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Status: Tags: Links: Ali Abdaal’s Productivity Skillshare Class Video Project

Ali Abdaal Productivity Masterclass Skillshare Class Notes

Ali Abdaal Productivity Masterclass Skillshare Class Script

Future Reading

• Zero to one
• The happiness advantage

Notes

• Ali abdaal is not a pioneer of productivity, he is merely an avid productivity enjoyer that has learned and tried out various different techiniques of productivity
  • Reviewing is sometimes as effective as creating it as long as you have your own personal and unique insights

2 - Reflection

Reflective practice helps us:

1. Learn from our experiences
   • Find weaknesses/strengths
   • Make improvements for next time
2. Makes the information we learn actionable

The course has a reflection prompt at the end of each lesson to help further understand and apply the concepts covered

3 - Productivity Equation

• Productivity = Useful Output / Time x Fun Factor
• It’s important to make sure our accomplishments are aligned with our goals
• Making productivity fun makes us less reliant on motivation, etc
• Mental model for productivity is the pilot, plane and engineer

  • Productivity is made up of different components

  • The pilot plans the direction and course of the plane

    • Useful part of equation
    • 10% of the time
    • Planning our day
      • ex) Making a to-do list in the beginning or end of the day

  • The plane has to make sure it stays on track

    • Output part of the equation
    • Should be 80% of the time we spend

  • The engineer keeps things efficient and optimized

    • Time part of equation
    • 5-10% of the time
    • Makes sure the plane is staying efficient
    • Stays organized

Reflection Prompt:

• What do I struggle with most of all? The pilot, plane, or engineer? In what ways?

4 - The Myth of Not Having Time

• First myth
• We are in control of our time; it’s not that we don’t have time, it’s that we are not properly managing it
  • We think we don’t have time because we prioritize other things instead
  • Don’t say you “don’t have time”, say you are choosing not to make time
  • Time management is like a muscle; the more we exercise it, the more efficient and effective it becomes Practices:
• Consider tracking every minute of your day

Reflection Prompt:

• What am I avoiding with the phrase, “I don’t have time”

5 - The Myth of Motivation

Traditional Equation

• First we start with a thought, and we desire to turn it into an action

• Motivation lies in between the two, and is what gets us to start doing things

  • However, relying on motivation is ineffective since it makes us struggle to work on the first step

    • We have to actually feel like doing something before doing it

  • Is ineffective for long-term goals since motivation is based off of positive feedback

  • Focusing on the action makes us more willing to do something

    1. Find ways to make it more fun
       • Gameify it through statistics and seeing improvement
         • ex) Listen to music while studying
    2. Worsen consequences of inaction
       • Make it more risky
       • ex) Put money on the line

  • Focusing on the outcome makes us more willing to do something

    1. Create feedback loops
       • Gamifying processes to shorten the feedback loop
    2. Making the outcome more appealing and clarifying
       • Looking at people who have “made it” to give us a reason to do the same

• Interests should be as disciplined as our career work

Discipline

• Feelings are variable; discipline helps us stay consistent and do things without waiting for something to happen

Reflection Prompt:

• What’s a goal I want to achieve?
• How can I make the process more pleasurable?
• Can I increase my odds of hitting the goal by putting money on the line?
• How can I make the outcomes more tangible and desirable?

6 - The Myth of Multitasking

• When we switch from various tasks, we leave a bit of our attention on the things we were previously working on
  • We can never fully focus on a task when we are doing other things as well
  • Thus, focusing on one thing helps us retain our focus

Flow

• Flow is an optimal state of consciousness when we perform and feel our best
  • Grinding is difficult with the absence of flow state
  • The lack of attention residue allows us to achieve flow state
  • It is important to minimize distractions to maintain the amount of attention residue we have
    • Do not disturb
    • It is our choice to be distracted, in reality, avoiding distraction is simple
      • Just hide the root
• To get into a flow state, we need to be fully focused on something that is challenging yet interesting
  • Switching things up can make things more interesting
  • Pursue things in the stretch zone, things that are a bit outside of our comfort zone but are not impossible
    • ex) When studying exam, ask yourself what concepts you would have to revisit if you were to take the exam the following day
    • ex) When running a business, ask yourself what skills can help propel success or what actions can provide the most value

Reflection Prompt:

• What’s one (or more) situations when I was in my flow state?
• What circumstances and mindsets led to that?
• Can I manufacture those condirtions for other stuff I need/want to do?

