YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → How to Make Productivity More Fun

How to Make Productivity More Fun — Transcript

by Ali Abdaal · 3,339 words · 459 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00the secret to sustainable productivity
0:02is to find a way to make the thing that
0:04we're trying to do a little bit more fun
0:08when you're having fun productivity
0:09takes care of itself and you don't need
0:11to worry about things like discipline
0:12and grit and willpower and motivation
0:14and all that stuff to coerce ourselves
0:15into doing the thing the problem with
0:17that philosophy is that there are some
0:18things that are just boring there are
0:19some things that are just not fun that
0:21we don't want to do that we have to do
0:22anyway but for those things there is an
0:25answer that answer is to make it fun by
0:27using an idea called gamification now
0:30the idea of gamification has been around
0:31for like a long time it's sort of been
0:33co-opted by companies like amazon and
0:35stuff using gamification to make their
0:36workers work more and more but there is
0:38a way that we can use gamification to
0:40make our own lives more fun in terms of
0:42making the boring that we have to
0:43do more enjoyable so that we are more
0:45likely to do it because we know we have
0:46to do the thing anyway and there's this
0:48really good book called actionable
0:49gamification by this chap yukai chu chow
0:52who i would like to interview on my
0:53podcast at some point he is a sort of
0:55human-centered design creative
0:57consultant type person so this is more
0:59like a textbook to help people designing
1:01things like video games help them figure
1:03out okay what are the things that make
1:04video games interesting and how do we
1:05bring more of those into products and
1:07games and experiences that we're
1:09designing but if you just read the first
1:11like i don't know
1:1210 of it you actually get some pretty
1:14solid principles that you can apply to
1:15your life to make anything you're doing
1:16a little bit more fun and that's what
1:18we're talking about in today's video and
1:19really the core thesis here is that
1:21video games have managed to find a way
1:23to make boring stuff more fun like no
1:25one ever has to play a video game people
1:27have to go to work but they get home
1:29from the end of that hard day of work
1:30and they log on to some kind of video
1:31game and they play for hours and hours
1:33often into the night time often knowing
1:34that it's a bad thing to do but there's
1:36something about video games that draws
1:37people in and makes them waste spend use
1:39enormous amounts of time and money on
1:41these video games so the question is
1:42what is it that drives motivation in
1:44video games and this guy yukai has come
1:46up with this thing called the octalysis
1:48framework which is basically a list of
1:49eight core drivers that video games tap
1:52into and if we understand what those
1:53core drivers are we can sort of reverse
1:55engineer and incorporate those
1:57strategies into any boring stuff that we
1:59have to do to make it more fun okay so
2:00the first drive is epic meaning and
2:03calling now the idea here is that if the
2:05thing that you are doing the thing that
2:06you're working on the mission that
2:07you're on the adventure that you're on
2:08feels like it's part of some wider
2:10meaning or some wider purpose that will
2:13just automatically make whatever the
2:14thing is you're doing more enjoyable and
2:16more motivating you're a wizard harry
2:19now this is actually a very big question
2:20like how do we find purpose and what we
2:21do so i'm going to come back to that and
2:22let's move on to number two and number
2:24two is called development and
2:26accomplishment now in video game context
2:27development and accomplishment is when
2:29we are leveling up and when we are
2:30getting things done when we're
2:31completing quests when we're leveling up
2:33in world of warcraft and we get a little
2:34ding and we post ding in our guild chat
2:36people oh my god congrats you've hit
2:38level 80. and there is something
2:39remarkably motivating about this idea of
2:42leveling up and so the real life version
2:44of this is that if you are doing
2:45something which is boring and you have
2:46to do it anyway one way to make it more
2:48fun is to try and incorporate this idea
2:50of accomplishment into the thing that
2:51you're doing for example authors what
2:52they often do is they track their word
2:54count they have a little progress bar at
2:55the top of their page and they're like
2:56right every day i need to bang out 2 000
2:58words or 4 000 words and then as they're
3:00typing stuff they can literally see that
3:01little progress bar filling like a
3:03leveling up bar and so if they ever need
3:05that extra motivation to do the thing
3:06they just look at the world count and
