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Brutally Honest Advice About Productivity in 26 Minutes — Transcript

by Ali Abdaal · 7,030 words · 1,001 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Being productive consistently over years
0:02is really really hard. You can have the
0:03absolute perfect system, the perfect
0:05app, the color-coded calendar, and at
0:06some point the whole system will break.
0:08Now, I've been obsessed with the art and
0:09science of productivity for like 15
0:11years. I've been making videos about it
0:12since 2017. I wrote a best-selling book
0:14about it. And so, in this video, I would
0:15like to give you the brutally honest
0:17version. Firstly, why you know exactly
0:18what to do and still don't do it.
0:19Secondly, why almost no one who's
0:21actually productive is particularly
0:22disciplined. And thirdly, why
0:23influencers like me are somewhat
0:25financially incentivized to make all of
0:26this productivity stuff look way more
0:28complicated than it actually is. So,
0:30Procrastination is when you know that
0:31you want to do something. You probably
0:32know that you should do the thing, but
0:34you are for some reason you are not
0:36actually doing the thing. Ultimately,
0:37procrastination isn't a time management
0:39problem. It is in fact an emotional
0:41regulation problem. We put the thing off
0:43to feel a little bit better right now,
0:44but it's our future self that pays the
0:46price. That's from the seminal 2013
0:48paper by Fuschia Sirois and Tim Pychyl,
0:50and I find that to be a very helpful
0:51reframe when we're thinking about
0:53procrastination. It's sort of like this
0:54little diagram. I call this the hump of
0:56procrastination. If you've taken
0:57chemistry or biology, you'll know that
0:58this graph represents essentially what
1:00is activation [music]
1:01energy. There is a thing that you have
1:02to do, but in order to do the thing, it
1:05feels like it takes a certain amount of
1:07additional effort,
1:09often because the thing might be boring
1:10or cuz there might be some uncomfortable
1:12emotions associated with the thing that
1:14we don't really want to experience. And
1:16so, because we don't want to put in this
1:18effort and energy into doing the thing,
1:21we end up stalled and procrastinating
1:23from the thing that we know we should
1:25do. For me, this often strikes when I'm
1:26trying to do something that feels a
1:27little bit boring. I am privileged
1:29enough that most of what I do for work
1:30is [music] very very fun. But, for
1:32example, if it comes to having to sign
1:33documents that need my signature on it
1:35for taxes, or having to review one of my
1:37team members' work where I'm like, "Ah,
1:38it's going to take a while to sit down
1:39and review it." Or even sometimes
1:40preparing a YouTube video where I'm
1:41like, "Ah, I know this is going to be
1:43quite a lot of effort." "Ah, I can't be
1:45bothered to do this right now." That's
1:46like in the work context. And then for
1:47me, in the personal life context as
1:48well, often I feel the hump of
1:49procrastination massively if I need to
1:51self-motivate myself to go to the gym.
1:53Cuz the gym feels hard, it's not that
1:54fun, and so I'm like, "Ah, can I really
1:56be bothered?" And then I find all sorts
1:57of reasons to not go to the gym, as you
1:59can probably tell. Now, in my book Feel
2:00Good Productivity, I talk about it sort
2:01of like the three core [music]
2:03uh root causes of procrastination and
2:05how you can then specifically deal with
2:07them. And so, I apply this method
2:08genuinely in my own life whenever I'm
2:10struggling and procrastinating on a
2:11particular task. So, thing number one is
2:13clarity. Do I actually have full clarity
2:16about what the task actually requires?
2:17[music] Because if you don't really know
2:18what the thing is, then there's this
2:20whole thing around like, I don't know
2:21how big a task this is going to be. It
2:22could be a 2-minute job, it could be a
2:2320-minute job. Do I really have 20
2:25minutes? Could be a 2-hour job if I have
2:26to troll through some stuff. And so,
2:27making sure you get clear on what
2:29actually is the specific next action
2:31step that you're procrastinating from,
2:32that is insanely [music] helpful. The
2:33next blocker that causes people to
2:35procrastinate is fear. Usually, there's
2:37some sort of fear-based emotion, like
2:38either the fear of boredom, or the fear
2:40of discomfort, or the fear of putting
2:41yourself out there. This is the one that
2:42often shows up for the long-term kind of
2:44things that we procrastinate from. I
2:45speak to so many people who've been
2:46procrastinating from starting their
2:48first business for like years to
2:49decades. And often, with enough gentle
2:51questioning, what comes out underneath
2:52it is that there is a fear of getting it
2:54wrong, fear of being seen as foolish by
2:56their friends and family and LinkedIn
2:57colleagues, or whatever the thing might
2:59be. And finally, we have inertia.
