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  • - Hey guys, welcome back to the channel.

  • In this video I'm going to be sharing

  • some tips for time management.

  • Now this is a question that people have been asking me about

  • for the last several years.

  • They see that I'm a full time doctor, if you didn't know,

  • I've got this YouTube channel, I run my own business,

  • I like to sing songs and play guitar,

  • and I like to give the impression

  • that I've got a vibrant social life as well.

  • And people often email me or Instagram DM me or whatever

  • asking, "How do you manage your time, how are you able

  • "to do so much stuff, how are you so cool?"

  • So in this video I'm going to be attempting

  • to address these queries by talking

  • about some principals, some tactics, and some tools

  • that I've personally found helpful to allow me

  • to do all this extra stuff with my time.

  • And speaking of time, this video is kindly sponsored

  • by ExpressVPN, the fastest virtual private network provider

  • in the world, and I'll talk a little bit more

  • about them at the end of the video.

  • So the most important thing that really changed the game

  • for me in terms of time management was recognising

  • that my time was fully and 100% in my control.

  • Like back in the day, I used to be tempted

  • to use the phrase "I don't have time,"

  • when, you know, talking about going to the gym.

  • I kind of realised over time that actually

  • I am fully in control of my own time,

  • and at any given moment, I am doing

  • what I most want to be doing.

  • It's never the case the I don't have time to go to the gym,

  • it's always the case that going to the gym

  • is currently not a priority in my life.

  • So yeah, subtle mindset shift,

  • and that's principle number one for time management

  • that I've personally found really helpful in my life.

  • Principle number two is something called

  • the Pareto principle, or the 80/20 rule

  • you might have come across.

  • The general idea is that for most things in life actually,

  • about 80% of the results come from

  • about 20% of the input.

  • So think Marie Kondo, the whole minimalist, tidy living,

  • minimalist home, all that stuff, has this thing

  • that only 20% of your possessions are bringing you 80%

  • of value, and actually this applies to so many other things.

  • Especially when it comes to effective studying,

  • often when it comes to exams that we take

  • at school and university, 80% of the marks

  • are going to be coming from 20% of the content.

  • Like if you really understand that 20% of content,

  • you can figure out how to get the 80% of marks.

  • And sort of by extension, I realised that this applies

  • to learning new skills as well.

  • I taught myself how to play the guitar and the piano

  • a few years ago, by following YouTube tutorials

  • and using Justin Guitar and all that stuff.

  • At the start, I thought that learning piano and guitar

  • would be hard, but it's really not.

  • If you want to get to a reasonable standard on guitar,

  • if you wanna be able to play the guitar while singing along,

  • all you have to do basically learn four chords,

  • and those four chords let you play the vast majority

  • of pop songs in the world, and you can just

  • move the capo up and down to change the key.

  • And that kind of changes the game because anyone

  • can learn four chords on the guitar,

  • you just need to buy a guitar for about 30 pounds

  • from a secondhand shop like I did one day,

  • teach yourself the chords using Justin Guitar,

  • practise for about two weeks or month,

  • and suddenly you are at the level

  • where you could literally stand on stage, play these chords,

  • and sing whatever song you want.

  • Prior to learning guitar, I kind of had it in my head

  • that you know, this is like a really hard thing,

  • but when I started to learn it,

  • I kept this 80/20 principle in mind,

  • I kept saying to myself, okay no, this is actually easier

  • than it seems, I'm going to focus on the 20% of things,

  • of chords, that's actually gonna result in 80%

  • of the songs that I can play.

  • So I think this applies all the way across the board

  • with things like piano, digital artistry, graphic design,

  • coding, photography, video editing, YouTube.

  • All of the things that I've taught myself over the years,

  • from the outside looking in it seems like,

  • oh my God, how do you do all this stuff?

  • But actually when you really get down to it,

  • and try to teach yourself this stuff,

  • you realise that it's not as hard as it initially appears,

  • and you can focus on the 20% to get the 80%.

  • But yeah, that's principle number two.

  • And principle number three is something called

  • Parkinson's Law, and Parkinson's Law states

  • that work expands to fill the time that we allocate to it.

