
- 2020-06-17 · How To Boost Productivity Without Apps · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard)
- 2024-05-14 · A Week in My Life · Vlog · Vlog or day in the life
Often together
People: Angus
Projects: Skillshare classes
Concepts: friction · feel-good productivity (concept) · daily adventure · burnout
Places: Birmingham
Products: iPad Pro · Notion · Kindle · Audible · Anki
Should productivity be about efficiency or about enjoying the work? · Should you set goals, and how? · How many hours a day should you work? · How do you stop your phone and social media from eating your time? · Though he cringes at talking about himself on video to strangers, Ali says he has paid for the singing class, wants to improve his singing and will do every exercise the coach sets each day. · Should you run your work from a to-do list? · How do you improve your focus? · How do you decide what to say yes to?
Key statements
The most important statements (★★★) in the parts on this topic, at most 3 from one source: 15.
- 2017-11-18 · Speaking at a Medical Tech Conference - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #13 — recommendation: Ali finds it good to say yes to opportunities to do things, because you never really know whether they will be useful or not. — 00:04:26
- 2018-04-24 · Study with Me + Revision tips from friends - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #32 — Ali: Answering viewers who admire his work ethic, Ali says he is not a productivity machine but likes to work efficiently: he would never spend three hours making notes from a textbook, which looks like productivity but really is not. — 00:06:23
- 2018-04-24 · Study with Me + Revision tips from friends - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #32 — Ali thinks the key is efficiency: you can put relatively few hours into work and still do it efficiently. — 00:06:23
- 2020-06-10 (said on 2020-06-01, implied) · Music, Reading and Note-Taking - Productive Day in the Life — Ali does not trust his memory, so he takes notes on what he reads, watches and listens to, and takes them in a way that he will stumble across them again, since otherwise he might forget they exist. — 00:05:46
- 2020-06-10 (said on 2020-06-01, implied) · Music, Reading and Note-Taking - Productive Day in the Life — Ali has a new rule for himself: he has to be productive before 10 p.m., and after 10 p.m. he is not allowed to do anything explicitly productive unless he really feels like it. — 00:06:45
- 2020-06-10 (said on 2020-06-01, implied) · Music, Reading and Note-Taking - Productive Day in the Life — Ali: To people who ask when he makes time to relax, Ali says he finds taking notes on articles he read long ago fun and relaxing, so it does not really feel like work. — 00:07:29
- 2020-06-17 · How To Boost Productivity Without Apps — recommendation: Ali keeps only useful apps such as Notion, Drafts, Castro, Audible and Anki on his iPhone's first screen; Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and dating apps, the infinity pools, sit on the second screen. — 00:02:26
- 2024-05-14 · A Week in My Life · Vlog — Ali: Quarterly quests replace the five-to-six-week sprints Ali's business used before, which changed too often; to unlock the next level of growth it must take its time, as the year's theme is go slow to go fast. — 00:12:07
- 2024-05-15 · Struggling with Work-Life Balance? Watch This! 👀 — recommendation: Ali suggests the ideal week method for work-life balance: make a new Google Calendar with a template of an ideal week (waking, sleeping, work, commute) that leaves time for exercise, sleep, socialising and other important areas of life. — 00:00:00
- 2024-05-16 · The Simplest and Most Important Productivity Tip 😉 — recommendation: Ali recommends the daily highlight: ask yourself what is the most important thing you need to do today. — 00:00:00
- 2024-05-16 · The Simplest and Most Important Productivity Tip 😉 — recommendation: Ali phrases the daily highlight as "what's today's adventure going to be": to be productive you have to enjoy the process, and reframing a task as an adventure makes that more likely. — 00:00:00
- 2024-05-17 · Overwhelmed by Your To-Do List? Here's Your Solution! ✍️ — recommendation: Ali: When a to-do list feels overwhelming, Ali suggests writing down everything that is overwhelming you and sorting it into big stuff (needing at least a solid half-hour session) and small stuff (little bits of admin that pile up). — 00:00:15
- 2024-05-17 · Overwhelmed by Your To-Do List? Here's Your Solution! ✍️ — recommendation: Ali puts all the small tasks into one list and blocks 45 minutes in his calendar for an "admin party": laptop, a coffee shop, music in headphones, and a game of clearing as much small admin as possible in those 45 minutes. — 00:00:31
- 2024-05-22 · This is why writers track their word count ✍️ — recommendation: Ali advises, and tries himself, finding your equivalent of the writer's word count, such as at least 10 slides of a presentation or minutes of a workout, because tracking anything gives a sense of progress. — 00:00:29
- 2024-05-23 · Positive emotions create energy ⚡️ — Ali says his research found one secret to productivity, making your work feel good: positive emotions about anything you do create energy and make you more productive, more creative and less stressed. — 00:00:00