3:01Sometimes, even though you are very
3:03fully clear on the task, for example, I
3:04might know exactly what I need to do to
3:05fill out my tax documents, and there's
3:07no underlying emotion, I just can't be
3:09bothered. Then, it's that final piece of
3:10inertia to just sort of get over the
3:12hump. And this is where I find the
3:142-minute rule to be insanely helpful,
3:16which is where you set the timer for 2
3:17minutes and you just make a start on the
3:19thing for just 2 minutes. And then,
3:20usually, once you've gotten started,
3:21it's a lot easier to keep going. But,
3:23when you have something like this, like
3:24a three-part system for dealing with
3:25procrastination, this itself can
3:27ironically become a form of
3:28procrastination. Anytime I'm struggling
3:30with something where I know it's kind of
3:31hard, I try and see, could I come up
3:33with an amazing productivity system so
3:35that I don't even have to put any effort
3:37into doing the thing. In my business,
3:38for example, instead of sitting down and
3:40doing the hard work of trying to figure
3:42out like copywriting for a sales page,
3:44for example, I'll think, AI is great.
3:46Why don't I experiment with all of these
3:48different AI tools to see if AI I do the
3:50work for me. And then, I end up down a
3:52rabbit hole for hours and hours and days
3:53and days using these AI tools. And
3:55ultimately, if I had just sat down to do
3:57the thing raw dog typing on the keyboard
3:58myself, I actually would have gotten to
4:00a better result. And that is often what
4:02I find myself doing once I've gone
4:03through the AI rabbit hole. And so, this
4:05is something I would really keep in mind
4:06as you're trying to build your own
4:07productivity system, which is more of
4:08what we're going to talk about in this
4:09video. Make sure the creation of the
4:10productivity system itself is not then
4:12creating more work for you to do, for
4:14you to procrastinate from the thing that
4:15you actually want to do. So, that is the
4:17first little nugget that I hope you'll
4:18take away from this video, that
4:20sometimes the system can actually be the
4:22procrastination. The second one is even
4:23trickier because it's not about how
4:25you're working, it's about how much
4:26stuff you're trying to do. By the way,
4:28if you're anything like me, you might be
4:29using an iPad for a lot of your
4:30productivity stuff, like notes or to-do
4:32lists or like diagrams or sketch notes
4:34or planning out your week, whatever the
4:35thing might be. And that is where the
4:36sponsor of this video comes in, which is
4:37Paperlike. Whenever I get a new iPad,
4:39the very first thing I do on it is I put
4:41on a Paperlike screen protector that
4:42I've literally been using since 2018.
4:45Obviously, Paperlike has improved a lot
4:46since 2018, but it genuinely does make
4:48writing on an iPad feel like writing on
4:50paper. And I write on an iPad all the
4:51time. Because the problem with an iPad
4:53like bare glass is if you're using an
4:54Apple Pencil on it, the pencil sort of
4:55like slides around, and it's it's just
4:57not very pleasant to write on. But with
4:58Paperlike's nano dots technology, like
5:00genuinely, it feels like you're writing
5:02on paper when you're using the Apple
5:03Pencil. And it feels like there's a
5:04little bit of friction just like paper,
5:06and so you and your hand like gliding
5:07across it also feels as if you're
5:09writing on paper. And what's nice about
5:10the latest version of Paperlike is that
5:11back in the day, Paperlike screen
5:13protector on the iPad would make your
5:14screen a little bit like
5:16fuzzy. But the latest version of the
5:17Paperlike makes the iPad screen not have
5:19the noise that previous used to have.
5:21They also have a new butterfly
5:23application system, which is a very
5:24clever, very simple way of actually
5:25applying the Paperlike screen protector
5:27to your iPad. The system is foolproof,
5:29there's no bubbles, there's no like
5:30funky stuff or like misalignment going
5:32on. For me, I often even forget that I
5:33have the Paperlike on the iPad, I'm just
5:34so used to it now. And it makes writing
5:36on the iPad an absolute joy. So, if
5:37you're someone who takes notes on an
5:38iPad, then you should definitely check
5:40out the Paperlike screen protector. So,
5:41thank you Paperlike for sponsoring this
5:42video and being on my iPad since like
5:442018. Let's now get back to the video.
5:46Right now, we all have this enormous
5:49list of stuff to do.
5:51And I'm going to represent all of the
5:53things we have to do as these little
5:55little blobs. If you pause the video
5:56right now and you sat down and made a
5:57list of all the things you have to do,
5:58you'd probably take up like at least a
6:00few pages of stuff. Now, in a world
6:02where you are trying to focus on a
6:04million things all at once, you end up
6:06looking something like this. This is a
6:07lovely diagram from Greg McKeown's book
6:09Essentialism. Back in 1997, this is what
6:11the late Steve Jobs said at Apple's
6:13WWDC.
