hey friends welcome back to the channel
if you're new here my name is Ali I'm a
doctor turned entrepreneur and the
author of this book Feelgood
productivity which is about how to do
more of what matters to you and this is
the second video in our three-part
series about how to manage your time
outside of your 9 to5 now in episode one
of the series we talked about the five
mindset shifts that really help when it
comes to time management but in this
video we're going to be talking about
the five biggest drains in time if you
can eliminate these five things from
your life or at least reduce the amount
of hold they have over you I promise it
will free up hours and hours of your
time every week and then you'll be able
to use that time on whatever is most
meaningful to you while working
full-time as a doctor I built my YouTube
channel to over a million subscribers I
ended up building a business to like a
million dollar in Revenue I was able to
get Financial Freedom I wrote a book
while trying to run a business on the
site and so really for me getting good
at the skill of time management is a
hugely important part of living a
meaningful and happy and fulfilling life
all righty time drain number one is
social media this is an absolute classic
we all waste tons and tons of time on
random scrolling and random watching of
YouTube videos without any real purpose
behind it now if your social media use
is intentional then great you're living
your best life but with most of us and
certainly for me back in the day and
still a little bit to this day our
social media usage is not that
intentional the whole point of these
social media companies like the reason
they pay hundreds if not thousands of
Engineers to like work on these social
media apps is so that they can hijack
our attention and so they can get us on
this hamster wheel slot machine dopamine
thing of just feeling as if we have to
constantly check Tik Tok or Instagram or
Twitter or whatever the thing is and
because all of these platforms are now
algorithmic rather than chronological
you will never be up to date you will
never catch up with the newsfeed because
there's always more that these
algorithms are feeding us now there's a
bunch of different practical strategies
that we can use to stop the scrolling
hijack the first one is back when I was
trying to break my social media
addiction I installed a free app called
one sec and basically that artificially
added a loading screen to all of my
social media apps so I'd open Twitter
and then it would be like nope you got
to wait 5 seconds and do you still want
to open Twitter and it would give me a
link to Kindle and audible which were
the apps that I selected as like I
wanted to give me these apps which are
generally more intentional and that
really helped break the cycle of
scrolling because when it takes five
freaking seconds to open Twitter you
then realize oh hang on in that time do
I actually want to open Twitter or not
and then most of the time I would choose
not to open Twitter the other thing I
personally found super helpful is to
just remove all social media apps from
any of my iPhone home screens so in
order for me to now open Instagram I
have to swipe down physically type in
Instagram and then click on the thing
which is just a level of friction where
my fingers haven't yet developed the
muscle memory to like do the thing
whereas you know back when it was on my
home screen it would just be swipe swipe
swipe Instagram cool done and before I
knew it I'm scrolling the news feed even
though I never intended to screen time
limits on phones are another really good
one there's also a really good app
called opal that a few friends of mine
have found real value in where it
physically stops you from accessing
those apps people sometimes log out of
the apps they uninstall the apps also
this might be a bit of a hot take but
genuinely I think these social media
companies have ran a massive scop that
has convinced us that we need to scroll
social media in order to relax I've
heard so many people say this like oh
you know scrolling Tik Tok for 2 hours
before bed really helps me relax really
I'm pretty sure I've never seen any
study that confirms that Tik Tok is
anything other than a stimulant and like
reduces the quality of your sleep
Humanity did not evolve to be constantly
scrolling and getting that dopamine hit
as a form of relaxation sure I
appreciate that we all need ways to
relax but generally there are ways to
relax that are actually relaxing rather
than scrolling social media apps what I
would recommend you do like with all of
the tips like with anything on my
channel really is consider these
experiments that you might want to try
in your own life try the experiment of
deleting all the apps from your phone
try the experiment of installing one sec
if you try these experiments out you'll
find that some of them will work for you
some of them might not but you're sort
of treating yourself like a system to
see like what are the inputs and tweaks
I can make to the system that will stop
me as a robot from actually habitually
checking Tik Tok and just randomly
scrolling and wasting all my time now if
you're looking for something to do with
all of this free time that you've gained
from hopefully applying some of the
concepts in this video series then you
might like to check out brilliant who
are very kindly sponsoring this video
brilliant is the absolute best way to
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now my personal favorite courses on
brilliant are actually the computer
