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6 Habits to Make 2026 Your Best Year Yet — Transcript

by Ali Abdaal · 5,781 words · 788 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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  1. 0:00in this video we are discussing six key
  2. 0:02productivity habits now if you
  3. 0:03incorporate any of these and ideally
  4. 0:05multiple of these into your life it
  5. 0:07basically guarantees that your next year
  6. 0:09is going to be your best year ever hey
  7. 0:11friends welcome back to the channel if
  8. 0:12you're new here my name is Ali I'm a
  9. 0:13dror turn entrepreneur and the author of
  10. 0:15The New York Times bestseller Feelgood
  11. 0:17productivity which is about how to be
  12. 0:18more productive in a way that actually
  13. 0:19feels good and for the last 7 years on
  14. 0:21this channel I have been documenting my
  15. 0:22journey from broke medical student to
  16. 0:24working full-time as a doctor to now
  17. 0:25running a seven figure business where I
  18. 0:27live a life that I absolutely love and
  19. 0:28my goal on this channel really is to
  20. 0:30share everything that I've learned and
  21. 0:31everything I'm continuing to learn along
  22. 0:33this journey of personal growth and
  23. 0:35development in the hope that you find
  24. 0:37some value from it and you can maybe
  25. 0:38work towards what I like to call the
  26. 0:39five FS of fun fulfillment flexibility
  27. 0:42freedom and finance so let's get into
  28. 0:45it all righty so habit number one that I
  29. 0:47have gotten a lot of value out of is
  30. 0:50kind of ignoring the notion of annual
  31. 0:52goals and I always feel super excited
  32. 0:54when I set annual goals at the start of
  33. 0:55the year but there is an alternative
  34. 0:57method for goal setting that I've been
  35. 1:00been using on and off over the years
  36. 1:01partly in personal life partly in
  37. 1:03business life and when I think back to
  38. 1:04the goals that I've actually
  39. 1:05accomplished like the things that the
  40. 1:06meaningful things that I've done they've
  41. 1:08always been with this second method of
  42. 1:09goal setting rather than through annual
  43. 1:11goals and this second method of goal
  44. 1:13setting is what I refer to as quarterly
  45. 1:15quests and the idea behind this is that
  46. 1:18instead of thinking about setting goals
  47. 1:19for the year you actually focus on
  48. 1:21setting goals for the next quarter I.E
  49. 1:23the next 90 days now this is a concept
  50. 1:25that the authors of the book The 12we
  51. 1:27Year talk about it's also um a concept
  52. 1:30in business worlds like the book get
  53. 1:32scalable by Ryan Dice and the book
  54. 1:33traction by junor Wickman there's a lot
  55. 1:36of goal setting methodologies that are
  56. 1:38focused on this sort of 90-day cycle and
  57. 1:40so the whole idea behind setting
  58. 1:41quarterly quests is that when it comes
  59. 1:42to 90 days or 3 months or 12 weeks or
  60. 1:44how however you want to split it you're
  61. 1:46able to visualize that like on a single
  62. 1:47piece of paper you could write down the
  63. 1:49next 12 weeks but if you're trying to do
  64. 1:50annual goals it's like you know in my
  65. 1:53case I I'll set an annual goal in
  66. 1:54January and by by the time February or
  67. 1:57March rolls around either I've made
  68. 1:58progress towards it in and I've gotten
  69. 2:00new data in which case maybe the goal
  70. 2:02has changed or I haven't made progress
  71. 2:03towards it and I'm like ah it's an
  72. 2:04annual goal I've got the whole year left
  73. 2:06and then you know six months8 months
  74. 2:08goes by and I never make any progress on
  75. 2:09it at all the idea behind quarterly
  76. 2:11quests is that every 90 days at the
  77. 2:12start of the quarter or at any point
  78. 2:14whenever you happen to be watching this
  79. 2:15video or whenever you happen to
  80. 2:16incorporate this habit into your life
  81. 2:18you focus on what are the three or four
  82. 2:21big things that I want to get done in
  83. 2:23the next 90 days this is quarterly
  84. 2:25quests every single quarter I host a
  85. 2:28completely free alignment Workshop where
  86. 2:30we get together on a zoom call and set
  87. 2:31these quarterly quests so if you are
  88. 2:33subscribed to my newsletter you will
  89. 2:35hear about these I've been running them
  90. 2:36for the last year and people get a lot
  91. 2:38of value from them usually we have a few
  92. 2:39thousand people attending and we do that
