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Shadowing practice: How I Manage My Time - 10 Time Management Tips

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  1. Alright, so over the past 10 years I have read basically all of the books around productivity and time management.0:00
  2. And in that time, there are 10 things that I still use in my life, genuinely use to help make my time management more efficient.0:06
  3. Let's talk about them in this video.0:13
  4. Tip number one is that we absolutely own all of our time.0:15
  5. Now, this is like a big one.0:18
  6. When I first had this realization, my life genuinely changed because I used to think I don't have time to do stuff.0:22
  7. And I don't know where I read it, but I came across this like, probably like a fortune cookie somewhere, which said something like, at any given moment you are0:28
  8. doing what you most want to be doing.0:36
  9. And that was a very empowering thing for me because I was obviously in need of empowerment.0:38
  10. And it helped me realize that my time is entirely within my control.0:42
  11. Like, right now I'm filming this video because I want to be.0:45
  12. Earlier today I spent six hours playing World of Warcraft because that's what I wanted to do.0:48
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  1. I could not have said I don't have the time to work out today.0:52
  2. Instead it was a case of I'm actively choosing not to make the time to work out today.0:54
  3. And so when it comes to time management, like, step one is always to recognize that we are always in control of our own time.0:58
  4. Yes, you might have a boss.1:03
  5. Yes, you might have parents telling you what to do.1:05
  6. But fundamentally, you are in control of your own time and you can choose to do whatever you want with that time.1:06
  7. If you don't have the time to do something, that something is just not a priority, which is fine.1:11
  8. But don't pretend like the reason you're not doing it is because you genuinely don't have the time.1:15
  9. Point number two is the title of this book by Derek Sivers.1:19
  10. Hell yeah or no, what's worth doing?1:21
  11. Now, the vibe here, hell yeah or no, it kind of says it all in the title.1:24
  12. When we're young and we don't have very many opportunities in our lives, we should probably say yes to the majority of things that are coming our way.1:27
  13. But as soon as we get to a point where we're starting to get more inbound leads than we have time available, we start operating with a hell yeah or1:34
  14. no maxim.1:42
  15. And the idea there is something is either a hell yes or it's a no.1:43
  16. And so if I get an email from someone saying, hey, do you want to do this thing?1:46
  17. And I'm thinking, maybe it sounds kind of alright.1:49
  18. Then my default position is going to be no.1:52
  19. If I get an email from someone saying, hey, do you want to do this thing?1:53
  20. And I'm like, hell yeah, then I'm going to do the thing.1:56
  21. And I'm trying to get better at using this principle in my life because even now, my calendar is full of a lot of things where I'm like, huh, yeah,1:59
  22. kind of rather than hell yeah too.2:07
  23. And now I always regret doing it when it comes down.2:09
  24. So hell yeah or no, just like learning to be okay with saying no to stuff.2:11
  25. It's another really important principle of time management.2:14
  26. Thirdly, there's a tip I picked up from this book called Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zaratsky.2:16
  27. And this tip is called the daily highlight.2:21
  28. This is like deviously simple.2:22
  29. Basically the idea is that every day we decide this thing, this one thing is going to be my highlight of the day.2:24
  30. This is the only thing I need to get done today.2:30
  31. And on the days where I set a daily highlight and I try and do this every day, I always get the thing done and I'm always really happy at2:33
  32. the end of the day.2:38
  33. But if I have a day where I don't set my daily highlight, then I kind of drown in my to -do list and I have this just image in2:39
  34. my head of like, oh yeah, I need to do this and this and this and that.2:45
  35. And it's a lot harder to get stuff done.2:48
  36. Whereas on days where I have the daily highlight, I have that just one thing that I'm focusing on.2:49
  37. You know, this is the most urgent or the most satisfying or the most fun thing I have to do today.2:53
  38. And then it just really, really helps with my time management.2:58
  39. Tip number four for time management is to use a to -do list.3:00
  40. And these days I use a physical to -do list with this analog by Ogmonk.3:03
  41. It's very nice.3:07
  42. And it's like you get these like note cards and then you get this like wooden thing and you like put the note card in the thing and it looks3:09
  43. like this.3:14
  44. And that means like every morning, once I figured out what my daily highlight is, I make a list of the other stuff that I have to do that day3:15
  45. and I shove it on a list and then I tick them off and cross them off with physical pen as I go throughout my day.3:20
  46. It doesn't really matter what system you use for a to -do list, but again, there's a general principle of productivity, which is that our brain is for having ideas,3:25
  47. not for holding them.3:33
  48. And a big part of why we let stuff slip through the cracks when it comes to managing our time and managing our productivity is because we haven't written them3:34
  49. down.3:40
  50. And so anytime I need to do something, I write it down into an app.3:41
  51. These days I use Rome.3:44
  52. But then when I figure out my daily to -do list, it's all based on this analog system by Ugmonk, which is very nice.3:45
  53. And it's kind of cool having a physical to -do list in front of me that I can cross things off of and it just feels nice.3:51
  54. And yeah, even at work, when I'm working as a doctor, I use physical to -do lists to manage my patient list, to manage my list of tasks.3:57