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I went to medical school but before
applying I was sort of torn between
medicine and computer science and I went
for medicine in the end which I don't
regret but there was always part of me
that sort of really wanted to explore
more about the world of computer science
but since graduating I've been able to
do that thanks to brilliant they also
have a really good course called
thinking in code which sort of teaches
you how to problem solve in a way that
like a coder or a developer would and it
kind of relates to some of the stuff
we're talking about in this series
around treating yourself like a system
by thinking in code you can actually get
a lot better at your own time management
and procrastination as well brilliant
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alal and that will give you a 30-day
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brilliant for sponsoring this video and
let's get back to it time drain number
two is the news
cuz if it's something that's really big
that's happening in the world then
chances are you'll just end up being at
least vaguely informed about it but for
most things the news cycle is designed
for entertainment and for clicks and for
views and eyeballs rather than for
actually informing us about current
events you know it's important to be a
Civic citizen it's important to be
informed about what's going on in the
world but again like with all things
reading the news should be intentional
rather than reactionary or default so an
intentional way of reading the news is
sometimes I will think you know what I
feel like reading the news right now and
I'll open up the economist and read the
world in brief or I'm thinking hey there
is this big thing happening in the world
right now I really want to find out more
about this specific thing then I will do
a session where I go out and actively
seek more information about the thing
what I stopped doing what I used to do
back in the day which would waste so
much time is habitually checking the
news every day oh by the way quick thing
outside of the field of time management
one major thing that a lot of people
seem to struggle with is focus like
actually doing the thing without getting
distracted which is why I've created a
completely free 7-Day Focus course and
you can find that at focus crashcourse
tocom it is it's completely free and
it's 7 Days of emails where every day
I'll send you an email with some
principles strategies and tools that you
can use to improve your ability to focus
which pairs nicely with all this time
management stuff we're talking about as
well all right time drain number three
is TV again this one is going to be a
controversial take for the record
nothing in this video is meant to be
construed as life advice I'm not telling
you what to do I'm not telling you how
to live your life you can do whatever
the hell you want but I'm just sharing
what are some things that I found
helpful for me because people will often
ask me hey Olie how did you have the
time to build a business and become
financially free and make all this money
and stuff while you had a full-time job
and people don't like it when I tell
them you know what I cut out TV from my
life since my first year of medical
school I set a rule for myself and I've
still stuck with that rule which is that
I am not allowed to watch TV on my own
when I was in high school I used to
watch a lot of TV on my own I would
watch like 3 hours of TV every single
freaking day and it amazes me how much
of my time I squandered when I was
younger but since University started and
I realized actually I wanted to juggle
loads of things I wanted to socialize
wanted to see friends wanted to try new
hobbies and sports also build a business
on the side which was later a YouTube
channel while getting through med school
and doing reasonably well in the exams
and then when I started working as a
doctor I realized watching TV on my own
is just a total time drain and a total
time sync and there's no reason to do it
in my first year of uni I decided to do
an experiment where I wouldn't watch TV
on my own and I made it a point to check
in with myself every few months to see
to what extent do I miss the time spent
watching TV and I realized I didn't miss
it at all I realized that instead of
using that time watching TV I could use
that time to try and learn Japanese or
to try and work on some websites or to
try and spend more time with my friends
or even just to study a bit more
efficiently by doing flash cards
throughout the year I used to watch Game
of Thrones all right today is Game of
Thrones finale day we've got the set up
but I would organize Game of Thrones
social nights in my room every week when
Game of Thrones was happening it would
be a big social event it would be super
fun that was like the one TV show that I
watched like in the last 10 years but
just not watching TV on my own has been
the single rule that has freed up by far
the most time of anything else I've done
in my life and if you're potentially
interested in freeing up your time to be
able to do more of the things things
that really matter to you it's something
you might consider trying as an
experiment all right drain number four
is chores this one is going to get even
more spicy the way I think about chores
is that there are all these things that
we have to do in order to maintain our
life like cooking and cleaning and
laundry and admin and returning parcels
and you know things like that if you
