How to Stop Wasting Your Life. Avoid These 5 Things
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How to guarantee you regret your life:https : //dai.ly/x93180y
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My honest advice to someone who feels behind in life : https://dai.ly/x931a78
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If I Wanted to Be a Millionaire Before 30, I'd Do This : https://dai.ly/x931gzm
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How to Go From $0 to $10,000 a Month in 4 Steps : https://dai.ly/x931kb6
How to Make $10,000 Month Writing Online : https://dai.ly/x931l42
How to 10x Your Income The 4 Ladders of Wealth : https://dai.ly/x931ldm
Why You Feel Lost in Life by Ali Abdaal : https://dai.ly/x933252
How to Figure Out What You Really Want in Life : https://dai.ly/x933hm8
How to Change your Life in a Year - 3 Simple Ideas : https://dai.ly/x933u78
dailymotion.com/arshian
How to guarantee you regret your life:https : //dai.ly/x93180y
My honest advice to a perfectionist:https : //dai.ly/x9319i4
My honest advice to someone who’s doing too much : https://dai.ly/x9319ty
My honest advice to someone who feels behind in life : https://dai.ly/x931a78
My honest advice to someone who wants financial freedom : https://dai.ly/x931ex2
If I Wanted to Be a Millionaire Before 30, I'd Do This : https://dai.ly/x931gzm
The Best Book I've Ever Read about Making Money : https://dai.ly/x931j9y
How to Go From $0 to $10,000 a Month in 4 Steps : https://dai.ly/x931kb6
How to Make $10,000 Month Writing Online : https://dai.ly/x931l42
How to 10x Your Income The 4 Ladders of Wealth : https://dai.ly/x931ldm
Why You Feel Lost in Life by Ali Abdaal : https://dai.ly/x933252
How to Figure Out What You Really Want in Life : https://dai.ly/x933hm8
How to Change your Life in a Year - 3 Simple Ideas : https://dai.ly/x933u78
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LearningTranscript
00:00Hey friends, welcome back to the channel.
00:01If you're new here, my name is Ali.
00:02I'm a doctor turned entrepreneur
00:04and the author of this book,
00:05Feel Good Productivity,
00:06which is about how to do more of what matters to you.
00:08And this is the second video in our three part series
00:11about how to manage your time outside of your nine to five.
00:14Now in episode one of the series,
00:16we talked about the five mindset shifts
00:18that really help when it comes to time management.
00:19But in this video,
00:20we're gonna be talking about
00:21the five biggest drains in time.
00:24If you can eliminate these five things from your life,
00:26or at least reduce the amount of hold they have over you,
00:29I promise it will free up hours and hours
00:30of your time every week.
00:32And then you'll be able to use that time
00:33on whatever is most meaningful to you.
00:35While working full time as a doctor,
00:36I built my YouTube channel to over a million subscribers.
00:38I ended up building a business
00:39to like a million dollars in revenue.
00:41I was able to get financial freedom.
00:42I wrote a book while trying to run a business on the side.
00:44And so really for me,
00:45getting good at the skill of time management
00:46is a hugely important part of living a meaningful
00:49and happy and fulfilling life.
00:50Alrighty, time drain number one is social media.
00:54This is an absolute classic.
00:56We all waste tons and tons of time on random scrolling
00:59and random watching of YouTube videos
01:01without any real purpose behind it.
01:03Now, if your social media use is intentional,
01:07then great, you're living your best life.
01:08But with most of us,
01:10and certainly for me back in the day,
01:11and still a little bit to this day,
01:13our social media usage is not that intentional.
01:15The whole point of these social media companies,
01:17like the reason they pay hundreds,
01:19if not thousands of engineers
01:20to like work on these social media apps
01:22is so that they can hijack our attention.
01:24And so they can get us on this hamster wheel,
01:26slot machine, dopamine thing
01:28of just feeling as if we have to constantly check TikTok
01:31or Instagram or Twitter or whatever the thing is.
