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Why We Should Use Our Time More Intentionally #shorts

2022-11-19 · Short · Ali · recording, 0:58 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time · mode: Personal story · tags: Lesson from a book

Ali retells his favourite lesson from Matthew Dicks's Someday Is Today: a would-be novelist who blamed a lack of time arrived seven minutes late, and in those minutes Dicks wrote nine sentences; Ali's point is the power of minutes, since life is made one minute at a time.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Matthew Dicks's nine sentences in seven minutes, from Someday Is Today

  • ★★ Ali has just read Matthew Dicks's book Someday Is Today: 22 Simple, Actionable Ways to Propel Your Creative Life, which he calls fantastic. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ In Ali's favourite story from Someday Is Today, the bestselling novelist Matthew Dicks meets a woman in a McDonald's who wants to become a novelist but has not started writing: she says the process is complicated, she needs the right equipment and has never found the time in her busy life. — 00:00:00 · McDonald's
  • ★★ The woman asks Matthew Dicks how he wrote his 10 novels while working full time as a teacher and being a parent. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Matthew Dicks answers that she arrived seven minutes late, and in those seven minutes he wrote nine sentences; the average novel has five to 10,000 sentences, so every sentence brings him closer to finishing one. — 00:00:29

  • ★★★ Matthew Dicks's story reminds Ali of the power of minutes: it is easy to squander hours, but life is made one minute at a time, and those minutes can go to intentional things that move us towards our goals. — 00:00:29

    “the power of minutes”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Matthew Dicks · Someday Is Today

Also: McDonald's

Also centred on Matthew Dicks: 7 Things I Wish I Knew About Productivity Earlier

Also centred on Someday Is Today: My Top 5 Books On Entrepreneurship 📚 #shorts · 15 Incredible Books to Read in 2026 · 7 Things I Wish I Knew About Productivity Earlier

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