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20 Lessons that Improved My Life

2020-12-20 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 26:56 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Goals, purpose and life design (also: Mindset, motivation and happiness, Health, sleep and habits, Books and reading, Productivity and time) · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: Lesson from a book, Sponsor segment present, His medical past

Ali goes over 15 of 20 lessons he learned in 2020 (the rest are on Nebula): five commandments from the regrets of the dying atop his to-do list, leaning into fear, "get to" for "have to", accountability coaches, improvisational productivity, homework for life, speed listening, the Odyssey Plan, clarity, 15-minute chunks, and making peace with goals.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Intro; the top of my to-do list: five commandments from the top five regrets of the dying

  • ★★★ Following Paul Graham's essay The Top of My Todo List, based on The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, Ali writes five commandments atop his to-do list: don't ignore your dreams, don't work too much, say what you think, cultivate friendships, be happy. — 00:00:58 · Notion, Roam Research
  • ★★★ Earlier in 2020 a publisher asked Ali whether he would write a book; he nearly said no out of imposter syndrome, then named the feeling as fear and knew he had to say yes. — 00:00:58

00:01:11 — Lean into the fear: a publisher's book offer

  • ★★★ To grow as a person Ali leans into the fear: unless his life is in physical danger, being scared of doing something is for him a very strong indicator that he should do it. — 00:02:09
  • ★★★ Ali may be writing a book and says he will tell viewers more about it later, with details going to his email list. (hedged) — 00:02:09

00:02:25 — Have to vs. get to: the cannula at the end of a shift

  • ★★ Asked by a nurse near the end of an evening shift to put in a cannula, Ali felt disgruntled until he thought "I get to do this cannula", which made him grateful for the privilege. — 00:03:04 · identified motivation
  • ★★★ When Ali catches himself procrastinating or not wanting to do something, he switches from "I have to do this" to "I get to do this", a reframing from a Seth Godin blog post he read in 2019. — 00:03:54 · identified motivation

00:03:57 — You're allowed to go back to bed once you've had a shower

  • ★★ Ali, who struggles to wake up, tells himself he may go back to bed but only after a shower; once showered he feels fully awake and no longer wants to. — 00:04:23

00:04:38 — My information diet sucks: 69 podcasts, one on health, one on relationships

  • ★★ Of the 69 podcasts Ali subscribes to, about 65 are on business, tech, entrepreneurship or creators; only one is on health and one on relationships. — 00:04:50
  • ★★★ Ali holds that health and relationships are the most important things in life, above business, entrepreneurship, tech and creativity. — 00:04:50
  • ★★ Ali is reshaping his information diet, the books, podcasts and audiobooks he takes in, so that it reflects his priorities, more health and relationships than business. — 00:05:21
  • ★ A quote Ali shared in his weekly email newsletter: the healthy person has a thousand wishes, the sick person has only one. — 00:05:56 · Sunday Snippets

00:06:16 — The four components of an ideal life, and hobbies that pay, keep you healthy and make you smarter

  • ★★★ Naval Ravikant (quoted): Interviewed on a podcast, Naval Ravikant says most people would name four components of an ideal life: physical health, mental health and happiness, relationships, and money or work. — 00:06:20 · Mental health
  • ★★★ Of Naval Ravikant's four components of an ideal life, Ali skews far too much toward money and career, and means to give more effort to physical health, mental health and relationships from the new year. (hedged) — 00:07:01 · Mental health
  • ★★ Naval Ravikant (quoted): Naval Ravikant's ideal life has three hobbies: one that as a by-product makes you money, one that keeps you healthy, and one that makes you smarter and more creative. — 00:07:01
  • ★★ Ali's hobby that makes money, and to an extent makes him smarter and more creative, is his YouTube channel; the one that keeps him healthy is the gym and above all racket sports: tennis, badminton and squash. — 00:07:30

00:08:09 — The power of accountability: an online trainer, then coaches and lessons