01:33And because all of these platforms are now algorithmic
01:35rather than chronological,
01:36you will never be up to date.
01:37You will never catch up with the newsfeed
01:39because there's always more
01:40that these algorithms are feeding us.
01:41Now there's a bunch of different practical strategies
01:43that we can use to stop the scrolling hijack.
01:45The first one is,
01:46back when I was trying to break my social media addiction,
01:48I installed a free app called OneSec.
01:51And basically that artificially added a loading screen
01:53to all of my social media apps.
01:55So I'd open Twitter and then it would be like,
01:57nope, you gotta wait five seconds.
01:59And do you still wanna open Twitter?
02:01And it would give me a link to Kindle and Audible,
02:03which were the apps that I selected as like,
02:05I wanted to give me these apps
02:07which are generally more intentional.
02:09And that really helped break the cycle of scrolling
02:11because when it takes five fricking seconds to open Twitter,
02:14you then realize, oh, hang on, in that time,
02:16do I actually want to open Twitter or not?
02:18And then most of the time I would choose not to open Twitter.
02:20The other thing I personally found super helpful
02:22is to just remove all social media apps
02:24from any of my iPhone home screens.
02:26So in order for me to now open Instagram,
02:27I have to swipe down, physically type in Instagram,
02:30and then click on the thing,
02:31which is just a level of friction
02:32where my fingers haven't yet developed the muscle memory
02:34to like do the thing.
02:35Whereas, you know, back when it was on my home screen,
02:38it would just be swipe, swipe, swipe, Instagram,
02:39cool, done, and before I knew it,
02:41I'm scrolling the newsfeed,
02:42even though I never intended to.
02:43Screen time limits on phones are another really good one.
02:45There's also a really good app called Opal
02:47that a few friends of mine have found real value in
02:49where it physically stops you from accessing those apps.
02:52People sometimes log out of the apps,
02:53they uninstall the apps.
02:54Also, this might be a bit of a hot take,
02:56but genuinely, I think the social media companies
02:58have ran a massive psyop that has convinced us
03:01that we need to scroll social media in order to relax.
03:04I've heard so many people say this,
03:06like, oh, you know, scrolling TikTok
03:08for two hours before bed really helped me relax.
03:10Really?
03:11I'm pretty sure.
03:12I've never seen any study that confirms
03:14that TikTok is anything other than a stimulant
03:16and like reduces the quality of your sleep.
03:18Humanity did not evolve to be constantly scrolling
03:21and getting that dopamine hit as a form of relaxation.
03:23Sure, I appreciate that we all need ways to relax,
03:26but generally there are ways to relax
03:28that are actually relaxing
03:29rather than scrolling social media apps.
03:31What I would recommend you do,
03:32like with all of the tips,
03:33like with anything on my channel really,
03:35is consider these experiments
03:36that you might wanna try in your own life.
03:38Try the experiment of deleting all the apps from your phone.
03:40Try the experiment of installing OneSec.
03:42If you try these experiments out,
03:43you'll find that some of them will work for you,
03:44some of them might not,
03:45but you're sort of treating yourself like a system
03:47to see like, what are the inputs and tweaks I can make
03:49to the system that will stop me as a robot
03:52from actually habitually checking TikTok
03:54and just randomly scrolling and wasting all my time.
03:56Now, if you're looking for something to do
03:57with all of this free time that you've gained
03:59from hopefully applying some of the concepts
04:01in this video series,
04:01then you might like to check out Brilliant,
04:03who are very kindly sponsoring this video.
04:04Brilliant is the absolute best way to learn maths,
04:07computer science, and data science
04:08in a really engaging and fun and interactive way.
04:10I've been using Brilliant for the last four years
04:12and they've been a big supporter of this channel.
04:14And Brilliant are amazing
04:14because they've got literally thousands of lessons
04:16all the way from basic to advanced topics in these areas
04:19and every single month they add new lessons as well.