  55. There's something incredibly satisfying about crossing something off, which you just don't get when you use an app.4:02
  56. Principle number five, time management is the concept of time blocking.4:06
  57. Apparently this is something that Elon Musk does all the time.4:10
  58. And basically the idea there is anytime we need to do something, we put a block for it in our calendar.4:12
  59. So I don't like doing this for absolutely everything because I'm a bit of a waste man.4:17
  60. And I think the more time I spend managing my productivity system, the less time I spend actually getting stuff done, and then it's just all completely pointless.4:20
  61. But the one thing that I always schedule into my calendar at the start of the day is my daily highlight.4:27
  62. So if I've decided my daily highlight is filming this video, usually, well, I'll try my best to schedule it into my calendar at the time where I know I'm4:33
  63. going to film the video.4:40
  64. If my daily highlight is call my grandma, I will literally scroll schedule it into my calendar.4:41
  65. If my daily highlight is make changes to my website, I will schedule it at like for a block in my calendar.4:46
  66. And that's like really nice and reassuring because it means that that one thing that I've decided is really, really important is always going to get done because it's always4:51
  67. on the schedule.4:57
  68. And then if I need to move it around, I'll move it around if something comes up.4:58
  69. But at least it's there on the schedule by default.5:00
  70. And this thing where you combine the daily highlight with time blocking it in the calendar is just incredibly useful.5:03
  71. Everyone always kind of thinks that like, oh, but only one thing a day, don't you have to do more than that?5:07
  72. And yeah, you do kind of have to do more than that in most of our lives.5:12
  73. But imagine if every single day for the next year, you could actually do the one thing, the one most important thing to do that day, you'd make a hell5:14
  74. of a lot of progress over the course of the year and it would just be absolutely game -changing.5:22
  75. Principle number six is related to something called Parkinson's Law, which is that work expands to fill the time that we allocate to it.5:25
  76. So if I have to film a YouTube video in a day, and I give myself the whole day to film that YouTube video, inevitably, it's going to take all5:31
  77. day to film the YouTube video.5:37
  78. Whereas if I only give myself half an hour or an hour to film the YouTube video, and I film my day up with other things, then inevitably I get5:38
  79. the video done in that small amount of time.5:44
  80. And so the actionable advice here is to leverage artificial deadlines, even when it's something like filming a new course.5:46
  81. Like, you know, I'm working on a course for YouTube for Beginners, where I kind of film and talk to you about my YouTube video production process.5:52
  82. And this doesn't really have a deadline, like I could literally do it whenever I want.5:58
  83. I don't have to do it.6:01
  84. It's purely optional project.6:02
  85. But I've set myself the goal that, okay, you know what?6:03
  86. I'm going to film all of this course next weekend.6:06
  87. And I've blocked out time in my calendar next weekend to film the course.6:08
  88. And that's an artificial deadline, which means the course is going to get done.6:11
  89. Whereas if I just had it in my mind or in my to -do list without a deadline, without a schedule, it would just inevitably never ever get done.6:14
  90. Point number seven is one I've started applying recently, and that is having protected time.6:22
  91. When you're an entrepreneur and you're like working for yourself and all that kind of stuff, you end up basically being able to set whatever schedule you want.6:26
  92. But, like, if you're like me and you're like making connections and making friends with people all around the internet, you get to a point where your day is filled6:31
  93. with lots and lots of Zoom calls.6:39
  94. And I realize that for me, I need to keep my mornings completely free of any obligations or any Zoom calls.6:41
  95. And this has been an absolute game changer because in the morning, that means I can wake up whenever I want.6:47
  96. Usually it's half past eight these days.6:51
  97. And it means that for a solid, like, four hours at least, I've got uninterrupted time where I can do whatever I want.6:52
  98. So these days I'm working on writing my book, and so the morning is my protected time for writing.6:58
  99. But even on days where I'm not working on the book, it's just genuinely so nice to have that, like, time slot where I can think about the business or7:02
  100. plan some more videos or do the things that help move me forward in my work career.7:08
  101. And sometimes, if I'm not really feeling it, I'll just decide, you know what, I'm going to use this protected time to play World of Warcraft or to just kind7:14
  102. of relax and read a book on the sofa.7:20
  103. So if you're interested in better ways to managing your time, I would recommend figuring out what your protected time is going to be, time that is just for you7:22
  104. and you alone, or World of Warcraft, and not for anyone else where no one is allowed to book something in your schedule.7:29
  105. All right, principle number eight is delegation.7:34
  106. Now, this one is a little bit weird because normally when you say the word delegate, people imagine that, oh, well, I can't afford to delegate something.7:36
  107. I don't have enough money to delegate to hire someone.7:43
  108. And sure, that's probably true, but the way that I think of it, even when this YouTube channel wasn't successful, was that, like, what is actually the dollar value of7:46
  109. my time?7:55
  110. How much is my time actually worth?7:56
  111. And when it came to running my business, I decided that, okay, my time is worth 20 pounds an hour or $25 an hour.7:57
