Skip to content

My INSANELY Productive Morning Routine

2020-07-24 · Vlog or day in the life · Ali · recording, 4:02 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time · mode: Playful and ironic · tags: His medical past

In a mock-heroic parody of "productive morning routine" videos, Ali narrates his real weekday morning as a junior doctor, a couple of weeks before his final hospital shift: a 6.30am alarm, shower, dressing, a Chemex coffee and an audiobook at 2.5x on the drive from Cambridge.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — 6.30am alarm, making the bed, the Oura ring and water

  • ★★ Ali's workday as a doctor starts at 8am, and his iPhone alarm wakes him at 6.30am. — 00:00:03 · iPhone
  • ★ On waking Ali takes off his Oura Ring, which measures the quality of his sleep, and drinks some water. — 00:00:03

00:00:46 — Smart scales, Spotify, the shower, clothes, moisturiser, aftershave and the NHS lanyard

  • ★ Each morning Ali steps on Wi-Fi smart scales that report his weight, body fat percentage and muscle mass. (playful) — 00:00:46
  • ★★ Ali jokes that, like his "friends" Mark and Steve, he believes in minimising options and decision fatigue in choosing clothes. (playful) — 00:01:45
  • ★★ Ali wears Allure Homme by Chanel, recommended on School of Scents, one of his favourite YouTube channels, for its pleasant, natural, light scent suited to hot summer days. — 00:02:20

00:02:51 — Chemex coffee, a token mindfulness attempt and the audiobook commute to the hospital

  • ★★ For his morning coffee Ali weighs out 15 grams of ground coffee delivered each week and boils the kettle to 91 degrees, checked with a meat thermometer. — 00:02:51
  • ★★ Ali brews his coffee with the Chemex method from James Hoffmann and takes it to work in a travel cup. — 00:03:16
  • ★ During the three minutes the coffee takes to brew, Ali makes a token attempt at mindfulness because he has heard it is good for you. (playful) — 00:03:16
  • ★★ Usually running late, Ali leaves with his AirPods in and listens to an audiobook on Audible at 2.5x speed. — 00:03:16 · AirPods, Audible
  • ★★ Ali drives away from Cambridge at around 7am and arrives at the hospital at around 7.50am. — 00:03:16 · Cambridge

In the description and comments

  • ★★★ With a couple of weeks left until his final shift at the hospital, Ali documents what he does every morning before a typical shift. — video description

Humor (dominant)

  • After his smart scales report on his dream of becoming a Gymshark athlete, Ali turns to Spotify. — 00:00:46

    “moving me closer to my dream of becoming a Gymshark athlete. With tears of failure streaming down my cheeks”

  • Ali applies productivity logic to the shower. — 00:01:16

    “I brush my teeth and empty my bladder at the same time because of course to do any differently would be to sacrifice efficiency.”

  • Ali luxuriates in his Egyptian cotton towels. — 00:01:45

    “luxuriating in the feel of the Egyptian cotton towels that I last washed sometime in 2016.”

  • Ali puts on his NHS lanyard as a motivational accessory. — 00:02:20

    “don my junior doctor NHS lanyard that I wear to work and also sometimes on my days off to keep myself motivated.”

  • Ali dreams of a kettle with built-in temperature control. — 00:02:51

    “but that seems like an excessive indulgence at this point in my life.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

People: James Hoffmann

Organizations: Gymshark · NHS · School of Scents

Places: Cambridge

Products: AirPods · Allure Homme · Audible · Chemex · iPhone · Oura Ring

← Previous: How I Organise My Life · Next → The Surprising Benefits of Gaming