  • And we've all probably had this feeling

  • where when we've got a deadline coming up the next day

  • or the day after, we get so much more work done,

  • whereas if we've got an assignment that's in

  • for two months from now, we're just gonna procrastinate

  • and put it off until like the week before

  • or the night before.

  • I think Parkinson's Law applies to almost everything in life

  • as well, you can always be a bit more efficient

  • by giving yourself less time to do something

  • and more time almost never, in my experience,

  • leads to a better result.

  • So this is kind of the case of getting over the idea

  • of perfectionism and just churning stuff out

  • and recognising that if you give yourself a short amount

  • of time to do it, then things just work out.

  • Okay so those were three broad, overarching principles

  • of time management, let's now talk about some tactics

  • for time management, and tactics are kind of drilling

  • down a bit more into rules that we can follow,

  • stuff like that.

  • The first one is the two minute rule,

  • and I came across this in a really good book called

  • "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity"

  • by a chap called David Allen.

  • This is like the world's most famous book about productivity

  • and in it he introduces the two minute rule,

  • which is the idea that if you have a task

  • that is gonna take you less than two minutes,

  • you should just do it now rather than put it off.

  • Everyday I come across tasks that I know

  • will take me less than two minutes,

  • and for the most part I try and get them done

  • there and then so that they're not kind of,

  • in my mind or on my to-do list or languishing,

  • like there's a mug behind the camera over there,

  • it will take me less than two minutes

  • just to pick it up after I film this video,

  • and stick it in the sink, and that will just

  • make my workspace a little bit more neater.

  • So yeah, two minute rule applies to everything.

  • If something's gonna take less than two minutes,

  • just do it now.

  • The second tactic is called batching,

  • and I first came across this in Tim Ferriss' amazing book

  • "The 4-Hour Workweek," which is the single book

  • that's most changed my life,

  • and that is a book all about, kind of, productivity

  • and efficiency and maximising time management and stuff.

  • So if you are interested in this sort of topic,

  • you should definitely read "The 4-Hour Workweek"

  • if you haven't already.

  • But in the book he talks about this idea of batching.

  • It's pretty intuitive, it's like, let's say,

  • throughout the week you get lots of emails

  • that you have to reply to, it makes sense

  • to do that all at the same time

  • rather than taking five minutes out sort of here and there,

  • every hour of the day to reply to emails.

  • And I find that batching all these similar tasks together

  • really helps because I'm not then context switching,

  • it's not like I'm working on a video

  • and suddenly I'm replying to an email,

  • it's like I'm working on a video

  • and when I make the time, I'm gonna reply

  • to these 16 emails that I have to reply to.

  • Equally the same thing applies to filming videos.

  • Part of the reason why I'm able to put out

  • at least one video a week is because I sit down

  • and batch film them, so today I'm going to be filming

  • like six videos and then I'll edit them over the course

  • of the week or send them off to my editor,

  • 'cause I now have an editor now which is very exciting.

  • And finally the third tactic is my personal rule

  • for watching TV, which is that I'm not allowed to watch TV

  • if I'm watching TV on my own, and actually

  • in the last two years I think the only TV I've watched

  • on my own, like sitting on my own,

  • is one episode of "Game of Thrones,"

  • 'cause no one came around to watch it with me that day,

  • one episode of "Chernobyl" 'cause I was interested

  • 'cause everyone was talking about it,

  • and I watched a season of "You" on Netflix

  • when I was on a flight, I think that's allowed

  • when you're on an aeroplane.

  • But for the last three or four years of my life

  • while I was at university, I made the rule for myself

  • that I'm just not allowed to watch TV if I'm on my own.

  • TV is fine, in my opinion, as a social activity,

  • but I've found that if I was just sitting there

  • watching TV on my own, I'd just end up wasting

  • so much time, and thinking back

  • for the last four or five years,

  • I'm really glad that I spent that time

  • doing other things instead, like making my websites,

  • I was falling in love with making my business,

  • or just hanging out with friends

  • or making this YouTube channel.