  93. 2:42setting the quarterly quests together so
  94. 2:43you're very welcome to join if you would
  95. 2:44like to but of course this is also
  96. 2:46something that you can do yourself more
  97. 2:47than about three or four quarterly
  98. 2:49quests means it's just too much too much
  99. 2:51stuff to be going on and generally I
  100. 2:53like to separate mine into two
  101. 2:55categories work and life and so I'll be
  102. 2:57thinking okay what are my quarterly
  103. 2:58Quests for work and what are my
  104. 2:59quarterly quests Quests for life
  105. 3:00sometimes there are certain projects
  106. 3:01that are going to take longer than 90
  107. 3:03days to get done the idea behind those
  108. 3:05is that you would turn them into 90-day
  109. 3:07projects so for example when I was
  110. 3:08writing my book Feelgood productivity
  111. 3:11which is available everywhere books are
  112. 3:12sold and also an audible where I narrate
  113. 3:14the Audi book so you can check it out if
  114. 3:15you haven't yet when I was writing
  115. 3:16Feelgood productivity I found that
  116. 3:17working in 90-day chunks was pretty
  117. 3:20effective because obviously writing a
  118. 3:21whole book is like a three-year process
  119. 3:23but if you break it down into the
  120. 3:24quarters it's like the quarterly Quest
  121. 3:25would be completing the first draft or
  122. 3:27completing the first draft of the first
  123. 3:29three or whatever and so if you want to
  124. 3:31make this year the best year of your
  125. 3:33life where you are doing the things that
  126. 3:34are meaningful to you and ideally
  127. 3:36enjoying the journey along the way then
  128. 3:37I'd really recommend thinking in 90-day
  129. 3:39chunks when it comes to your goals
  130. 3:41rather than in annual chunks but then
  131. 3:42there's a problem right because the
  132. 3:43problem is even if you do set these
  133. 3:45quarterly quests these 90-day goals
  134. 3:47there is a danger that they go the same
  135. 3:49way that New Year's resolutions do I.E
  136. 3:50you set them at the start of the quarter
  137. 3:52and then you completely forget about
  138. 3:53them and that is where our next habit
  139. 3:55comes in so habit number two is an
  140. 3:57absolute classic in the world of
  141. 3:59productivity it is the single habit that
  142. 4:01almost every productivity Enthusiast
  143. 4:03swears by it was popularized in 2001 by
  144. 4:06productivity Guru David Allen in his
  145. 4:08seminal work getting things done the art
  146. 4:09of stress-free productivity and that
  147. 4:11habit is drum roll please the weekly
  148. 4:14review I like to think of it as a weekly
  149. 4:16reset uh the idea is that once a week
  150. 4:19you are spending like 20 minutes
  151. 4:21reviewing how your previous week has
  152. 4:22gone and setting priorities for the next
  153. 4:25week this is a really simple thing to do
  154. 4:27it does not have to be an elaborate 8
  155. 4:29hour hour routine just like 10 15 20
  156. 4:32minutes reviewing how your last week has
  157. 4:34gone and actually asking yourself okay
  158. 4:35what are my key priorities for the week
  159. 4:37ahead will do absolute wonders for your
  160. 4:39productivity and will really help you
  161. 4:41make meaningful progress towards the
  162. 4:42things that matter most to you can I
  163. 4:44request a cup of tea please yeah yes
  164. 4:46nice thanks yes ni that's the wife the
  165. 4:49wife was actually sitting in the corner
  166. 4:51over here on her laptop motivating me to
  167. 4:52film because I was feeling like H I
  168. 4:54don't want to film this video anyway as
  169. 4:55part of the weekly reset it's generally
  170. 4:57good practice to look at your calendar
  171. 4:58for the previous week
  172. 5:00and to celebrate some wins to give
  173. 5:01yourself a pat on the back for the stuff
  174. 5:03that you did well it is also a very good
  175. 5:05idea at that point and one of the key
  176. 5:07things that we have within our weekly
  177. 5:08reset template is you ask yourself the
  178. 5:10question what were my quarterly quests
  179. 5:12and how are they going and this is a
  180. 5:14weekly checkpoint where you remind
  181. 5:15yourself oh yeah what were my quarterly
  182. 5:17quests sometimes I skip my weekly reset
  183. 5:20for like I don't know a week or two in a
  184. 5:21row because like life got in the way or
  185. 5:22I forgot or like you know the calendar
  186. 5:24event clashed with the productivity lab
  187. 5:25workshop and so I didn't attend the
  188. 5:26weekly reset and then it comes to week