04:21Recently, they've added a new course
04:22all about how large language models work,
04:24which has been super interesting for me
04:25to understand a little bit more of the ins and outs
04:28of how chat GPT operates.
04:29Now, my personal favourite courses on Brilliant
04:31are actually the computer science ones
04:32because as you may know, I went to medical school,
04:35but before applying,
04:36I was sort of torn between medicine and computer science
04:38and I went for medicine in the end, which I don't regret,
04:40but there was always part of me
04:41that sort of really wanted to explore more
04:43about the world of computer science.
04:45But since graduating,
04:45I've been able to do that thanks to Brilliant.
04:47They also have a really good course
04:49called Thinking in Code,
04:50which sort of teaches you how to problem solve
04:52in a way that like a coder or a developer would.
04:55And it kind of relates to some of the stuff
04:57we're talking about in this series
04:58around treating yourself like a system.
04:59By thinking in code,
05:00you can actually get a lot better
05:01at your own time management and procrastination as well.
05:04Brilliant customises their content paths
05:05to suit whatever skill level you're at.
05:07So you'll definitely find something for you,
05:08whether you're a complete beginner
05:09or you're a professional quantum computing programmer.
05:12If any of this sounds up your street,
05:13then head over to brilliant.org forward slash Alimdahl
05:16and that will give you a 30 day free trial.
05:18And if you're one of the first 200 people to hit that link,
05:20which is also in the video description,
05:21then you will get 20% off the annual premium subscription.
05:24So thank you so much Brilliant for sponsoring this video
05:26and let's get back to it.
05:27Time drain number two is the news.
05:30Because if it's something that's really big
05:31that's happening in the world,
05:33then chances are you'll just end up
05:34being at least vaguely informed about it.
05:36But for most things,
05:36the news cycle is designed for entertainment
05:38and for clicks and for views and eyeballs,
05:40rather than for actually informing us about current events.
05:44You know, it's important to be a civic citizen.
05:45It's important to be informed
05:46about what's going on in the world.
05:48But again, like with all things,
05:49reading the news should be intentional
05:50rather than reactionary or default.
05:53So an intentional way of reading the news is,
05:55sometimes I will think, you know what,
05:56I feel like reading the news right now
05:57and I'll open up The Economist and read the world in brief.
06:00Or I'm thinking, hey,
06:01there is this big thing happening in the world right now.
06:03I really wanna find out more about this specific thing.
06:05Then I will do a session where I go out
06:07and actively seek more information about the thing.
06:10What I stopped doing, what I used to do back in the day,
06:11which would waste so much time,
06:12is habitually checking the news every day.
06:15Oh, by the way, quick thing.
06:16Outside of the field of time management,
06:18one major thing that a lot of people
06:19seem to struggle with is focus.
06:20Like actually doing the thing without getting distracted,
06:23which is why I've created
06:24a completely free seven-day focus course.
06:26And you can find that at focuscrashcourse.com.
06:29It is completely free and it's seven days of emails
06:31where every day I'll send you an email
06:32with some principles, strategies, and tools
06:34that you can use to improve your ability to focus,
06:36which pairs nicely with all this time management stuff
06:38we're talking about as well.
06:40All right, time drain number three is TV.
06:42Again, this one is gonna be a controversial take.
06:44For the record, nothing in this video
06:46is meant to be construed as life advice.
06:47I'm not telling you what to do.
06:48I'm not telling you how to live your life.
06:50You can do whatever the hell you want,
06:52but I'm just sharing what are some things
06:53that I've found helpful for me,
06:54because people will often ask me,
06:56hey Ali, how did you have the time to build a business
06:58and become financially free and make all this money
07:00and stuff while you had a full-time job?
07:02And people don't like it when I tell them,
07:04you know what, I cut out TV from my life.
07:06Since my first year of medical school,
07:08I set a rule for myself and I've still stuck with that rule,
07:12which is that I am not allowed to watch TV on my own.
07:15When I was in high school,
07:16I used to watch a lot of TV on my own.
