hey friends welcome back to the channel
in this video I wanna share five
productivity tips that I find really
helpful especially at times like this
where we are stuck at home pretty much
doing nothing with all this social
distancing stuff going on at least me I
want to be productive I want to get
stuff done rather than just kind of sit
at home and watch Netflix even though
that's quite fun as well
so anyway five productivity tips coming
up that I find helpful so let's dive
into it with tip number one
alright so tip number one is what I call
the one-year rule and the one-year rule
is asking ourselves the question that in
one year's time what will I regret not
starting today and I think this is
really good because when we're deciding
what to do especially at a time like
this social distancing and stuff where
we're all going to be stuck indoors for
a long period of time I think it's
really helpful to think about doing a
service to our future selves and I find
that like if I ask myself the one you
rule the one year question then I can
sort of bring loads of things to mind
like you know a year from now I wish I
were better a piano better a guitar
which had taken singing more seriously I
wish I'd learned to sight-read music
which is sort of what I'm doing in music
theory and stuff I wish I'd just to have
a blank book reviews on my website I
wish I'd started this aspect of my
videos of that aspect of my videos I
wish I'd done that thing I wish I'd been
going to the gym more seriously I wish
I'd been taking my posture and
stretching and stuff more seriously
there's all sorts of things that I I
know a year from now I will regret not
starting today and I find that really
helps in terms of helping me figure out
what to actually do with my time so for
example in my 3rd year of med school I
was studying psychology and I had a load
of spare time on my hands and part of me
was tempted to restart playing World of
Warcraft but then I asked myself you
know what would my future self want and
I haven't have a piano in my room and so
that was the time where I first taught
myself how to play the piano by
following YouTube tutorials and stuff
and now piano is one of the you know
best things in my life and like put
something on Instagram about me singing
songs playing the piano and things and
that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't
thought about the one year rule back
when I had gallons of free time in my
third year of med school so if you're at
home social distancing whatever you're
doing at home maybe consider asking
yourself the question that in a year's
time
what will I regret not doing today not
starting today in doing consistently and
I think that is a good tip to help us
guide the direction that we should be
heading so that's tip no.1 let's move on
alright so tip number two is the daily
highlight now this
the tip I picked up from this book make
time by Jacob Knapp and John Zaretsky
which I'll be doing a proper video about
in due course but essentially one of the
key insights from this book is that
every day we should have a single
highlight like the one thing that we're
going to focus on for the day so for me
the highlight of today is to film this
productivity tips video Bihar die for
yesterday was to figure out like a
website and Ryoka tech chure from my
personal website but essentially is like
the one thing that I want to get done
today to make today or win and the way
our rights out is that every morning I
sort of write an analogue list in my
book term 1917 notebook and I have like
three sections
I have H G and L so the H is what's my
daily highlight so today film for
activity video the G is something that
I'm grateful for and I've been having
something to do during social distancing
and the L is something to let go of and
I want to let go of fear which is just
something has been floating around in my
mind because I watched loads of the s
Theory videos this morning all about
embracing discomfort and leaning into
the fear of doing stuff and I've
certainly got a lot of fear about doing
certain things that might be a bit rogue
and so I want to kind of let go of that
but essentially yeah what's important
thing having a daily highlight having a
single thing that you're gonna focus on
for the day and I find that to be a
really helpful way to guide my sort of
point myself in the right direction and
then I can start kind of pouring fuel on
the creativity thing but once I know
what direction I'm pointing everything
kind of fall into place and that's what
I get from the daily highlight so thanks
guys for that and I'll see you the next
hit alright so for tip number four once
we have figured out what a daily
highlights gonna be we should write a
to-do list of everything else we want to
get done in that day so for example this
morning I sat on this desk with my cup
of coffee which is now very cold and
still very grim oh god that's terrible
I'm so bad at making coffee anyway this
morning I sat down after doing my
highlight I think I'm great before
anything want to let go of
I wrote got a whole list of things to do
so day in the life of log which is kind
