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My Complete Productivity System

2022-03-25 · Tech review, setup or bag tour · Ali · recording, 20:12 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Tools, apps and tech · mode: Review and recommendation · tags: His own products discussed, His own numbers, Sponsor segment present

Ali tours his complete productivity system in six categories (coordinate, communicate, consume, capture, create and miscellaneous), naming the app he uses for each job, from Fantastical, Google Drive, Todoist and Notion to Readwise, Apple Notes and Alfred, and argues that a flexible system you use only when you need it beats a rigid one.

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 six categories of the system

  • ★★ Ali splits his complete productivity system into six categories: coordinate, communicate, consume, capture, create and other miscellaneous tools. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali says any productivity system needs three things for coordinating: a calendar for the schedule, a project management system for tasks and projects, and a file management system. — 00:00:00

00:00:17 — Coordinate: Fantastical, Google Drive, Todoist, the Part-Time Productivity Planner and Notion

  • ★★ Ali has used Fantastical for his calendar for five years: Mac only, it connects to Google, Apple and Outlook calendars, looks pretty and has natural language features for creating events. — 00:00:29

  • ★★★ Ali manages his life by the rule that if something is not on his calendar it basically does not exist, so he spends no mental strain wondering what he is doing next. — 00:00:58

    “if something is not on the calendar, it basically doesn't exist.”

  • ★★ Ali uses Google Drive for all his files and has for over ten years; though deeply in the Apple ecosystem, he hardly uses iCloud Drive. — 00:00:58 · Google Drive

  • ★★ Ali's business uses Google Workspace, which as of this video includes unlimited storage; his team has used 20.3 terabytes of Google Drive storage so far. — 00:01:27 · Google Drive
  • ★★ Ali uses Todoist for personal task management, shared with his assistant Dan; after dabbling with many to-do list apps he likes it for being simple, cheap, cross-platform and good at sharing. — 00:01:27
  • ★ Ali keeps a someday-maybe bucket list in Todoist of activities he wants to organise group trips for: rollerblading, archery, hunting, glamping, mountain biking and wakeboarding. — 00:02:10
  • ★★ On days when he does not know what he is doing or his to-do list feels overwhelming, Ali opens the Part-Time Productivity Planner from his stationery brand Essentiali and writes his one most important task, then everything else he might get to if he feels like it. — 00:02:40
  • ★★★ Ali uses his planner only on days he needs it, which is why it has no dates; refining his system over five years, he has found that a system forcing you to conform rigidly does not work for him, while flexibility lets the tools get out of his way. — 00:02:40
  • ★★ Ali's team now numbers 18 people and runs all its projects in Notion. — 00:03:09 · Notion
  • ★★ Ali promises a whole other video breaking down his team's entire Notion setup. — 00:03:09 · Notion
  • ★★ The team's content production engine in Notion tracks the videos for Ali's YouTube channel, his second channel, a third channel in the works and the Deep Dive podcast, with a personalised view for each team member. — 00:03:38 · Notion, Deep Dive, YouTube
  • ★★ Ali says the key to using Notion well is to start with a very simple system and build it up over time only if you need to. — 00:03:38 · Notion

00:04:07 — Communicate: Texts, Slack, Discord, Superhuman and Loom

  • ★★ One of Ali's new favourite tools is Texts (texts.com), a web interface that combines his WhatsApp, iMessage, Twitter DMs and Telegram in one place. — 00:04:07 · WhatsApp, Twitter
  • ★ Ali almost never reaches inbox zero on messages and has dozens, perhaps a hundred, unread messages from the last two weeks; Texts lets him bash through them on his computer when he has time. — 00:04:36
  • ★★ Ali's team uses Slack for internal communication, with channels for announcements, idea suggestions, the water cooler, the book, courses, the podcast, hiring, the leadership team and more. — 00:04:36 · Slack
  • ★★ Ali's team uses Discord as the community platform for Part-Time YouTuber Academy students and is setting up a new free Discord server open to anyone, for now called the Friend Zone after his "hey friends" greeting. — 00:05:06 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
  • ★★ Ali says he will run everyday co-working sessions on the new Friend Zone Discord, sharing his music and using the focus sessions to make progress on his book; the server is free and will always be free. — 00:05:35
  • ★★ Superhuman, the email app Ali has used since about 2018 or 2019, costs $30 a month, which he calls pretty expensive. — 00:05:35
  • ★★ Superhuman helps Ali get through large amounts of email much faster, but he says it is probably a little excessive for most people, as free email apps do exactly the same thing. (hedged) — 00:06:04
  • ★★ Ali's team uses Loom instead of meetings: rather than presenting in a Zoom meeting where everyone wastes time, a presenter records a Loom that everyone watches at 2x speed; some weeks Ali records his weekly team update on Loom, as speaking is easier than writing it out. — 00:06:33 · Zoom