3:07they think okay cool i'm making progress
3:09it's the progress bar another way you
3:10can apply this to your own life that i
3:11found really helpful is actually just
3:12making a to-do list and ticking things
3:14off we've all had that feeling it's
3:15incredibly satisfying to go on a to-do
3:17list like type right things out and then
3:18take them off and cross them out that
3:20taps into our core drive for development
3:21and accomplishment and that makes
3:23anything boring a little bit more fun
3:24the next core driver that we have is
3:26empowerment of creativity and feedback
3:28so what's this like in video games let's
3:30take a video game like the soul series
3:31elden ring for example and people die
3:33repeatedly in those games but as you're
3:35doing the thing as you're repeatedly
3:37falling to margaret and dying 120 times
3:40put these foolish ambitions to rest
3:45you're figuring out ways that you can
3:46beat the boss you're figuring out what
3:48the strategies are you're sort of
3:49figuring out the timing of their attacks
3:50you're using your creativity and the way
3:52he defines creativity in the book it's
3:53like finding multiple ways to solve the
3:56same problem ultimately you're always
3:57trying to take down the boss but you're
3:58trying to find different ways of going
3:59about it and there's something about
4:01that even if you're just dying
4:02repeatedly and repeatedly night after
4:03night after night to that particular
4:05boss there's something incredibly
4:06motivating about finding those extra
4:08solutions to the problem and then the
4:09other way in which video games like
4:10really tap into this empowerment thing
4:12is by giving us immediate feedback
4:16and so if we want to apply this to our
4:17lives to make whatever boring stuff we
4:19have to do a little bit more fun we want
4:20to think about okay how can i be more
4:21creative with this and how can i get
4:23quicker feedback one of the real
4:24problems that causes procrastination and
4:26like leads to low motivation is the idea
4:28that generally the things we
4:29procrastinate from the things we find
4:30boring and hard and we don't want to do
4:32but we have to do what we should do are
4:33the things that have a long term payoff
4:35that don't have an immediate term reward
4:37and so that's why one strategy that you
4:38can use is to shorten the feedback loops
4:40if for example you're a student and
4:41you're trying to study for an exam but
4:42that exam is like a whole year away it's
4:44really hard to motivate yourself to do
4:46the thing whereas if for example you
4:47could test yourself every week and treat
4:49it like a video game treat it like a
4:50personal challenge that's how i approach
4:52tests and exams it's like a personal
4:53game that i'm playing with myself or i'm
4:55sort of in kind of friendly competition
4:57with my friends but like we're not
4:58taking it too seriously it's just a
4:59personal game and that means whenever
5:01i'm testing myself i'm getting that
5:02real-time feedback i'm shortening the
5:04feedback loop and then i get the sense
5:05of empowerment that as i'm doing the
5:07thing i'm improving which taps into our
5:09development and accomplishment core
5:10drive as well but it's really all about
5:11shortening the feedback loop to make
5:13almost anything that's inherently boring
5:15and feel and a little bit long-term a
5:17little bit more fun the fourth drive is
5:18called ownership and possession and this
5:20taps into a fundamental need for
5:22autonomy for ownership for a sense of
5:24control over the things that we're doing
5:26and again this is something that really
5:27video game designers take huge advantage
5:29of i clocked in for example like 190
5:31non-stop days worth of play time on
5:33world of warcraft because it was my
5:35character i could upgrade my character i
5:37could get my own gold do my own
5:39jewelcrafting and inscription and all
5:40that crap but it's like video gamers
5:42will work so much they'll put in so much
5:44time money and effort into leveling up
5:45their own characters because they feel
5:47that sense of autonomy that sense of
5:49ownership so how do we apply this to our
5:50day-to-day lives to make whatever we're
5:51doing more fun well i've kind of got
5:52three different things that i try and
5:53think about when i'm applying this to my
5:55life and that's ownership of the outcome
5:57ownership of the process and ownership
5:58of the belief all right so ownership of
6:00the outcome generally if you're having
6:02to do something that's not boring but
6:03you have to do it you might not have
6:04ownership of the actual outcome you
6:06might not be able to actually choose
6:07what you're doing you just know you have
6:09to do it but if you can choose what
6:10you're doing one way of doing that is by
6:12for example taking a little bit more
6:13responsibility it's one of those like
6:15weird counter-intuitive things that like
