hey friends welcome back to the channel
in this video we're going to go over 10
cheap purchases that have improved my
quality of life
let's get into it coming in at number 10
on the list we have a physical alarm
clock
and this is really cool because before i
had one of these i used to use my phone
as an alarm clock and i'd have the phone
on my bedside table but inevitably it
would mean that i would spend hours and
hours scrolling through twitter browsing
instagram and
attempting to reply to messages on hinge
at night when i should have been
sleeping but ever since i got one of
these i now have the physical alarm
clock on my bedside table which means i
can have the phone across the room away
from my bed or even
in the kitchen on charge if i really
need to get up one morning and so for a
relatively cheap investment of like
between
5 and 20 quid depending on how fancy the
alarm clock is you can massively improve
your quality of sleep if you get one of
these coming in at number nine we have
the trusty electric toothbrush
now the only thing that you need to have
in an electric toothbrush if you have
one
is it needs to have a 30 second timer so
the cool thing about this one is that
you go
and then every 30 seconds it does like a
z
and it so it tells you when 30 seconds
are up and it tells you when two minutes
are up
so you can spend 30 seconds on each
quadrant of the mouth
and then you know when you've been
brushing for two minutes i've been using
this for the past year now
and i noticed a massive improvement in
like the whiteness of my smile and my
brother even commented on it when we
were recording our podcast he was like
oh your teeth look really white
and i said it's because i've been using
one of these time toothbrushes and he
bought one immediately
so you can get one of these for like 20
quid 30 quid just find the one that has
the 30 second timer on it it's
absolutely fantastic coming in at number
eight we have the trusty ukulele now i
started learning the ukulele when i was
in my second year of medical school
and really it was the first instrument
that i learned and i learned by
following youtube tutorials
i just really liked the idea of playing
the guitar but the ukulele seemed was it
was a lot cheaper because i got it for
like 15 quid off amazon
it was a lot cheaper and it seems a lot
easier to get started with the ukulele
and within like 10 minutes you can learn
to play the basic chords and then if you
practice around five or ten minutes a
day for about a week or two you get to a
point where you can like play songs on
the ukulele and you can like sing along
and it's really fun
and the ukulele was really my gateway
drug into the world of music
super easy to learn would highly
recommend i'll link to a cheap version
on amazon in the video description you
can basically get the cheapest one learn
how to play that and then if you want
you can upgrade to a slightly fancier
one
but yeah 15 pounds for my basic first
ukulele
it was pretty awesome and it got me into
the world of music at number six on the
list we have my absolute favorite
writing pad of all time
this is the pucker pad like i've tried
zillions and zillions of like writing a4
writing pads over the years and i always
keep coming back to the pucker pad
because it's like
the quality of the paper and the quality
of the vibes
and the feel and the look and the
general
spiritual essence that it puts out it's
just like second to none i quite like
the basic pocket pad originals i filled
up many of these in med school
now i'm using the pucker pad project
version which has the same quality of
paper but it's got these like dividers
uh because now i've got more money i can
afford like slightly better stationary
and so this is how i've been kind of
planning uh the book that i'm writing
and it's just really nice having like an
a4 pad sitting on my desk at all times
and i've got pens right sort of within
within arm's reach and so if i ever need
to write anything down
this there's just something nice about
being able to scribble it on an a4
pucker pad
rather than have to write it in an app
so highly recommend these these are
fantastic the best pads i've ever used
in my life at number six on the list we
have a trilogy of books by austin cleon
all of these are fantastic they're
really good they're very inspirational
and i have them
i have like physical copies of all three
on my desk at all times as part of my
desk setup in particular as you guys
know show your work was the book that
most changed my life
uh because it encouraged me to write
online a video over there if you want to
check that out
still like an artist is all about
stealing ideas like an artist and it
talks about the general idea that
nothing is original we don't need to
worry about having original ideas
we can still like artists and get ideas
from different sources and there's a
nice quote at the start on the nothing
is original chapter that says
the writer jonathan lethem has said that
when people call something original
nine times out of ten they just don't
know the references or the original
sources involved
so this is really cool and then his
third book keep going is all about how
to stay creative through the good times
and the bad
and so it's like a really nice like it's
very cheap by buying all these books it
takes like 20 minutes to read each of
them and i've sort of these are very
well
well thumbed through so anytime i'm
having a bit of a creative rut or i'm in
a bit of a slump
i just pick up one of them they always
live on my desk and i just grab one i
open it to a random page and i always
find inspiration so thank you austin for
that links to all those books down in
the video description
at number five we have the water bottle
i have a water bottle
on my desk now at all times just having
it on my desk and having it be
a slightly nice one that kind of goes
with the white vibe of the rest of my
desk
it's just been amazing because now i
drink so much more water and drinking
water
as they say is good for you and i've