  • ★★ In the first lockdown of March 2020, dreaming of becoming a Gymshark athlete, Ali started home workouts that soon lapsed, until Yusuf of the Propane Fitness podcast became his online trainer: a workout plan in a Google Sheet, macros tracked in MyFitnessPal, a screenshot sent every week. — 00:08:26 · Gymshark, Google Sheets, Notion
  • ★★★ Having someone hold him accountable, even a remote trainer, made Ali really progress with home workouts and healthy eating. — 00:08:55
  • ★★★ Ali used to think he had to learn things by himself, which suited lots of time and no money; with less time and more money, hiring coaches for tennis, piano, guitar or singing lessons is now a no-brainer, mostly for the accountability. — 00:09:21

  • ★★ From the blog Raptitude, whose author David cites a 1990s book on spring cleaning, Ali takes the lesson "do what you're doing": pay attention to the task at hand. — 00:09:50

    “In Latin, age quod agis, do what you're doing.”

00:09:51 — Do what you're doing

  • ★★★ When his mind wanders, Ali reminds himself to do what he is doing and stay present rather than multitask, having noticed he eats meals without tasting them while listening to audiobooks or watching TV. — 00:10:58

00:11:12 — Improvisational productivity

  • ★★ Daniel Gross (quoted): Daniel Gross, heard by Ali on My First Million, calls it improvisational productivity: the longer you think about a task without doing it, the less novel it is, and a to-do list turns an interesting idea into work. — 00:11:27
  • ★★ In 2019 Ali started a second YouTube channel, Appendix, for medical education, but after a year of toying with and planning it he never worked on it; likewise, the longer a Skillshare class is planned, the less likely it gets done. — 00:11:55
  • ★★★ When Ali has an idea he now tries to start executing it straight away: planning is useful to an extent, but minimising the time between thinking of something and doing it keeps it interesting. — 00:12:25

00:12:46 — Homework for life

  • ★★★ Homework for life, from Matthew Dicks's book Storyworthy: every night before bed, write the date and the most story-worthy moment of your day in a table; Ali does it in Notion. — 00:13:03 · Notion
  • ★★ Homework for life helps Ali remember his days: months without it, in the sameness of lockdown, blended together and time moved faster, while doing it slows his perception of time. — 00:14:18 · COVID-19
  • ★★ Matthew Dicks (quoted): Matthew Dicks says in Storyworthy that no one wants to hear your drinking stories or your travel stories. — 00:14:18
  • ★★ Homework for life makes you find the real story moments in your life, which Ali says mostly come from failure and transformation, not from a great holiday. — 00:15:02
  • ★ Ali writes his homework for life in Notion every evening on an iPad Air on his bedside table, though he sometimes forgets. — 00:15:32 · iPad Air, Notion

00:15:50 — Speed listening audiobooks

  • ★★ Ali has listened to fantasy audiobooks since about 2017, starting with Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn at 1x; in 2020 he finished the 14-book Wheel of Time series, begun in March 2019. — 00:16:02 · The Wheel of Time, Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson
  • ★★★ Since early 2020 Ali speeds audiobooks up to 1.5x, 2x or more, especially in slow parts: he loses no enjoyment and in a way gains some, because more exciting stuff happens. — 00:16:33
  • ★ Ali is listening to Brandon Sanderson's Rhythm of War, out about two weeks earlier, at 1.5x to savour it, and may slow to 1x for the most epic parts. — 00:16:33 · Brandon Sanderson
  • ★★★ Speed listening cuts the time cost of any recommended book: at 2x Bob Iger's eight-hour audiobook The Ride of a Lifetime took Ali four hours over two days of driving to work, and he would not have read it otherwise. — 00:17:11 · Audible

00:17:57 — The Odyssey Plan and his year out of medicine

  • ★★★ The Odyssey Plan, which Ali found in an Unjaded Jade video: write out in detail your life five years from now on your current path, on a completely different path, and on a path where money and social obligations do not matter. — 00:18:26
  • ★★ Doing the Odyssey Plan around December 2019, Ali saw that his path of UK medical training in Cambridge, perhaps supervising at a college, felt too easy and without challenge. — 00:18:26 · Cambridge
  • ★★★ The Odyssey Plan exercise was partly what prompted Ali to take a year out of medicine, meant for travelling the world before the pandemic. — 00:19:05
  • ★★★ Ali will take a further year out of full-time medical training so that he can travel more, hopefully once the coronavirus situation gets better. — 00:19:05 · COVID-19
  • ★★ Five years from now Ali would much rather have spent two years on YouTube, travelling or working in Australia than climbing the medical ladder in his comfort zone. — 00:19:05