  189. 5:28three and I look at my template and it's
  190. 5:29like what were our quarterly quests
  191. 5:31again and how are they going and I'm
  192. 5:32like hm it's a good question I've
  193. 5:34actually forgotten what goals I set for
  194. 5:35myself 3 weeks ago what my quarterly
  195. 5:37quests were and then I look at my little
  196. 5:39quarterly quests I have that in a
  197. 5:40goalkeeper document which I name my
  198. 5:42goalkeeper document CU it's just kind of
  199. 5:43fun again all this stuff is stuff we do
  200. 5:44in this free quarterly alignment
  201. 5:45Workshop so if you attend one of those
  202. 5:47you'll see you'll see the whole process
  203. 5:48in action but then I'll look at that
  204. 5:49list I'll be like oh yeah I I totally
  205. 5:51was going to do that thing which I
  206. 5:52completely forgot about and then it
  207. 5:53comes back on track so the idea behind
  208. 5:55the weekly reset is that it is a
  209. 5:56checkpoint to be able to refer to your
  210. 5:58quarterly quests and see how are they
  211. 6:00going and then based on how your quot
  212. 6:02quests are going or anything else that's
  213. 6:03happening in life you define what are
  214. 6:05your top one two and three priorities
  215. 6:08for the week ahead if this is a habit
  216. 6:10that you haven't yet incorporated into
  217. 6:11your life then I can handon heart
  218. 6:12guarantee that if you do it will change
  219. 6:14the game for you and help you make the
  220. 6:15next year the best year of your life oh
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  262. 7:23let's say you've set those top three
  263. 7:25priorities for the week what if you just
  264. 7:27forget about them and that is where our
  265. 7:28next habit comes
  266. 7:30in and habit number three is another
  267. 7:33absolute Staple in the world of
  268. 7:34productivity that I hope you're doing
  269. 7:35already but if you're not that's okay
  270. 7:37that's why we're here watching this
  271. 7:38video it's a very very easy Habit to
  272. 7:40incorporate into your routine it doesn't
  273. 7:42normally take more than about one or two
  274. 7:44minutes and micro habit number three
  275. 7:45that you can incorporate from right now
  276. 7:47is what I call the morning Manifesto
  277. 7:49what is the morning Manifesto the
  278. 7:50morning Manifesto is basically a
  279. 7:522-minute journaling prompt first thing
  280. 7:54in the morning before you sit down to
  281. 7:56work that asks you a few basic questions
  282. 7:58basic question number one is what were
  283. 8:01our top three priorities for the week
  284. 8:03and how are they going so you see the
  285. 8:04thing like with the weekly reset we
  286. 8:05asked what were our top three quarterly
  287. 8:07quests and how they're going reminding
  288. 8:08ourselves about that thing that we
  289. 8:09decided to do a quarter ago but then
  290. 8:11every single day every single work day
  291. 8:13we're asking ourselves what were my top
  292. 8:15three priorities for the week and how
  293. 8:17are they going now this is a reminder
  294. 8:18every day it's a checkpoint of like a if
  295. 8:20you haven't done your weekly reset for
  296. 8:21the week you think about it and I I have
  297. 8:23this a lot when I when I skip my weekly
  298. 8:24resets cuz it was bad but when I skip my
  299. 8:26weekly resets I'll get to the morning
  300. 8:28Manifesto It'll ask me what are my top
  301. 8:30three priorities for the week I'll be
  302. 8:31like oh well I didn't do my weekly
  303. 8:33reset this week so I haven't actually
  304. 8:34set those and then I'll think about it
  305. 8:35and I'll Define my top three priorities
  306. 8:37for the week and that is really really
  307. 8:38helpful because when it comes to
  308. 8:39productivity a big mistake that we all
  309. 8:41make is that we think it is about
  310. 8:43efficiency it's about trying to do
  311. 8:45things a little bit more efficiently or
  312. 8:46a little bit faster or whatever but that
  313. 8:49is not where the needle is moved the
  314. 8:51needle is moved in the choice of what
  315. 8:53you are actually working on it's in the
  316. 8:55choice of what direction you're going
  317. 8:56rather than in how fast you're getting
  318. 8:57there and that's why we all have this
  319. 8:59problem where you can you can feel as if
  320. 9:01you're being very efficient but like
  321. 9:02you're not actually making meaningful
  322. 9:04progress towards the things that matter
  323. 9:05most to you if your goal is like mine
