- All right. So for some reason, people on the internet seem to think that I'm some kind of productivity guru, I literally have no idea why. 157 words per minute,
there we go, world record. Because even though I give the impression that I do lots of things, I am quite lazy and a bit
of a waste man at heart. And so in this video, I'm gonna take you behind the scenes of my Lazi Productivity
System, patent pending. And this is the system
that I use to juggle all the things that I do, like
being a doctor, a YouTuber, an entrepreneur, a podcaster
and D-list celebrity. Let's start with the first
component and that is L standing for "Lash." Now lash is basically
how I view my calendar. My calendar is my lash. It basically is the whip, the lash that tells me what I'm doing on any given moment of any given day. Honestly, I think most
productivity systems in the world by effective people it just boil down to
using a calendar properly. So if you're struggling
with your productivity, for whatever reason, and you're not using your
calendar to organize your life you're probably doing it wrong, and if you start using a calendar things will just go better. There's basically three main
ways in which I use a calendar that I think you should
use a calendar as well. The first one is time blocking. If I have to do something, if I want to do something, I put a block in my calendar
when I'm gonna do the thing. For example, right now, there's a block in my calendar
for filming this video. Later on in the day I'm going out to dinner with some friends so there's a block in
the calendar for that. Obviously there's blocks in the calendar for anytime I have a
phone call and sometimes I even block in relaxation
time on the calendar just to remind me to actually do it. The second way in which I use a calendar is that I live my life
based on calendar invites. If a friend is inviting
me to do something, then I have to create
a calendar event for it and send them an email invite
which they're gonna accept because ultimately if
something is not in my calendar it's just not gonna happen. And finally, third main reason for using a calendar is that you can then set out
like protected blocks of time for deep work activities. So for me, every morning
between 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM, I have a protected block of
time for writing my book. And that's great because in the morning that's when my creative juices
are flowing more regularly, and if I don't have that
blocked off in my calendar other randomized pointless things are gonna end up taking up that time. And right now for me writing the book is the most important thing
I could be doing with my time therefore it's protected in the mornings. If you're wondering about apps, the one I prefer to use on iOS devices, it's called a Fantastical. It's a bit expensive, but like Google Calendar it's
a very good free alternative. So if you're not using a calendar, I think that's by far
the most important part of any productivity system
and that is the lash. Alright, next part of the
Lazi Productivity System is A which stands for agenda. Now this basically means a to-do list but the way I approach
to-do lists is different to how a lot of people do it. That's because I'm a lazy waste man and therefore I don't really
like it when I have a list of things that I have to do, because then I feel like I'm
beholden to my to-do list and it's just not nice and then it makes ticking
off tasks on my list feel as if I've got a boss and I have this like really deep desire to never have a boss in my life. Therefore, I don't really
like the traditional way of managing a to-do list. And so instead for me the way that I do it is
that instead of a to-do list I have a might-do list. And a might-do list, it's just that I do
have things written down but they're not things that I have to do they're things that I can
do if I really want to. And just that slight
distinction makes me feel like I'm the boss I'm in control, rather than that my to-do
list is in control of me. Now with my to-do list there is one important
thing that I do every day and that is the only thing
that I absolutely have to do, and that is called my daily highlight. So every single day I will define what is the one most important
thing I have to do today, and that will go to the
very top of my to-do list. And then everything else on my to-do list is just like things that I
could do if I really wanted to, and sometimes I do lots of them and sometimes I do none of them, but it's all good because the only thing I have
to do is my daily highlight. If you're wondering, I actually prefer to use paper
for most of my to-do lists, and this is the analog system by Ugmonk, it's a bit overpriced, but
it really is very nice. You get this little, like
you would in the thing. And when you have your to-do list you can like put it in
front of you on paper so you can see it every day and it's a little bit
excessively priced, but hey, if you're succor for well-designed
aesthetic productivity things like me, this
is really, really good. I'll put a link in the video
description an affiliate link, if you wanna check it out
with a bit of a discount. All right. So we talked about the
lash and the agenda, let's move on to Z, which
stands for Zettelkasten. Zettelkasten is German for slip box and this is a note-taking and
knowledge management system that's popularized by
a chap called Luhmann. And Luhmann was particularly famous because he was like
super, super productive. He wrote 70 books and over 400 articles over the course of his life. He had around 90,000 notes within his Zettelkasten slip box system which I think this was like
the 1800s or something. He did it on like slips of
actual paper index cards. But the way that I use this
Zettelkasten method is updated for the 21st century, and I use an app called Roam Research for my personal note-taking stuff. Yes, I still use Notion, but that's mostly for team-related things and for keeping track of projects whereas Roam is my
personal note-taking app. And there's a lot of detail to go into with this Zettelkasten system which I will do at some other point but basically it's like any
time I consume something if I read a book or an
article or listen to a podcast I will do my best to
write down a few notes about the thing that I've
just read in my own words in a series of "Zettels." That's a little bit complicated, it's not really part of the
productivity system as such but there is one thing that
I do within Roam Research within my note-taking
app every single morning. And that's something that
I call the morning dump. And the idea behind the morning dump is that every day I will
start a new note in Roam and I will just write down
whatever is on my mind. This is kind of similar to another exercise for