6:14>> When you think about focusing, right?
6:16You think, "Well, focusing is is saying
6:18yes." No.
6:20Focusing is about saying no.
6:23Focusing is about saying no.
6:25>> And really the whole idea behind focus
6:26is being able to say no to the vast
6:28majority of unimportant things so that
6:30you can say yes to the small number of
6:33things that actually move the needle.
6:34This is very difficult for a lot of us
6:35to do because we feel the FOMO. We feel
6:37the fear of missing out. We know that
6:39there's all these things that we could
6:40do and [music] our dream life our like
6:42idealized hypothetical life is one where
6:44we're doing all of these things. But
6:45what every person who's achieved outlier
6:47success in any particular area for you,
6:48whether that's wanting to be financially
6:50free or wanting a particular career or
6:52wanting a particular side hustle, if you
6:53want those sorts of things, it usually
6:54requires saying yes to a tiny number of
6:56things and saying no to pretty much
6:57everything else.
6:59And so generally when I'm thinking about
7:00building a productivity system or
7:01coaching someone on improving their
7:02productivity, the first step, again,
7:05bring bring us back to the
7:06procrastination example, involves
7:07clarity. What do you actually want? What
7:10is the vision for your life that you
7:12think you're working towards? What are
7:14your goals? What are your dreams? What
7:15are the different areas of your life
7:17that we actually want to be making
7:18progress on? And once we've defined
7:20that, it becomes a lot easier to take
7:22all of these different things that we
7:24think we need to do and run them through
7:25the filter of is this actually needle
7:28moving and helping me get to the goal
7:29that I say that I want. So all of this
7:31begs the question of like, "Okay, how do
7:32you get this clarity?" Essentially the
7:34easy answer to this is you just ask
7:36yourself a bunch of different journaling
7:37prompts. So I've made videos about this
7:39over the years, we'll link some of them
7:40down below, but I'll give you some of my
7:41favorites. Number one, if I knew I
7:43couldn't fail, what would I like to do?
7:45>> [music]
7:46>> Number two, even if I knew I would fail,
7:48what would I like to do anyway?
7:50Number three, if I had all the time and
7:52money in the world, but I had to use 40
7:54hours a week to be of service to other
7:56people in some kind of way, what would I
7:58do?
7:59Number four, if I was giving a TED Talk
8:0140 years from now,
8:02>> [music]
8:02>> and it's super inspiring, and the
8:05audience is giving it a standing
8:06ovation, what would I like to have
8:08talked about 40 years from now?
8:10Number five, what do I want people to
8:12say about me at my funeral?
8:14Number six, what do I want written about
8:16myself in my obituary, the thing that
8:17they write about you when you're dead?
8:19Number seven, if I continued on this
8:21exact path that I'm currently on, where
8:23would I end up five years from now, and
8:25is that where I want to end up?
8:28Number eight, if I took a completely
8:29different path to what I'm doing right
8:30now, where might I end up five years
8:32from now?
8:33Number nine, if I took a completely
8:35different path from where I am now, and
8:36I did not care about money, and I did
8:38not care about what other people thought
8:39of me, where might I end up? Feel free
8:41to pause and screenshot the video, and
8:42we'll also link to my completely free
8:43journaling hub, where I've got all my
8:45favorite journaling prompts that I've
8:46collected over the years. And if you
8:47would like a more paper-based version of
8:48doing this, we've actually created this
8:49completely [music] free resource.
8:50There's like 10 pages worth of
8:51journaling prompts in here, and it'll be
8:53linked down below completely for free,
8:54so you can check it out, fill it out,
8:55and I guarantee it'll give you way more
8:57clarity that will help you become more
8:58productive. This
8:59>> [music]
8:59>> takes some time to figure out, right?
9:01Like if you don't have a sense of where
9:02your life is going, then it becomes a
9:04lot harder to set goals, and to decide
9:06what areas of your life are important,
9:07and therefore it becomes a lot easier to
9:09just reactively do the small little
9:10things that are not actually moving you
9:12to [music] your goal. And so, if there's
9:13one thing you take away from this video,
9:14if you don't yet have at least a
9:16snapshot of clarity over where you think
9:18you want your life to go, I think that
9:19is very much worth doing, because it's
9:22not really about doing more stuff, it is
9:24about doing less stuff, but better.
9:26Uh which sounds a little trite, but it
9:28is it's much more about the direction
9:30that you're going, than it is about how
9:31fast you're going in that direction,
9:33right? Cuz [music] you could be moving
9:35super fast and doing all these things,
9:36but if you find that you're moving in
9:38the wrong direction towards a life that
9:39you don't actually want, what was the
9:41point of being productive? In fact, that
9:42would be one of the most unproductive
9:43things you could do. Just like be super
9:45productive, but in the wrong direction.