  112. And that means that anything I'm doing that I don't enjoy, that I can outsource to someone that I can delegate for less than $25 an hour, I absolutely should8:03
  113. do that.8:10
  114. And that principle of delegation has encouraged me to get a cleaner, which has been great because now we have someone who comes in to clean the house every other8:11
  115. week, which means I don't have to do it myself.8:16
  116. And back in the day when I was building my businesses from the ground up, and there was lots of things that needed to be done, like data entry or8:18
  117. things like that, I was able to delegate those to freelancers in, like, the Philippines or in Bangladesh or in India through Upwork .com or Fiverr .com.8:24
  118. And, like, paying them, like, $7 an hour is an amazing, like, wage for someone for work in the Philippines.8:31
  119. But it was fantastic for me because it freed up my time to do things that were adding more value to the business and to my life than doing data8:36
  120. entry, for example.8:43
  121. And so whatever your circumstances are, I'd encourage you to think about what is the dollar value of your time and potentially, if you want, can you delegate stuff that's8:44
  122. cheaper than that to other people, potentially.8:54
  123. Tip number nine for time management is to try and automate scheduling as much as possible.8:56
  124. Now that we're in the world of, like, Zoom calls and, like, chatting to people over the internet basically every day, I found I was wasting a lot of time9:00
  125. in scheduling back and forth where I'd be like, hey, I want to talk to you, but, like, are you free this time, Pacific time, this time Eastern time, this9:06
  126. time British standard time, all this kind of stuff.9:12
  127. And we'd go back and forth with emails for, like, a solid 10 days before anything would get done.9:14
  128. But then I discovered an app called Calendly, and Calendly is great.9:18
  129. It's free for, like, the free version I pay for the pro, for the pro version these days, not sponsoring this video or anything like that.9:21
  130. Unfortunately, Calendly, if you're watching this, let me know.9:26
  131. But the idea behind Calendly is you can literally send someone a link and it has, like, all of your availability and they can just book a slot in your9:28
  132. calendar.9:34
  133. Now, this feels a little bit weird to do initially.9:35
  134. It feels like a bit of a power move that, hey, book a slot on my calendar.9:37
  135. But anytime I get a Calendly link from someone, I'm like, oh my God, I'm so grateful because this has literally saved me 20 minutes of my life, time that9:40
  136. I'm never going to get back in not having to worry about scheduling back and forth emails.9:46
  137. Even sometimes these days when it comes to, like, caching up with friends, I just send them a Calendly link and I'm like, look, hey, man, I'm really sorry.9:50
  138. But, like, you know, here's a Calendly link.9:56
  139. I know we're never going to talk because the schedules are never going to align, but if there's a time that works for you, click on this link.9:58
  140. And he books a time and we have a call and it's nice because I've caught up with so many more friends in the last few months through using Calendly10:02
  141. links than I did in the last, like, three years of having to schedule back and forth with WhatsApp messages.10:08
  142. And finally, principle number 10 for time management.10:13
  143. And this is something I've only recently started to appreciate, which is that, like, when you're like a productivity nerd and you're interested in, like, efficiency and getting more done,10:15
  144. it's very easy for us to get to the end of the day and to just feel chronically dissatisfied with what we've accomplished.10:22
  145. Like, at the end of the day, it's like, oh, well, I filmed one video today, but I could have filmed five videos.10:29
  146. What's wrong with me?10:33
  147. I'm such a waste man and kind of internally beating ourselves up about this.10:33
  148. But one thing I've started to kind of tell myself recently is that I can choose to be satisfied at the end of the day.10:37
  149. At the end of this day, I'll have filmed this video.10:41
  150. I was planning to film three more videos, but I didn't get around to doing those.10:43
  151. That's fine.10:47
  152. I filmed one.10:47
  153. I can choose to be satisfied with what I've done and that's all good.10:48
  154. And like, it doesn't change how much work I've done by me beating myself up about it.10:51
  155. It just makes me feel bad.10:56
  156. And therefore, I can choose to feel good with how I've managed my time.10:58
  157. If you're interested in more strategies on how to manage your time, I actually have three whole online courses themed around productivity and time management that are hosted on Skillshare.11:01
  158. No, they're not sponsoring this video, but if you hit the link in the video description, there will be a link that gives you a free trial to Skillshare where11:08
  159. you can check out my three classes on productivity.11:14
  160. One of them is about the fundamentals of productivity.11:16
  161. One of them is about the productivity equation, which is my personal mental model for productivity.11:18
  162. And the third one is one that I released very recently, like last week, around productivity for creators and how we manage our time doing this like creative high side11:22
  163. hustle entrepreneur type stuff.11:29
  164. So check that out with the links in the video description.11:31
  165. And if you want more tips for time management and general productivity, you should check out my book review and summary of the book Make Time, which is one of11:33
  166. my favorite productivity books of all time.11:39
  167. And that will be linked right over there.11:40
  168. So thank you so much for watching.11:42
  169. Have a great day.11:43
  170. And I'll see you in the next video.11:44
  171. Bye bye.11:45

