Skip to content

I Tried Making a Viral Video - Day in the Life VLOG

2020-05-12 · Vlog or day in the life · Ali, Ali Abdaal (channel) · recording, 8:08 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time (also: YouTube, writing online and creators) · mode: Demonstration and walkthrough · tags: Sponsor segment present, Family

In a lockdown day-in-the-life vlog Ali spends the day planning and filming his video on how much money he makes in a week, between bouts of procrastination, a morning routine of focus, gratitude and morning pages, team calls and a Zoom with his Cambridge friends, and reports that he has hired a personal assistant.

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 doctor in Cambridge on a mission to film a video with viral potential

  • ★★ Ali, a doctor working in Cambridge, sets out to spend the day filming a video he hopes might have viral potential. — 00:00:00 · Cambridge

00:00:23 — Phone time in bed, the first Chemex coffee, returning the MacBook Air and the Tony Robbins tip

  • ★ Ali spends his first hour after waking on his phone: 20 minutes on YouTube and viewers' comments in bed, then another half hour after his shower, until he gets up at 8:30. — 00:00:23
  • ★ Ali makes coffee with a Chemex for the first time, copying what Matt D'Avella seems to do in his videos, and thanks viewers for their tips. — 00:01:12 · Matt D'Avella
  • ★★★ Ali returns his MacBook Air to Apple, having decided to use his 12.9-inch iPad Pro as his main device and his 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro for heavy lifting. — 00:01:49 · MacBook, iPad Pro, Apple
  • ★★ From a new Tim Ferriss YouTube video Ali picks up a tip, apparently from Tony Robbins, to get into a state of high arousal before writing out the day's strategy, and decides to try it. (hedged) — 00:02:16 · Tim Ferriss

00:02:46 — Morning pages and the to-do list, The Bunker, the A-team on Slack and planning the money video in Notion

  • ★★★ Ali starts his morning planning by writing one thing to focus on, one to be grateful for and one to let go of, then three morning pages of whatever is on his mind, then a to-do list for the day. — 00:02:46
  • ★★ Ali discovers and joins The Bunker, a Discord server that some of his fans have made. — 00:02:46
  • ★★ On Slack with his team, which he calls the A-team, Ali plans more videos for his Workflow series on Nebula about Evernote, Notion, Roam Research, Drafts and his other note-taking apps. — 00:02:46 · Slack, Workflow series, Nebula, Evernote, Notion, Roam Research, Drafts
  • ★★ Ali's highlight of the day is filming his video about how much money he makes in a week. — 00:03:15 · daily highlight
  • ★★ Ali plans the structure of his money video in Notion, which he uses to track all his long-term projects and to write video scripts. — 00:03:44 · Notion
  • ★★ Planning his video on how much money he makes in a week takes Ali far longer than he expected: he works on the script until 4 pm. — 00:04:13

00:04:42 — Brilliant sponsor read

  • ★★ Setting up the camera angles for the money video takes Ali ages; he films 46 minutes from two angles with an external microphone, having hoped for under 20, and plans to shorten it in the edit. — 00:05:12

00:05:20 — Filming the money video, a Zoom with the lads and a call with his new assistant

  • ★★ On a Zoom call Ali catches up with his brother Taimur, with whom he hosts a weekly podcast, and their friends Sam, Zane, Nade (as heard) and Sahil. — 00:05:41 · Taimur Abdaal, Not Overthinking, Zoom
  • ★★ Ali and these four friends were at different Cambridge colleges, became friends through the Cambridge University Pakistan Society and are still great friends eight years after they met. — 00:06:10 · University of Cambridge, Cambridge
  • ★★★ Ali has hired a personal, or executive, assistant: she emailed him after he joked on an Instagram live about wanting one, and he hired her on the spot. — 00:06:10 · Instagram
  • ★★ Ali decides not to film another series of videos that evening because his team is well ahead on its sponsored-video schedule. — 00:06:10
  • ★★ Ali records the voice-over for a makeup video on his friend Sabah's YouTube channel, Smartledore. — 00:06:10

00:06:53 — Voiceover for Smartledore, backing up footage, checking the to-do list and winding down

  • ★★★ Checking his Leuchtturm1917 notebook, Ali says he over-promised and under-delivered as usual: he meant to film a channel trailer, a "what's on my MacBook" video and five Workflow videos, but filmed only the money video. — 00:06:58 · Leuchtturm1917 notebook, Workflow series, Nebula, MacBook
  • ★★ Counting the long money video, an hour's call with his friends, an hour with his assistant, Slack with his team and the video schedule for the next few weeks, Ali calls the day reasonably productive. — 00:07:27 · Slack
  • ★ At 10:10 pm, due up for work at 6:30, Ali brushes his teeth, cleanses and moisturises his face and reads on his Kindle before sleeping. — 00:07:27 · Kindle

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): The channel says this vlog was filmed before the iPad Magic Keyboard came out. — creator comment · Magic Keyboard, iPad Pro
  • ★★ Ali has not upgraded his camera and might switch to Canon with the EOS R5 unless Sony brings out a full-frame camera with a flip-out screen. (hedged) — creator comment
  • ★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): The keyboard on Ali's desk is a wireless mechanical coral-themed IQUnix keyboard with Cherry Blue switches; his hydraulic desk is from Fully. — creator comment · first in: 2020-03-22, Interviewing a Writer // Day in the Life VLOG

Humor (significant)

  • Ali introduces his mission to film a viral video — 00:00:00

    “The problem is that I'm an unproductive slob”

  • To get into a state of high arousal for the Tony Robbins tip, Ali first browses Instagram — 00:02:16

    “I first browse my Instagram explore page for another 20 minutes, if you know, you know”

  • After the workout Ali sits down to write his morning pages, which he calls dumping three pages — 00:02:16

    “Then once that's done, I sit down for my morning dump.”

  • Ali watches two episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal over lunch — 00:03:44

    “This is waste-mannery of the highest order”

  • Ali excuses the anime as multitasking while eating — 00:04:13

    “I would have to resign from StudyTube and delete my YouTube channel.”

  • After a Brilliant course on the toilet Ali gets up to make coffee — 00:05:12

    “I leave the throne room at 435 with slightly dead legs”

  • Before the Zoom call with his friends Ali squeezes in a workout — 00:05:41

    “I decide that my arms need to look a little bit more swole, so I bust out another very quick workout.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

People: David Dobrik · Matt D'Avella · Sabah · Taimur Abdaal · Tim Ferriss · Tony Robbins

Projects: Not Overthinking · The Bunker · Workflow series

Works: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal

Organizations: Apple · Cambridge University Pakistan Society · Instagram · Nebula · University of Cambridge

Concepts: daily highlight · morning pages

Places: Cambridge

Products: Chemex · Discord · Drafts · Evernote · iPad Pro · Kindle · Leuchtturm1917 notebook · MacBook · Notion · Philips Hue · Roam Research · Slack · Zoom

Only in the description or credits: Canon · Fully · IQUnix · Magic Keyboard

Replies to

← Previous: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results - Atomic Habits by James Clear · Next → Apple Fanboy Reacts to Microsoft Surface Go 2