9:46All right, so here are three possible
9:47actions you could take as a result of
9:49watching this video if you would like
9:50more clarity about where your life is
9:51going. Number one, you could just
9:52screenshot these journaling prompts and
9:53then once you're finished with watching
9:54this video, you could just try and
9:56answer them for yourself and you can see
9:57what comes up. Number two, you could
9:58take these prompts, put them into your
10:00favorite AI and you could ask the AI to
10:01interview you to help you figure out
10:03what to do with your life based on these
10:04prompts. Or number three, we have a new
10:05productivity app called Superfocus that
10:07has like a clarity mode and so when you
10:08get started with that, it'll like
10:09literally interview you on these
10:10questions and it'll ask you to brain
10:11dump where you think you want your life
10:12to go and then it will be able to
10:14basically take this list of things that
10:15you've created and turn it into a series
10:17of goals that you can actually make
10:18progress on in the next 90 days. So,
10:20take your pick. All of these are options
10:22for you. Now, at this point, one mistake
10:23that people sometimes make is, you know
10:25how we we talked about these little
10:26tasks that kind of can derail your
10:28focus? Um goal setting can be equally a
10:32source of procrastination because if,
10:33for example, you do the clarity exercise
10:36and you realize, "Oh, wow, I've realized
10:38all of these different things I want to
10:40do." So, these are all goals or dreams.
10:43I like to think of them as dreams, uh
10:44represented by these little green
10:45squares. Again, we have the problem of
10:46focus. If you had 15 different goals
10:49that you were trying to work towards, it
10:50would be very difficult to work towards
10:51them all at the same time. You can do
10:53literally everything you want, you just
10:54can't do it all at once. And so, this is
10:56where the idea of seasonal priorities
10:58comes in. So, once you have a sense of
10:59where roughly you want your life to go
11:01and what your goals and dreams are, at
11:02that point we bring things down to what
11:04I recommend is about a 90-day chunk that
11:08we will call a season. It could be 90
11:09days, it could be 12 weeks, it could be
11:103 months, you get the idea. But the idea
11:12is that you define this next season of
11:13your life and you pick a tiny number of
11:15goals that you explicitly want to move
11:17forward over the next 90 days. For me, I
11:19find it helpful to split things up into
11:20work and life because we sleep for about
11:238 hours a day, we work for about 8 hours
11:24a day, and then we have life for about 8
11:26hours a day. And then within the context
11:27of work and life, I like to choose a
11:29single main quest. So, for work, what is
11:31the single goal that if accomplished in
11:33the next 90 days would most move me
11:35towards the life I want to live? And in
11:37life, what is the one thing that if that
11:39was the only thing I managed to do in
11:40the next 90 days would have the most
11:42impact on my life? This helps you set a
11:43main quest, and then usually I'm okay
11:45with setting two or three side quests
11:46for each area of work and life, but
11:48really the key here is prioritization.
11:50Given that we cannot do everything, it's
11:52physically impossible to do everything,
11:53we have to do what doctors do all the
11:54time, what surgeons on the battlefield
11:55do, and triage. We have to figure out
11:57like of these 15 things, what is the one
11:59most important thing to do right now?
12:01And then what are options two, three,
12:02and four that I might get to once I've
12:03completed option number one? This
12:04discipline of being able to take a long
12:06list of things and prioritize them into
12:08what are the essential few is honestly
12:10one of the biggest things that separates
12:12the people that make a lot of progress
12:13from the people that have a lot of
12:14movement but make very little progress.
