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15 Lessons that Improved My Life

2020-01-07 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 23:28 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time (also: Mindset, motivation and happiness, YouTube, writing online and creators, Learning and studying, Health, sleep and habits, Relationships and personal life) · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: Lesson from a book, Sponsor segment present, Family

Ali rounds up 15 life lessons of 2019 from his weekly newsletter: the daily highlight, Vonnegut's "if this isn't nice", door knockers, the flywheel, boring fundamentals, type two fun, fast-bad-wrong drafts, the write-off principle, going first, high leverage housekeeping, and Getting Things Done's inbox for the brain and project lists.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Fifteen life lessons of 2019 from his weekly email newsletter

00:00:27 — 1. The daily highlight

  • ★★★ From Make Time by John Zeratsky and Jake Knapp, Ali sets a single daily highlight (the most joyful, urgent or satisfying task); tracking it in Notion for months, he gets more done on days he sets one. — 00:00:29 · daily highlight, Notion
  • ★★ Kurt Vonnegut (quoted): Kurt Vonnegut urges people to notice when they are happy and to exclaim, murmur or think: "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is." — 00:00:58

00:01:03 — 2. If this isn't nice, I don't know what is

  • ★★ Ali moves quickly from one thing to the next and rarely enjoys the moment; since reading Vonnegut's line he thinks it while driving or filming, an encouragement to be more grateful. — 00:01:20
  • ★★ Adapting an episode of the My First Million podcast, Ali divides people into window openers, who act once they see the outcome, and door knockers, who knock on doors to find out what lies behind them. — 00:01:50

00:01:57 — 3. Window openers vs door knockers

  • ★★★ Ali holds that most success today comes disproportionately from the door-knocker attitude: outside charted careers like medicine, in business and creating, you knock, stay consistent and gain chances for serendipity. — 00:02:20
  • ★★ Two and a half years earlier Ali could not have said why he was starting a YouTube channel; it has since completely changed his life, which it could not have done had he focused only on medicine. — 00:03:19

00:03:36 — 4. What's obvious to you might be amazing to others

  • ★★★ Taking Derek Sivers's idea that what is obvious to you might be amazing to others, Ali says we can and should share what we have discovered and learned instead of holding back ideas as obvious. — 00:04:17 · Derek Sivers
  • ★★ Ali recently became a physiology supervisor at Girton College, Cambridge, teaching 10 medical students every week; relearning the subject has been one of the most joyful activities in his life. — 00:04:17 · Girton College, University of Cambridge

00:04:53 — 5. Lifelong learning and his physiology supervisions

  • ★★ In 2019 Ali came to value lifelong learning; he cites a study commissioned by the UK government on the benefits of adult learning, which says it can indirectly improve wellbeing. — 00:05:07

00:05:37 — Brilliant sponsor read: computer science, daily challenges and supervision teaching

  • ★★ At 16 Ali considered applying for computer science instead of medicine, reasoning it would be cool to be a doctor who can code; his coding since has been hodgepodge, without the fundamentals of algorithms. — 00:06:06
  • ★★ Ali models his own teaching on Oxford and Cambridge supervisions: give the student a small building block, ask a question that takes it further, and build understanding step by step instead of regurgitating. — 00:06:35 · Supervision, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge

00:07:40 — 6. The flywheel

  • ★★ Ali took the flywheel from, he thinks, a Jim Collins interview on The Tim Ferriss Show: it takes ages to get going, then builds on itself and becomes unstoppable, as Amazon's low prices draw buyers and sellers. (hedged) — 00:07:55 · The Tim Ferriss Show, Amazon
  • ★★★ A YouTube channel, podcast or blog is a flywheel, Ali says: at first almost nobody watches, but valuable content made consistently over a long time gathers momentum, and the YouTube algorithm recommends creators who make more videos. — 00:08:54
  • ★★ When starting something new feels like too much effort, Ali reminds himself that it is a flywheel, which takes that effort to get going. — 00:09:23

00:09:37 — 7. Master boring fundamentals

  • ★★ James Stuber (quoted): In his blog post "Master Boring Fundamentals, Boring is Fun", James Stuber names the boring fundamentals of any endeavour: eight hours' sleep, consistent exercise, vegetables, meditation, reading and writing; we avoid them because they are boring. — 00:09:52
  • ★★ Ali admits he skips the boring fundamentals: he does not sleep eight hours, rarely eats vegetables because he is terrible at cooking, and does not exercise consistently, while filming a video gives immediate gratification. — 00:10:21
  • ★★ Reading about boring fundamentals has encouraged Ali to go to the gym a bit more, eat a little more healthily and take care of his sleep. — 00:10:54

00:11:23 — 8. Type one vs type two fun

  • ★★ From James Stuber's blog Ali takes the long-distance skier Tim Peck's idea of type two fun: suffering in the present that is fun in hindsight, unlike the pure enjoyment of type one fun. — 00:11:38
  • ★★ A really busy day as a doctor is type two fun for Ali: grueling while he treats emergencies and struggles with the workload, but a really good day looking back. — 00:11:38
  • ★ With the idea of type two fun, Ali now understands why people call running fun, which he used to doubt because it is not as fun as playing squash. — 00:12:28

