hey friends welcome back to the channel
in this video i'm gonna talk you through
the six items in my 2021 bucket list and
i'll share with you how i'm planning to
make sure they all hopefully happen
all right so the first thing is that
this year i want to write an amazing
book
i have a book deal to write a book and
it's going to be
loosely themed around the idea of
meaningful productivity
and i have started writing it already
and things are going reasonably well
although it feels quite scary because
it's like the path in front is very very
uncertain and
i don't even know if i'll be able to do
it and every day it's a struggle to sit
down and actually do some writing and i
always think in my head that oh i don't
know if this is good enough and
you know why would anyone read this but
you know from people i've spoken to
this whole like writing a book thing
much like a lot of other things in life
is really a case of kind of believing in
yourself and doing the work and doing it
consistently
and then trying to make it good further
down the line rather than kind of trying
to make it good
from the beginning and then stalling in
that process now the way that i'm
planning out my
kind of six items on my bucket list is
using my anti-waste man system and so
for each of these items i have a dream
and the dream is like the emotionally
resonant goal like i want to write an
amazing book
and then the next question i ask myself
is why do i want to do that so why do i
want to write an amazing book well i've
got a book deal and it seems fun
and it would be really cool if the book
is really good and i know for me like
the things that have most changed my
life have been reading books
like certain books so books like the
four hour work week or anything you want
by derek sivers or show your work by
austin cleon
those books have had such a huge impact
on my life and i would absolutely
freaking love it if
the book that i end up writing can come
even close to having some kind of that
like that level of impact on a random
person's life and it would be nice if
it's more than one person so that's like
a pretty strong why for doing this thing
now the next step is converting the
emotionally resonant dream of
writing an amazing book into a smart
goal now a smart goal is theoretically
ideally specific measurable achievable
realistic and timely or time-bound
and so the smart goal that i've created
for this in the first instance is that
by
mid-february by the 15th of february i
will have a rough messy draft that i can
send to my editor to review
and this is going to be aiming for 70
000 words for this rough messy draft and
the next question is what is the habit
or projects that i need to do to make
this happen and so for me the habit i
need to do is that for the next six
weeks
i just need to write 2 000 words every
day yeah 2000 words a day for the next
42 days will get me to 80 something
thousand words which
should be enough to hit the kind of goal
of getting the 70
000 word manuscript as a rough first
draft by the 15th feb now the next
question i ask myself in my wasteman
productivity system is how surprised
would i be
on a scale of 0 to 10 if i didn't hit
the goal so
how surprising would it be for me and
i've given myself a 3 out of 10 for this
i wouldn't be very surprised if i didn't
hit that goal
because it feels too hard and too
difficult right now and knowing myself
i'm i'm a waste man and
you know if i got to the 15th of feb and
i'd only done 20 000 words i wouldn't
i wouldn't be too surprised and so
knowing that about myself the next
question i ask myself is
what are the top three reasons why i
might fail to do the thing and the only
way i would actually fail this is by not
hitting my daily word count so if we
look at the reasons why i might not hit
my daily word count firstly it's
probably a time thing like
even though i will set the intention
that hey today i'm going to write 2000
words
other stuff might come up there might be
like an urgent thing to do for
my youtube channel or for my i don't
know youtuber academy or for some other
thing i'm doing for the business or
maybe a friend comes over post log down
to visit or
something might get in the way in which
case i might not hit my 2000
words a day kind of limit secondly i
might not hit it because i don't make
time for it in my calendar these days i
take a lot of phone calls and unless i
actively block out time to do something
in my calendar
basically it never happens and thirdly
i'm probably massively underestimating
the difficulty of writing 2000 words a
day so maybe while i start the process
of doing this for the next six weeks