12:16Once you've defined your priorities,
12:17then the next step is to put them in the
12:19calendar. I have I'm a strong believer
12:21in that if you want something to get
12:22done, it has to essentially be reflected
12:24in your calendar. If it's not in your
12:25calendar, then it's probably not going
12:27to get done. Now, there is a lovely
12:28meta-analysis by these guys Peter
12:30Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran, which is
12:32made of 94 studies with over 8,000
12:34people on what they call implementation
12:36intentions. Basically, where you decide
12:38in advance exactly when and where you'll
12:40do something. And this has a significant
12:42impact on you actually doing the thing,
12:43which is again just speaks to the power
12:45of putting it in your calendar. You can
12:46use whatever calendar app you want, you
12:47can use pen and paper. We have this
12:48built into SuperFocus, our app, where
12:50you can take your goals and you can
12:51literally drag them into the calendar
12:52and make sure you you're actually making
12:53the time for them. Now, obviously none
12:54of this stuff matters until it survives
12:56contact with your actual week and your
12:58actual life, but this is how the maths
13:00behind it works. Every week we have 168
13:02hours, right? 7 * 24. We're asleep for
13:04about 56 of those hours, and we're on
13:06the toilet for about 12 of those hours,
13:08and so you really have 100 hours to play
13:09with. Now, of those 100 hours, roughly
13:1150-ish of them we can label work, and
13:14the other 50-ish we can label life. So,
13:16each week we have 50 hours to play with
13:17for work-related things, give or take,
13:18and we have 50 hours to play with for
13:20life-related things. And the key thing
13:21is that these priorities that you've
13:22just defined are the most important
13:23things for you to work towards for your
13:25next season of life. Those have to be
13:26reflected in your weekly calendar. For
13:28example, for me, one of my priorities
13:29for this season is to, you know, regain
13:31use of my left arm because I broke my
13:32arm a few few months ago. And so, in
13:34order for that to work, I need to make
13:35sure I've got in gym sessions, physio
13:37sessions into my calendar every single
13:39week. Another priority is for me to get
13:40back into filming YouTube videos. And
13:41so, I've got to make sure we've got
13:42YouTube video filming stuff. My second
13:44priority in life is that I want to
13:45organize like a weekly boys night. And
13:46so, I've made sure that every Wednesday
13:48evening is already just blocked out in
13:49my calendar for boys night. Well,
13:51literally it's a Wednesday today and at
13:526:00 p.m. I'm going to play pickleball
13:54with the boys. Then we're going out to
13:56Flatiron Burger to have a burger. And
13:57so, it's basically you you take the
13:59goals and priorities that you've got and
14:00you make sure they're reflected in your
14:02weekly calendar. Now, assuming you've
14:03got all this stuff in your calendar, you
14:05then run into the problem that
14:07what if you have conflict? What if life
14:09gets in the way? What if something comes
14:11up that overwrites the thing that you
14:14had theoretically planned to do? And so,
14:15the way that we use the calendar is that
14:17we don't want to be wedded to 100% like
14:19every single thing in my calendar is
14:20everything every single thing that I
14:21follow. I like to aim for 70 to 80%. If
14:24I can do 80% of the things that are
14:27actually in my calendar, then I know I'm
14:29like way further ahead than I would be
14:31[music] if I just wasn't using the
14:32calendar at all. And of course,
14:33sometimes things pop up in real life,
14:34but the benefit of translating your
14:36goals into a weekly calendar is that if
14:39something is coming up every week, well,
14:40then it's a regular thing and it should
14:41be in the weekly calendar. If it's
14:43coming up ad hoc, then it's fine. You've
14:45always got next week. Now, when you
14:46start managing your time based on your
14:48goals, your priorities and what's in
14:49your calendar, you might then start to
14:50run into the problem where you've got
14:52something in your calendar and it keeps
14:54on showing up every day or every week
14:55and [music] you keep on systematically
14:57ignoring the thing. If you find yourself
14:59systematically ignoring the stuff that
15:01is in your calendar and just not doing
15:02it or something else always seems to
15:04come up and takes priority over the
15:05thing, that's totally fine. It's just a
15:07very useful data point for us to reflect
15:09and rethink. Is this thing really a
15:11priority? Because if it was a priority,
15:13you'd be doing it. And so, if you're not
15:14doing it, then
15:16clearly something is going on, right?
15:18You claim it's a priority, but you're
15:19not doing the thing. Usually this is
15:21where we go back to our thing about the
15:23procrastination. Is it clarity? Is it
15:24fear? Or is it inertia? I had this
15:26problem when I was writing my first
15:28book, Feel Good Productivity, which
15:29became a New York Times and Sunday Times
15:30best-seller, but I really struggled to
15:32write the book. I had all sorts of
15:33things going on in the business. I just
15:34quit my job as a doctor. The YouTube
15:35channel was blowing up. It was the
15:36pandemic. The team was growing. The
15:37business was growing. There was like
15:38loads of stuff happening all the time.
15:40And I would keep on saying to my writing
15:41coach that like, "Oh man, I still need
15:42to make time for writing the book. I
15:43just need to make time for writing the
15:44book." And at one point she said to me,
15:46she was like, "Ali, you keep on telling
15:47me that this book is your most important
15:49priority right now, but you haven't made
15:50any progress on it in the last month and
15:52you keep on like making excuses. So,
15:53what's going on? Do you still actually
15:55care about writing this book?"
15:57And I was like, "Damn."