  324. 9:07was when I had a day job to build some
  325. 9:08sort of business that makes enough money
  326. 9:10for you to be able to go part-time in
  327. 9:11your job or to build a business that
  328. 9:12gives you Financial Freedom and you have
  329. 9:14a day job and you're on the grind in the
  330. 9:15hamster wheel of the day job you can be
  331. 9:17really efficient in your day job but
  332. 9:18you're not actually making any progress
  333. 9:20towards that dream over there that
  334. 9:21really matters to you you're just
  335. 9:23focused on being efficient or being
  336. 9:24productive in your day job and that is
  337. 9:26why when we do these things like
  338. 9:26quarterly quests and we do the weekly
  339. 9:28reset and we think about priorities a
  340. 9:30lot of it is around what do I actually
  341. 9:32want to work towards cuz I imagine if
  342. 9:34you're watching this channel you're
  343. 9:35probably reasonably competent you're
  344. 9:36probably very good-look maybe you've got
  345. 9:38a job you're probably reasonably okay at
  346. 9:40getting things done and the problem that
  347. 9:42you might have is that you're just not
  348. 9:44working on the right things if for
  349. 9:45example when I had a day job I did not
  350. 9:47set myself the goal of like building
  351. 9:49this business on the side building the
  352. 9:50YouTube channel on the side I mean I was
  353. 9:52I was a pretty reasonable doctor I was
  354. 9:53pretty efficient pretty productive I got
  355. 9:54I got decent grades in school I quite
  356. 9:56enjoyed medicine I would have just
  357. 9:57continued on that hamster wheel and this
  358. 9:58thing of this build building this
  359. 10:00business on the side would have always
  360. 10:01been a pipe dream that is the importance
  361. 10:03of goal selection rather than just goal
  362. 10:05efficiency oh hello do you want to say
  363. 10:07do you want to do you want to say hi
  364. 10:08thank you so much
  365. 10:10hi how's it going it's very good good
  366. 10:12luck
  367. 10:14thanks oh she's so nice so coming back
  368. 10:17to our morning Manifesto we are asking
  369. 10:18ourselves what were our weekly
  370. 10:20priorities again and how are they going
  371. 10:22again just reminding ourselves that oh
  372. 10:23yeah we did decide what we wanted to do
  373. 10:25and are we actually doing the thing that
  374. 10:26we said we were going to do again bit of
  375. 10:28a tangent but a huge part of making the
  376. 10:31next year the best year of your life is
  377. 10:32simply in doing the things that you say
  378. 10:35you're going to do if you actually did
  379. 10:37if you think about this right now if
  380. 10:39every single day you actually made an
  381. 10:40intention of what you wanted to do and
  382. 10:42you actually did it man doing that for
  383. 10:44365 days your life would be completely
  384. 10:47transformed you would be unrecognizable
  385. 10:48a year from now if every day you set an
  386. 10:51intention and you actually followed
  387. 10:52through on that intention the point
  388. 10:54behind the morning Manifesto It's not
  389. 10:55going to help you follow through on the
  390. 10:57intention but it helps you do that first
  391. 10:58step of setting that intention in the
  392. 11:00first place without that intention we
  393. 11:03just get into work we get into following
  394. 11:04what's on the calendar we get into the
  395. 11:05things we should do we get into whatever
  396. 11:07the algorithm is feeding us when we're
  397. 11:08scrolling Tik Tok and Instagram it
  398. 11:09becomes an unintentional unexamined life
  399. 11:11where you're doing a lot of stuff but
  400. 11:13you're not making progress towards what
  401. 11:14really matters to you that is the point
  402. 11:16of a lot of these habits it's the point
  403. 11:17of the morning Manifesto It's a point of
  404. 11:19having that two-minute check-in in the
  405. 11:20morning where you're like okay what what
  406. 11:22actually were my priorities and like
  407. 11:24what do I actually want to work on today
  408. 11:25I don't recommend having it as an
  409. 11:27elaborate sort of series of prompts
  410. 11:28because the big the longer it takes to
  411. 11:30do the less likely you are to do it at
  412. 11:32least in my case and I suspect in your
  413. 11:33case as well that's why for me the bare
  414. 11:35minimum is what were my weekly
  415. 11:36priorities and how are they going and
  416. 11:38then secondly what is the most important
  417. 11:40thing I want to get done today I phrase