noticed that on days where i drink more
water
i feel less fat i feel less bloated and
my skin feels like it's glowing
not sure how much of that is placebo but
yeah we were taught in medical school
that you should drink two liters of
water a day thanks to having a water
bottle on my desk this is now what i do
at number four we have the trusty deck
of cards i basically had a deck of cards
on my desk
close to hand for the last almost 10
years of my life
i got into doing close-up magic in 2011
after watching a chap called michael
vincent on pen and telefool us and
initially close-up magic started off as
a way of trying to
increase my sexual market value amongst
my peers at school but then when i got
to university and reinvented myself as
not a massive nerd i decided to continue
with my close-up magic
and i used to perform at balls and
parties and events around
the university and i used to get paid
for it and that was pretty good because
back in the day i wasn't making that
much money as i now do on this youtube
channel so
you know being paid to walk around
parties dressed up in a tuxedo and going
up to groups of people being like hey
you want to see a magic trick
um that was that was my jam back in the
day
and even now like i always have a deck
of cards on me because if i ever need
something to do with my hands
then i just do some flourishes with a
deck of cards because otherwise the
devil makes work for idle hands coming
in at number three we have the amazon
kindle
you can get these quite cheap it's
probably the most expensive item on the
list but like the cheapest amazon kindle
is sometimes like 50 or 60 dollars you
can get it super cheap
honestly the kindle is like one of the
physical items that's like most impacted
my life because just getting a kindle
lets you just gives you the ability to
read infinitely more books than you
would otherwise
these days anytime i get a book
recommendation i just buy it on kindle
immediately and i can start reading it
there and then
it's just absolutely amazing i've been
using a kindle basically every day since
2008
or whenever the first kindle came out
and yeah it's just so good i cannot
recommend it hardly enough i have a
video over there that talks more about
why
everyone should get an amazon kindle
this one is the kindle oasis it's a
little bit fancy you probably don't need
the oasis you could just go for the
kindle paperwhite or to be honest you
could just go for the bog standard
kindle depending on how much
money you want to save and i read this
every night before bed it's what i do
when i get into bed i take my mouth shut
after doing my skincare routine and then
i just read on the kindle until i fall
asleep
so huge huge huge impact on my quality
of life with a fairly cheap fairly small
device moving on to number two we have
this
this is a door stop i've probably got
the most bang for my buck
out of this purchase than anything else
in my life because when i was at
university i always used to have a
doorstop and it would always prop my
door open
these days probably not so relevant if
you're you know in covet times in the
pandemic
but once the world stops ending highly
recommend a doorstop for absolutely
everyone because if you're at university
or if you have an office
or if you're at home whatever mostly at
university propping your door open is
like the best thing ever
because you want to cultivate this
persona
where your friends who walk or walking
by feel that it's okay to interrupt you
while you're working because like if i
look back on my university experience
i don't at all remember those nights
where i was like oh i've got to work a
little bit harder to get like an extra 1
on this essay but because i was the sort
of person who people would feel
comfortable interrupting in the middle
of work
like those interruptions and those like
welcome distractions have turned into
friendships that are still lasting today
and so if you're the sort of person who
props the door open with a doorstop at
university or wherever you are
then it's just generally good vibes all
around and finally at the top of this
list one purchase that has immeasurably
improved my quality of life
is a subscription to skillshare who are
very kindly sponsoring this video if you
guys haven't heard by now skillshare is
an incredible online platform with
thousands of online classes from all
sorts of topics
if you're one of the first 1 000 people
to hit the link in the video description
you're going to get 40 off the
skillshare annual premium subscription
and that means you can watch the eight
different online classes that i've got
on skillshare
two of them are about studying for exams
two of them around productivity
one of them is around how to be happier
with lessons from stoicism and i've got
another one which is themed around
productivity for creators which is
coming out in a few weeks time
after your free trial is up the annual
subscription to skillshare is less than
10
a month that is an absolute no-brainer
for all of the value that you get
plus you should watch all of my classes
on skillshare because i think they're
pretty good and they've had pretty solid
reviews so if that sums up your stream
and you want to be more productive or
you want to study better for your exams
or you just want to live a happier life
with lessons from stoicism then hit the
link in the video description and sign
up to skillshare and then your life too
can be immeasurably improved as
mine has been over the years of having a
skillshare subscription so those were 10
relatively cheap purchases that have
improved my quality of life if you're
interested in finding more ways to
improve your life then check out this
very short playlist of life lessons that
i've learned over the last two years
there's two videos in that playlist they
each have about 20 lessons in them and
people have said that these these
lessons have also improved their life so
thank you so much for watching have a
lovely day and i'll see you in the next
video bye