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My Productive Birthday in Lockdown - Day in the Life Vlog

2020-05-17 · Vlog or day in the life · Ali · recording, 7:30 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Relationships and personal life (also: Productivity and time, YouTube, writing online and creators) · mode: Demonstration and walkthrough · tags: Family

On his 26th birthday, alone in lockdown, Ali vlogs his day: a hunt for printer parts to return a parcel, a team Zoom call, filming, voicing and shooting thumbnails for next week's video on making money online, a Mail Time unboxing of cooking gear and books, and an evening of music practice, Money Heist and a Storyworthy note before bed.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Waking up on his 26th birthday in lockdown; Taimur's first cake

  • ★★ Ali celebrates his 26th birthday on his own in lockdown. — 00:00:00
  • ★ Ali thanks his brother Taimur for the birthday cake he dropped off the night before, Taimur's first attempt at baking, which came out "a little bit medium rare". — 00:00:00 · Taimur Abdaal

00:00:29 — Printing a return label: the missing cables, paper and ink

  • ★ With his printer out of black ink, Ali recolours the black-and-white return labels in Photoshop, using skills he learned at 14 with pirated software, so they print in blue. — 00:01:46

00:02:15 — Sofa procrastination, a team Zoom call, piano practice

  • ★★ Instead of doing anything useful after returning the parcel, Ali sits on the sofa replying to birthday WhatsApp messages and watches Instagram stories for half an hour. — 00:02:15 · WhatsApp, Instagram
  • ★★ At 12:15 Ali has a Zoom meeting with his team to plan their videos and Skillshare classes for the next few weeks. — 00:02:15 · Zoom, Skillshare classes
  • ★★ Ali practises reading music on the piano by trying to play the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone soundtrack. — 00:02:44

00:03:05 — Overhead rig for next week's money video; Mail Time with Dr. Ali

  • ★★ Ali sets up an overhead rig for next week's (week of 18 May 2020) video, about how to make money online, to try different camera angles in it. — 00:03:05
  • ★★ Among his Amazon deliveries Ali unpacks a meat thermometer, mixing bowls, a dicer-chopper and small prep bowls, part of his plan to start cooking properly. — 00:03:05 · Amazon
  • ★★ Among the Amazon deliveries is Ricardo Semler's book Maverick, recommended by Ali's friend Noah Kagan, which goes on his to-read list. — 00:03:40 · Amazon

00:04:41 — Voice-over for the money video, cleaning the house, shooting thumbnails

  • ★★ Ali records the voice-over for next week's (week of 18 May 2020) video with a Shure SM7B through a Cloudlifter and a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 audio interface into Logic Pro X, reading a script he wrote in Notion. — 00:04:41 · Notion
  • ★★ Ali hands the recorded voice-over to his team by uploading it to a Google Drive they share. — 00:05:14 · Google Drive
  • ★★ Ali shoots the thumbnail for his video on how to make money online in the dirty t-shirt he wore the day before to film most of it. — 00:05:39

00:06:08 — Merch call, music practice, writing the evening off, Storyworthy before bed

  • ★★ After retouching the thumbnail photos in Lightroom, Ali posts two on Instagram, planning to use one for the money video's thumbnail and the other for this vlog's. — 00:06:08 · Adobe Lightroom, Instagram
  • ★★ Ali has a FaceTime call with a friend who runs a bespoke leatherworking business about collaborating on merch. — 00:06:08
  • ★★ In the evening Ali spends half an hour on the JustinGuitar music theory course and another 15 minutes practising the piano. — 00:06:08
  • ★ Ali spends 15 minutes chatting with his grandmother in Pakistan on a WhatsApp video call. — 00:06:08 · Ali Abdaal's grandmother, Pakistan, WhatsApp
  • ★★ At 8 p.m. Ali writes off the rest of his birthday: he has been reasonably productive and it is his birthday, so he treats himself to Netflix. — 00:06:36 · Netflix
  • ★★ Ali watches many episodes of Money Heist back to back over a Five Guys takeaway and recommends the show. — 00:06:36
  • ★★★ Before bed Ali asks himself what the most story-worthy moment of his day was and writes a brief note about it in Notion, an exercise from Matthew Dicks's book Storyworthy, which he is reading. — 00:06:36 · Notion, iPad Pro

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Asked where he gets his knowledge of tax as an entrepreneur, Ali says mostly from Reddit and blogs. — creator comment
  • ★★ Asked why he switches between his mechanical keyboard and the Apple Magic Keyboard, Ali says the mechanical keyboard is a bit antisocial on Zoom calls. — creator comment · Zoom
  • ★★ Asked for a video on his mechanical keyboard, Ali says he is working on it. — creator comment

Humor (significant)

  • Ali blames his loose bowels on the birthday cake his brother baked for the first time — 00:00:00

    “the cake was a little bit medium rare”

  • Ali explains why his printer has gathered dust since he went paperless with the iPad — 00:00:29

    “in an attempt to save the environment and boost Apple's stock price”

  • Having no printer paper for the return label, he improvises — 00:01:11

    “I rip out pages from a medical booklet that teaches us how to save lives in a cardiac arrest situation”

  • He spends the late morning answering birthday messages on the sofa — 00:02:15

    “because I'm so popular”

  • Unboxing eight rolls of kitchen roll in lockdown — 00:04:11

    “Not toilet paper. I'm not hoarding toilet paper.”

  • He procrastinates with Alpha M's video Do This When a Girl Smiles at You — 00:04:41

    “I'll report back and let you guys know if that ever happens.”

  • He wears yesterday's dirty t-shirt so the thumbnail matches the video — 00:05:39

    “The things I do for content, am I right?”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

People: Ali Abdaal's grandmother · Alpha M · David Dobrik · Matthew Dicks · Noah Kagan · Ricardo Semler · Taimur Abdaal

Projects: Skillshare classes

Works: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone · JustinGuitar · Maverick · Money Heist · Storyworthy

Organizations: Amazon · DHL · Five Guys · Instagram · Netflix · Yes Theory

Concepts: homework for life · write-off principle

Places: Pakistan

Products: Adobe Lightroom · Adobe Photoshop · Cloudlifter · Focusrite 2i4 · Google Drive · HomePod · iPad · iPad Pro · Logic Pro · Notion · Safari · Shure SM7B · WhatsApp · Zoom

Only in the description or credits: Apple Magic Keyboard · IQUnix F96 · Reddit

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