i might realize oh crap this is actually
a lot harder than i thought and this
takes me 10 hours each day to do this
2000 words
and i don't have 10 hours physically in
the day to do this because i have other
stuff that i need to be doing and so the
idea there is that i'm being really
honest with myself about right i
i'm saying i want to do this thing i'm
making a video kind of making a pledge
that i'm gonna do this thing
what are the reasons why i might not
actually do it and then the next
question is
who can help me achieve this goal now
i've got three people who can kind of
help me with this so number one is my
writing coach his name is azul he
and he and i have been kind of having
weekly sessions for the last several
months now he in a way is going to hold
me accountable and i'll chat to him
anytime i'm struggling and he can give
me some like emotional help along the
way
secondly i think it would be useful to
have someone as an accountability buddy
with a big forfeit like for example if i
said to my housemate sheen sheen
every day if i don't write two thousand
words i'm gonna give you
five thousand pounds and you can do
whatever you want without money that
would be a very strong incentive for me
to actually write those two thousand
words every day and thirdly if i'm
making the excuse that oh i don't have
time to do this
to do this writing it's possible that if
if we're just kind of brainstorming like
who can help us do the thing
it's possible that if i for example had
had someone to do my laundry for example
you know
that would be one aspect of my time
that's freed up to do this writing thing
and so the idea behind this exercise is
that it doesn't have to be realistic
things
it's just it's just kind of like a
brainstorm i probably won't hire someone
to do my laundry but it's
good to know that it's an option if if i
need it the next question is how can i
stack the deck in my favor to succeed
and so my idea for this is that i'm
gonna time block
three hours a day in my calendar every
single day where i'm only allowed to do
writing so i'm gonna block out two hours
in the morning and one hour in the
evening and i'm hoping that
given my typing speed is relatively fast
theoretically it should be doable to hit
2000 words in those three hours the
other thing that i can do to stack the
deck in my favor which i'm going to do
from now on
is i'm going to set up a mailing list of
people who want to hear
those behind the scenes of how the
journey of through writing this book is
going so if you're interested in that
click the link in the video description
enter your email and i will be sending
you
an email once or twice a week with a
little update of what i've been working
on
and the things i've been struggling with
and you know i might ask for your input
like for example i'm working on a
chapter about this thing related to
productivity uh can you
reply and tell me what are your thoughts
what are your struggles and potentially
might give you like early drafts of
stuff
it's all free so if you're interested in
that pre email down below and that will
be another vehicle for me to
kind of actually do this and oh actually
each week in the email i will send you a
sort of word count that on monday i did
this many words just do this many words
and that will be another way for me to
be held accountable to some number of
people i hope some people join this list
uh to actually getting this done and
finally the most useful part of this
exercise is by taking action right now
and taking the first step to doing the
thing
so i've already made a commitment with
my writing code this is going to happen
and while i was preparing this video i
time blocked three hours in my calendar
every day until the 15th of february
where i'm only allowed to write and by
the time you're watching this video the
mailing list should be set up so hit the
link in the video description if you
want to check it out
all right item number two on my bucket
list is that
i want to make some level of progress
towards finding a wife
and i'm going to call this my wife quest
why well because relationships are
like everyone says relationships are the
most important area of life and i feel
like
for me personally for the last like 26
years of my life
i haven't really taken dating and like
relationships particularly seriously
and so you know now is as good a time as
any to
start taking this stuff more seriously
and i guess like
people say that when you're in like a
good relationship it like makes your
life better
and honestly i can't really imagine my
life being any better than it currently
is
right now like my happiness level is
like a 10 out of 10.