A fast paced British lecture on time management for English speaking practice

This clip opens Ali Abdaal's video on time management. He explains that "over the past 10 years I have read basically all of the books around productivity and time management," then moves into his first tip, that "we absolutely own all of our time." The recording is British English, delivered at 276 words per minute, faster than 98 percent of the clips in this catalogue, so keeping pace while you repeat a line is itself the exercise.

The level is B1, and the style is closer to a friend talking than a textbook. Casual asides like "Now, this is like a big one" sit next to plain, complete claims such as the one about owning your time. It is a lecture, so it doubles as English listening practice: you follow one speaker's argument for a full sentence before you try to say it back, rather than jumping between two voices in a conversation.

British English pronunciation practice: phrases from this productivity talk

This recording has no reduced forms flagged, so it is a clean model for British English pronunciation practice: full words, but real stress and pacing across a fast talk. Three lines are worth isolating.

  • "When I first had this realization, my life genuinely changed because I used to think I don't have time to do stuff." The stress lands hard on "genuinely," and "stuff" trails off quietly at the end, a very British way of closing a sentence.
  • "Earlier today I spent six hours playing World of Warcraft because that's what I wanted to do." The clause after "because" is not an excuse, it is the whole point, so "wanted" needs the stress, not "six hours."
  • "If you don't have the time to do something, that something is just not a priority, which is fine." The comma before "which is fine" drops the pitch instead of raising it, worth copying if your own sentences tend to rise at the end.

How to shadow this line by line, B1 lecture, in order

Work through this English speaking practice video in the order Abdaal actually talks, not by picking favourite lines. It runs to 183 lines, so build a route through the first tip before moving further into the video.

  • Start with the opening line, "Alright, so over the past 10 years I have read basically all of the books around productivity and time management." Listen once at full pace before you try to shadow it.
  • Shadow "Tip number one is that we absolutely own all of our time" on its own. It is short, complete, and states the whole argument in one breath.
  • Pair "I could not have said I don't have the time to work out today" with "Instead it was a case of I'm actively choosing not to make the time to work out today." Say them back to back to feel the stress move from "time" to "choosing."
  • Finish the set with "Yes, you might have a boss." and "Yes, you might have parents telling you what to do." Two lines built the same way, good for practising matching rhythm across a pair of sentences.
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