Productivity Lessons From Ali A.
You see the universe of productivity concepts is constantly evolving, there are so many tips, tools, and hacks that will take you to the next level.
Delve into them, find out what works for you and what doesn’t. Find those creators that you enjoy and their advice works for you. You have to work on yourself, personal development is a journey very much at the core of what we are starting off with here in this series. And one of my favorite creators out there is Ali Abdaal.
What I like most about him is that he is real about the things he talks about and never claims to be a productivity guru, actually the opposite.
Anyways, here’s some of the best lessons I gained from his content and this is just the tip of the iceberg. From time management tips to productivity systems and tools, he never fails to deliver valuable content. Not to mention, you should benchmark him as a creator even if you’re not planning to get into YouTubing.
This is the first video that impacted me called 10 Time Management Tips and these are the biggest most insightful takeaways:
- We Own All of Our Time: the myth that we don’t have time is so untrue, we are always in control of our time. And as Stephen Covey said, “Between stimulus and response is our greatest power - the freedom to choose”.
- The Daily Highlight: It’s the one thing that if accomplished will be the highlight of your day. It’s the most important thing you want to get done and can be as simple as calling your mother because that matters to you the most as a person. Imagine one important thing a day, is 365 important things a year. Write it down on top of everything else, this will help you focus on what matters the most.
- Use a To-Do List: Our brains are for having ideas, not holding them. For me, I prefer using a digital to do list like Things or Todoist. Turns out, I was always a TDL kinda guy, but going digital meant I have them in one place rather than different pages of a notebook. Not to say that analog isn’t effective, there’s definitely something about writing things down that makes them come true eventually.
- Time Blocking: Now here’s a real game changer, as simple as it is, this is one of the most effective productivity principles out there. If you have something to do, professional or personal. Block the time in your calendar, decide when do you want to do it and for how long. Planning your precious hours ahead of time will make every minute count, not just that, it will help you do the things you want to do. You want to take this to the next level? Build a default weekly calendar with all the important things blocked so that you can protect the time.
- Parkinson’s Law: the law states “work expands to fill the time that we allocate to it”. Specify the timeframe you will allocate to complete a given task, and leverage artificial deadlines. Be conscious of this, what might take half an hour can becomes three hours. Specifying the timeframe, helps us get’s the thing done in the timeframe we allocated for it.
- Protected time: Keep mornings free of obligations for the things that are 'Important', a solid 4 hours of uninterrupted time. This is by far the most important productivity tip that made a difference in my life. Add to it the philosophy that in the 1st half of your working hours you are a creator, and in the 2nd half you are a manager. Meaning, block the morning for things you need to create by yourself or with your team members. Then reserve the afternoon for managing, meetings, followups... etc. Man, my effectiveness at work sky rocketed and even my manager and team members took notice.
- The Choice to be Satisfied: Don’t beat yourself up! You can choose to be satisfied by the end of the day. And you can choose to feel good on how you’ve managed your time.
Feel free to explore his YouTube Channel. And I would highly advise you subscribe to his Sunday Snippets Newsletter through his website, he has an awesome way of sharing his journey and work.
And no I’m not marketing for the guy, just trying to highlight that there is a growing number of creators out there that will help you in your journey. Again, find them and learn from them. You don’t have to start from scratch, and you are not alone!
🎧 What I’ve Been Up To Lately
Getting into long form essays, hence why I haven’t been posting much on LinkedIn. The approach is resonating with me more and I’ve been giving my creative juices the room to breath, letting them guide me to unlocking my own path forward. Recently, I'm more focused on writing than publishing. It's definitely great to have so many ideas to write about, but I want to try to balance it with publishing so that I don't get caught up "in my own little world" like I usually do. Fingers crossed here!
📚 Additional Resources
Part-Time YouTuber Crash Course is a free 7 day course introducing the key principles he teaches in Part-Time YouTuber Academy Cohort and is full of great lessons and free templates if your considering the video production bit of becoming a creator.
Creatorpreneur Crash Course is a free 5 day email course where Ali A. shares methods for building sustainable systems, highlights principles of entrepreneurship, and how to create consistent revenue streams.
My Productivity System (2022) is one of his latest videos highlighting his productivity system and tools suite that are part his digital ecosystem. Great app insights here and the different ways to incorporate them in your life.