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How to be More Productive in Lockdown

2020-03-24 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 12:06 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: His medical past, Sponsor segment present

Ali gives five productivity tips for the COVID-19 lockdown: the one-year rule, a daily highlight from the book Make Time, a morning to-do list to bash through, Parkinson's law, and ways out of an afternoon or evening slump such as coffee before 3 p.m., peppermint tea and a quick workout.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Five productivity tips for being stuck at home during social distancing

00:00:20 — The one-year rule and how it got him to learn the piano

  • ★★★ 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 · one-year rule

    “Like in one year's time, what will I regret not starting today and doing consistently?”

  • ★★ 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 · one-year rule

  • ★★ 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 · one-year rule
  • ★★★ 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 · one-year rule, World of Warcraft
  • ★★ 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 · Instagram
  • ★★ Ali's second productivity tip, the daily highlight, comes from the book Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky. — 00:01:45 · daily highlight

00:02:06 — The daily highlight from Make Time and his H-G-L notebook list

  • ★★ Ali says he will make a proper video about the book Make Time in due course. — 00:02:14
  • ★★★ A key insight of the book Make Time, Ali says, is that every day we should have a single highlight: the one thing we are going to focus on that day. — 00:02:14 · daily highlight
  • ★★ Ali's daily highlight today is filming this productivity tips video; yesterday's was working out a re-architecture of his personal website. — 00:02:14 · daily highlight
  • ★★ Ali's daily list in his Leuchtturm1917 notebook has three sections: H for his daily highlight, G for something he is grateful for, and L for something to let go of. — 00:02:43 · daily highlight, Leuchtturm1917 notebook
  • ★★ Ali wants to let go of fear after watching many Yes Theory videos that morning about embracing discomfort and leaning into the fear of doing things. — 00:02:43

00:03:36 — Write a to-do list: the morning dump to bash through

  • ★★★ Once you have worked out your daily highlight, Ali advises writing a to-do list of everything else you want to get done that day. — 00:03:36 · daily highlight
  • ★★ This morning's to-do list of Ali's included the day-in-the-life vlog he is filming, calling his grandmother Nani and looking over a fiction video script. — 00:03:57 · Ali Abdaal's grandmother
  • ★★ Ali likes to think of a to-do list as a series of things to bash through and get done, a sports analogy from his friend Seb on the rugby team. — 00:04:50
  • ★★ Ali feels really good at the start of the day when he brain-dumps everything onto the page, a to-do list he calls his morning dump. — 00:04:50
  • ★★ Although he is a fan of using apps for everything, Ali finds something nice about doing the morning dump in his Leuchtturm1917 paper notebook with a Uni-ball Air pen. — 00:05:20 · Leuchtturm1917 notebook
  • ★★ Ali calls the Uni-ball Air his new favourite series of pens. — 00:05:20

00:06:05 — Parkinson's law and a definition of productivity

  • ★★★ Ali's fourth tip is Parkinson's law: work expands to fill the time we allocate to it, so the less time we give ourselves for a task, the sooner it gets done. — 00:06:05
  • ★★ With a deadline three months away, Ali says, we procrastinate and do research we do not need, and the work is probably no better than if done a few nights before. (hedged) — 00:06:31
  • ★★ Ali likes having a long to-do list because, if filming this video were his only task of the day, he would inevitably procrastinate all day. — 00:06:31

  • ★★★ Ali defines productivity as doing the things we want to do as efficiently as possible, so that we act in service to our future selves and have fun while doing it. — 00:07:00

    “doing the things we wanna do as efficiently as possible”

00:07:32 — Getting out of a slump: coffee, peppermint tea, a workout or a walk

  • ★★ Ali feels a real slump half an hour to an hour after lunch, and again in the evening around 7 or 8 p.m. even with plenty left to do. — 00:07:40
  • ★★ Ali drinks a lot of coffee in the mornings to beat a slump but tries to avoid coffee after about 2 or 3 p.m., citing evidence that caffeine stays in the blood. — 00:07:40
  • ★★ Ali says caffeine stays in the blood for about nine hours, so caffeine after 3 p.m. reduces his quality of sleep. — 00:08:09
  • ★★ Peppermint tea helps Ali out of a slump: it is naturally caffeine-free, so he drinks it for a final push of work even at 7 p.m. — 00:08:09
  • ★★ To get out of a slump, Ali suggests going to the gym, doing a workout, or even just a walk around the park. — 00:08:37
  • ★★ Ali says going to the gym is a terrible idea during social distancing, so he will work out with gym equipment on his balcony. — 00:08:37
  • ★ A walk is one of Thomas Frank's favourite techniques: whenever he is in a slump, he goes for a walk. — 00:08:37 · Thomas Frank

00:08:59 — Sponsor read for Brilliant

00:10:43 — Recap of the five tips and a pointer to his time-management video

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Asked how to balance getting a lot done with doing it well, Ali replies that he finds quality rarely correlated with the amount of time spent. — creator comment
  • ★★ Asked for a Notion template for to-dos and daily highlights, Ali says he has one and is planning a video about it at some point. — creator comment · Notion, daily highlight
  • ★★ Asked what he does with tasks left undone at the end of a day, Ali says he copies them to the next day's to-do list if they are still relevant. — creator comment
  • ★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked what make Ali's piano is, the channel answers that it is a Yamaha P125. — creator comment
  • ★★ 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
  • ★ Asked why he is not working as a doctor during the pandemic, Ali replies that he is working. — creator comment

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Mentioned

Central: daily highlight · one-year rule · Parkinson's law

Also: People: Ali Abdaal's grandmother · Jake Knapp · John Zeratsky · Thomas Frank

Works: Make Time

Organizations: Instagram · Yes Theory

Products: Leuchtturm1917 notebook · Uni-ball Air · World of Warcraft

Only in the description or credits: Notion · Reddit

Also centred on Parkinson's law: How I Manage my Time as a Doctor + YouTuber - 9 Time Management Tips

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