of what I'm filming a cool nanny who's
my grandma fiction video script I need
to look over guy any day in the life
video voiceover but yeah essentially
like I think it's it's really helpful to
have this
to do so that a in the back of my mind
it sort of adds this slight element of
me knowing I have more stuff to get done
which means I'm more likely to kind of
get my current thing my Mane hung out
for the day this video done quickly
because I know I need to tackle these
other things on my to-do list and the
other way of thinking of it is that I
think one way of thinking about a to-do
list is thinking about it as sort of
stuff that's weighing you down but the
other way of thinking over to do list is
thinking of it as obstacles in your path
that you're gonna power through and the
way I like to think of it which I got
from a friend of mine said who is on the
rugby team and likes these sports
analogies and I can then pretend to be
some sort of sportsman is that it's
better to think about it as a series of
things that you're gonna bash and sort
of get done so I'm gonna bash through
this this this and this and I feel
really good at the start of the day when
I sort of brain dump and empty my mind
onto the page I call it my morning dump
actually it was the morning dumper to-do
list that can be what tip number three
is anyway the morning dump empty my mind
and like literally write down everything
that I might need to get done so what
I'd recommend for you is that if you're
struggling with being productive during
social distancing or isolation or
quarantine or whatever even just in day
to day life whatever this virus thing
blows over to things crossed hopefully
if you strongly to be productive I think
I was just writing out a long list of
things that you want to get done that
day and then just kind of tackling them
as if you like a rugby player like
running into someone that's a good way
of thinking about it but doing this in
the morning this morning dump gives me
kind of clarity on what I need to do
yeah basically more the story is to do
list writing down everything they need
to do in a given day and I'm a fan of
using apps for absolutely everything but
there's just something nice about doing
the morning dump on the bush m1917
analog notebook with the uni-ball air
pen where does it go oh there's the
money favorite series of pens until I
talked about this in my latest monthly
favourites video but yeah it's really
good anyway that was tip number three
let's move on alright so tip number four
is called Parkinson's Law and
Parkinson's law states that work expands
to fill the time that we allocate to it
so basically the more time we give
ourselves to do something the more time
the thing will take if we give ourselves
less time to do the stuff we need to get
done it will get done in that time and
we've all experienced this like the
night before a deadline the night before
an essay or an assignment is due or
whatever we just get it done whereas if
we if we know it's due
months from now then we'll just
procrastinate we'll put it off or do all
this research that we don't really need
to do and probably it'll be no better
than it was if we just did it like a few
nights before and I really found this
which is partly why I like having this
whole long to-do list of everything
because if the only thing I wanted to do
today is just film this video I would
inevitably procrastinate all day and end
up doing absolutely everything and then
at 8 p.m. I would be like okay I need to
get run to filming this video but
because I've got so many other things on
my to-do list which I basically kind of
just manufactured up this morning when I
was like you know what are all the
things I could potentially get done
today even if I'm not gonna get all of
them done which I probably won't because
there's quite a lot on the list that
just means that in my mind like
subconsciously and consciously I am
trying to get stuff done efficiently
which means I can be more productive
because productivity is doing the things
we want to do as efficiently as possible
so we can act in service to our future
selves and have fun while we're doing it
there's a pretty good definition
actually anyway Parkinson's law we
should always keep that in mind yeah
that was tip number four let's move off
and tip number five is for finding ways
to get out of a slump we all have those
moments when we're kind of bashing
through our to-do lists we're treating
it as like of obstacles we're gonna
tackle out of the way but when it comes
to sort of roundabout like I you I find
that for me instead of an hour a half an
hour to an hour after lunch that's when
I feel a real slump like I just want to
stop doing the thing or kind of in the
evening around 7 8 p.m. time even though
even though still got loads of stuff to
do so there are a few different things
that we can do to get out of that slump
the first one is coffee so I drink a lot
of coffee in the mornings but I try to
avoid coffee after like 2 3 p.m. because
there's some evidence that caffeine
stays in your bloodstream for about nine
hours and that means if I have caffeine
after 3 p.m.
