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(Un)productive Day in the Life as a Doctor

2020-02-20 · Vlog or day in the life · Ali · recording, 6:57 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Medicine and his doctor years (also: Productivity and time, YouTube, writing online and creators) · mode: Demonstration and walkthrough · tags: Sponsor segment present, Aimed at students

Ali vlogs a day he calls unproductive: a slow morning, failed filming with a new teleprompter, a sexual health workshop at the Cambridge University Obstetrics & Gynaecology Society conference, a talk at Girton College on time management, side projects and enjoying life as a medic, and a late drive to his family in St Albans.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — A slow morning: 45 minutes in bed, coffee, a new teleprompter, notes on hangouts with friends

  • ★ Ali wakes at 7:57am just before his 8am alarm, then spends 45 minutes lying awake in bed without his phone, staring into space instead of getting up. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali says his 45 minutes of lying awake in bed cannot count as meditation, because there is nothing intentional about it: it is procrastination of the purest form. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★ Ali makes his coffee with an AeroPress, wondering if Matt D'Avella would approve; Matt D'Avella recently commented on one of his Instagram posts. — 00:00:29 · Matt D'Avella
  • ★★ Ali moved to the UK in 2003. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Ali unboxes a new teleprompter he is experimenting with for scripted videos, and a labelling machine to help him be more organised. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Ali has started taking notes on his hangouts with friends to remind himself of them later, typing up notes on three hangouts of the day before on his 11-inch iPad Pro. — 00:00:29 · iPad Pro

00:01:19 — Planning the evening talk and giving up on filming with the teleprompter

  • ★★ In a new plus-sized Leuchtturm1917 notebook Ali plans an evening talk at a Cambridge University college, "Time Management, Side Projects and Enjoying Life as a Medic", spending about 25 minutes on the story to weave around it. — 00:01:19 · Leuchtturm1917 notebook, University of Cambridge
  • ★★ Trying out his new teleprompter, a one-way glass that shows him text the camera cannot see, Ali finds it really hard to read from it without looking and sounding as if he is reading, and puts the filming off. — 00:01:48

00:02:19 — The sexual health workshop at the Cambridge University Obstetrics and Gynaecology Society conference

  • ★★ Five hours after waking with only a vague outline of his talk to show for it, Ali gives a dark chuckle at how many people see him as a productivity guru. (playful) — 00:02:19
  • ★★ Ali cycles to the Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine to run a workshop at the annual conference of the Cambridge University Obstetrics & Gynaecology Society. — 00:02:19 · University of Cambridge
  • ★ Ali designed the Cambridge University Obstetrics & Gynaecology Society conference poster about three years earlier, and the society printed it out for this conference. — 00:02:19
  • ★★ At the Cambridge University Obstetrics & Gynaecology Society conference Ali leads three rounds of the sexual health workshop, for groups of around 20 medical students each. — 00:02:47
  • ★★ In Ali's sexual health workshop, students take a history from a role player with excess vaginal discharge, including her obstetrics and gynaecology history, examine a model and take high vaginal, endocervical and chlamydia swabs. — 00:03:17 · Obstetrics and gynaecology
  • ★★ Ali explains that the UK cervical smear programme screens for early signs of cervical cancer: women are asked to have a smear test every three years from the age of 25, which looks for dyskaryosis in cervical cells. — 00:03:46

00:04:15 — Procrastinating on the sofa, then a sponsor read for Brilliant

  • ★★ Back home at 5:15pm, Ali plans to film three videos in the next hour but procrastinates on the sofa instead. — 00:04:15

00:05:13 — A talk at Girton College on time management, side projects and enjoying life as a medic

  • ★★★ Invited by the Girton Medics and Vets Society, Ali gives a talk at Girton College on time management, side projects and enjoying life as a medic, covering his philosophy of financial independence, passive income, job fulfilment and doing fun things in spare time. — 00:05:13 · Girton College, work optional, passive income

00:05:43 — Two hours of teleprompter filming, scrapped

  • ★★ After over an hour of filming three planned videos with his new teleprompter, Ali sees that it is obvious in the footage that he is reading and it does not look natural, so he scraps all the files. — 00:05:43
  • ★★ Ali says learning how to do any new thing is always difficult at the start. — 00:05:43
  • ★★ Ali is sure that if he perseveres he will one day use a teleprompter like a pro, which will make it easier to film evidence-based videos about scientific studies. — 00:05:43

00:06:12 — The drive to the family home in St Albans and sign-off

Humor (significant)

  • He opens by promising to show how he spends his day. — 00:00:00

    “and we can all pretend like anyone actually cares.”

  • He wakes three minutes before his alarm. — 00:00:00

    “For three minutes, I feel like an absolute legend for being one of those people that wake up naturally without an alarm.”

  • Lying in bed for 45 minutes, he wonders whether it could count as meditation. — 00:00:29

    “because then I'd be one of those morning routine Instagram people.”

  • Matt D'Avella commented on one of his Instagram posts. — 00:00:29

    “which was obviously the best thing that's happened to me since I moved to the UK in 2003.”

  • Five hours awake and nothing done, he thinks of people who call him a productivity guru. — 00:02:19

    “The internet really is a wonderful thing.”

  • A few students stay after his talk to chat and take photos. — 00:05:13

    “which makes me feel like a real celebrity.”

  • His sign-off to viewers who watched to the end. — 00:06:12

    “If you watched this far I hope it wasn't a complete waste of your time.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Cambridge University Obstetrics & Gynaecology Society

Also: People: Ali Abdaal's mother · Matt D'Avella · Taimur Abdaal

Organizations: Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine · Girton College · Girton Medics and Vets Society · University of Cambridge

Concepts: cervical screening · Obstetrics and gynaecology · passive income · work optional

Places: Pakistan · St Albans

Products: AeroPress · iPad Pro · Leuchtturm1917 notebook

Also centred on Cambridge University Obstetrics & Gynaecology Society: Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Baking - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #06

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