How I Work for 15 hours and Not Get Bored

2021-08-11 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 8:09 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: Lesson from a book, Sponsor segment present, Aimed at students

Ali names three reasons we get distracted (the task is too boring, too hard, or the distraction too prominent) and gives five tips: embrace welcome distractions, optimise for enjoyment by charting progress, put the phone away face down on airplane mode, keep a clean desk or work at a coworking space, and time-block a daily highlight, as Nir Eyal's Indistractable advises.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — An epidemic of distraction: too boring, too hard, too prominent

★★ Ali says we live in an epidemic of distraction: technology is not wrong in itself, but becomes a problem when it distracts us from what we actually want to do. — 00:00:00
★★★ Ali gives three reasons we get distracted from what matters; the first two are that the task is too boring or too hard, such as hitting a roadblock in writing, code or guitar. — 00:00:00
★★ Ali's third reason for distraction is that the distraction is too prominent: most of us work with phones and laptops sending notifications for every little thing. — 00:00:41
★★★ Ali's first, counterintuitive tip against distraction is to embrace welcome distractions. — 00:00:41

“embrace welcome distractions”

00:01:03 — Tip one: embrace welcome distractions

★★ Ali distinguishes an unwelcome distraction, such as an Instagram notification that adds no value and leads to doom scrolling, from a welcome one: something he actually wants to distract him. — 00:01:10 · Instagram
★★ Studying for his medical school exams at university, Ali kept the door of his room wedged open with a doorstop at all times to welcome distraction from friends and fellow medical students. — 00:01:10
★★ Ali says the point of university was to pass the exams, but the bigger point was to make friends and have a nice time. — 00:01:40
★★ Since chatting with a friend would cost him only a tiny fraction of a mark and would not make him fail an exam, Ali would rather be distracted by friends or family. (hedged) — 00:02:02
★ If he one day works from home and has children, Ali says he would welcome being distracted by them, because that is the point. (hypothetical, hedged) — 00:02:02
★★ Ali weighs focus against friends and family by asking whether on his deathbed he will wish he had worked harder and been more focused, or had spent more time distracted by friends and family. — 00:02:02

00:02:31 — Tip two: optimise for enjoyment by charting progress

★★★ Ali's second tip against distraction is to optimise for enjoyment: we almost never get distracted while having a great time, so make the task a lot more fun. — 00:02:31 · feel-good productivity (concept)
★★★ One of Ali's favourite ways to make work more fun is charting progress: like a video game's experience bar and levelling up, gamifying a task genuinely makes it more fun. — 00:03:00
★★ To chart progress when studying for an exam, Ali suggests treating revision as a points tally, a score or a traffic-light system, and points to his retrospective revision timetable video for details. — 00:03:32 · spaced repetition
★★ For learning to code or starting a business, Ali advises setting little milestones to tick off: the dopamine release of accomplishing something makes the work more fun. — 00:03:32
★★ Ali is researching how to make work more fun these days, and says it will all be in the book he is writing. — 00:03:32
★★★ Ali's third tip against distraction is to basically throw away the phone: with notifications from apps such as Hinge or Tinder it is very hard to stay focused, even in flow. — 00:03:32

00:04:06 — Tip three: throw away the phone

★★★ When struggling with his phone Ali chucks it behind him onto the sofa; more often he keeps it face down on airplane mode, and in breaks takes it off airplane mode and ignores the notifications. — 00:04:15

00:04:41 — Tip four: control your environment

★★★ Ali's fourth tip against distraction is to control your environment: the more stuff on his desk, the more likely he is to get distracted, so keep a clean desk. — 00:04:44 · friction
★★ Finding it very hard to keep a clean desk, Ali signed up a few months ago to a WeWork coworking space in Cambridge; he goes basically every day and sits with only his laptop and AirPods, which keeps him focused. — 00:04:44 · Cambridge, AirPods
★★★ Ali finds going somewhere outside your own environment, such as a library, a coffee shop or a coworking space, a really good way to combat distraction, because there is no stuff all around you. — 00:05:14