07:17I would watch like three hours of TV
07:18every single frickin' day,
07:19and it amazes me how much of my time I squandered
07:22when I was younger.
07:23But since university started and I realized,
07:24actually, I wanted to juggle loads of things.
07:26I wanted to socialize, I wanted to see friends,
07:28wanted to try new hobbies and sports,
07:29also build a business on the side,
07:31which was later a YouTube channel,
07:32while getting through med school
07:33and doing reasonably well in the exams.
07:35And then when I started working as a doctor,
07:37I realized watching TV on my own
07:40is just a total time drain and a total time sink,
07:42and there was no reason to do it.
07:43In my first year of uni, I decided to do an experiment
07:45where I wouldn't watch TV on my own.
07:47And I made it a point to check in with myself
07:49every few months to see to what extent
07:51do I miss the time spent watching TV?
07:54And I realized I didn't miss it at all.
07:55I realized that instead of using that time watching TV,
07:57I could use that time to try and learn Japanese
08:00or to try and work on some websites
08:01or to try and spend more time with my friends,
08:02or even just to study a bit more efficiently
08:05by doing flashcards throughout the year.
08:07I used to watch Game of Thrones.
08:08All right, today is Game of Thrones finale day.
08:10We've got the setup.
08:11But I would organize Game of Thrones social nights
08:13in my room every week when Game of Thrones was happening.
08:16It would be a big social event.
08:17It would be super fun.
08:17That was like the one TV show
08:19that I watched like in the last 10 years.
08:20But just not watching TV on my own
08:22has been the single rule that has freed up
08:23by far the most time of anything else I've done in my life.
08:26And if you're potentially interested
08:27in freeing up your time to be able to do more
08:29of the things that really matter to you,
08:30it's something you might consider trying as an experiment.
08:34All right, drain number four is chores.
08:36This one is gonna get even more spicy.
08:38The way I think about chores is that
08:39there are all these things that we have to do
08:41in order to maintain our life.
08:42Like cooking and cleaning and laundry and admin
08:45and returning parcels and things like that.
08:48If you enjoy doing those things
08:49and for you spending that time cleaning or cooking
08:51or doing the laundry or whatever is intentional
08:53and effective and enjoyable,
08:55then great, keep on doing those things.
08:57For me, I don't enjoy doing any of those things.
08:59And I recognized at a certain point
09:01that most of these were chores
09:02that could be either deleted or automated or delegated.
09:06Now, this was a lot harder for me to do
09:08when I was a student and I wasn't making any money at all.
09:11But when I started working as a doctor
09:11and suddenly unlocked the ability to do locum shifts,
09:14which are extra shifts, I was like, huh, okay.
09:16So my hourly rate is now 40 pounds an hour.
09:19I could always do an extra hour of work
09:21and make 40 pounds an hour.
09:22Cool, I don't really enjoy cleaning.
09:24Cleaning takes two hours a week.
09:26Could I hire a cleaner?
09:27I realized, yeah, I could hire a cleaner
09:28who would rock up every two weeks,
09:30would clean for two hours.
09:31That cleaner would charge I think 30 pounds
09:33for the two hours every other week.
09:35I was like, damn.
09:35So I'm able to spend 60 pounds a month
09:37and my house is just clean by default.
09:39And I don't need to think about it.
09:40Whoa, that's cool.
09:42I've traded an hour and a half of my own time
09:44doing work, which I enjoyed,
09:45for four hours of not having to clean
09:48where someone else is doing that work,
09:50where they're much better at it than me.
09:51And also I'm contributing to the economy and stuff.
09:54So in that context,
09:55I decided that it was time to outsource cleaning.
09:57If your hourly rate is zero, for example,
09:59then it's very hard for you to delegate particular chores.
10:01And I think this is just a really important point.
10:02Like money and time are actually interchangeable
10:05and we can actually use money to buy back time.
10:08And when I discovered this,
10:09it just blew my fricking mind
10:11because now time management doesn't just become about
10:13how can I be more disciplined
10:14or how can I time block more stuff in my calendar?