6:17if you're finding something boring the
6:18wrong way to approach it is by putting
6:20less effort into it the wrong way people
6:21approach boring stuff that they find
6:23hard and don't really want to do but
6:24they have to do anyway is by thinking
6:25you know what i'm just going to do the
6:26bare minimum i'm going to coast and then
6:28i'll have time in the evenings to play
6:29video games instead if you actually like
6:31weirdly if you put a little bit more
6:32effort in take a little bit more
6:33ownership a little bit more initiative a
6:35little bit more responsibility usually
6:36the thing just becomes more fun by
6:38default because autonomy is one of the
6:40core drivers of intrinsic motivation dan
6:41ping talks about this in the book drive
6:43really good book all about intrinsic
6:44motivation this is a big topic in
6:46actionable gamification as well like
6:47ownership autonomy responsibility is a
6:49core driver of why we find things
6:51enjoyable but even if you don't have
6:52ownership of the outcome you can have
6:54ownership of the process usually let's
6:55say you're at work or at school or
6:57whatever and you're told what to do
6:58you're not necessarily told how you have
7:00to do it and so you can make the how
7:01your own you can find a way again to
7:03exercise creativity which speaks to core
7:05driver number three creative expression
7:06empowerment feedback that kind of thing
7:07you can find a way to incorporate
7:08creativity and your own autonomy into
7:11the process behind the thing that you're
7:13doing for example if you're working as a
7:14junior doctor you're kind of a bit of an
7:16admin monkey you have to write these
7:17kind of summaries for patience and
7:18discharge summaries and stuff it can get
7:20kind of boring but if you make the
7:21process your own and if you figure out a
7:23way to have fun with it change up the
7:25fonts and do it in a nicer way and
7:26change up the formatting so it's a bit
7:27clearer those are all those little
7:29things that you can you can take
7:30ownership of and that makes this
7:32sometimes boring thing a lot more fun
7:34because you're taking ownership and
7:35ultimately even if you have no ownership
7:37of the outcome and you literally
7:38physically have no possibility of having
7:40ownership of the process you're in the
7:41kind of job or thing where you're told
7:43what to do and how to do it to a letter
7:45you always have ownership over the
7:47mindset the belief with which you're
7:50trying to do the thing and the way i
7:51think about it is that sort of there's
7:52two ways of looking at the things that
7:54we have to do we can think of it as have
7:56to we can think of it as get to this is
7:58from a great blog post by seth godin
7:59that i read a few years ago that i keep
8:01i keep on coming back to any time i'm
8:02doing something and i feel like the
8:03thing is boring and i feel like ah i
8:05have to do this thing i try and take a
8:06step back and go into my mind and think
8:08you know what no i don't have to do this
8:10thing i get to do this thing i am
8:12blessed to be able to do this thing to
8:14have the privilege to do this thing
8:15sometimes that's a bit of a stretch but
8:17the more i tell myself this the more my
8:19brain you know hebs law axons that fire
8:21together wire together all this stuff
8:23the more that we can tell ourselves a
8:24particular thought the more likely that
8:26thought is to become a natural extension
8:28of who we are and a natural part of how
8:29our brain works so for me now you know
8:31sometimes i think i have to film all
8:33these videos today i think no i get to
8:34film all these videos today this is
8:36really fun and there's something about
8:37that that really taps into this core
8:38drive that we have for ownership
8:39autonomy responsibility and that is a
8:41big part of what makes stuff fun in real
8:43life core driver number five which we
8:44can incorporate into whatever we're
8:45doing is called social influence and
8:47relatedness and basically what this
8:49means is that we find things more fun if
8:51people in our social group are also
8:53doing the thing and we feel like we can
8:54do it as part of a group again video
8:56games take advantage of this massively a
8:58game like world of warcraft which is
8:59stupidly popular or these big like final
9:00fantasy mmorpgs the ideas that you're
9:03doing with friends you're getting into a
9:04group there's like a social element of
9:06the game and so the way we can apply
9:07that in real life is we can find a way
9:09to bring our friends or bring people
9:11into the boring stuff that we're trying
9:12to make more fun for example with me
9:14back in the day when i was studying for
9:15medical school exams instead of trying
9:17to do it on my own i would just get some
9:18friends and we'd all go to the same
9:20library and we'd all be working on
9:21different subjects but we'd all be doing