  • I don't feel that I've missed out

  • by not having seen "The Office,"

  • or by not having watched "Breaking Bad" for a second time,

  • or by not having watched "Friends" for a third time.

  • You know, I don't lose anything by not watching TV

  • on my own, but I gain a lot of spare time.

  • And there's all these stats like the average American

  • spends three hours a day watching TV,

  • all this sort of stuff, and I find that

  • with a lot of my friends, and you know,

  • this is no judgement to them, if this is what they wanna do,

  • that's absolutely fine, but I find that

  • with a lot of people, the default activity

  • when you get home from school or when you get home from work

  • is to put on Netflix and watch something.

  • And if that's intentionally what you want to be doing

  • and what you're aiming for and what makes you happy,

  • then by all means that's absolutely fine,

  • what I'm saying is that for me, I don't lose anything

  • in my life by not watching Netflix

  • I don't even have a Netflix account,

  • but I gain a hell of a lot of time,

  • and I think personally my life is much more fulfilled

  • and interesting because I've used that time

  • to do other things rather than watch TV.

  • So yeah, that's my rule for watching TV.

  • Let me know what you think in the comments,

  • usually it is quite controversial

  • when I mention it to friends, people are always like,

  • "Oh what's wrong with relaxing and stuff?"

  • I'm not saying there's anything wrong with relaxing,

  • I'm not saying you have to hustle all the time,

  • I'm saying is that if you're gonna ask me

  • what my tips are for time management

  • and how I'm able to do so much stuff,

  • I think a big part of that reason is

  • I just don't spend any time watching TV.

  • And so having talked about three principles

  • and three tactics, and I want to talk about three tools

  • that I find helpful in term of time management.

  • The first and most important one is an app for the Mac

  • called Alfred, and I think there are equivalent apps

  • for Windows if you're one of those people

  • that sadly uses Windows.

  • And Alfred is incredible because it basically

  • lets you do anything on your Mac, just using the keyboard.

  • So for example if I want to open Safari,

  • I never, ever drag my mouse over to the dock,

  • click on Safari, 'cause that's a waste of three seconds

  • of my life, instead I press Command + Spacebar,

  • type in S-A-F, which is right next to each other

  • on the keyboard, press Enter, and I've got Safari open

  • in about half a millisecond.

  • It's all these little actions like this,

  • like let's say I wanna open a file.

  • Normally I'd be clicking on Finder, Google Drive,

  • Third Year, Essays, Section A, Human Memory,

  • and finding my file that way.

  • This takes about 10 seconds or 15 or 20 seconds

  • each time I want to do it, whereas with Alfred

  • you can just do a file search, so you can do

  • Command + Spacebar, you can press another space,

  • and that let's you search for files.

  • You just type in the file name

  • and then it immediately opens.

  • Initially a few years ago I was following some programmers

  • and watching screencasts and stuff

  • and they were absolutely raving about Alfred

  • and how amazing it is, and at the time

  • I was thinking, "Oh come on man,

  • "you're just saving ten seconds each time."

  • But then I started using it and I realised

  • oh my God, the amount of time I've saved in my life

  • by shaving off these ten seconds

  • for pretty much every interaction that I have

  • with a computer, is absolutely game changing.

  • So if you are the sort of person

  • who is still currently using your mouse

  • to navigate your computer, you are wasting a lot of time,

  • use something like Alfred or Spotlight search

  • or I think on Windows you just press

  • the Windows logo key thing and then you just start typing

  • and stuff just works.

  • Keyboard shortcuts are so much quicker

  • to navigate a computer with than using the mouse.

  • So that is tool number one.

  • Tool number two is an app called Forest,

  • which is a Pomodoro timer.

  • Now the Pomodoro method, you might have come across it,

  • is the idea that we should work for 25 minutes,

  • and then have a five-minute break,

  • and then work 25 minutes, have a five-minute break.

  • And I used to use this when I was studying for exams,

  • to kind of motivate myself to focused work for 25 minutes

  • and then I'd have a break for five minutes with my friends.

  • There's a really good app called Forest

  • that let's you do this.

