How I Manage My Time - 10 Time Management Tips

2021-04-18 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 11:48 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time (also: Mindset, motivation and happiness) · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: Lesson from a book, His own numbers, His own products discussed, His medical past

Ali gives the ten time-management principles he still uses: we own all of our time, hell yeah or no, the daily highlight, a paper to-do list, time-blocking the highlight, Parkinson's law and artificial deadlines, protected mornings, delegating below the value of his time, Calendly for scheduling, and choosing to be satisfied at the end of the day.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Ten things he still uses after ten years of reading productivity books

00:00:15 — We own all of our time

★★ Ali says the line "at any given moment, you are doing what you most want to be doing", which he came across somewhere, changed his life by showing him that his time is entirely within his control. — 00:00:31
★★ Earlier on the day of filming Ali spent six hours playing World of Warcraft because he wanted to; he says he could not claim he had no time to work out, only that he chose not to make the time. — 00:00:31 · World of Warcraft
★★★ Ali says we are always in control of our own time, even with a boss or parents: if you do not have time for something, it is just not a priority, which is fine, but lack of time is not the real reason. — 00:01:01

“If you don't have the time to do something, that something is just not a priority”

00:01:19 — Hell yeah or no

★★★ Following Derek Sivers's Hell Yeah or No, Ali says to say yes to most things while young with few opportunities, then, once requests exceed your time, to treat anything that is not a "hell yeah" as a no. — 00:01:30 · hell yeah or no, Derek Sivers
★★ Ali is still trying to get better at saying "hell yeah or no": his calendar is full of things he only half wanted to do, and he always regrets doing them. — 00:02:00 · hell yeah or no
★★★ From Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, Ali recommends the daily highlight: each day decide on one thing as the highlight of the day, the only thing you need to get done. — 00:02:00 · daily highlight

00:02:16 — The daily highlight

★★ Ali tries to set a daily highlight every day: on days he does, he always gets it done and is happy at the end of the day; on days he does not, he drowns in his to-do list. — 00:02:30 · daily highlight
★★ Ali uses a physical to-do list on Ugmonk's Analog: every morning, after choosing his daily highlight, he writes the day's other tasks on a card and crosses them off with a pen. — 00:02:59 · daily highlight
★★ Ali says it does not really matter which to-do system you use: our brain is for having ideas, not for holding them, and things slip through the cracks because we have not written them down. — 00:02:59

00:03:00 — Use a to-do list

★★ Anything Ali needs to do he writes down in Roam Research; his daily to-do list is then built on Ugmonk's Analog. — 00:03:40 · Roam Research
★★ Working as a doctor, Ali also manages his patient list and tasks on physical to-do lists; he finds crossing something off incredibly satisfying in a way an app does not give. — 00:03:40

00:04:06 — Time blocking

★★ Ali does not time-block everything, since the more time he spends managing his productivity system the less he gets done; the one thing he always schedules into his calendar each morning is his daily highlight. — 00:04:09 · time-blocking, daily highlight
★★★ Ali calls combining the daily highlight with a time block in the calendar incredibly useful: the one important thing always gets done because it is on the schedule by default, and he moves it if something comes up. — 00:04:39 · daily highlight, time-blocking
★★ Ali grants that most people must do more than one thing a day, but says doing the one most important thing every day for a year would make a great deal of progress. — 00:05:08 · daily highlight
★★ Ali applies Parkinson's law, that work expands to fill the time allocated to it: given a whole day to film a YouTube video it takes all day, given half an hour or an hour it gets done in that time. — 00:05:08

00:05:25 — Parkinson's law and artificial deadlines

★★ Ali is working on a course on YouTube for beginners that walks through his video production process; it is purely optional, but he has set himself the goal of filming all of it the next weekend (24–25 April 2021). — 00:05:37
★★★ Ali's advice from Parkinson's law is to set artificial deadlines: blocking calendar time to film his optional course means it will get done, while without a deadline or schedule it never would. — 00:06:06 · time-blocking