10:16It also becomes how can I strategically
10:18and intentionally deploy my resources,
10:20which I now have because I have a job with income coming in
10:24to buy back my time.
10:25It's like I'm trading a less valuable resource,
10:28money for a more valuable resource, time,
10:30because as we talked about,
10:31we can never get back the time that we've used,
10:33but we can always make more money further down the line.
10:35But the other way of thinking about this
10:36is how much is that extra time worth to you?
10:39What could you do with that extra two hours?
10:40How much is it worth to you
10:41to be able to spend those two hours with your kids?
10:43How much is it worth for you
10:44to be able to spend those two hours
10:45going for a walk in nature or reading a book instead
10:48or making progress on one of your hobbies
10:49rather than cleaning the house if you don't enjoy it?
10:51I'm saying, try it as an experiment.
10:53Try hiring a cleaner once or twice, see how it feels.
10:56If it works for you, amazing.
10:57If it doesn't, hey, it's just an experiment.
10:58At least you've gotten data out of it.
11:00And finally, time drain number five
11:02is squandering the spare minutes.
11:05Now this is something that Matthew Dix talks about
11:07in an amazing way in the book,
11:08Someday is Today, which is an amazing read
11:09when it comes to mastering time management and stuff.
11:12But basically the idea here is that
11:14we all tend to squander the minutes.
11:16Let's say you've got like, I don't know,
11:1817 minutes before your next call
11:20or before you have to leave the house
11:21to meet up with friends or your next like gym session
11:23or whatever the thing is.
11:24It's easy to default to thinking,
11:26oh, it's 17 minutes like, you know,
11:28I can't really get anything done in 17 minutes.
11:30And this is probably the thing
11:31that I struggle with most today still,
11:33even though I'm, you know,
11:34I would say I'm pretty good at managing my time
11:35because I've eliminated all these other time drains,
11:37but it's like, you know, I'll just randomly be like,
11:39oh, okay, 17 minutes, cool.
11:41I guess I'll just watch a YouTube video.
11:42I guess I'll go on Amazon.
11:43I guess I'll think, you know, I'll go on WhatsApp
11:45and be like, oh my God,
11:46I have all these things to reply to.
11:47I will sort of be in this limbo mode
11:49of sort of doing nothing until it's time to do something.
11:53And what I'm really trying to get better at
11:55when it comes to time management
11:56is recognizing that really every minute counts.
11:5917 minutes is quite a lot of time
12:01to make progress on like a thing
12:03that's actually meaningful to me.
12:04And the key is to just be intentional
12:06with how we're using those little bits of time.
12:09Now, I did a great job of this back when I had a nine to five
12:12when I would have 17 minutes in between patients
12:14or waiting for a blood result or a scan to come back.
12:17That means I can log onto Notion.
12:18I can like type up some stuff.
12:20I can go on my iPad.
12:21I can plan my next YouTube video while I'm at work
12:24because I realized the value of those 17 minutes.
12:26But since leaving my nine to five,
12:28now I devalue those 17 minutes.
12:31And I think valuing the minutes
12:33is something that can add an enormous amount of capacity
12:36for you to do more of the things
12:37that are intentional to you.
12:38Now, crucially, you might be thinking,
12:39well, what if I just wanna use those 17 minutes to relax?
12:42And I would say, amazing,
12:43I'm all for using those 17 minutes or whatever it is
12:45to intentionally relax and not just sort of like
12:48scattergun, let me just sort of do,
12:50potter around and just waste my time doing random stuff.
12:52So I hope you found something from this video
12:53that's at least useful,
12:54at least one experiment that you could potentially try
12:57in your life and see if it works for you.
12:58And if you enjoyed this video,
12:59then over here is part three,
13:01where we're gonna be talking about the five key skills
13:03that you need to master to get better
13:05at managing your time.
13:05So that'll be in that video over here.
13:07Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you there.