  418. 11:42this as what is today's adventure going
  419. 11:43to be because by phrasing it as an
  420. 11:44adventure it feels good the whole stuff
  421. 11:46around Feelgood productivity is if you
  422. 11:48can scop yourself into treating your
  423. 11:51work in the spirit of play not being too
  424. 11:53serious about it being more sincere
  425. 11:55about it thinking of it as a quest that
  426. 11:57you're on hence why the phrase quarterly
  427. 11:58quests it's a bit more fun a bit more
  428. 12:00nice and viby than projects or like okrs
  429. 12:03or like objectives or I like quests
  430. 12:05because it feels good daily Adventures
  431. 12:06what is today's adventure going to be
  432. 12:08and if for the next 365 days each
  433. 12:10morning you were to actually ask
  434. 12:12yourself what is today's adventure going
  435. 12:14to be what is my most important task and
  436. 12:15then you just stick it in your calendar
  437. 12:17assuming you actually do the thing even
  438. 12:18if you don't do the thing most of the
  439. 12:19time but you do the thing some of the
  440. 12:20time you're still going to be completely
  441. 12:22unrecognizable a year from now all
  442. 12:24righty so at this point we have done a
  443. 12:25lot of like intention setting now it
  444. 12:27comes to actually doing the stuff and
  445. 12:28that is where habit number four comes in
  446. 12:31okay so for habit number four I want to
  447. 12:32tell you a little bit of a story of a
  448. 12:34time when I struggled with this which
  449. 12:36was I think about two years ago when I
  450. 12:38was on the first draft of trying to
  451. 12:40write my book before it came out and
  452. 12:42there was lots of stuff going on lots of
  453. 12:44stuff going on in the business and I
  454. 12:45knew that the most important thing I
  455. 12:46needed to work on and my quarterly Quest
  456. 12:48and all that stuff was writing my book
  457. 12:50making progress on my book because I
  458. 12:51knew that was like an important but not
  459. 12:53urgent project that I really needed to
  460. 12:54move forward and I was chatting to my
  461. 12:56CEO coach and I was like oh man you know
  462. 12:58I'm just not I haven't got the time I'm
  463. 13:00not making the time like I'm not like
  464. 13:02doing the thing and it was like okay
  465. 13:03Step One is do I have time on my
  466. 13:05calendar blocked out every single day
  467. 13:07where I'm working on the book and
  468. 13:08initially the answer was no and then I
  469. 13:09was like okay cool I'll block out that
  470. 13:10time but even when I was blocking out
  471. 13:12the time and my intention each morning
  472. 13:13was like okay I'm going to work on the
  473. 13:15book I would end up like screwing around
  474. 13:17I would end up being like okay I'm
  475. 13:18looking at the blank page uh can't be
  476. 13:20bothered I was like oh I'll make a cup
  477. 13:21of tea then I'll make a cup of coffee
  478. 13:23then I'll go to the bathroom because
  479. 13:24obviously you know coffee is a bit of a
  480. 13:25laxative and so I would need to do a
  481. 13:27whatever in the bathroom then I'll come
  482. 13:28back make another coffee look in the
  483. 13:29fridge and before I know it like so much
  484. 13:32time would have passed then I go on
  485. 13:33slack reply to team messages some team
  486. 13:34members might be around so I chat to
  487. 13:36them and then I go for a walk and then
  488. 13:37before I knew it I wasn't making any
  489. 13:39progress on the book at all so the thing
  490. 13:40that he encouraged me to do was to make
  491. 13:41a Google sheet where every day I would
  492. 13:43just track how many minutes I spent
  493. 13:45working on the book in fully focused
  494. 13:47time and then I just wrote that number
  495. 13:48on the spreadsheet and the fact that I
  496. 13:50now wrote this number on the spreadsheet
  497. 13:52every day gave me profound insight into
  498. 13:54how unproductive I was being as it
  499. 13:56related to writing my book and just the
  500. 13:57fact that I was now aware of what that
  501. 13:59number was meant that number went up and
  502. 14:01I was able to bang out the first draft
  503. 14:02of my book and it ended up being pretty
  504. 14:04reasonable once all the edits and stuff
  505. 14:06happened along the way that's it when I
  506. 14:07was working on the book I just logged
  507. 14:08how many minutes at a time I was
  508. 14:10focusing on the book for this was
  509. 14:11transformational and has resulted in
  510. 14:13what I now call the focus log which is a