7 - Parkinson’s Law

• Work expands to fill the time that we allocate to it
  • Having more time to work on something allows for procrastination
• Create a 10 year plan then think about how you’re going to achieve it in 6 months
• Give artificial deadlines that are shorter than the actual deadline or when there are no deadlines
  • Helps prioritize the important parts
  • Helps kickstart our mind into work mode

Why are we not doing simple things when we know they are effective?

Reflection Prompt:

• Make a list of 3-4 long-term tasks you want to do
• What would you do if you only had half as long to do them?
• What about if you had to do them in the next 24 hours?

8 - Pareto’s Principle (80/20 Rule)

• 80% of the outputs come from 20% of the input
  • ex) 80% of the marks come from 20% of the course content
  • ex) Instead of perfecting each paragraph when writing a paper, make a rough draft and continually revise it
  • The other 80% of the inputs give diminishing returns
  • Helps us think about what things we need to focus on and what things aren’t as necessary
    • The new time we gain can be used on other parts of our lives
    • The pilot should guide us to the 20%

Reflection Prompt:

• What 20% of my work is driving 80% of my “useful output”?
• What’s taking up 80% of my time but not contributing much to my outcomes?

9 - Newton’s First Law of Motion

• An object is at rest or travelling at a constant velocity unless it’s acted on by an external, imbalanced force
  • It takes effort to start, but once we start making progress, it’s easier to continue staying productive
  • ex) 2 minute rule
    • If something takes less than 2 minutes to do, do it
  • ex) 5 minute rule
    • If we’re struggling to do something, just try doing it for 5 minutes
      • Helps us start doing things
  • Keystone habits are habits that are simple but provide gateways for productive opportunities
    • ex) Putting on gym clothes encourages us to go exercise
    • ex) Cleaning your desk makes studying easier

Reflection Prompt:

• Do something you have been putting off

10 - The Power of Habit

• Habits are tiny changes we can make in our lives that compound and yield great rewards
  • ex) Improving ourselves by 1% every day makes us improve 365% by the end of the year
  • ex) Hiding our phone when we wake up/go to bed helps us waste less time
  • Helps us gradually shift our identity
    • Once we have our new identity, it becomes harder to do things that don’t align with it
      • ex) Mindless social media scrolling would not feel satisfying for a productive person
      • ex) Building productive habits becomes easier since it reinforces our identity
      • Degrading ourselves reinforces our identity since we are associating ourselves with negative qualities
  • Reduces the need for motivation as there is less friction
• Social contracts keep us accountable for our actions

Reflection Prompt:

• What 3 things would boost my productivity if I made them a habit? How can I help make those habits stick?

11 - Productive Downtime

• It’s important to make the most out of the random downtime we have throughout the day
  • We can replace mindless social media scrolling with effortless and quick work
    • ex) Drafting a paper or doing flashcards while in transit
    • Consider having a “daily highlight” that you want to achieve in the day
    • Consider creating a daily to-do list that you can chip away at during downtime
  • It’s important to experiment with the amount of downtime we give ourselves to see what is most optimal

Reflection Prompt:

• What are some chunks of the day in which I find myself wasting time in way I’d rather not? What can we do to make better use of the time?

12 - Productive Procrastionation

• If you’re a content creator, you can productively procrastinate by finding value in the media we consume
  • ex) Editing styles, method of delivering information
  • ex) Reading random articles and highlighting things that resonate from anything you do
    • Helps as reference/inspiration
  • Make these methods of productive procrastionation more accessible than unproductive procrastination
• Make sure that the time you spend procrastination is truly fun or helpful

Reflection Prompt:

• What items on my bucket/task list can I procrastinate my way to progress on? How so?

13 - Fun Factor

• It is unhealthy and unsustainable to do something we don’t like just for a future reward
  • If you’re not enjoying something, you can either stop doing it or make the process more fun
    • ex) The increase in fun when studying with friends outweights the decrease in productivity
  • What is the point of doing something if you don’t enjoy it?
  • Instead of saying that you have to do something, say you get to do something
  • The environment we are in contributes to our overall enjoyment and happiness
  • Happiness correlates with success, so we can actively try to engage in such a mindset
    • Constantly smile and think positive thoughts

Reflection Prompt:

• What do I have to do in my days that I’m currently not enjoying? If I had to how would I make this stuff more fun?

References:

Created:: 2021-06-10 20:36