00:20:01 — The power of clarity

  • ★★★ From the clarify step of David Allen's Getting Things Done: a vague to-do such as "chemistry revision" never gets done, and the more specific the items on your to-do list, the less likely you are to procrastinate. — 00:21:16

00:21:34 — Thinking of time in 15-minute chunks

  • ★★★ Ali thinks of time in 15-minute chunks rather than hours: at 10:37 he starts at 10:45, not 11, and schedules meetings in 15-minute increments, which has given him a lot more time this year (2020). — 00:22:15

00:22:47 — Goals: self-acceptance and self-improvement

  • ★★ Before 2020 Ali was anti goal-setting: hitting a goal such as 2 million subscribers gives a nice feeling for two seconds before the goalposts shift, missing it disappoints, and self-acceptance seemed the worthier aim. — 00:22:53
  • ★★★ From asking his Deep Dive guests about goals, Ali has learned it is completely okay to hold self-acceptance and self-improvement in tension; he now sets goals without making his personal fulfilment rely on them. — 00:23:37 · Deep Dive
  • ★★ Ben Hardy (quoted): Someone Ali interviewed for a Deep Dive, he thinks Ben Hardy, told him there is no need to reconcile self-acceptance with self-improvement: part of you can focus on each. (hedged) — 00:24:06 · Deep Dive

00:24:40 — Extended version on Nebula, CuriosityStream sponsor read, sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): The health and relationship podcasts Ali listens to are Bulletproof and The Art of Charm, the channel replies. — creator comment
  • ★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked when the Mac mini review is coming, the channel replies that it is not sure there is much to review. (hedged) — creator comment