00:07:00 — Consume: Castro, PDF Expert, 2x video, Kindle, Instapaper, Audible and Shortform

  • ★★★ Ali's personal definition is that productivity is about using our time intentionally and effectively, so even consuming books, podcasts or social media can be done in more and less productive ways. — 00:07:02

    “productivity is about using our time intentionally and effectively.”

  • ★★ After experimenting with many podcast apps over the years, including Airr, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Overcast, Ali has landed on Castro, which he uses every day. — 00:07:02 · Spotify

  • ★★ After trying many PDF readers, Ali finds PDF Expert the best app for reading PDFs on his Mac. — 00:07:32
  • ★★ Ali watches YouTube videos at 2x speed, sometimes faster, because YouTubers often take ages to get to the point; in Safari he uses the Video Speed Controller extension. — 00:07:32 · YouTube
  • ★★ Ali does most of his reading on Kindle, using Apple Books for PDFs or EPUBs that do not work well on Kindle; he keeps two Kindle devices, one by his bed and one in his travel bag, reads in the iPhone Kindle app in Ubers or on public transport, and uses the Mac app to blitz through a book. — 00:08:01 · Kindle, iPhone
  • ★★ Ali reads articles in Instapaper: cross-platform, it lets him save an article to a read-it-later list from any device and read it when he has a moment, on the toilet or on a bus. — 00:08:30
  • ★★ Ali discovered Audible around 2017 and listens for many hours each week, to nonfiction and a lot of fantasy fiction; Brandon Sanderson's books are a personal favourite. — 00:08:59 · Audible, Brandon Sanderson
  • ★★ For anyone who reads or listens a lot, Ali advises experimenting with a few apps for each kind of content, since an app like Castro for podcasts or Audible for audiobooks can make consuming much more effective and intentional. — 00:08:59 · Audible
  • ★★ Ali calls Shortform by far the best book-summary app he has found: after a year of Blinkist, whose summaries he found surface level, he values Shortform's in-depth summaries, a one-page overview plus detailed chapter summaries. — 00:09:42 · Shortform

00:11:03 — Capture: Readwise, Apple Notes, Airr, Day One and Strong

  • ★★ Capturing ideas matters for content creators and writers, Ali says: building your own note-taking or personal knowledge management system makes it much easier to create creative work. — 00:11:10
  • ★★ Ali's key app for automatic capture is Readwise: it syncs his highlights from Kindle, Instapaper, podcast apps and Apple Books into one database and emails him five random highlights every day. — 00:11:39 · Readwise, Kindle
  • ★★ Ali used Roam Research in the past and is still looking for his perfect note-taking app: writing his book over the last few months showed him a book needs more from a note workflow than YouTube videos, so he has mostly switched to Apple Notes for it. — 00:12:08 · Roam Research, YouTube
  • ★★ Because taking notes from audiobooks is hard, Ali's app of choice for manual capture is Apple Notes, where he keeps a book-notes folder he writes in as he listens. — 00:13:07
  • ★ Ali's recent audiobook notes include The Coaching Habit, which he calls a really good book, What Money Can't Buy, Sober Individual (as heard) and Gary Vaynerchuk's Twelve and a Half. — 00:13:07 · Gary Vaynerchuk
  • ★★ Ali used Airr, which links into Readwise to capture podcast notes automatically, for about six months a year or two ago but found it too buggy; now he notes podcasts in an Apple Notes folder, or straight into a Google Doc when they are for the book. — 00:13:36 · Readwise
  • ★★ Ali has journaled in Day One since 2016 and calls it beautifully designed, on Mac, iPad and iPhone; he journals every few days when he remembers rather than daily, which he thinks is way better than nothing. — 00:14:05 · Day One, iPhone
  • ★★ Ali tracks his gym workouts in Strong, which lets you create custom workouts and shows the weight and reps you did last time, so even when he makes his workouts up he can lift a little heavier each time, using progressive overload. — 00:14:34
  • ★★ Ali says his habit of making up his gym workouts is going to change, because he is doing a fitness journey at some point soon. — 00:14:34