00:06:22 — Protected time

★★ Ali has recently started keeping his mornings completely free of obligations and Zoom calls: he wakes when he wants, usually at half past eight, and has at least four hours of uninterrupted time. — 00:06:32 · Zoom
★★ Ali is writing his book these days, and his protected morning time goes to writing it. — 00:06:32
★★★ Ali recommends deciding on your protected time: time just for you that no one else may book; he uses his to think about the business, plan videos, or sometimes to relax, read or play World of Warcraft. — 00:07:01 · World of Warcraft

00:07:34 — Delegation

★★★ Ali advises working out the money value of your time: for his business he set his at £20 or $25 an hour, so anything he does not enjoy that he can delegate for less, he should. — 00:07:53 · money buys back time
★★ Following his delegation principle, Ali got a cleaner who comes to clean the house every other week. — 00:07:53 · money buys back time
★★ When building his businesses, Ali delegated work such as data entry to freelancers in the Philippines, Bangladesh or India through Upwork and Fiverr, paying about $7 an hour, which freed his time for more valuable work. — 00:08:22

00:08:56 — Automated scheduling

★★★ To automate scheduling, Ali recommends Calendly, which ended email back-and-forth across time zones: you send a link with your availability and people book a slot; there is a free version, and he pays for Pro (not sponsored). — 00:09:21
★★ Sending a booking link can feel like a power move, Ali says, but whenever he receives a Calendly link he is grateful, as it saves him 20 minutes of scheduling. — 00:09:21
★★ Ali now sends friends a Calendly link to catch up, and in the last few months has caught up with many more friends this way than in three years of arranging calls over WhatsApp. — 00:09:50 · WhatsApp

00:10:13 — The choice to be satisfied

★★★ Productive people easily end the day chronically dissatisfied with what they did; Ali has recently started telling himself that he can choose to be satisfied at the end of the day. — 00:10:19 · choose to be satisfied

“I can choose to be satisfied at the end of the day.”

00:10:48 — His Skillshare productivity classes, the Make Time review, and sign-off

★★ Beating himself up does not change how much work Ali has done, he says; it only makes him feel bad, so he can choose to feel good about how he managed his time. — 00:10:48 · choose to be satisfied
★★ Ali has three Skillshare classes on productivity and time management: one on the fundamentals of productivity, one on his productivity equation, and a third, on productivity for creators with a side hustle, released the week before (April 2021). — 00:10:48
★ Ali calls Make Time one of his favourite productivity books of all time. — 00:11:24