15:58Uh it was very useful to be confronted
16:00with that fact because it made me
16:02realize that in that specific season,
16:05the book was not in fact the most
16:07important priority. I kept on saying it
16:08was, but the way I was behaving was that
16:11my YouTube channel was more important,
16:12the
16:13business things we were doing were more
16:14important, and book was like third or
16:15fourth on the priority list. And so,
16:17that was really helpful for me because
16:18once I was honest with myself that this
16:19is not in fact my most important
16:20priority, then I had to ask myself,
16:22"Okay, do I still want to do it?" I did
16:25still want to do it. So, then I was
16:26like, "Okay, well, the current method
16:28that I'm trying to put in of like 2
16:30hours a day into my book is just never
16:31going to work." And so, instead, I
16:32decided I was going to clear the
16:33calendar for a whole week and just do
16:35one week intensive on the book. And that
16:37was what helped me get out the first
16:38draft, which then required loads and
16:39loads and loads of refinement. Now, this
16:41brings us to third key principle of
16:43productivity. We've got clarity, we have
16:44focus, and the third one is
16:46accountability. So, with the best will
16:48in the world, you might have perfect
16:49little list of goals. You might be time
16:51blocking and then your calendar looks
16:52like a nice mosaic Tetris of like all of
16:55the things,
16:56and it works in theory, and it works for
16:58a couple of days, but then at some point
16:59you will stop doing the thing. At some
17:01point there will be deviation from the
17:03thing you say you want and what you're
17:04actually doing. And then sort of getting
17:07back on track is
17:09the challenge. Now, there's a couple of
17:11different ways of doing this. Generally,
17:12when you have someone or something that
17:13is reminding you that your actions are
17:14deviating from your stated goal, that is
17:16really helpful. Like my writing coach
17:18telling me that like, "Hey man, what's
17:19going on?" That often gives us the
17:20accountability that we need to then
17:22re-align our actions and get back on
17:23track. So, this is the other people
17:26method of accountability. Method number
17:27two for accountability is the system
17:30method of accountability. So, for
17:31example, within our app Superfocus, we
17:33literally have an accountability coach
17:34built in. It looks at your goals, it
17:35looks at how you're spending your time,
17:36and then it like literally calls you out
17:37if, for example, it sees that like, "Hey
17:39Ali, you're not doing the physio
17:41sessions that you said were super
17:42important to you." And that gives you
17:43that little nudge as well. If you don't
17:44want to use Superfocus, you can always
17:45like try and connect different apps to
17:47like ChatGPT and run like a routine
17:48overnight or something to to flag these.
17:50Like there's all sorts of ways of doing
17:51it. But, if you're trying to do
17:52accountability by yourself, which is
17:54method number three, that is where they
17:57call it discipline.
17:58Where you don't need an accountability
18:00buddy, you don't need a coach, you don't
18:02need a personal trainer, you don't need
18:03a an app uh telling you what to do.
18:05You're just somehow magically
18:06disciplined and you're able to just do
18:08the thing without thinking too hard
18:09about it. I'm not particularly
18:10disciplined. Most people I know are not
18:11particularly disciplined. Even the
18:13zillionaire entrepreneurs that I've met
18:14with are not particularly disciplined.
18:16Mostly, if you're relying on discipline,
18:18you're relying on yourself to be your
18:19own accountability buddy. It just
18:21becomes a lot easier if you have a
18:23community, ideally of people, but also
18:25of tools and systems, that can help you
18:28essentially stay aligned to the thing
18:30that you said you wanted. So, that's the
18:31thing about accountability. Now, we said
18:33right at the beginning that almost
18:34nobody I know who's productive feels
18:36like they're actually disciplined. So,
18:38here's what's going on instead. Take a
18:39look at this study, for example, from
18:40Gail Matthews at Dominican University.
18:42There was a group of students who had
18:43goals but did not write them down. And
18:45then there was another group of students
18:46that wrote their goals down, shared them
18:47with a friend, and then shared weekly
18:49progress reports with that friend. For
18:50the first group, they hit 43% of their
18:52goals, but the second group hit 76% of
18:55their goals. Now, I don't know about
18:56you, but if I could improve my odds of
18:57goal achievement by like 30% just by
19:00writing them down and having a little
19:01bit of an accountability buddy, I would
19:02probably do that. Now, this is a fun
19:04study from 2017, where they got a bunch
19:06of students and they studied them as
19:07they were trying to achieve their goals.
19:09Now, what they found was that how hard
19:10the students resisted temptation had
19:12absolutely no relationship with whether
19:14they actually hit their goals. Instead,
19:15the thing that predicted their success
19:16was actually how few temptations they
19:18actually ran into in the first place. I
19:20eat the disciplined people had mostly
19:22just arranged their lives to need a lot
19:24less discipline. Now crucially, whether
19:26you have this accountability or if
19:27you're lucky enough to have this
19:28discipline, that doesn't mean the work
19:29is going to stop feeling hard. Doing
19:31anything
19:32to achieve any kind of ambitious goals.