and i can't imagine someone else coming
into that and making it better but
everyone i know who's in a relationship
say that yeah they couldn't imagine it
either and then they
ended up in a relationship and now their
life is better so i feel like this might
actually be one of those unknown
unknowns whereby
it's kind of like when people become
parents they say that nothing can really
prepare you for it and most people
still say that having kids is useful so
i don't know
i feel like there is probably something
i'm missing here which is why i want to
take
the whole relationships thing a bit more
seriously kind of hard to put a smart
goal on this
um maybe i won't bother and i think one
habit that might help with this
is committing to myself that i'm gonna
go on at least one date every week or at
least
make time to go on at least one day
every week maybe i'll have someone to go
on a date with maybe i won't but at
least there'll be a little time slot in
my calendar maybe saturday nights or
like
sunday morning for brunch where i'm like
okay you know this is time where i'm not
allowed to do work i'm not allowed to
book meetings i'm not allowed to plan
i'm not allowed to film a video this is
purely time where in an ideal world i'll
be going on a date with someone this
might be a little bit problematic during
lockdown but i've been toying with the
idea of dabbling with zoom dates i'm not
really sure how i feel about it and so
you know like anything it's worth trying
out just to see what it's like
let me know in the comments if you have
any personal experience with the zoom or
facetime dates and whether you'd
recommend them in terms of who can help
i've been vaguely wondering do i want to
hire a dating coach for a bit
i don't know like i'm not sure how it
would help
but i feel like you know even roger
federer has a tennis coach
so as much as i
rate my own uh ability to talk to women
i feel like maybe getting a dating coach
might might help and they'll encourage
me to wear more shirts and
iron the shirts or do things like that
and in terms of how i can stack the deck
in my favor and the action point here
i have already time blocked um sunday
morning
this coming sunday uh to theoretically
go on a date with someone who knows if
it's gonna happen
honestly i'll put my surprise at like a
two out of ten if i don't make progress
on this front because i imagine
that you know this year i'll probably
just say oh well you know
i'm i'm too busy or i can't be bothered
to make time for this or oh it's locked
down i'll do it after the pandemic or
even stuff like
well i'm only 26 or 27 in in 20 in 2021
i'll start to worry about finding
finding love when i'm like 30 or
something so those are all reasons why i
might not do it but it is something that
i do want to take a bit more seriously
all right let's get more exciting now
and item number three on my bucket list
is that it would be nice
to get six-pack abs at some point this
year why well it would be a fun
challenge
and i've never had abs before there was
one time i feel like it was in 2017 or
2018 where i'd been doing like
ab workout t-type stuff every time i
went to the gym for a solid like month
and i remember once i like folded
i i was like folding my arms just for no
reason and and i felt like oh
hello and i never really felt that
before and that was like a really nice
feeling and i've not had it since so it
would be nice to get six-pack abs at
some point this year plus you know maybe
it'll help with the whole wife quest
thing the smart goal for this is that by
december 21 21 i will have had at least
a two-week period of my abs showing
which i will probably post a photo of on
instagram
maybe if i can if i feel that
narcissistic about it if it even happens
which realistically it probably won't
and i guess the only two habits i need
for this are eight hitting the macros
that my personal trainer says and
actually doing the exercise like
apparently the human body is kind of
like a
a science project in that if you put the
right inputs in you will get the outputs
that you want how surprised would that
be if this didn't happen probably like a
two out of ten
i don't really back myself at all to
actually get six pack abs at some point
this year and the main reason why i
might fail with this is
because i've been living off takeaways
pretty much for the last three years
and i anticipate that pattern may
continue in 2021 where i decide oh screw
it i'll just get a takeaway and then
i'll completely blow my macro goals at
some point pretty soon i might also
decide you know what doing these ab
exercises a total nightmare and i can't
be bothered but bothered with this and
you know what
i want to find someone who likes me for
me not because i've got abs you know
i might tell myself all those kind of bs
excuses and at some point if we're
allowed to travel sometime this year if
i do travel then i anticipate that will
make my diet and exercise go
inconsistent so those are reasons why
this might not happen
in terms of who can help me well i
already have a personal trainer who i've
been working with for the last couple of
months and we do like zoom calls twice a
week where he makes me do exercise and
that's always fun and good