Threads in this video

first on record · Is lack of time a real reason not to do something? — Ali says we are always in control of our own time, even with a boss or parents: if you do not have time for something, it is just not a priority, which is fine, but lack of time is not the real reason. (00:01:01)
update · Ali's years of playing World of Warcraft — Earlier on the day of filming Ali spent six hours playing World of Warcraft because he wanted to; he says he could not claim he had no time to work out, only that he chose not to make the time. (00:00:31)
restate · How do you decide what to say yes to? — Following Derek Sivers's Hell Yeah or No, Ali says to say yes to most things while young with few opportunities, then, once requests exceed your time, to treat anything that is not a "hell yeah" as a no. (00:01:30)
restate · How should you plan your day? — From Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, Ali recommends the daily highlight: each day decide on one thing as the highlight of the day, the only thing you need to get done. (00:02:00)
refine · How should you plan your day? — Ali calls combining the daily highlight with a time block in the calendar incredibly useful: the one important thing always gets done because it is on the schedule by default, and he moves it if something comes up. (00:04:39)
restate · Should you run your work from a to-do list? — Ali uses a physical to-do list on Ugmonk's Analog: every morning, after choosing his daily highlight, he writes the day's other tasks on a card and crosses them off with a pen. (00:02:59)
refine · Should you run your work from a to-do list? — Working as a doctor, Ali also manages his patient list and tasks on physical to-do lists; he finds crossing something off incredibly satisfying in a way an app does not give. (00:03:40)
refine · Should you time-block your calendar? — Ali does not time-block everything, since the more time he spends managing his productivity system the less he gets done; the one thing he always schedules into his calendar each morning is his daily highlight. (00:04:09)
restate · How do you beat procrastination? — Ali applies Parkinson's law, that work expands to fill the time allocated to it: given a whole day to film a YouTube video it takes all day, given half an hour or an hour it gets done in that time. (00:05:08)
refine · How do you beat procrastination? — Ali's advice from Parkinson's law is to set artificial deadlines: blocking calendar time to film his optional course means it will get done, while without a deadline or schedule it never would. (00:06:06)
promised · Ali sets himself the goal of filming all of his YouTube course for beginners next weekend (2021) — Ali is working on a course on YouTube for beginners that walks through his video production process; it is purely optional, but he has set himself the goal of filming all of it the next weekend (24–25 April 2021). (00:05:37)
refine · What morning routine should you have? — Ali has recently started keeping his mornings completely free of obligations and Zoom calls: he wakes when he wants, usually at half past eight, and has at least four hours of uninterrupted time. (00:06:32)
milestone · Ali's first book, which a publisher asked him to write (2020) — Ali is writing his book these days, and his protected morning time goes to writing it. (00:06:32)
refine · How do you improve your focus? — Ali recommends deciding on your protected time: time just for you that no one else may book; he uses his to think about the business, plan videos, or sometimes to relax, read or play World of Warcraft. (00:07:01)
refine · How much is your time worth? — Ali advises working out the money value of your time: for his business he set his at £20 or $25 an hour, so anything he does not enjoy that he can delegate for less, he should. (00:07:53)
restate · Should you pay someone to do your chores? — Following his delegation principle, Ali got a cleaner who comes to clean the house every other week. (00:07:53)
refine · Which productivity apps should you use? — To automate scheduling, Ali recommends Calendly, which ended email back-and-forth across time zones: you send a link with your availability and people book a slot; there is a free version, and he pays for Pro (not sponsored). (00:09:21)
refine · How do you keep friendships and avoid loneliness? — Ali now sends friends a Calendly link to catch up, and in the last few months has caught up with many more friends this way than in three years of arranging calls over WhatsApp. (00:09:50)
restate · How do you become happier? — Productive people easily end the day chronically dissatisfied with what they did; Ali has recently started telling himself that he can choose to be satisfied at the end of the day. (00:10:19)
milestone · Ali says he is going to work on his own Skillshare classes, taking a deep dive into how he makes his videos: filming, editing and post-production. — Ali has three Skillshare classes on productivity and time management: one on the fundamentals of productivity, one on his productivity equation, and a third, on productivity for creators with a side hustle, released the week before (April 2021). (00:10:48)

Where the stories that moved here went next

Ali sets himself the goal of filming all of his YouTube course for beginners next weekend (2021) — open (no report in 2021); last: promised, 2021-04-18
Ali says he is going to work on his own Skillshare classes, taking a deep dive into how he makes his videos: filming, editing and post-production. — running; last: milestone, 2021-10-08
Ali's first book, which a publisher asked him to write (2020) — running; last: milestone, 2021-10-20
Ali's years of playing World of Warcraft — told 8×, last update 2021

Mentioned

Central: Calendly · choose to be satisfied · daily highlight · hell yeah or no · money buys back time · Parkinson's law · time management · time-blocking

Also: People: Ali Abdaal's grandmother · Derek Sivers · Elon Musk · Jake Knapp · John Zeratsky

Works: Hell Yeah or No: What's Worth Doing · Make Time · Productivity for Creators: How to Start a Successful Side Hustle

Organizations: Fiverr · Upwork

Concepts: productivity equation · quick capture

Places: Bangladesh · India · Philippines

Products: Roam Research · Ugmonk Analog · WhatsApp · World of Warcraft · Zoom

Also centred on Parkinson's law: How I Manage my Time as a Doctor + YouTuber - 9 Time Management Tips · How to be More Productive in Lockdown

Replies to

refers to · My Favourite Productivity Book of All Time

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