19:35And it doesn't even have to be in terms
19:36of money. Obviously, trying to make
19:37loads of money is an ambitious goal and
19:38it's hard. Otherwise, everyone would do
19:39it. But even trying to have a healthy
19:41body is hard, otherwise everyone would
19:43do it. Even trying to have a thriving
19:44relationship is hard, otherwise everyone
19:45would do it. Even trying to keep in
19:46touch with your friends once you've
19:47graduated university is hard because if
19:49it wasn't there wouldn't be a loneliness
19:50epidemic. All of these things are hard
19:52and so whether you have accountability
19:53or discipline,
19:54I find it enormously liberating to know
19:56that everything is hard. Alex Hormozi
19:58has a lovely phrase, "The grass is
20:00greener on the other side of the fence
20:01because it [music] is fertilized by
20:02shit." Often for me and for the students
20:04we coach in our lifestyle business
20:05academy who are like beginners trying to
20:06start their first business, at the point
20:08where something gets hard is often the
20:10time where we start looking at
20:11alternatives. We start thinking back to
20:14the list of 15 dreams that we had and we
20:15start thinking, "Man, maybe it's not the
20:17right thing to do. Maybe I should be
20:18doing something else instead." To
20:19achieve results in in anything, you kind
20:21of have to do it for a long enough time
20:23for the hockey stick to start like going
20:25in your favor. But what a lot of people
20:27do is that they quit at various
20:29different points before [music] they
20:30even start to see the results because it
20:32feels hard and they and they think it
20:34should feel easy. But like shock horror,
20:36if you speak to any of these people who
20:37are actually successful in any domain of
20:38life, very few of them say that the
20:40thing felt easy or the thing felt
20:42effortless or they didn't have to make
20:43any sacrifices at all. So almost any
20:45vehicle can take you there, it's just a
20:46matter of not quitting. So yeah, there's
20:48clarity, there's focus, there's
20:49accountability and then really like in a
20:50way the the foundation that underlies
20:52all of this is consistency. Actually
20:55just being able to decide what you want,
20:57focus on it, correct course if you're
20:58deviating from it and doing it for long
21:00enough to actually see the results. When
21:02I first started on YouTube, it took me
21:0452 videos to get 1,000 subscribers. I
21:06speak to some of our students who are
21:07like, "Ah, this YouTube thing just isn't
21:08working for me." And I'm like, "Great.
21:09How many videos have you got?" And
21:10they're like, "Four." And I'm like,
21:11"Okay, make another 50 and then we'll
21:14talk about it." Like, things just take
21:16time. Now, we've talked about a lot of
21:17systems, clarity, focus, accountability,
21:18consistency. Maybe you want to use
21:20Superfocus, maybe you don't, maybe you
21:21want to build your own system. For me,
21:22regardless of what the system looks like
21:24around it, productivity is about, are
21:26you doing the right things and are you
21:28doing those things right? And like,
21:30essentially, like, do you do you have
21:31some sense of like what direction you're
21:33going based on the whole clarity piece?
21:35And then, are you taking one small step
21:37after another to move in that direction?
21:38To me, that counts as success and
21:40whether you have a system that is based
21:42on the Google Suite or the Apple Suite
21:44or pen and paper or the bullet journal
21:46or using Superfocus or just using
21:48ChatGPT. Like, whatever your system is,
21:49as long as it's helping you figure out
21:51what you want and then actually move in
21:53that direction, I'm very agnostic about
21:55like what the productivity system might
21:56look like. Um and so, if you're feeling
21:58bad that your productivity system
21:59doesn't look like your favorite
22:00influencer's productivity system, don't
22:02worry about it cuz then I want to make a
22:03confession about how people like me are
22:05somewhat financially incentivized to
22:07make all of this stuff feel much more
22:09complicated than it actually is. You
22:10know, I'm a productivity influencer,
22:12shall we say? It literally pays for me
22:14to have to look like I have an overly
22:16elaborate productivity system because I
22:18get to make videos about it. I'm
22:20financially incentivized to try out
22:22every new app that comes out. And so, of
22:23course, I try out every new app that
22:24comes out. I'm financially incentivized
22:26to try and keep on the cutting edge of
22:27AI and try out all these different AI
22:29tools. But, for most people watching
22:30this,
22:31do you make a living out of teaching
22:33people how to be productive and out, you
22:34know, making making apps and stuff? If
22:36not, you probably don't need to try and
22:38keep on the cutting edge about like
22:39everything that's going on. And there's
22:40a nice phrase in business that applies
22:42to this that we often often say to us
22:43our students, which is, simple scales,
22:45complex fails.