and in terms of action points i have
already arranged my next session with a
personal trainer and i'm gonna say to
him look dan
at some point this year i wanna get
six-pack abs so can you uh can you help
me out
and he's probably gonna say look man
you've not been hitting your macros
and you've not been doing the exercise
and so you just need to do that i'm
gonna be like thank you dan
this is helpful this is what i need
let's let's do it
item number four on my bucket list is
that at some point this year i want to
busk on the london underground i.e i
want to play my guitar and sing
somewhere on the london underground i
think that would be really fun this is
something that's actually been on my
bucket list for years now and i've just
like never done it because the annoying
thing about the london underground is
that you need to audition
and you need to get a license for it
once you've passed your audition and
with kovid apparently this is actually
becoming quite a lot harder reasons i
might fail are if
they realize that i actually suck at
singing and playing the guitar and they
reject my audition piece
and therefore i don't get a license and
therefore i won't end up being able to
do it
but i suppose like the nice thing about
living in cambridge is that in cambridge
there are no
like you don't need a license to busk so
at the very least
i'll commit to myself that i will do
busking somewhere on the streets of
cambridge with an amplifier and a
microphone and a guitar
even if i get rejected from the london
underground auditions who can help me
with this well i don't really have a
guitar teacher i sort of have a singing
teacher but we're very on and off
because of like lockdown
but i actually have a friend who's
another youtuber called mary spender and
she is a professional guitarist and
professional musician and stuff and i
messaged her the other day saying mary i
want to busk on the london underground
can you help me out and she was like
yeah
sure we'll figure something out so uh
mary is going to be helping me on this
journey to become a busker on the london
underground
item 5 on my bucket list is that i
really want to learn how to draw like a
concept artist a concept art is that
like fantastic art that they have in
like video games and movies and stuff
and i absolutely love the idea of being
able to draw
paint illustrate scenes like my favorite
scenes from
fantasy books like you know the mistborn
series by brandon sanderson or like
harry potter or like the stormlight
archive by brandon sanderson or like the
name of the wind by patrick rothfuss or
all of these like various fantasy books
that i read it would be so sick if i can
kind of do those illustrations smart
goal for this is that by the end of 2021
i will have created one of these
illustrations and i will have uploaded
it as a time lapse to like youtube or
instagram or something and in terms of a
habit it just means that i need to
practice every day but also have
a sort of a road map towards actively
improving and getting feedback now
someone who's helping me with this is
actually my art teacher and we had a
session
this morning because i decided four days
ago that i wanted to do this and this is
something that i drew
this morning we are working on gestures
and on proportions and
he was telling me stuff this morning
that hey you know if the human head is
like one
then like the torso should be like three
and a half and the legs should be like
four and now we're trying to
you know get an idea of proportionality
when it comes to drawing and the great
thing about having an art teacher i'll
link his instagram in the description if
you want to check him out he's a
professional concept artist
is that we have i've committed that i'm
gonna do three lessons a week with him
and so it's embarrassing for me if i
turn up to a lesson not having done any
practice
and so theoretically that shame will
actually make me do some practice when
we don't have lessons
and the lessons are usually at eight
o'clock in the morning so it's like a
thing that forces me to get out of bed
and i found for the last four days that
we've been doing this i feel like oh
i'm really annoyed that i have to get up
at eight in the morning for this but i'm
really glad that i had to get up at
eight in the morning for this
once i've had a bit of coffee and once
we're into the swing of doing some
drawing
and the final item on my 2021 bucket
list is that i want to become a better
storyteller
why is this well stories are such an
important aspect of all of our lives and
you know if you can tell a good story
then that's like one of the best things
in terms of just
improving social skills and i'm keen to
improve my social skills also telling
better stories is a great way of making
people more engaged
in video and storytelling is something
that i've recently been reading about
through books like story worthy by
matthew dicks and a million miles in a
thousand years by donald miller and i
just love the idea of becoming like a
pro storyteller because i always look up
to those people who
can just like enrapture an audience is
that the right word enrapture an
audience
just through telling a story and
actually this year there were four
interviews that i did on my deep dive