9:22the pomodoro technique together where
9:24we'll work for 25 minutes then we take a
9:26five minute break then we do another 25
9:27minutes and five minute break and we
9:29repeat the process and there was just
9:30something magical about the fact that we
9:32were doing it as a group that made this
9:34boring thing potentially boring thing
9:35are you studying for exams a lot more
9:37fun purely by the addition of other
9:39people into the thing if you can't work
9:40with people in real life there are
9:41websites like focusmate where you can
9:43literally have a zoom co-working
9:44accountability buddy there's things like
9:46writer's hour which is this completely
9:48free zoom co-working session that the
9:49london writer salon runs four times a
9:51day for different time zones and the
9:53idea behind that is that you get on the
9:54same zoom call with about 300 people and
9:56you're all doing some writing you're
9:57working on your own thing but you're
9:58doing it with other people and that just
10:00makes it way more fun so those were the
10:02white hat kind of the nice ways of
10:04gamification the other three are the
10:05black hat ways of gamification these are
10:08you know we can incorporate them into
10:09our lives to make our lives a little bit
10:10more like a game-like but i wouldn't say
10:12it makes necessarily makes our lives
10:13more fun so i'm just gonna blitz through
10:14these so core driver number six is
10:16scarcity it's the feeling of wanting
10:18something that we don't have and again
10:19video games take advantage of this
10:20there's this ah that piece of gear that
10:22you really want but you can't have it
10:24until you do all this stuff and so you
10:26spend ages and ages doing all this stuff
10:27just so you can get this thing which has
10:29no intrinsic value but which has value
10:31to you because of the scarcity then
10:32there's unpredictability and curiosity
10:34which is core driver number seven which
10:36is the kind of the sense that we get
10:37from like oh i'm not sure what's going
10:38to happen next this is the system that
10:40slot machines and gambling like gambling
10:42places what are they called casinos
10:44really exploit because the
10:45unpredictability of the reward is what
10:47really fires that dopamine release and
10:48then the final core driver core driver
10:50number eight is loss and avoidance it's
10:51like we fight really hard to avoid
10:53losing something and so often in video
10:55games video games really exploit the
10:56sense of fear of missing out uh i have
10:58to log in every day to complete my daily
11:00quests because if i don't i will miss
11:02out on those points that i could have
11:03gotten and it's got a cap on it and
11:04therefore it's like you know the loss
11:06and avoidance and our intrinsic desire
11:08to not lose the things that we have or
11:10not miss out on things keeps us logging
11:12into these video games time and time
11:13again these final three i mean there's
11:14different ways of incorporating them
11:15into a life one way that you can use if
11:17you really want to is for example by
11:19putting money on the line if you know
11:21you really want to do something but
11:22you're not able to do it you're finding
11:24yourself procrastinating you could just
11:26give a significant amount of money to a
11:28friend and say hey i want you to keep
11:29this money and you only give it back to
11:31me once i've done the thing that's a
11:33very easy way to for example fake
11:35motivate yourself into doing the thing
11:37that you want to do because you're
11:38trying to avoid that sense of losing
11:40money but again i don't really like it i
11:42don't think it's a particularly
11:42sustainable strategy i prefer the first
11:44five kind of these more white hat
11:46strategies that we can apply to anything
11:47we're doing in life to make it a little
11:48bit more fun now the thing i talked
11:50about the core driver number one this
11:51idea of grand meaning and vision purpose
11:53in life that is the ultimate driver of
11:55what drives intrinsic motivation a sense
11:57of purpose but it can be genuinely quite
11:59hard to actually figure out what our own
12:01sense of purpose is and generally this
12:03is a really hard thing to figure out but
12:04there are three techniques in particular
12:06that i've come across over the last few
12:07years that i found super helpful in
12:09actually trying to figure out what the
12:10hell do i actually want to do with my
12:12life what is this grand purpose or
12:13vision and stuff and all of that is in
12:15this video over here so if you haven't
12:16seen that recommend watching it thank
12:17you so much for watching and see you
12:18there bye

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of How to Make Productivity More Fun by Ali Abdaal, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 3,339 words across 459 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.