22:47>> [music]
22:47>> In the context of a business, that means
22:48the simpler your business can be and the
22:50more streamlined and simple your
22:51operations can be, the easier [music] it
22:53is to scale your business. It's the same
22:54thing with your own productivity system
22:56cuz in a way, you already run a
22:57business. You happens to be the business
22:59of you. If you have a job, you're
23:00already run a business, you just happen
23:02to have one client, and that is your
23:03employer. You're already running your
23:04own business. And so, if the system
23:05underneath running your own business,
23:07i.e., your personal productivity, is
23:08super complex, it just means there is
23:10more stuff to maintain, more apps and
23:12APIs and MCP connections to keep track
23:14of, and then you make the mistake that
23:16I've made throughout my life, which is
23:17you end up with a productivity system
23:19that is so elaborate that you never end
23:21up actually doing the work. So, if you
23:22have a simple system for deciding what
23:24you want and then making sure you're
23:26doing it, and then sort of correcting
23:27course if you veer off of direction,
23:29then like the Honestly, the simpler the
23:31better. This brings us to, I think, one
23:32of the key points in this video, which
23:33is that everything you have just set up
23:35is definitely going to fall over at some
23:37point, probably in the next couple of
23:39days. In fact, there is a lovely study
23:41from Carlton University where they had
23:42119 students who were preparing for
23:44their exams. And one of the conclusions
23:45from that was that it seems that if you
23:47are able to forgive yourself for
23:49procrastinating, that actually reduces
23:51your procrastination. Whereas, if you
23:53beat yourself up for procrastinating,
23:54that actually makes procrastination
23:56worse. When it comes to productivity,
23:57the people who are the most productive
23:59are not the ones who never fail. They're
24:00the ones who get back up again when they
24:02do fail. But, it's sort of like the gym.
24:03Why am I not jacked?
24:04>> [music]
24:05>> I'm not jacked because I have periods of
24:06consistency at the gym, and then I fall
24:08off, and then I stay fallen off bloody
24:11ages, and then I have another period of
24:12consistency, and then I fall off again.
24:14Whereas, I think the reason I'm pretty
24:15productive and have a reasonable
24:16business is because even when things get
24:19derailed and I stop not doing the thing
24:21and I stop maintaining the system,
24:22there's this idea in the world of
24:23meditation that they call begin again.
24:25That whatever happened in the past, you
24:27can always simply choose to begin again.
24:29Sure, you've not maintained your
24:30productivity system, you've not used
24:31your calendar in the last couple of
24:32weeks. Who cares? Start Start again from
24:34today. Sure, you've not been you know,
24:35this is advice to myself. Yeah, you've
24:37not been to the gym in the last 2
24:38months. Who gives a
24:39Start today. Just do 10 push-ups or five
24:41push-ups or whatever the thing might be,
24:43as long as you're just able to begin
24:44again and not allow a negative streak to
24:47continue into this like doom spiral of
24:49like I suck, I'm terrible as a person,
24:51then we're good. We just keep on making
24:53progress one step at a time. Ultimately,
24:54building a productivity system and like
24:56sticking to it over the long term has
24:57completely and utterly transformed my
24:59life. The reason I got into productivity
25:01was because when I was a medical
25:02student, I realized I wanted to build a
25:04side business because I didn't want to
25:05be chained to a job that I might not
25:06enjoy. But what I ran into was the 24
25:08hours a day problem, that there are only
25:0924 hours in the day, and if I wanted to
25:11like do well at Cambridge Medical School
25:13and also have a social life, and then
25:14also try and build a side business, I
25:16needed to find ways to drastically
25:17improve my productivity so I could do
25:18[music] these kind of like three
25:20somewhat big goals all at the same time.
25:21What that required was like having a
25:23good system for goal setting, deciding
25:24what I actually wanted figuring out the
25:25most efficient way to get there. I've
25:27got videos about study techniques. This
25:28is why I got into study techniques. Made
25:30videos about it back in like 2018. I
25:31found the most efficient ways to like
25:33maximize my marks in the exam. And all
25:34this stuff wasn't for the sake of it, it
25:35was because I wanted to free up my time
25:37so that I could build my first business
25:39that would get me to financial freedom.
25:40And so sometimes I see people on the
25:41internet complaining that like, "Oh, if
25:43you're more productive, well, that just
25:44lets your employer make more money." And
25:46like sure, um that might be true for
25:48some people, but like for me, being more
25:49productive and learning how to be
25:50productive at university literally was
25:52my ticket to financial [music] freedom.
25:54I wanted to have the freedom life on my
25:55own terms. And that is like a top 0.001%
25:58outcome, and you don't get that without
26:00having a really solid way to first
26:02figure out what you want, and B, just
26:04make sure you're focusing on it. Now at
26:05this point, if you are still unsure
26:06whether your problem is the goal itself
26:07or the fact that you're not acting on
26:09it, then check out this video right over
26:10here, which is aimed at people who are
26:12ambitious but feel they might be a
26:13little bit lazy. And this involves a
26:14simple matrix to work out exactly which
26:16one of those problems you might be
26:17struggling with.

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