live streams in particular
that really helped me want to develop
this love of storytelling firstly was
with austin cleon who is the author of
show your work one of my favorite books
secondly best-selling author ryan
holliday who's written a ton of books
that i really like
thirdly alex bonayan who is also an
author who wrote a fantastic book called
the third door which
made me cry many many times and fourthly
is david parrell who runs an online
writing school called rite of passage
and i've taken his course and it
is very good and in my sort of one to
two hour interviews with all four of
these guys
like we talked a lot about storytelling
and i just kind of i i left it feeling
so inspired and feeling like you know
what i really want to take this stuff
really seriously if for some reason you
missed those live streams then a you're
really missing out because they were
fantastic and b
you're in luck because they're all
actually uploaded over at nebula if you
haven't heard nebula is an independent
streaming platform that's run by me and
a bunch of other educational-ish
creators and nebula's the place where we
can put things like a two-hour long
interview or like random snippets of an
interview or various other things
without really having to worry about the
youtube algorithm like we're not trying
to build a competitor to youtube it's
just purely an alternative place to put
our stuff
and so on nebula you will find all of my
deep dive interviews i think i've done
like between 10 and 20 of them at this
point
and we also cut them up into snippets so
if you don't have time to sit through a
two hour long interview
we cut each interview up into like
between five and ten short bite-sized
videos
so you can just watch those while you're
eating your food or something secondly
on nebula you also get
early access to my videos completely ad
free and so this video is already out on
nebula and this ad
completely disappears from that video
and thirdly you'll find tons of content
from a load of other educational-ish
creators people you might know like
thomas frank and wendover productions
and legal eagle and tom scott and
lindsay alice
all of our slots we're all like part of
the same like mafia collective thing and
we all upload
our exclusive content over at nebula now
the single best way of getting access to
nebula is actually by signing up to
curiositystream who are very kindly
sponsoring this video
again if you haven't heard curiosity
stream is the world's leading
documentary streaming subscription
platform
founded by john hendricks the founder of
the discovery channel and on curiosity
stream they've got
thousands of high budget like
fantastically well shot documentaries
and actually i've been i've been
watching a lot of those recently to try
and improve my own story selling skills
because documentaries do give you a good
insight into how to tell a good story
and actually one documentary series i've
been enjoying recently is called how to
look at a painting which i'm watching
because
i've never really gotten the whole art
gallery thing and you know why do people
enjoy looking at paintings but now that
i'm trying to become a concept artist
this is helping me
kind of get more of an overview of
exactly why this happens and all the
different things to look for in artwork
and because curiosity stream loves
independent educational creators we've
got a special bundle with nebula whereby
if you sign up to curiosity stream by
going on curiositystream.com for less
than 15
a year you'll get a year's access to
curiosity streams all of these
documentaries but you'll also get
free access to nebula so all of my stuff
i've even got like a workflow series
where i take you behind the scenes of my
workflows for my productivity apps
you'll get all the deep dives you'll get
all the snippets you'll be able to watch
all of my interviews with austin and
david and ryan holliday and alex benign
and all the other people that i've
interviewed over at nebula if that
sounds up your street then head over to
curiositystream.com forward slash ali
sign up for the account and you will get
your nebula details emailed to you so
that's why i want to improve my
storytelling and the habit that's going
to help me get there hopefully is called
homework for life which is something
that matthew dicks talks about in the
book story worthy
and that's the idea that every night you
sit down and you write down the most
story worthy thing that happened to you
that day now i've been doing this a
little bit on and off for the last year
but i'm going to really start taking it
seriously and actually i emailed matthew
diggs himself
the other day and said hey can you be my
storytelling coach so we have a session
booked later in january
and hopefully he's going to feature on a
deep dive as well which then again will
be uploaded to nebula so those were the
six
items on my bucket list for 2021. if you
want access to the template that i've
been using to plan these you should
definitely check out this video over
here which is my 2020 annual review
using my free notion template which is
linked in the description of that video
so check it out
thank you so much for watching happy new
year and i'll see you in the next video
bye