I’ve decided to resurrect a tradition that goes back to the early days of my YouTube channel – Monthly Favourites. I used to make these videos each month, back in 2017-2018, where I’d share some books, podcast episodes, videos, articles etc that I enjoyed that month. I ended up scrapping the series because it didn’t perform well at all, but now 6+ years later, I’d like to resurrect it in LifeNotes. (Here are some links if you’d like to see a very young version of me gushing about various books).
Big thank you to everyone who’s sent in feedback over the years to the effect of: “We like seeing what your favourites are, what you’re reading and watching and listening to”. So the goal is that each month, I’m going to attempt to share what my favourites for that month were in this very email.
Hope you find some gems below and have a great week!
Ali xx
📚 Books
🧘♂️ Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman – If you’re someone who always feels overwhelmed by the amount of stuff you have to do, this will be a great read. “You will never actually get on top of everything” is an insight I’ve been trying to internalise for myself ever since I read his other book, Four Thousand Weeks.
🌏 Choosing Easy World by Julia Rogers Hamrick – A bit of a “woo” read, but I really loved it. The book’s core idea is that whatever’s going on in our lives, we can simply choose to live in “Easy World” where everything is easy. I’ve been trying to go through my days with this “Easy World” approach, and so far, it’s broadly working – I’m still getting stuff done, but with much less resistance.
👶 The Positive Birth Book by Milli Hill – This is a guide to “hypnobirthing” or “mindful birthing” that my wife Izzy has been learning a lot about as we prepare for our first baby’s arrival. Really good read, I had no idea about how a lot of pregnancy stuff worked (in med school, we focus on what goes wrong, rather than what can go right). Would recommend if you’re expecting, or just generally interested in pregnancy, labour and birth 🙂
👾 Games
🧙♂️ World of Warcraft – I’ve been absolutely loving getting back into WoW, playing as a Paladin tank. It’s been a fun way to revisit nostalgia from my childhood, and a nice flow-inducing activity to do on some weekends and evenings. Everyone tells me it’s a good time to get the gaming out of my system before baby arrives. If you play, add me: AliAbdaal#2149
🤝 It Takes Two – My wife and I started playing this couch co-op on the PS5. We’re only a few hours in but it’s great so far, and it’s been a fun “casual date night in” activity that we can do together. Would recommend playing with a loved one or a friend 😊
📱 Apps & Tools
👻 Voicepal – We’ve just released 2 big updates to Voicepal, the AI ghostwriting app my team and I are building: (1) you can now record voice notes for 90 minutes (up from 25 minutes), which means you can record entire lectures / conversations etc. And (2) we now have a Partner Program, where you can earn recurring passive income by sharing your Voicepal link with others. More details here if you’re interested.
🏃🏻 Strava – I’ve been building a habit of doing some Zone 2 running in the mornings to start my day, which has been a challenge since I wasn’t much of a runner before. This month I did my first 5K. Follow me on Strava.