creativity called morning pages. And the idea behind morning pages is that every morning you sit down and you write three handwritten pages, just a free writing exploring
whatever your thoughts are. But again, because I'm
a bit of a waste man I can't be bothered to actually sit down and write three pages by hand. And so the morning dump is
a more permissive version of morning pages where the idea is, look, I just need to write down
whatever's on my mind. I'm going to dump my brain out onto this page or onto
this window in the app. And that's like genuinely
quite helpful for me because usually I find
that there's random stuff that's just been building up in my brain, often there's things that I need to do or that I might want to do or appointments in my calendar
or people I need to reply to, and so generally as I'm
doing my morning dump I realize, oh, I should
do this and this and this, or I might wanna do that, and then I will write it
on my physical to-do list because then it's, you know,
it's part of the agenda. The other cool thing about using Roam is that I can automatically
synchronize all of my highlights from Kindle predominantly but
also from AIRR audio podcast and also from Instapaper
when I read articles and that all synchronizes straight to Roam using an app called Readwise. And there's more details about that in a video up there somewhere, called the "Five Magical
Apps That Changed My Life." Now the problem with Roam is that it's a little
bit complicated to use and I have like so many
other ways in which I use it. It's a bit too much to go
into in a YouTube video but I have all of those
videos available on Nebula. If you haven't heard, Nebula is an independent
streaming platform that's built by me and a
bunch of other creators that you might be familiar with. And Nebula is a good place for
us to be able to put content like an in-depth tutorial series about how exactly how I
use Roam without worrying about it being too niche
for the YouTube algorithm. In fact, a few months ago, I even taught a weekend online course where I taught 100 and something people how to use Roam Research over the course of two or three hours. All the proceeds from that went to the Against Malaria Foundation so we ended up raising
about $8,000 for it. But if you couldn't attend that live session a few months ago you'll find the recording
of it over at Nebula again. But Ali, how do I sign up to Nebula? Well, I'm really glad you asked
because the best way to sign up to Nebula is to
actually make an account with CuriosityStream who are very kindly sponsoring this video. CuriosityStream is the world's leading documentary streaming
subscription platform. And on CuriosityStream they've got thousands
of really high quality, high budget titles that
you can choose from. One series in particular that I've enjoyed is called "The Human Limits" which is a series of four
really interesting episodes that explores the limits
of human performance and super brains, the
power of the human mind, and how we can adapt to all
these interesting conditions. And the really cool thing
about CuriosityStream is that they love supporting
independent creators. And so we've got a bundle
deal with CuriosityStream which is that if you sign up
to a one year subscription of CuriosityStream, which is less than $15 for the whole year, you get free access to
Nebula bundled with that. So for less than $15 a year, you get thousands of high quality, high budget documentaries, and you also get all of my
original stuff on Nebula, along with originals from a load of my other creative friends, like Tom Scott and Legal
Eagle and Lindsay Ellis and Wendover Production and Thomas Frank. If that sounds up your street, then head over to CURIOSITYSTREAM.COM/ALI and then when you sign up to an account with CuriosityStream you'll get your Nebula
details emailed to you and then you can watch
my entire workflow series where I tell you how I use
Roam, how we use Notion, how I use all these apps to combine to build this Lazi Productivity System. And the final component of the Lazi Productivity System is I which stands for inventory. Inventory basically means
file management and archive. So in terms of file management I use Google Drive for
absolutely everything. My entire life is on Google Drive and I almost never store anything on my actual Mac in terms
of physical files anymore. And so that means that
whatever device I'm using whether I'm using a MacBook or my Mac mini or if I'm on a friend's
laptop, or if I'm on my iPad, or even if I'm on this
Microsoft Surface Laptop that I've been trying recently,
whichever device I'm on, I always have a way to access
my files on Google Drive. So if you're currently not
using a file backup system like Google Drive or OneDrive
or Dropbox or iCloud Drive you probably should be using something. I've tried all of them and Google Drive is the one that I prefer. The other element of my inventory system
is actually Evernote. Now Evernote is a bit
of an old fashioned app. It's sort of like the Microsoft of apps and people are like, well, why would you use Evernote? It's really old. But Evernote is still
really good for using as a sort of archive system. Where anytime I get a letter, anytime I get anything I need to save I just chuck it straight
into Evernote because I know that whatever happens
come hell or high water I think is the phrase, whatever happens, Evernote
will be there for my files. And so right now I'm in
the process of applying for mortgages for various things and having to get bank statements
and tax returns and like, you know, company, house documents. And I'm just really glad
that I've been taking photos of these for the last 10 years of my life and just chucking them into Evernote because they've got a really good like optical character
recognition search function. So I can literally type in corporation tax and it will find all of the
letters I've ever received about corporation tax because they're all somewhere
in the Evernote thing. And the really nice thing about Evernote is that I actually don't need to worry about categorization or organization. Again, I'm a bit of a waste man. I'm quite lazy. I don't like the idea of having to put something in a folder. I just love the idea of being
able to snap a photo of it, chuck it into Evernote, wherever I want. And I know that using the search function it's gonna be there for me when I need it. So that was the Lazi Productivity System, the lash, the agenda, the
Zettelkasten and the inventory. If you're interested in more
ways for being productive you might like to check
out this video over here which is "10 Top Tips for Time Management" and these tips interact
with my Lazi System so you've got the tips from there, you've got the apps from here and then you too will be a
productivity grease monkey. So thank you so much for watching and hopefully I'll see
you in the next video. Bye-bye. (upbeat music)