Threads in this video

  • restate · How do you avoid regrets in life? — Following Paul Graham's essay The Top of My Todo List, based on The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, Ali writes five commandments atop his to-do list: don't ignore your dreams, don't work too much, say what you think, cultivate friendships, be happy. (00:00:58)
  • announced · Ali's first book, which a publisher asked him to write (2020) — Ali may be writing a book and says he will tell viewers more about it later, with details going to his email list. (00:02:09)
  • refine · How do you decide what to say yes to? — To grow as a person Ali leans into the fear: unless his life is in physical danger, being scared of doing something is for him a very strong indicator that he should do it. (00:02:09)
  • refine · How do you beat procrastination? — When Ali catches himself procrastinating or not wanting to do something, he switches from "I have to do this" to "I get to do this", a reframing from a Seth Godin blog post he read in 2019. (00:03:54)
  • restate · How do you beat procrastination? — From the clarify step of David Allen's Getting Things Done: a vague to-do such as "chemistry revision" never gets done, and the more specific the items on your to-do list, the less likely you are to procrastinate. (00:21:16)
  • refine · What morning routine should you have? — Ali, who struggles to wake up, tells himself he may go back to bed but only after a shower; once showered he feels fully awake and no longer wants to. (00:04:23)
  • refine · How do you design the life you want? — Of Naval Ravikant's four components of an ideal life, Ali skews far too much toward money and career, and means to give more effort to physical health, mental health and relationships from the new year. (00:07:01)
  • refine · How do you exercise consistently and get in shape? — Having someone hold him accountable, even a remote trainer, made Ali really progress with home workouts and healthy eating. (00:08:55)
  • shift · Should you pay for courses and coaching? — Ali used to think he had to learn things by himself, which suited lots of time and no money; with less time and more money, hiring coaches for tennis, piano, guitar or singing lessons is now a no-brainer, mostly for the accountability. (00:09:21)
  • refine · How do you improve your focus? — When his mind wanders, Ali reminds himself to do what he is doing and stay present rather than multitask, having noticed he eats meals without tasting them while listening to audiobooks or watching TV. (00:10:58)
  • refine · Should you plan things out first or just start? — When Ali has an idea he now tries to start executing it straight away: planning is useful to an extent, but minimising the time between thinking of something and doing it keeps it interesting. (00:12:25)
  • restate · Should you journal, and how? — Homework for life, from Matthew Dicks's book Storyworthy: every night before bed, write the date and the most story-worthy moment of your day in a table; Ali does it in Notion. (00:13:03)
  • refine · Should you journal, and how? — Homework for life helps Ali remember his days: months without it, in the sameness of lockdown, blended together and time moved faster, while doing it slows his perception of time. (00:14:18)
  • restate · Should you listen to podcasts and audiobooks at higher speed? — Since early 2020 Ali speeds audiobooks up to 1.5x, 2x or more, especially in slow parts: he loses no enjoyment and in a way gains some, because more exciting stuff happens. (00:16:33)
  • refine · Should you listen to podcasts and audiobooks at higher speed? — Speed listening cuts the time cost of any recommended book: at 2x Bob Iger's eight-hour audiobook The Ride of a Lifetime took Ali four hours over two days of driving to work, and he would not have read it otherwise. (00:17:11)
  • restate · How do you read more books? — Speed listening cuts the time cost of any recommended book: at 2x Bob Iger's eight-hour audiobook The Ride of a Lifetime took Ali four hours over two days of driving to work, and he would not have read it otherwise. (00:17:11)
  • restate · How do you find your purpose or what to do with your life? — The Odyssey Plan, which Ali found in an Unjaded Jade video: write out in detail your life five years from now on your current path, on a completely different path, and on a path where money and social obligations do not matter. (00:18:26)
  • milestone · Ali's one-year sabbatical from medicine (2020) — Ali will take a further year out of full-time medical training so that he can travel more, hopefully once the coronavirus situation gets better. (00:19:05)
  • refine · How should you plan your day? — Ali thinks of time in 15-minute chunks rather than hours: at 10:37 he starts at 10:45, not 11, and schedules meetings in 15-minute increments, which has given him a lot more time this year (2020). (00:22:15)
  • shift · Should you set goals, and how? — Ali, anti goal-setting before 2020 because goals bring brief joy or disappointment and self-acceptance seemed worthier, now accepts the tension with self-improvement and sets goals without making his fulfilment rely on them. (00:23:37)
  • dropped · Ali promises reviews of the M1 MacBook Pro and Mac mini (2020) — Asked when the Mac mini review is coming, the channel replies that it is not sure there is much to review. (creator comment)
  • refine · How do you beat imposter syndrome? — Earlier in 2020 a publisher asked Ali whether he would write a book; he nearly said no out of imposter syndrome, then named the feeling as fear and knew he had to say yes. (00:00:58)
  • callback · Ali jokes that he is on a quest to become a Gymshark athlete (2019) — In the first lockdown of March 2020, dreaming of becoming a Gymshark athlete, Ali started home workouts that soon lapsed, until Yusuf of the Propane Fitness podcast became his online trainer: a workout plan in a Google Sheet, macros tracked in MyFitnessPal, a screenshot sent every week. (00:08:26)
  • progress update · Ali promises to keep recommending fantasy audiobooks on the channel (2020) — Ali has listened to fantasy audiobooks since about 2017, starting with Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn at 1x; in 2020 he finished the 14-book Wheel of Time series, begun in March 2019. (00:16:02)

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Daniel Gross · homework for life · Naval Ravikant · Odyssey plan · speed listening

Also: People: Ben Hardy · Bob Iger · Brandon Sanderson · David Allen · Matthew Dicks · Paul Graham · Seth Godin · Unjaded Jade · Yusuf

Projects: Appendix · Deep Dive · Sunday Snippets

Works: Getting Things Done · Mistborn · My First Million · Raptitude · Rhythm of War · Storyworthy · The Gap Between 'Have To' and 'Get To' · The Ride of a Lifetime · The Top Five Regrets of the Dying · The Top of My Todo List · The Wheel of Time

Organizations: Gymshark · Stanford University

Concepts: COVID-19 · Mental health

Places: Australia · Cambridge

Products: Audible · Google Sheets · iPad Air · MyFitnessPal · Notion · Roam Research · Siri

Only in the description or credits: Bulletproof Radio · Mac mini · The Art of Charm

Also centred on homework for life: All the Apps I Use in a Day · 15 Books To Read This Year

Also centred on Odyssey plan: I'm Moving to America 🇺🇸 - Life Update

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