Ali Abdaal offers a fresh approach to productivity by arguing that balancing goals with personal joy leads to more fulfillment than focusing solely on output alone.
The main theme is that feeling good can boost our productivity and creativity.
⚡ Energize
The first section of his book focuses on how to get motivated and energized when doing tasks.
🌴 Adventure Mindset
Embrace life with a sense of adventure. A study found that those who had more adventurous experiences - those who took themselves off to a wider and more random assortment of places felt happier, more excited, and more relaxed
🚗 Change the route to take to work
☕ Go to a new coffee shop
🖼️ Take a trip to a local museum
🎨 Go on "artist dates" (solo trips with yourself coined by Julia Cameron)
🛝 Play Personalities
Adopt a play personality to make life more enjoyable. Think: What would this look like if it were fun? See if you can put on one of these personality hats to make your activity fun.
For example, if I have to run errands: taking things to Goodwill, stopping by the post office to mail a gift, or picking up some groceries - I will put on the "explorer" hat and go to a new coffee shop, wander around, and even swing by a few stores I have never been to because I have adopted a more fun "explorer" personality for this activity.
🗃️ Collector - Enjoys gathering and organizing
🥇 Competitor - Enjoys games and sports
🧭 Explorer - Enjoys wandering
🔨 Creator - Enjoys making things
✍🏼 Storyteller - Enjoys entertaining people
🤣 Joker - Enjoys making people laugh
🎬 Director - Enjoys planning and leading others
👟 Athlete - Enjoys physical exertion
👩👧👦 Relational Energy
Our interactions with others can have a profound effect on our mood.
💡 Mindset Shift: What would it look like if these people weren’t competitors, but comrades?
🔒 Unblock
The second section of his book focuses on how we can unblock and beat procrastination.
Uncertainty paralysis - happens when we become overwhelmed by the unknowns or the complexity of the situation, leading to an inability to act.
Tips!
- 🗓️ Time blocking - Schedule appointments with yourself to do specific tasks
- 🔮 Crystal Ball Method - Think about the things that are going to get in your way before you do the task (write down the top 3 reasons why you might not finish this task)
- ✨ Reducing Friction - What can you do to make that task slightly easier? Ex. Laying out clothes the day before work
😱 Fear
Reduce fear with the 10/10/10 rule. Think of a failure or problem you are facing, and ask yourself these (3) questions:
- Will this matter in 10 minutes?
- Will this matter in 10 weeks?
- Will this matter in 10 years?
🪴 Sustain
Lastly, this section focuses on how to avoid burnout.
🔥 Burnout
There are (3) types of burnout, and each type has to be solved in a different way.
🪫 Overexertion: Working too hard and over-committing
⏸️ Depletion: Your mood is suffering and you need a longer break
🧭 Misalignment: Focusing on the wrong tasks
💡 Overexertion and Depletion Burnout Fixes
Here are a few tips from the book to avoid overexertion and depletion burnouts.
⌛ Schedule Your Breaks
Put a "fake" meeting on your calendar that says "Break" after long or intense meetings. That "fake" meeting may cost you 30 minutes of productivity but could save you weeks of recovery from hitting burnout. It's an investment.
🧶 Hobbies
Find an activity completely unrelated to work. Since I have an addiction to productivity my hobbies tend to be a little more output-focused:
- Reading
- Scrapbooking photos
- Planning (buying) gifts for friends
- Organizing random places in my house (under the sink, closet, craft room, desk)
🪴 Plants
Buying and bringing in plants might sound weird. But there is a ton of research that shows plants reduce stress and increase productivity. Might be the best $20 you ever spent!
✍🏼 Write off a Day
Pick a day and choose to do nothing. On that day don't run errands, don't read emails, don't text anyone back, don't read a book, don't do anything productive.
I personally like to lay in my bed and watch MasterChef or Grey's Anatomy. It's almost like a "fake sick day."
💡Misalignment Burnout Fixes
🚀 Odyssey Plan
Create (3) plans for your life that vary in risk.
- Current path (nothing changes): Continue to work in Construction Estimating and eventually become a mid-level/executive manager
- Alternate path (realistic pivot): Transition into software product management either for a software company or as a consultant
- Radical path (bold and risky): Take YouTube full-time and do not work a traditional 9-5 job
🛟 Wheel of Life
Rank your life on these categories to have a quick check-in with yourself. It helps re-align your priorities and see if anything needs adjustment.
- 👯 Friends: Social life is going great right now - the most social I have been all year honestly (10/10)
- 💖 Relationship: In a happy, chill & solid spot! (8/10)
- 👩👧👦 Family: I live with my family so I feel like I am cheating here haha! (8/10)
- 🚀 Growth: I just finished a course, and I'm taking a new one (more Python lol) - super happy here! (10/10)
- 💸 Money: In the last year or so I have felt the most financially stable (10/10)
- 💼 Work: A bit chaotic because of the layoff announcements even though I am confident I will be fine (3/10)
- 💞 Soul: I haven't volunteered as much as I'd like to (3/10)
- 🧠 Mind: I recently ran into someone who messed with my head a few years back so we are in recovery lol (3/10)
- 🫀 Physical Health: I have been getting those 10,000 steps in - I feel good here! (10/10)
🎬 Full Video
Here is the link to the full video. Hope this gave you a quick run-through of the highlights I took away from this book (and how I applied them to my life).