all right so for some reason people on
the internet seem to think that i'm some
kind of productivity guru i literally
have no idea why 157 words per minute
there we go world record because even
though i give the impression that i do
lots of things i am quite lazy and a bit
of a waste man at heart and so in this
video i'm going to take you behind the
scenes of my lazy productivity system
patent pending and this is the system
that i use to juggle all the things that
i do like being a doctor a youtuber an
entrepreneur a podcaster and a d-list
celebrity let's start with the first
component and that is l standing for
lash now uh lash
is basically how i view my calendar my
calendar is my lash it basically is the
whip the lash that tells me what i'm
doing on any given moment of any given
day honestly i think most productivity
systems in the world by effective people
just boil down to using a calendar
properly so if you're struggling with
your productivity for whatever reason
and you're not using your calendar to
organize your life you're probably doing
it wrong and if you start using a
calendar things will just go better
there's basically three main ways in
which i use a calendar that i think you
should use a calendar as well the first
one is time blocking if i have to do
something if i want to do something i
put a block in my calendar when i'm
gonna do the thing for example right now
there's a block in my calendar for
filming this video later on in the day
i'm going out to dinner with some
friends so there's a block in the
calendar for that obviously there's
blocks in the calendar for any time i
have a phone call and sometimes i even
block in relaxation time on the calendar
just to remind me to actually do it the
second way in which i use a calendar is
that i live my life based on calendar
invites if a friend is inviting me to do
something then i have to create a
calendar event for it and send them an
email invite which they're gonna accept
because ultimately if something is not
in my calendar it's just not gonna
happen and finally third main reason for
using a calendar is that you can then
set out like protected blocks of time
for deep work activities so for me every
morning between 9am and 1pm i have a
protected block of time for writing my
book and that's great because in the
morning that's when my creative juices
are flowing more regularly and if i
don't have that blocked off in my
calendar other random ass pointless
things are going to end up taking up
that time and right now for me writing
the book is the most important thing i
could be doing with my time therefore
it's protected in the mornings if you're
wondering about apps the one i prefer to
use on ios devices it's called
fantastical it's a bit expensive but
like google calendar is a very good free
alternative so if you're not using a
calendar i think that's by far the most
important part of any productivity
system and that is the lash all right
next part of the lazy productivity
system is a which stands for agenda now
this basically means a to-do list but
the way i approach to-do lists is
different to how a lot of people do it
and that's because i'm a lazy waste man
and therefore i don't really like it
when i have a list of things that i have
to do because then i feel like i'm
beholden to my to-do list and it's just
not nice and then it makes ticking off
tasks on my list feel as if i've got a
boss and i have this like really deep
desire to never have a boss in my life
therefore i don't really like the
traditional way of managing a to-do list
and so instead for me the way that i do
it is that instead of a to-do list i
have a might do list and my do list is
just that i do have things written down
but they're not things i have to do
they're things that i can do if i really
want to and just that slight distinction
makes me feel like i'm the boss i'm in
control rather than that my to-do list
is in control of me now with my to-do
list there is one important thing that i
do every day and that is the only thing
that i absolutely have to do and that is
called my daily highlight so every
single day i will define what is the one
most important thing i have to do today
and that will go at the very top of my
to-do list and then everything else on
my to-do list is just like things that i
could do if i really wanted to and
sometimes i do lots of them and
sometimes i do none of them but it's all
good because the only thing i have to do
is my daily highlight if you're
wondering i actually prefer to use paper
for most of my to-do lists and this is
the analog system by uggmunk it's a bit
overpriced but it really is very nice
you get this little like wooden thing
and when you have your to-do list you
can like put it in front of you on paper
and so you can see it every day and it's
a little bit excessively priced but hey
if you're a sucker for well-designed
aesthetic productivity things like me
this is really really good i'll put a
link in the video description an
affiliate link if you want to check it
out with a bit of a discount all right
so we talked about the lash and the
agenda let's move on to zed which stands
for zettel zettelkasten zetselkasten is
german for slitbox and this is a
note-taking and knowledge management
system that's popularized by a chap
called lumen and lumen was particularly
famous because he was like super super
productive he wrote 70 books and over
400 articles over the course of his life
he had around 90 000 notes within his
zettelkasten slipbox system which i
think this was like the 1800s or
something he did it on like slips of
actual paper index cards but the way
that i use the zettelkastern method is
updated for the 21st century and i use
an app called rome research for my
personal note-taking stuff yes i still
use notion but that's mostly for team
related things and for keeping track of
projects whereas rome is my personal
note-taking app and there's a lot of
detail to go into with the
zeddle-casting system which i will do at
some other point but basically it's like
any time i consume something if i read a
book or an article or listen to a
podcast i will do my best to write down
a few notes about the thing that i've
just read in my own words in a series of
zettles that's all a bit complicated
it's not really part of the productivity
system as such but there is one thing
that i do within room research within my
note-taking app every single morning and
that's something that i call the morning
dump and the idea behind the morning
dump is that every day i will start a
new note in rome and i will just write
down whatever is on my mind this is kind
of similar to another exercise for
creativity called morning pages and the
idea behind morning pages is that every
morning you sit down and you write three