  511. 14:16key habit this is habit number four it's
  512. 14:17an absolute key habit that I teach to
  513. 14:19all my students in my productivity lab
  514. 14:20and in my course life operating system
  515. 14:22and anytime I do talks and stuff when
  516. 14:23people you know every everyone struggles
  517. 14:24to focus right and have you have you
  518. 14:26going any tips for Focus the single
  519. 14:27biggest hack that I don't hear enough
  520. 14:29people talking about is creating a focus
  521. 14:31log if you're interested in specific
  522. 14:33tips on how to make your own Focus log I
  523. 14:34have a whole three-part series on how to
  524. 14:35focus better that will be linked
  525. 14:37somewhere down below there's various
  526. 14:38ways of doing it you can use like manual
  527. 14:39time tracking automatic automatic time
  528. 14:41tracking Google Sheets pen and paper it
  529. 14:43really doesn't matter the point is if
  530. 14:45you actually just give yourself
  531. 14:46visibility on how many minutes you are
  532. 14:48focusing on the thing that's most
  533. 14:50important to you or on whatever is most
  534. 14:52important to you that will profoundly
  535. 14:54influence your ability to actually do
  536. 14:55the
  537. 14:56thing all righty habit number five is
  538. 14:58unrelated to work this is more about the
  539. 15:00social relationship side of things and
  540. 15:02this is the standing order social event
  541. 15:05I've been doing a lot of research into
  542. 15:06what makes people feel lonely especially
  543. 15:08in middle age and stuff and generally
  544. 15:10once you get Beyond University like life
  545. 15:12becomes a lot less social than it once
  546. 15:13was but one of the key strategies that
  547. 15:15I've a read about be spoken to VAR
  548. 15:16social friends of mine who will do this
  549. 15:18and see implemented into my own life in
  550. 15:20particular back when I was living in
  551. 15:21London I had this down to a tea now that
  552. 15:23I moved to Hong Kong I still haven't yet
  553. 15:25set this up but it's a key thing on the
  554. 15:27list for basically as soon as possible
  555. 15:29is standing order social events a
  556. 15:31standing order social event is something
  557. 15:33where once a week or every other week in
  558. 15:35your calendar you have a social event
  559. 15:37that's just stuck in the calendar that
  560. 15:39happens at the same time in the same
  561. 15:41place every single time without fail it
  562. 15:43could be something like a Sunday brunch
  563. 15:45that is what I was doing weekly back
  564. 15:46when I lived in London it could be a
  565. 15:47Tuesday evening inviting people over for
  566. 15:50board games or a Thursday evening
  567. 15:51inviting people over for dinner and the
  568. 15:53idea is that you invite a bunch of
  569. 15:54people and whoever can make it rocks up
  570. 15:56and whoever can't make it you know they
  571. 15:58don't make it but the point is that it
  572. 16:00happens on a weekly or bi-weekly Cadence
  573. 16:02and this is just an absolutely fantastic
  574. 16:03way of staying in touch with people of
  575. 16:05making friends of retaining friendships
  576. 16:07without having to do all of the Annoying
  577. 16:09back and forth that once once you're out
  578. 16:11of University starts to happen where you
  579. 16:12have having to coordinate a dozen
  580. 16:14different people's calendars in my own
  581. 16:15life I have two standing order social
  582. 16:17events right now which is two date
  583. 16:18nights every week with my wife and a big
  584. 16:20part of why I think our relationship is
  585. 16:22very strong is because we do these two
  586. 16:23date nights a week they are in the
  587. 16:25calendar there is a calendar invite you
  588. 16:27know if something comes up we move moove
  589. 16:29them rather than delete them and it
  590. 16:30ensures that there are at least two
  591. 16:31nights a week where it's sort of like
  592. 16:33we're you know quality time with one
  593. 16:34another rather than all of the other
  594. 16:36things getting in the way one thing I'm
  595. 16:37going to incorporate into my own life in
  596. 16:38Hong Kong here as well is doing like a
  597. 16:40weekly or every other week kind of
  598. 16:42people come over for dinner type
  599. 16:43situation if you have these sorts of
  600. 16:45social rituals in your life already like
  601. 16:46you go to church on a Sunday or you go
  602. 16:48to the mosque on a Friday and then you
  603. 16:50you know grab fried chicken with the