00:12:41 — 9. FBR: fast, bad, wrong

  • ★★ Safi Bahcall (quoted): On The Tim Ferriss Show the writer Safi Bakal (as heard) describes FBR, "fast, bad, wrong": when writing a first draft, tell yourself it will be fast, bad and wrong. — 00:12:57 · The Tim Ferriss Show
  • ★★★ Against writer's block on his weekly email newsletter, Ali writes FBR at the top of the page for a first draft, then writes without judging himself; a fast, bad, wrong draft is easier to edit. — 00:12:57 · Sunday Snippets

00:14:02 — 10. The write-off principle

  • ★★ Home from work at 9 p.m., Ali often procrastinates on filming by scrolling Instagram on the sofa, too guilty about the unmade video to read a book or play his Nintendo Switch. — 00:14:14 · Instagram
  • ★★★ Ali made up the write-off principle for his weekly newsletter: sometimes it is okay to write the whole day off, so that he need not feel guilty about doing nothing. — 00:14:53 · Sunday Snippets
  • ★★ A few weeks earlier his housemate Molly reminded Ali of his own write-off principle when he could not be bothered to film; he made it a write-off day and played The Witcher 3 for two glorious hours. — 00:14:53 · Molly Hunt

00:15:45 — 11. The mundanity of excellence

  • ★★ A paper on "the mundanity of excellence" from the 1970s or 80s finds that top swimmers do things qualitatively differently, not more: they work on technique, wake on time every day and watch their diet. — 00:16:05
  • ★★★ We always look for shortcuts, Ali says, himself included in spreading the latest productivity app, but the app will not make much difference; doing the boring fundamentals repeatedly will. — 00:16:44
  • ★★ Excellence is a mundane phenomenon, Ali takes from the paper: nothing exciting, just doing the right things consistently and getting a little better each time. — 00:17:13

00:17:26 — 12. The go first rule

  • ★★★ Ali's go first rule, from a book he cannot recall: everyone is friendly, but you have to be willing to go first by saying hello, introducing yourself and starting a conversation. — 00:17:43 · go first
  • ★★ In Sudan a year earlier everyone at first seemed shy, until Ali began going up to people and saying hello and found how friendly they were; the trip would have been less fun otherwise. — 00:17:43 · go first
  • ★★ At work Ali tries to go first: introducing himself to new colleagues, starting banter and inviting people to things. — 00:18:12 · go first
  • ★★★ Ali's brother Taimur spends Saturdays on what he calls high leverage housekeeping instead of active work: sorting his email inbox, to-do list, desk and project management software. — 00:18:41 · Taimur Abdaal

00:18:48 — 13. High leverage housekeeping

  • ★★ Ali has heard that in one year, just before reaching a billion in revenue, Amazon's mantra was GOHIO, "getting our house in order", a year spent on its systems. (hedged) — 00:19:10 · Amazon
  • ★★★ Ali tries, not quite weekly, to give a whole day to high leverage housekeeping, deciding what to do over the next weeks or month and planning video ideas instead of staying in technician mode. — 00:19:39

00:20:09 — 14. An inbox for your brain

  • ★★ Ali's brain inbox is Drafts: he notes every idea there on his Apple Watch, phone or Mac, and in his housekeeping and weekly reviews turns the items into Notion projects or Todoist tasks. — 00:20:09 · Drafts, Apple Watch, Notion
  • ★★★ Ali's main takeaway from David Allen's Getting Things Done is an inbox for your brain, a place to capture ideas as soon as they come, so the brain is for having ideas, not storing them. — 00:20:54

00:21:07 — 15. The power of project lists

  • ★★★ Since his third reading of Getting Things Done, Ali keeps a project list in Notion; having his projects written down makes his brain process them in the background, and ideas come on waking or driving. — 00:21:23 · Notion
  • ★★ Following David Allen, Ali counts as a project anything that needs more than one step, in life as well as in his videos. — 00:21:53

00:22:35 — Where the idea came from, newsletter and sponsor plugs, sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked by viewers why "fast, bad, wrong" is shortened to FBR and not FBW, the channel replies that the misspelling is the point. — creator comment

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Mentioned

Central: daily highlight · FBR (fast, bad, wrong) · flywheel · go first · high leverage housekeeping · If this isn't nice, I don't know what is · inbox for your brain · lifelong learning · master boring fundamentals · mundanity of excellence · obvious to you, amazing to others · project list · type two fun · Window openers vs door knockers · write-off principle

Also: People: David Allen · Derek Sivers · Jake Knapp · James Stuber · Jim Collins · John Zeratsky · Kurt Vonnegut · Michael Phelps · Molly Hunt · Safi Bahcall · Taimur Abdaal

Projects: Sunday Snippets

Works: Getting Things Done · Make Time · My First Million · The Tim Ferriss Show · The Witcher 3

Organizations: Amazon · Girton College · Instagram · University of Cambridge · University of Oxford

Concepts: Supervision

Places: Sudan

Products: Apple Watch · Audible · Drafts · Nintendo Switch · Notion · Todoist

Also centred on obvious to you, amazing to others: 5 Lessons I've Learned about Racism

Also centred on project list: Collecting My Tesla Model 3 - Day In The Life

Also centred on Window openers vs door knockers: How To Find Opportunities EVERYWHERE

Also centred on write-off principle: Study with Me - Hustle & Chill

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