handwritten pages just a free writing
exploring whatever your thoughts are but
again because i'm a bit of a waste man i
can't be bothered to actually sit down
and write three pages by hand and so the
morning dump is a more permissive
version of morning pages where the idea
is look i just need to write down
whatever is on my mind i'm going to dump
my brain out onto this page or onto this
window in the app and that's like
genuinely quite helpful for me because
usually i find that there's random stuff
that's just been building up in my brain
often there's things that i need to do
or that i might want to do or
appointments in my calendar or people i
need to reply to and so generally as i'm
doing my morning dump i realize oh i
should do this and this and this or i
might want to do that and then i will
write it on my physical to-do list
because then it's a you know it's part
of the agenda the other cool thing about
using rome is that i can automatically
synchronize all of my highlights from
kindle predominantly but also from air
audio podcast and also from insta paper
when i read articles and that all
synchronizes straight to rome using an
app called read-wise and there's more
details about that in a video up there
somewhere called the five magical apps
that changed my life now the problem
with rome is that it's a little bit
complicated to use and i have like so
many other ways in which i use it it's a
bit too much to go into in a youtube
video but i have all of those videos
available on nebula if you haven't heard
nebula is an independent streaming
platform that's built by me and a bunch
of other creators that you might be
familiar with and nebula is a good place
for us to be able to put content like an
in-depth tutorial series about how
exactly how we use rome without worrying
about it being too niche for the youtube
algorithm in fact a few months ago i
even taught a weekend online course
where i taught 100 something people how
to use rome research over the course of
two or three hours all the proceeds from
that went to the against malaria
foundation so we ended up raising about
eight thousand dollars for it but if you
couldn't attend that live session a few
months ago you'll find the recording of
it over at nebula again but ali how do i
sign up to nebula well i'm really glad
you asked because the best way to sign
up to nebula is to actually make an
account with curiositystream who are
very kindly sponsoring this video
curiosity stream is the world's leading
documentary streaming subscription
platform and on curiosity stream they've
got thousands of really high quality
high budget titles that you can choose
from one series in particular that i've
enjoyed is called the human limits which
is a series of four really interesting
episodes that explores the limits of
human performance and super brains and
the power of the human mind and how we
can adapt to all these interesting
conditions and the really cool thing
about curiosity stream is that they love
supporting independent creators and so
we've got a bundle deal with curiosity
stream which is that if you sign up to a
one-year subscription of curiosity
stream which is less than 15 for the
whole year you get free access to nebula
bundled with that so for less than 15 a
year you get thousands of high quality
high budget documentaries and you also
get all of my original stuff on nebula
along with originals from a load of my
other creative friends like tom scott
and legal eagle and lindsey ellis and
wendover productions and thomasfrank if
that sounds up your street then head
over to curiositystream.com forward
slash alley and then when you sign up to
an account with curiositystream you'll
get your nebula details emailed to you
and then you can watch my entire
workflow series where i tell you how i
use rome how i use notion how i use all
these apps to combine to build this lazy
productivity system and the final
component of the lazy productivity
system is i which stands for inventory
inventory basically means
file management and archive so in terms
of file management i use google drive
for absolutely everything my entire life
is on google drive and i almost never
store anything on my actual mac in terms
of physical files anymore and so that
means that whatever device i'm using
whether i'm using a macbook or my mac
mini or if i'm on a friend's laptop or
if i'm on my ipad or even if i'm on this
microsoft surface laptop that i've been
trying recently whichever device i'm on
i always have a way to access my files
on google drive so if you're currently
not using a file backup system like
google drive or onedrive or dropbox or
icloud drive you probably should be
using something i've tried all of them
and google drive is the one that i
prefer the other element of my inventory
system is actually evernote now evernote
is a bit of an old-fashioned app it's
sort of like the microsoft of apps and
people are like well why would you use
evernote it's really old but evernote is
still really good for using as a sort of
archive system where anytime i get a
letter anytime i get anything i need to
save i just chuck it straight into
evernote because i know that whatever
happens come hell or high water i think
is the phrase uh whatever happens
evernote will be there for my files and
so right now i'm in the process of
applying for mortgages for various
things and having to get bank statements
and tax returns and like you know
company house documents and i'm just
really glad that i've been taking photos
of these for the last 10 years of my
life and just chucking them into
evernote because they've got a really
good like optical character recognition
search function so i can literally type
in corporation tax and it will find all
of the letters i've ever received about
corporation tax because they're all
somewhere in the evernote thing and the
really nice thing about evernote is that
i actually don't need to worry about
categorization or organization again i'm
a bit of a waste man i'm quite lazy i
don't like the idea of having to put
something in a folder i just love the
idea of being able to snap a photo of it
chuck it into evernote wherever i want
and i know that using the search
function it's going to be there for me
when i need it so that was the lazy
productivity system the lash the agenda
the zettelkasten and the inventory if
you're interested in more ways for being
productive you might like to check out
this video over here which is
10 top tips for time management and
these tips interact with my lazy system
so you've got the tips from there you've
got the apps from here and then youtube
will be a productivity grease monkey so
thank you so much for watching and
hopefully i'll see you in the next video
bye
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