  604. 16:51boys afterwards you know whatever
  605. 16:53whatever the situation might be these
  606. 16:54sorts of regular social events seem to
  607. 16:56be what drive a lot of kind of relation
  608. 16:59ship satisfaction and relationship
  609. 17:00Health in the important relationships
  610. 17:02and friendships in your life and then
  611. 17:04finally habit number six to help make
  612. 17:06this the best year ever is what I like
  613. 17:08to refer to as multimodality
  614. 17:10multitasking this is a bit of a mouthful
  615. 17:12I'm sure there's a sexier way of like
  616. 17:13describing this thing but basically one
  617. 17:15question I get a lot when I do talks and
  618. 17:17things is usually from people with jobs
  619. 17:19like you've got a 9 to5 or maybe like a
  620. 17:219 to9 or whatever the job is and you
  621. 17:23want to build the business or do the
  622. 17:25side hustle thing outside of the day job
  623. 17:27but obviously you've got to job right so
  624. 17:29it's like when you've take into account
  625. 17:30the time you're at the job commuting to
  626. 17:32the job commuting from the job trying to
  627. 17:33eat food General Life maintenance
  628. 17:35especially if you have a family
  629. 17:36especially if you have kids my goodness
  630. 17:37there are very few hours in the week
  631. 17:39left to be able to pursue your dream and
  632. 17:41then you're like well am I just sort of
  633. 17:42stuck in this grind of the day job where
  634. 17:45I live to work and stuff or can I can I
  635. 17:48magically find time can I become more
  636. 17:50productive or more efficient so that I
  637. 17:52can find this magical time and be able
  638. 17:54to use that magical time on things
  639. 17:57related to building my dream whatever
  640. 17:58the dream dream is for some people it's
  641. 18:00business for some people it's a YouTube
  642. 18:01channel for some people it's writing a
  643. 18:02book for some people it's doing their
  644. 18:03art on the side whatever the dream might
  645. 18:05be you need time is the key currency
  646. 18:07well time energy and focus but like time
  647. 18:09is the first one time time is a key
  648. 18:11currency that you need to be able to
  649. 18:12make progress on your dream so how do
  650. 18:13you create more time well we all have
  651. 18:15the same 168 hours in the week if you
  652. 18:17have a job a huge chunk of them are
  653. 18:19already taken up with the job if you
  654. 18:20have a family if you have
  655. 18:21responsibilities a huge chunk of those
  656. 18:22are already taken up but a key thing
  657. 18:26that really really helped me when I was
  658. 18:27building my business when I was building
  659. 18:28my dream was multimodality multitasking
  660. 18:31what this basically means is doing two
  661. 18:33things at once uh doing two things at
  662. 18:35once creates time what you don't want to
  663. 18:38do is try and focus on two things at
  664. 18:40once like if you're doing focused work
  665. 18:42it has to be on just one thing there's
  666. 18:44all sorts of research about the idea of
  667. 18:45attention residue about the idea about
  668. 18:47if you're trying to I don't know work on
  669. 18:49your book while also answering emails
  670. 18:51that's not going to work because that's
  671. 18:52the same modality you're trying to do
  672. 18:54the same thing whereas multimodality
  673. 18:56multitasking would be for example
  674. 18:58listening to an audiobook while doing
  675. 19:00the laundry it's like two different
  676. 19:01modalities you're doing the multitasking
  677. 19:03it's fine or listening to a podcast or
  678. 19:05audiobook while you're on your commute
  679. 19:06to work now you can get a lot of the
  680. 19:08benefits of the knowledge that you're
  681. 19:09acquiring from whatever your dream is in
  682. 19:11my case it was listening to business
  683. 19:12books and business podcasts you can do
  684. 19:14that while doing other things you don't
  685. 19:16want to do that while spending time with
  686. 19:17your family because you want to be
  687. 19:18present with that you don't want to try
  688. 19:20and do that while focusing on your work
  689. 19:21but if you're doing stuff like driving
  690. 19:22or like walking or like doing the
  691. 19:23laundry or like doing the dishes
  692. 19:25whatever the situation might be you
  693. 19:27could always be listening to something
  694. 19:29while that is happening I'm not saying
  695. 19:30you have to do this I don't want the
  696. 19:31antitoxic productivity people to come
