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PRODUCTIVE Day in the Life of an Aspiring Gymshark Athlete

2020-12-22 · Vlog or day in the life · Ali · recording, 8:54 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Health, sleep and habits (also: Business and entrepreneurship, YouTube, writing online and creators) · mode: Playful and ironic · tags: His own products discussed, His own numbers, Sponsor segment present

In a tongue-in-cheek "productive" day on his quest to become a Gymshark athlete, Ali films a cut-short kettlebell workout, pancakes and pizza alongside real work: planning the last live sessions of the first Part-Time YouTuber Academy cohort (360 students, cohort two from February 2021) and its Homework Club; he says 2021 will be about his health and fitness.

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: lying in bed, journaling, David Laid videos, Gymshark gear, oats, Four Sigmatic coffee and the Stormlight Archive on Audible

  • ★★ Ali wakes at 8.30, lies in bed for another 40 minutes, then at 9.05 journals on his iPad and watches David Laid workout videos at double speed to build his motivation. — 00:00:00 · iPad
  • ★★ For the past few weeks Ali's daily coffee has been from Four Sigmatic, coffee infused with mushrooms that, he has heard, Tim Ferriss says are good for concentration. (hedged) — 00:01:27 · Tim Ferriss
  • ★★ Over breakfast Ali listens to book four of Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive on Audible. — 00:01:27 · Brandon Sanderson, Audible

00:01:56 — Slack with the team about the Part-Time YouTuber Academy: cohort one ending, cohort two registration open

  • ★★★ The first cohort of Ali's live cohort course, the Part-Time YouTuber Academy, with 360 students, is about to finish, and registration has opened for cohort two, starting in February 2021. — 00:01:56 · Slack

00:02:26 — Collab ideas with Liam and Ross, his health and fitness plan for 2021, popcorn and a cookbook

  • ★★ Ali has a catch-up call with his friends Liam and Ross; Ross, a professional golf instructor, is refocusing his YouTube channel on fitness and mobility, and they plan collab ideas for the new year. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Ali's plan for 2021 is to focus on his health and fitness, fixing his neck posture and lack of flexibility; he wants to maximise his healthy lifespan and start changes now so they compound. — 00:02:26
  • ★ A parcel from Amazon brings a cookbook that Ali's editor Christian recommended if he wants to take cooking seriously. — 00:02:55 · Amazon, Christian

00:03:24 — Kettlebell workout with his trainer cut short by a falling pull-up bar, pancakes and Schitt's Creek

  • ★★ In a kettlebell session with his personal trainer Dan, the pull-up bar falls off the doorframe and Ali lands on his knees, jarring his lower back; Dan suggests stopping the core and back work, and the session ends 20 minutes early. — 00:03:24

00:04:49 — Huel, a Zoom call with Angus planning the Academy's final two live sessions, stretching and a newsletter workshop

  • ★ Ali uses Huel's hot and savoury mix, made by adding water, for lunch. — 00:04:49
  • ★★ On a Zoom call Ali and Angus plan the Part-Time YouTuber Academy's final two live sessions: productivity for creators, and monetisation through the eight sources of income of his channel. — 00:05:19 · Angus, Zoom
  • ★★ The Part-Time YouTuber Academy includes a guest workshop on building an email newsletter. — 00:05:48

00:06:17 — Pizza instead of salmon, Homework Club co-working and writing videos

  • ★★★ Homework Club is a two-hour Zoom co-working session for Part-Time YouTuber Academy students: 30 minutes writing, 30 filming and an hour editing a video, to build habits of consistency. — 00:06:46 · Zoom
  • ★★ During Homework Club Ali films a video answering more viewer assumptions, out the week before, and keeps writing a video called How Much Money Do You Need To Be Happy?, finishing around 11 pm. — 00:06:46

00:07:16 — Sponsor read for Brilliant's cryptocurrency course and his Bitcoin loss

  • ★★ Ali says he lost around $40,000 on Bitcoin in 2017. — 00:07:16

00:08:14 — Ironic look back on the day and a pointer to his apartment tour

In the description and comments

  • ★ Asked whether he has thought about a minimalist lifestyle, Ali replies that he is a minimalist. — creator comment

Humor (dominant)

  • Ali wakes at 8.30 but stays in bed — 00:00:00

    “battling the resistance to get out of bed and to film myself getting out of bed”

  • Ali names his coffee brand, unsponsored — 00:01:27

    “Four Sigmatic, if you're watching this, hit me up”

  • Ali lists what he wants to fix in 2021 — 00:02:26

    “my total lack of flexibility, both physically and emotionally”

  • Ali snacks on popcorn after preaching about health — 00:02:55

    “It's vegan and gluten-free, though, and it's only 84 calories per quarter pack, so hopefully it won't be too bad for me.”

  • Midway through a hardcore workout Ali has an accident — 00:03:24

    “Thankfully during the second set of exercises my pull-up bar falls off the doorframe”

  • Ali plans a healthy salmon dinner — 00:06:17

    “decide to screw it and order pizza takeaway instead because it's been a tough day and I've done a workout”

  • After a late start, a cut-short workout, pancakes and pizza, Ali sums up — 00:08:14

    “I reflect on my day of waking up super early, doing a hardcore workout and eating incredibly healthily.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Also: People: Angus · Brandon Sanderson · Christian · David Laid · Sheen · Tim Ferriss

Projects: Homework Club

Works: Schitt's Creek · The Stormlight Archive

Organizations: Amazon · Anglia Orthodontics · Brilliant · Four Sigmatic · Gymshark

Products: Audible · Bitcoin · Huel · Invisalign · iPad · Slack · Zoom

Also centred on Part-Time YouTuber Academy: A Productive Day on Vacation in the Canary Islands · How I Gained 1 MILLION Subscribers · A "Productive" Day in my Life (Lockdown) · How Much Money I Earn as a Doctor + YouTuber · A Beginner's Guide to Making Money with Online Courses

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