What does your ideal Tuesday look like?
Newsletter
Hey friends,
Firstly, apologies for the broken link in last weekās email. I intended to link to theĀ YouTube Growth ScorecardĀ but forgot to change the link in the template I recycled from a previous issue. Sorry about that š
In other news, a couple of weeks ago, I gave a talk at the International Fitness Summit in Brighton (where I had the smallest biceps out of all the speakers). My friend and fellow creator Chris Williamson was interviewing me about the top methods I use to stay productive. Naturally, lots of the conversation was centred around the strategies and ideas in my upcoming book,Ā Feel-Good ProductivityĀ (which you can preorderĀ hereĀ if you havenāt already, and a massive thank you if you have).
I boiled productivity down to a simple, 5-step process. This isnāt explicitly in the book, but itās something Iāve distilled from all the research and reading Iāve done in the field of productivity.
- Step 1 – Set your Direction
- Step 2 – Turn your Goals into Weekly Inputs
- Step 3 – Make Time in your Calendar for those Weekly Inputs
- Step 4 – Do the Thing, and Do it for a Long Time
- Step 5 – Reflect and Adjust as needed
As part of the conversation, I talked about the Ideal Week time management method that you mightāve seen some of my videos about. Essentially, the idea is that you create a blank Google Calendar and you ask: āWhat would my ideal ordinary week look like?ā And you block out the relevant areas. I wonāt go into it in too much detail here – you can find a detailed walkthrough here
Chris had a great follow-up to the method. He referenced something that Tim Ferriss once said, around āCrushing It Tuesdaysā:
Your life is made up of a series of ordinary Tuesdays. Figure out what your ideal normal Tuesday looks like. Because if you can have an amazing Tuesday, youāll probably have an amazing life.
I love this framing. Iāve been using the Ideal Week method for nearly a year, but I hadnāt really thought about: āWhat does my idealĀ dayĀ look like?ā
Iāve now landed on something like this, for the ideal Tuesday:
- 7am – 9am: Wake up, morning routine, journaling, taking stock of the day.
- 9am-1pm: 4h of deep work: reading, learning, writing.
- 1pm-3pm: Leisurely lunch, ideally with others.
- 3pm-6pm: Work stuff – meetings, filming bits, etc. But ideally unscheduled so I can continue to read and write.
- 6pm-7pm: Gym / Exercise / Yoga class / Martial arts class.
- 7pm – 10pm: Invite people over to my place for dinner
- 10-11pm: Wind down, read in bed.
- 11pm – 7am: Sleep.
This is a cool method. Itās a lot simpler than the Ideal Week but it serves a similar purpose. When I asked the various people in my team what they learned from the weekend in Brighton, they all said: āThat ideal day thing that Chris Williamson talked about was really useful!ā
So hereās the question for you for this week: What does your ideal Tuesday look like?
Have a great week!
Ali xxWrite newsletter content here.
Have a great week!
Ali xx
ā„ļø My Favourite Things this Week
- Fiction BookĀ – Iāve been absolutely LOVING the bookĀ Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and TomorrowĀ by Gabrielle Zevin. Itās the story of some college students who end up becoming video game developers in the late 1990s and beyond. Iām currently around 60% through it and Iāve been absolutely hooked since I started reading it 2 days ago.
- PodcastĀ – I lovedĀ this interviewĀ that Colin & Samir did with MrWhoseTheBoss (real name: Arun), one of the world’s biggest tech YouTubers. The interview was, incidentally, filmed in my flat in London a few weeks ago š I generally love all the interviews that Colin & Samir do, but this one was especially interesting. Arun’s approach to YouTube, the obsessive focus he has on quality, and his relationship with metrics and goals, were particularly interesting for me, given the stage I’m at with my YouTube channel and business too. If you’re a creator, or interested in the wholeĀ creator economyĀ thing, it’s a great listen.
- VideoĀ – I recently discoveredĀ this videoĀ that a chap made breaking down my style of making videos. It’s really well put-together, and very flattering. It also helped me appreciate that “ohh this is what my own style of videos is” which I hadn’t quite realised before. If you enjoy my YouTube videos and you’re interested in someone else imitating them masterfully, this is a great watch.
š¬ My New Videos
š»Ā 6 Side Hustle Ideas for Students in 2023Ā – So side hustles literally changed my life, and in this video I explain how they can change yours and share 6 specific ideas that could work for you as well.
āļø Quote of the Week
āTechnology does not drive change. It is our collective response to the options and opportunities presented by technology that drives change.”
FromĀ The Psychology of MoneyĀ byĀ Morgan Housel. Resurfaced usingĀ Readwise.