  697. 19:34after me because oh my God he's
  698. 19:35promoting toxic I'm not promoting toxic
  699. 19:37productivity here what I'm saying is
  700. 19:38that if you have a dream and you're
  701. 19:39finding yourself without the time to
  702. 19:41focus on building that dream you could
  703. 19:43actually create more time by doing
  704. 19:45multitasking in this sort of way the way
  705. 19:47that I do this now is that my team and I
  706. 19:48have created an app called voice pal
  707. 19:50which is a ghost writer in your pocket
  708. 19:52basically I'll go for a walk and then
  709. 19:54I'll hit record on the app with my
  710. 19:56airpods in and I will just speak things
  711. 19:57out loud uh I'll sort of this is how I
  712. 19:59plan my videos for example I'll think
  713. 20:01okay cool I'm doing a video about six
  714. 20:03habits to make next year the best year
  715. 20:04of your life what are the sorts of
  716. 20:05things I want to say in that video and I
  717. 20:07will just be sort of walking around in
  718. 20:08like the local area or whatever actually
  719. 20:10this morning while I was planning this
  720. 20:11video I went to do the groceries cuz my
  721. 20:13wife wanted some like organic carrots
  722. 20:15and milk and stuff and she wanted to
  723. 20:16make a spaghetti bolet so I had to do
  724. 20:17the groceries but on the way to the
  725. 20:19grocery store I had my airpods in and
  726. 20:21while I was around the grocery store I
  727. 20:23was just speaking out loud it doesn't
  728. 20:24look weird because people just think
  729. 20:26you're on your phone or you like
  730. 20:27speaking to someone but I was planning
  731. 20:28this video while I was doing this trip
  732. 20:30to the grocery store cuz the idea is
  733. 20:31that you speak into the app the app then
  734. 20:33asks sensible follow-up questions and
  735. 20:35then it turns whatever You' said into a
  736. 20:36first draft that sounds exactly like you
  737. 20:38now based on these videos I don't really
  738. 20:39read from a script I mostly riff but the
  739. 20:41fact that I was able to talk through the
  740. 20:42talking points for this video and then
  741. 20:44use voice pal to turn it into a rough
  742. 20:45outline that's an example of
  743. 20:47multimodality multitasking most of us
  744. 20:48have some sort of writing that we have
  745. 20:50to do in some sort of capacity anyway so
  746. 20:52like you don't have to use this app I
  747. 20:53think it's really good we built it for
  748. 20:55exactly this purpose so you should check
  749. 20:56it out link down below it's available on
  750. 20:57Android and iOS if you don't want to use
  751. 20:59the app fine use whatever other software
  752. 21:01you want to use that can convert you
  753. 21:02speaking into a transcript and then you
  754. 21:05take the transcript you stick it into
  755. 21:06chat gbt and then you edit it on
  756. 21:08whatever editing software you want to
  757. 21:09use like notion or Google Docs Microsoft
  758. 21:11Word God forbid but now with the advance
  759. 21:12of AI tools if you are strapped for time
  760. 21:14and the thing that you need to do to
  761. 21:16build your dream or your work involves
  762. 21:17writing in some capacity which almost
  763. 21:20everything does because lots of ideas
  764. 21:21are Downstream of writing it makes so
  765. 21:23much sense to be able to use the power
  766. 21:24of your voice while you're doing other
  767. 21:26things to be able to do that work
  768. 21:28alongside again for the record I'm not
  769. 21:30saying that when you are spending time
  770. 21:31with your kids you actually have your
  771. 21:32airpods in and you are sort of trying to
  772. 21:34crank out your next email newsletter
  773. 21:36that's obviously not the point point is
  774. 21:38when you're taking a trip to the grocery
  775. 21:39store that would otherwise be dead time
  776. 21:41where you're just s of listening to
  777. 21:42music or whatever you can use that time
  778. 21:43to be productive to make progress on the
  779. 21:45things you want to make progress on and
  780. 21:46if you enjoyed this video firstly thank
  781. 21:47you for watching and secondly you're
  782. 21:49going to enjoy that little playlist over
  783. 21:50here which is a couple of videos on how
  784. 21:52to focus better because that is probably
  785. 21:54knowing my audience something that you
  786. 21:56might be potentially struggling with so
  787. 21:57thank you for watching and I'll see you
  788. 21:58in that video byebye

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