my quality of sleep is going to get
reduced so coffee before 3 p.m. I also
find that it's making peppermint tea
actually helps me get me out of slump
because peppermint tea is naturally
caffeine free and so even if it's like 7
p.m. and I know I need to do like a
final wind to get some work done then
I'll make some peppermint tea don't
worry about the caffeine side of it
because it's caffeine free and that'll
help me get out of a slump another thing
you can do is do a quick workout so I've
got some in gym supplies on the balcony
that I'm gonna be working out with today
because going to the gym is a terrible
idea during social distancing and
sedation and all that stuff it's also
also find it really hard to not touch my
face but hopefully everything else will
be alright either going to the gym doing
a workout even just kind of going for a
walk around the park that's one of
Thomas Frank's favorite techniques every
time he's in a slump he just kind of
goes for a walk or the final thing you
can do that I actually do a lot is like
genuinely do an online course on
brilliant or kindly sponsoring this
video and I'm not just saying this
because they're sponsoring this video
because even in day of the life videos
that are not sponsored by brilliant I
still sometimes go and bring in and do
an online course but if you haven't
heard brilliant is a fantastic online
platform that has courses on maths
science and computer science and the
great thing about those is that they're
very interactive it's not just didactic
teaching it's not like watching a
lecture it's like reading a little bit
watching a bit of a video of seeing an
animation and then you they ask you a
question that puts everything into
perspective and that lets you actually
work your own mind so a few days ago I
had like this whole day-in-the-life
thing I was filming stuff and it got to
about like 10:00 p.m. where i still had
loads of stuff to do but instead i sat
down and i did an introduction to neural
networks course and brilliant and I
actually spent like 20 minutes half an
hour just doing this online course
because it was so interesting and
engaging and I was finding out about
this neural network stuff which I've
always sort of been interested in
because I know especially in medicine
there's all this kind of neural network
AI machine learning stuff that's applied
to image recognition image analysis for
things like chest x-rays CT scans and
ECGs and various sorts of imaging but
this was a really sort of accessible and
engaging introduction to how image
analysis works on that front and I just
find myself just spending up to the ages
just kind of going through it and then
half an hour later by the time I'd kind
of finished the first few lessons in
this course and done the daily challenge
this is another good feature and putting
that you can check out by the time I
done that I felt like my whole brain was
rejuvenated and so again not just saying
that the sponsoring this video but they
all said thanks per diem for sponsoring
this video if you want to exercise your
brain the courses on math science and
computer science there's no time like
the present at a time like now to learn
some new skills learn something
interesting go to brilliant or /le and
the first 200 people to click that link
will get 20% off an annual premium
subscription so thanks again guys for
watching this video and yeah that kind
of brings me to the end of what I want
to talk about we've talked about five
tips of productivity we've said number
one one year rule like in one year's
time what would I
gret not starting today and doing
consistently number ^ the daily
highlight from that book make time point
number 3 writing out to-do lists and
treating it as I sort of bashing through
multiple things in a given day number 4
Parkinson's Law bearing in mind that
work expands to fill the time that we
allocate to it so we should limit our
time allocated to certain tasks in order
to get them done and point number 5
finding ways to get out of a slump so
I'm about to do a workout at the gym
because I feel in a bit of a slump right
now drink some peppermint tea if it's
after 3 p.m.
bring some coffees before 3 p.m. because
there's loads of evidence that coffee
improves it's like brain stimulation and
stuff do an online course and bring in 2
org if you fancy exercising your mind so
yeah that's it if you enjoyed this video
I have another one which is called how I
manage my time as a doctor and youtuber
and that has like eight different time
management tips we talk about
Parkinson's Law but I think everything
else is seven other tips that are not
mentioned in this video so you should
definitely check that out that I'll be
linked over here thanks for watching
stay healthy stay safe I'll see you in
the next video bye
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