Skip to content

A HUGE Unboxing Day

2020-06-21 · Vlog or day in the life · Ali · recording, 12:21 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time (also: Tools, apps and tech, Business and entrepreneurship, YouTube, writing online and creators) · mode: Demonstration and walkthrough · tags: His own products discussed, Family

Ali logs a lockdown day off: two podcast interviews, morning pages typed in Day One, the script and filming of his Make Time Book Club video, declining a talk under Derek Sivers's "hell yeah or no", a Mail Time unboxing of Blackmagic gear lent to him, and the first look at the Morning Dump leather notebook covers he made with his friend Will.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Morning: two podcast interviews, the daily check-in, morning pages and the Make Time script

  • ★★ On a lockdown day off Ali gets up at 8.55 a.m. because he has scheduled a podcast recording at 9 a.m., a trick he sometimes uses to force himself to wake up instead of browsing Twitter in bed for hours. — 00:00:00 · Twitter
  • ★★ Afan (as heard), a student from India, interviews Ali on his podcast Didn't Really Name It about side hustles, jobs and Netflix. — 00:00:29 · Netflix
  • ★★ Ali spends an hour recording an episode of Freshly Grounded with its host Faisal, talking about productivity, YouTube, being a creator on the internet and their shared love of stoicism. — 00:00:29 · stoicism
  • ★★ On this day off Ali sits down at 10.55 with coffee and his iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard and has Siri on the HomePod play the Pure Country Radio playlist on Apple Music, which is how he likes to start his mornings; he does his daily check-in questions in Notion, then plans the day in Roam Research. — 00:00:58 · iPad Pro, Magic Keyboard, Notion, Roam Research
  • ★★ Ali writes his morning pages, about three pages of whatever comes to mind, in his journaling app Day One: they are meant to be handwritten, but that is too slow for him, so he types them; that day he typed 621 words. — 00:00:58 · Day One
  • ★★ Ali finalises the script of his upcoming Book Club video on the book Make Time in Notion, which he and his team use for all their scripts. — 00:01:56 · Book Club, Notion
  • ★★ Ali says he is working on some videos about Roam Research, the other note-taking app he uses heavily. — 00:01:56 · Roam Research
  • ★★ Ali already has about six videos on Roam Research in his Workflow series on Nebula. — 00:01:56 · Roam Research, Workflow series, Nebula
  • ★ Ali keeps his coffee warm in an Ember mug, a birthday present from his editor Christian. — 00:02:26 · Christian
  • ★★ For his second writing session Ali switches to his own Study With Me playlist on Spotify, instrumental music from films, TV shows and video games. — 00:02:26 · Spotify

00:02:48 — Filming two videos; declining a talk and Derek Sivers's "hell yeah or no"

  • ★★ Setting up cameras and lights takes Ali half an hour; he then films the A-roll of his video on whether reading fiction is a waste of time. — 00:02:48
  • ★★ Ali declines a request to give a Zoom presentation to students on how to study for exams, because he has made YouTube videos on it for three years and has nothing more to add. — 00:02:48 · Zoom
  • ★★★ Ali is trying to get better at saying no, which is always hard because people's requests are usually so reasonable; he likes Derek Sivers's framing of when to say no. — 00:02:48 · Derek Sivers
  • ★★★ Derek Sivers (quoted): Derek Sivers says that early in a career it helps to say yes to everything to maximise opportunities, but once demands on your time pile up you switch to "hell yeah or no", with no middle ground. — 00:03:18 · Derek Sivers

00:03:47 — Mail Time with Dr. Ali: a headset and the cinema camera, monitor and eGPU lent by Blackmagic

  • ★★ With his overhead camera set up, Ali brings back his fan-favourite unboxing segment, Mail Time with Dr. Ali. — 00:03:47
  • ★ From Amazon, not gifted, Ali unboxes a Razer Kraken Tournament Edition headset for chatting with friends. — 00:04:19 · Amazon
  • ★★★ Blackmagic Design is lending Ali video gear for a few weeks, chief among it the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 cinema camera, with a Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 lens; he had never held a cinema camera before. — 00:04:50
  • ★★ Blackmagic also lends Ali its Video Assist 12-inch monitor, which sits on the camera so he can see himself while recording, and the Blackmagic eGPU, an external graphics card for a MacBook. — 00:05:31 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali says he will try out the gear Blackmagic Design lent him and report back. — 00:06:13

00:06:35 — The Morning Dump leather notebook covers made with his friend Will

  • ★★★ Ali and his friend Will, a bespoke leather worker in Cambridge, have partnered to design custom handmade leather notebook covers, the channel's first line of merch. — 00:06:35 · Cambridge
  • ★★ Ali's leather notebook covers come in sky blue and tan and are built for the Leuchtturm1917 notebooks, his favourite notebooks. — 00:07:07 · Leuchtturm1917 notebook
  • ★★ Ali calls his leather notebook covers the Morning Dump series, with "morning dump" embossed subtly in the corner and logos inside the back cover; buyers can leave out the "morning dump". — 00:07:07

00:08:52 — Overhead B-roll, a Not Overthinking livestream, Kindle Oasis first impressions, photos and a late workout

  • ★★ For overhead B-roll Ali fixes the overhead camera's wires with a guitar capo and connects it to a MacBook that shows the overhead shot. — 00:09:40 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali and his brother record an episode of their podcast Not Overthinking as a YouTube livestream, talking with their new friends Cliff and Valentin in Los Angeles about friendships, relationships and social skills. — 00:09:40 · Taimur Abdaal, Not Overthinking
  • ★ After the recording Ali chats with his grandma over WhatsApp video. — 00:10:27 · Ali Abdaal's grandmother, WhatsApp
  • ★★ Ali films first impressions of the Kindle Oasis and says that after using it for a month he will film another segment and put together a video review. — 00:10:27 · Kindle
  • ★★ Ali will launch the Morning Dump leather notebook covers soon, made with a friend in Cambridge who makes bespoke leather goods; pre-orders and a mailing list are linked below the video. — 00:10:56 · Cambridge
  • ★★ Ali does his home workout late at night while listening to The Wheel of Time on Audible at 2.5x speed. — 00:10:56 · The Wheel of Time, Audible

00:11:55 — Nightly reflection in Notion and plans for the next day off

  • ★★ Ali ends each night with a reflection practice in Notion, answering a few reflective prompts including what the most story-worthy thing that happened that day was. — 00:11:55 · Notion

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Asked by a viewer whether he wears blue-light-blocking glasses at the end of the night to reduce blue light, Ali replies that he does. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Blackmagic Design · hell yeah or no · URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 · Will (craftsman, mentioned from 2020)

Also: People: Ali Abdaal's grandmother · Christian · Derek Sivers · Taimur Abdaal

Projects: Book Club · Not Overthinking · Workflow series

Works: Didn't Really Name It · Freshly Grounded · Make Time · The Wheel of Time

Organizations: Amazon · Nebula · Netflix · Twitter

Concepts: morning pages · stoicism

Places: Cambridge · India · Los Angeles

Products: Apple Music · Audible · Blackmagic eGPU · Blackmagic Video Assist · Day One · Ember mug · HomePod · iPad Pro · Kindle · Leuchtturm1917 notebook · MacBook · Magic Keyboard · Notion · Razer Kraken Tournament Edition · Roam Research · Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 · Siri · Spotify · WhatsApp · Zoom

Replies to

← Previous: How To Boost Productivity Without Apps · Next → My Favourite Productivity Book of All Time