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A Day in My Life as a YouTuber

2022-11-01 · Vlog or day in the life · Ali · recording, 9:21 · watch on YouTube

Topic: YouTube, writing online and creators (also: Relationships and personal life, Health, sleep and habits) · mode: Demonstration and walkthrough · tags: His own products discussed, Feel-Good Productivity thesis, Family, Sponsor segment present

Ali vlogs the day of a London event for 100 Part-Time YouTuber Academy alumni in October 2022, from morning pages and team set-up to his talk on purpose as a feel-good factor (asking whether a video will help at least one person ends his overthinking), a YouTube quiz, pizza at home with his housemates and his night routine.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — A lazy morning, morning pages, breakfast with friends and setting up the academy event in Shoreditch

  • ★★★ In October 2022 Ali's team holds an event in London for 100 alumni of the Part-Time YouTuber Academy, where he gives a talk on staying consistent with a side hustle like YouTube while enjoying the journey. — 00:00:00 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy, London
  • ★ Ali normally wakes up at 7 a.m.; on the day of the alumni event he wakes at 8.30 after a comedy gig the night before. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali spends half an hour writing morning pages, three pages of whatever you want, ideally by hand, which he calls a great technique for boosting creativity and, apparently, reducing stress. (hedged) — 00:00:29

00:02:01 — Ali's keynote: doing YouTube part-time while having fun, and purpose as the final feel-good factor

  • ★★ Ali welcomes the alumni to what he thinks is the third in-person event his team has held for Part-Time YouTuber Academy alumni. (hedged) — 00:02:01 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
  • ★★★ In his talk to the alumni Ali names purpose as the final feel-good factor after power, play and people: it feels really good when what we do has a wider purpose bigger than us. — 00:02:28 · feel-good productivity (concept), play, power, people
  • ★★ Ali says purpose as a feel-good factor is not woo-woo: there is loads of evidence that purpose drives intrinsic motivation and relates to self-determination theory. — 00:03:07 · identified motivation
  • ★★ Of the feel-good factors, purpose and play are the ones Ali uses most often for his YouTube work. (hedged) — 00:03:31 · play, power, people
  • ★★ After five years of YouTube, which makes large amounts of money and brings sponsor deadlines, Ali finds it too easy to make a video because it will make money. — 00:03:31
  • ★★★ Whenever Ali thinks of the selfish gain he will get from making a video, making it no longer feels good and starts to feel like a chore. — 00:03:59

  • ★★★ When Ali stops thinking about the numbers on the screen and asks whether a video will be helpful to at least one person in the world, all his overthinking goes away. — 00:03:59

    “Is this video at least helpful to at least one person in the world?”

  • ★★ Imagining one person coming up to him one day to say they liked his video on a topic makes Ali want to make that video and feel good making it. — 00:04:31

00:05:03 — Breakout rooms, the YouTube quiz, pizza and mingling with alumni, and packing up

  • ★ At the alumni event Ali's team runs a YouTube quiz: a picture round asking guests to name ten YouTubers, the highest-earning ones, then a general-knowledge round. — 00:05:03
  • ★★ Ali has seen many people blow up through YouTube Shorts, and the more the Shorts platform evolves, the easier it makes converting a Shorts viewer into a long-form viewer. — 00:05:52

00:06:46 — Home with his housemates and more pizza

  • ★★ Ali lives with his brother Taimur and his sister-in-law Lucia as housemates. — 00:06:46 · Taimur Abdaal
  • ★ Ordering more pizza for dinner, Ali jokes that he is well on his way to becoming a Gymshark athlete. (playful) — 00:06:46 · Gymshark

00:07:15 — Night-time routine: skincare, retainers and finasteride

  • ★★ Ali's night-time routine is brushing his teeth, washing his face with CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser, moisturising with CeraVe PM Moisturizer, a Dermatica retinoid, then his retainers. — 00:07:15
  • ★★ Ali says he has taken finasteride every day since 2019 for his hair loss and that it has made a big difference. — 00:07:15

00:07:38 — Heights supplement sponsor read

00:08:39 — Mouth tape and Kindle in bed, and sign-off

  • ★★ Ali has taped his mouth shut at night for over a year to encourage nasal rather than mouth breathing, and reads on his Kindle in bed until his eyes start to close. — 00:08:39 · Kindle

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: feel-good productivity (concept) · Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Also: People: Angus · Gordon · Jahanzaib · Lucia (family, mentioned from 2022) · Taimur Abdaal · Tommy

Organizations: CeraVe · Dermatica · Gymshark · Heights

Concepts: identified motivation · morning pages · mouth taping · play, power, people · self-determination theory

Places: London

Products: Finasteride · Kindle · YouTube Shorts

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