enjoy doing those things and for you
spending that time cleaning or cooking
or doing a laundry or whatever is
intentional and effective and enjoyable
then great keep on doing those things
for me I don't enjoy doing any of those
things
and I recognized at a certain point that
most of these were chores that could be
either deleted or automated or delegated
now this was a lot harder for me to do
when I was a student and I wasn't making
any money at all but when I started
working as a doctor and suddenly
unlocked the ability to do loom shifts
which are extra shifts I was like huh
okay so my hourly rate is now £40 an
hour I could always do an extra hour of
work and make £40 an hour cool I don't
really enjoy cleaning cleaning takes 2
hours a week could I hire a cleaner I
realized yeah I could hire a cleaner who
would rock every 2 weeks would clean for
2 hours that cleaner would charge I
think £30 for the 2 hours every other
week I was like damn so I'm able to
spend £60 a month and my house is just
clean by default and I don't need to
think about it wo that's cool I've
traded an hour and a half of my own time
doing work which I enjoyed for 4 hours
of not having to clean where someone
else is doing that work where they
they're much better at it than me and
also I'm contributing to the economy and
stuff so in that context I decided that
it was time to Outsource cleaning if
your hourly rate is zero for example
then it's very very hard Fe to delegate
particular chores and I think this is
just a really important Point like money
and time are actually interchangeable
and we can actually use money to buy
back time and when I discovered this it
just blew my freaking mind because now
time management doesn't just become
about how can I be more disciplined or
how can I time block more stuff in my
calendar it also becomes how can I
strategically and intentionally deploy
my resources which I now have because I
have a job with income coming in to buy
back my time it's like I'm trading a
less valuable resource money for a more
valuable resource time because as we
talked about we can never get back the
time that we've used but we can always
make more money further down the line
but the other way of thinking about this
is how much is that extra time worth to
you what could you do with that extra 2
hours how much is it worth to you to be
able to spend those 2 hours with your
kids how much is it worth for you to be
able to spend those 2 hours going for a
walk in nature or reading a book instead
or making progress on one of your
hobbies rather than cleaning the house
if you don't enjoy it I'm saying try it
as an experiment try hiring a cleaner
once or twice see how it feels if it
works for you amazing if it doesn't hey
it's just an experiment at least you've
got got data out of it and finally time
drain number five is squandering the
spare minutes now this is something that
Matthew dicks talks about and amazing
way in the book someday is today which
is an amazing read when it comes to
mastering time management and stuff but
basically the idea here is that we all
tend to squander the minutes let's say
you've got like I don't know 17 minutes
before your next call or before you have
to leave the house to meet up with
friends or your next like gym session or
whatever the thing is it's easy to
default to thinking oh it's 17 minutes
like you know I can't really get
anything done in 17 minutes and this is
probably the thing that I struggle with
most today still even though I'm you
know I would say I'm pretty good at
managing my time because I've eliminated
all these other time drains but it's
like you know I'll just randomly be be
like okay 17 minutes cool I guess I'll
just watch a YouTube video I guess I'll
go on Amazon I guess I'll think you know
I'll go on WhatsApp and be like oh my
God I have all these things to reply to
I will sort of be in this limbo mode of
sort of doing nothing until it's time to
do something and what I'm really trying
to get better at when it comes to time
management is recognizing that really
every minute counts
17 minutes is quite a lot of time to
make progress on like a thing that's
actually meaningful to me and the key is
to just be intentional with how we're
using those little bits of time now I
did a great job of this back when I had
a 9 to5 when I would have 17 minutes in
between patience or waiting for a blood
result or a scan to come back that means
I can log onto notion I can like type up
some stuff I can go on my iPad I can
plan my next YouTube video while I'm at
work because I realized the value of
those 17 minutes but since leaving my 9
to5 now I devalue those 17 minutes and I
think valuing the minutes is something
that can add an enormous amount of
capacity for you to do more of the
things that are intentional to you now
crucially you might be thinking well you
know what if I just want to use those 17
minutes to relax and I would say amazing
I'm all for using those 17 minutes or
whatever it is to intentionally relax
and not just sort of like scatter a gun
let me just sort of do Potter around and
just waste my time doing random stuff so
I hope you found something from this
video that's at least useful at least
one experiment that you could
potentially try in your life and see if
it works for you and if enjoyed this
video then over here is part three where
we're going to be talking about the five
key skills that you need to master to
get better at managing your time so
that'll be in that video over here thank
you so much for watching and I'll see
you there