00:05:45 — Sponsor read for Brilliant

00:06:38 — Tip five: deliberately manage your time, from Indistractable

★★ Nir Eyal (quoted): In Indistractable, Nir Eyal says you can often tell how prone to distraction someone is from their calendar: an empty time slot means there is nothing to be distracted from. — 00:06:53
★★★ Ali completely agrees with Nir Eyal that you should time-block what you actually want to do earlier in the day, so you have a default action and are less likely to pick up the phone. — 00:06:53 · time-blocking
★★★ The first thing Ali does each morning is set his daily highlight, the one thing he wants to get done that day, and put exactly when he will do it in his calendar, so he knows what to do and is less likely to get distracted. — 00:06:53 · daily highlight, time-blocking
★★ Ali gets distracted by his phone or Netflix most easily when he has a big to-do list with no clarity about where to start. — 00:07:39 · Netflix

Threads in this video

refine · How do you improve your focus? — Ali's first, counterintuitive tip against distraction is to embrace welcome distractions. (00:00:41)
refine · How do you avoid regrets in life? — Ali weighs focus against friends and family by asking whether on his deathbed he will wish he had worked harder and been more focused, or had spent more time distracted by friends and family. (00:02:02)
restate · Should productivity be about efficiency or about enjoying the work? — Ali's second tip against distraction is to optimise for enjoyment: we almost never get distracted while having a great time, so make the task a lot more fun. (00:02:31)
refine · Should productivity be about efficiency or about enjoying the work? — One of Ali's favourite ways to make work more fun is charting progress: like a video game's experience bar and levelling up, gamifying a task genuinely makes it more fun. (00:03:00)
refine · How do you study effectively for exams? — To chart progress when studying for an exam, Ali suggests treating revision as a points tally, a score or a traffic-light system, and points to his retrospective revision timetable video for details. (00:03:32)
milestone · Ali's first book, which a publisher asked him to write (2020) — Ali is researching how to make work more fun these days, and says it will all be in the book he is writing. (00:03:32)
restate · How do you stop your phone and social media from eating your time? — Ali's third tip against distraction is to basically throw away the phone: with notifications from apps such as Hinge or Tinder it is very hard to stay focused, even in flow. (00:03:32)
refine · How do you stop your phone and social media from eating your time? — When struggling with his phone Ali chucks it behind him onto the sofa; more often he keeps it face down on airplane mode, and in breaks takes it off airplane mode and ignores the notifications. (00:04:15)
restate · How should you set up your desk? — Ali's fourth tip against distraction is to control your environment: the more stuff on his desk, the more likely he is to get distracted, so keep a clean desk. (00:04:44)
restate · Where should you study: at home, in a library or in a coffee shop? — Ali finds going somewhere outside your own environment, such as a library, a coffee shop or a coworking space, a really good way to combat distraction, because there is no stuff all around you. (00:05:14)
restate · Should you time-block your calendar? — Ali completely agrees with Nir Eyal that you should time-block what you actually want to do earlier in the day, so you have a default action and are less likely to pick up the phone. (00:06:53)
restate · How should you plan your day? — The first thing Ali does each morning is set his daily highlight, the one thing he wants to get done that day, and put exactly when he will do it in his calendar, so he knows what to do and is less likely to get distracted. (00:06:53)
refine · Should you run your work from a to-do list? — Ali gets distracted by his phone or Netflix most easily when he has a big to-do list with no clarity about where to start. (00:07:39)
restate · How do you make the most of university? — Ali says the point of university was to pass the exams, but the bigger point was to make friends and have a nice time. (00:01:40)

Where the stories that moved here went next

Ali's first book, which a publisher asked him to write (2020) — running; last: milestone, 2021-10-20

Mentioned

Central: Indistractable

Also: People: Nir Eyal

Organizations: Brilliant · Instagram · Netflix · WeWork

Concepts: daily highlight · dopamine · gamification · spaced repetition · time-blocking

Places: Cambridge

Products: AirPods · Hinge · Tinder

Replies to

refers to · How to study for exams - The Retrospective Revision Timetable
refers to · How I Manage My Time - 10 Time Management Tips

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