00:15:19 — Create: Google Docs, Apple Notes, Keynote, photo and design apps, ScreenFlow, Descript and Final Cut Pro

  • ★★ For writing, Ali combines Google Docs for the book, Notion for videos and Apple Notes for most other notes; having dabbled with Notion, Roam, Evernote, Obsidian, RemNote and SimpleNote, he has found over time that simple is better for him. — 00:15:20 · Notion, Roam Research, Evernote
  • ★★ Ali has written the first draft of many of his book's chapters in Apple Notes, because writing there feels less high-pressure than in Notion or Google Docs. — 00:15:49 · Notion
  • ★★ For presentations Ali uses Keynote, occasionally Google Slides; for photos he manages his library in Apple Photos, tweaks photos in the more powerful Adobe Lightroom and uses Photoshop for fancier image work such as thumbnails. — 00:16:18 · Adobe Lightroom
  • ★★ Ali uses Figma for web design: he designed his personal website in it and mocks up thumbnails, logos and web designs there. — 00:16:18 · aliabdaal.com
  • ★★ For video, Ali records his screen with ScreenFlow, removes pauses with ReCut, edits podcasts in Descript as if editing a Word document, and has edited his videos in Final Cut Pro on the Mac since 2017. — 00:16:48 · Final Cut Pro

00:17:17 — Sponsor read for Skillshare and his classes there

  • ★★ Alfred, which Ali describes as Mac Spotlight search on steroids, is the first app he installs on a new Mac; he says it makes him about three times faster on a computer than clicking through Finder and folders. — 00:18:15

00:18:27 — Miscellaneous: Alfred, Rize, Moom and password managers; sign-off

  • ★★ Ali has used the automatic time tracker Rize since, he believes, November 2021: it says that last week (week of 14 March 2022) he worked 36 hours, eight on Zoom, four on documents, four in in-person meetings and three writing, which has genuinely shown him where his time goes. (hedged) — 00:18:45 · Zoom
  • ★ Ali moves windows around his screen with Moom and manages passwords with 1Password for the team, Dashlane for personal use and a little iCloud Keychain. — 00:19:14

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Asked whether he prefers a physical Kindle or an iPad mini for reading, Ali says he uses both: the Kindle usually before bed, the iPad mini when reading during the day. — creator comment · Kindle
  • ★★ Told that not even 1% of his subscribers would reach his level of success by following his advice, Ali replies that success is mostly a function of luck and privilege, so he has no doubt that is true. — creator comment
  • ★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked whether the Essentiali notebook and planner have been discontinued, the channel answers that they have. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Alfred · Apple Notes · Fantastical · Kindle · Notion · Readwise · Todoist

Also: People: Brandon Sanderson · Gary Vaynerchuk

Projects: aliabdaal.com · Deep Dive · Essentiali · Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Works: The Coaching Habit · Twelve and a Half · What Money Can't Buy

Organizations: Twitter · YouTube

Concepts: Apple ecosystem · might-do list · personal knowledge management

Products: 1Password · Adobe Lightroom · Adobe Photoshop · Airr · Apple Books · Apple Photos · Apple Podcasts · Audible · Blinkist · Castro · Dashlane · Day One · Descript · Discord · Evernote · Figma · Final Cut Pro · Gmail · Google Docs · Google Drive · Google Slides · Google Workspace · iCloud · iMessage · Instapaper · iPhone · Keynote · Loom · Moom · Obsidian · Overcast · Part-Time Productivity Planner · PDF Expert · Recut · RemNote · Rize · Roam Research · Safari · ScreenFlow · Shortform · Slack · Spotify · Spotlight · Strong · Superhuman · Telegram · Texts · Video Speed Controller · WhatsApp · Zoom

Only in the description or credits: iPad mini · Skillshare

Also centred on Alfred: Monthly Favourites #2 - Ali Abdaal · My Favourite Mac Apps - What's on my Macbook Pro · How I Manage my Time as a Doctor + YouTuber - 9 Time Management Tips · My Favourite Mac Apps · What's on my MacBook Pro? · How I Type REALLY Fast (156 Words per Minute) · My Favourite MacBook Apps of All Time

Also centred on Apple Notes: Why I Spent $28,402 on Apple Products This Year · How to Organise your Life - Building a Second Brain · How to Build Your Ultimate Productivity System

Also centred on Todoist: All the Apps I Use in a Day · How to Build Your Ultimate Productivity System

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