Increasing Productivity, Procrastinating Less and Living a Happier, Healthier Life with Ali Abdaal

#72: Entrepreneur, YouTuber, and former doctor, Ali Abdaal, joins Chris to discuss strategies, tools, and tips to live a happier, healthier, and more productive life. They talk about how to dial in productivity, ways to combat procrastination, strategies to read more efficiently, and their favorite apps to organize, process, and store information.

Ali Abdaal (@AliAbdaal) is an entrepreneur, writer, YouTuber, podcaster, and former doctor. His passion is to share evidence-based strategies and tools that enhance productivity, make an impact, and promote a more fulfilling life.

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Selected Links From The Episode

Connect with Ali Abdaal: Website | YouTube | Twitter

Ali’s Resources:

• The Ultimate Guide to Productivity
• These are the 24 apps I actually use each week to run my business and keep my life in order 

Cambridge Recommendations

• Fitzbillies
• River punting

Podcasts Mentioned:

• ATH Episode #63: Deep Work, Digital Minimalism and Becoming So Good They Can’t Ignore You with Cal Newport
• ATH Episode #68: Hosting Cocktail Parties, Building Relationships, Museum Strategies and Friends Newsletters
• The Time Ferriss Show: Mr Money Mustache Interview

Resources Mentioned: 

• Chris Sparks' Performance Assessment
• Books
  • The 4-Hour Workweek
  • Solving the Procrastination Puzzle: A Concise Guide to Strategies for Change
  • Atlas of the Heart
  • The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win
  • Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential
• Apps/interfaces
  • Beeminder app
  • Notes (Apple)
  • Instapaper
  • Readwise affiliate link: extended trial
  • Superhuman affiliate link: free trial
  • Notion
  • Miro
  • Things 3 (IOS)
  • Todoist

Full Show Notes

Ali Abdaal talks about the philosophy behind what lead him to step away from his profession and bet on himself [1:44]

Cal Newport’s Lifestyle Centric Career Planning, advice about taking a bet on yourself, and when to take the leap [5:13]

Learning along the way and converting that information into a paying gig [8:01]

Ali Abdaal describes how he stayed motivated in growing the success of his YouTube channel [11:46]

Ways to balance what is working for your business and what is exciting to you [13:28]

Dialing in your productivity: where and how to start [15:34]

Learning to appreciate the difference between procrastination and prioritization [20:15]

The first step in Ali Abdaal’s three-part way to combat procrastination: the fog of obscurity [22:37]

The bridge of anxiety: recognizing the emotions that lead to procrastination [28:50]  

Using the RAIN method to improve mindfulness and prevent emotions from getting in the way [29:16]

Weighing outcomes based on positive or negative expected value [32:34]

The hump of inertia: recognizing the need for a push of energy to get started [34:31]

Apps and interfaces to process and store information [41:04]

Ali Abdaal’s life-changing productivity tactics [47:02] 

Reading more effectively and efficiently for increased retention [52:06]

Ali Abdaal’s favorite Cambridge recommendations [56:46]

Where to find everything Ali is working on [57:38]

Connect with Chris

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