  • So it's an iOS app, I'm pretty sure it's on Android as well,

  • and the idea is that when you want to start your timer,

  • you press the button and then the timer starts

  • to count down, and it's as if you are planting a tree.

  • And in that 25 minutes, at the end of it

  • you have planted a tree and the tree starts to grow,

  • but if you go off the app, i.e. if you use your phone

  • to look at a notification or to answer a message

  • or something, then the tree dies.

  • So it's kind of nice in that it's a Pomodoro timer

  • but it also forces you not to be distracted

  • by all the crap that's going on on your phone.

  • So I found that quite helpful.

  • I don't really use the Pomodoro method anymore these days,

  • but if I were studying for exams and now

  • when I'm preparing for my post-graduate medical exams,

  • I think I'm going to be using it,

  • 'cause it just makes it a bit more of a game to study,

  • so yeah, Forest is tool number two.

  • And tool number three is actually a website

  • called 10FastFingers.

  • I started kind of, using this website about once a month,

  • since about the age of 13, I remember we were

  • in an ICT lesson, or IT or computing, whatever you call it,

  • we were in one of those lessons

  • and one of my friends discovered this,

  • and we started having these typing speed competitions

  • against one another, and I remember when I was 13,

  • my typing speed at the time was about 80 words per minute,

  • 8-0, I saw that and I was like in the top 20% or something,

  • and I was like, "Okay I need to improve my typing speed."

  • By virtue of the fact that I just spent all my life

  • in front of a computer, but also

  • that occasionally I do this typing test

  • and see where I am, I've managed to increase my typing speed

  • from 80 words per minute to these days,

  • I consistently get about 140, 130 words per minute

  • on this website.

  • That's almost a doubling of typing speed,

  • and because a lot of the stuff

  • that I do involves being on a computer,

  • like coding or writing or blogging or even planning videos,

  • having a typing speed that's twice as fast

  • is actually quite helpful, and it's again

  • one of those things that shaves seconds off

  • every interaction that you have with a computer,

  • but when you do that and apply that over a 10-year period,

  • you end up saving a lot of time that you can then use

  • for other things, so I'd recommend giving it a go.

  • Have a go at 10FastFingers.com,

  • see what your typing speed is,

  • and then see if you can work to kind of improve it,

  • because that's another one of those little tools

  • that shaves off seconds each time

  • that I've found useful for time management.

  • And speaking of tools, I just wanna end

  • by giving a massive shout-out to ExpressVPN

  • for sponsoring this video.

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  • so I just press the little button on my Mac

  • and connect to a virtual private network,

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  • Public Wi-Fi's apparently, I read several years ago,

  • are a way for hackers to get access to some of your data,

  • so if you have, you know, social logins that I care about,

  • or if you're going to be showing your credit card details

  • online and shopping online and stuff,

  • it's probably worth connecting to that Wi-Fi

  • and then going via VPN so that all of the data

  • that you're sending and receiving is secure.

  • The other really cool thing about ExpressVPN

  • is that if you're feeling like it,

  • you can unblock content that's restricted in your country.

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  • like I was talking about in the video,

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  • or something that wasn't available in your country,

  • you can use ExpressVPN to login as if you are

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  • So thanks ExpressVPN for sponsoring this episode

  • of time management, and thank you very much for watching.

  • If you like this video please give it a thumbs up,

  • if you like this kind of video and this kind of topic,

  • you might like to subscribe to my email newsletter,

  • and this is like an email that I send every week

  • that has a few paragraphs that I've thought

  • about productivity or time management,

  • like this sort of stuff, and in that email

  • I also share some links to interesting articles

  • or podcasts or videos that I've discovered that week,

  • along with like, a kindle highlight of the week,

  • so I share one of my highlights

  • from a random book that people seem to enjoy.

  • At the moment it's got about 9,000 subscribers

  • in the mailing list, so if you'd like to join

  • these 9,000 people and get a weekly email from me,

  • then have a look and I'll put the link

  • in the video description as well

  • so you can check that out if you like.

  • But yeah, thank you very much for watching

  • and I'll see you in the next video, buh-bye!

  • (soft guitar music)

- Hey guys, welcome back to the channel.

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