Explore all emails from Ali Abdaal

Hey friends, Hope you’re well. It’s my final week “off” here in London before heading back to Hong Kong and I’ve been doing some reflecting over the weekend on what I want my ‘normal’ week to look like when we get back into the swing of work when we return. It’s all to easy for that to drift over time and I wanted to revisit this whole idea today. We’ve talked a lot over the years about the idea of designing your Ideal Week. I still think it’s one of the most useful exercises for getting clearer on how we actually want to spend our time. The basic idea is that you map out what a really good week would look like if you were being intentional about it. When would you do your deep work? When would you exercise? When would you have meetings? When would you leave space for family, friends, admin, creative stuff, or literally doing nothing? And then the useful bit is comparing that Ideal Week with what actually happened. Because most of us have a very vague sense that our time is disappearing somewhere, but we don’t always have a clear picture of where it’s going. It’s a bit like checking your bank statement after a month of thinking “I haven’t spent that much”, and then realising that a suspicious amount of money has gone on takeaway, coffees, and random Amazon purchases. The problem is, designing the Ideal Week is the fun part. It’s a lovely hour with a blank calendar and a coffee, imagining the version of you who exercises 4x a week and does their deep work before 10am. But the power of the whole exercise is only fully realised if you come back to it every week and reflect on how your Ideal Week compared to the week you had and you then take steps to get one step closer to the ideal version the following week. I was guilty of this for years. I’d map out my Ideal Week, feel great about it, and then only really look at it again a few weeks or months later. It’s why LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh60o4npbvhqp8pmvlsohqe49l/08hwhgu2lkl2nxhpu5/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGlmZW9zLz91dG1fc291cmNlPW5ld3NsZXR0ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249ZXZlcmdyZWVuJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PWlkZWFsX3dlZWtfMjQmdXRtX3Rlcm09cHJvZHVjdGl2ZW5vdGVz ) is designed around both weekly and quarterly reviews because you can create your Ideal Week in your Quarterly Review but if you’re not reviewing it weekly, it’s hard to keep it front of mind. That weekly check-in is where the whole thing actually pays off, and it only really takes about 10 minutes at the end of the week, or on a Sunday before the next one kicks off. You just pull up your Ideal Week, put it next to the week you actually had, and have a look at where the two came apart. The point isn’t to feel bad about the gap, because life is life and stuff genuinely does come up, but if you do this a few weeks in a row you’ll start to notice that it tends to be the same 2 or 3 things cropping up again and again. A one-off is nothing to worry about, but if the same thing has derailed you 4 weeks running then that’s less about bad luck and more about how your week is currently built, which is a much easier problem to solve. And that’s really why I think the reflecting matters even more than the planning. If you’ve got 10 minutes, look back at the last 7 days, put it next to the week you’d have designed, and think about the activities or actions that created any obvious gaps between your Ideal Week and the reality that unfolded. If you do this for a few weeks, patterns will start to emerge. (And if you've not created your Ideal Week yet, it's obviously worth starting with that!). The fact that my Ideal Week kept drifting was one of the main things I wanted to tackle with Superfocus ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh60o4npbvhqp8pmvlsohqe49l/8ghqh3uorxrowpulu9/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1pZGVhbF93ZWVrXzI0JnV0bV90ZXJtPXByb2R1Y3RpdmVub3Rlcw== ) because my Ideal Week used to live in my calendar but then my tasks and goals would live somewhere different, and then my work stuff would live somewhere else entirely. So the idea we had in developing it was to bring your goals, your tasks, your priorities into one place on your calendar where you can actually see them, rather than being locked away in a Google Doc you revisit every few months. Anyway, it's been fun building it out and if you want to join at the Founding Member price, you still can here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh60o4npbvhqp8pmvlsohqe49l/8ghqh3uorxrowpulu9/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1pZGVhbF93ZWVrXzI0JnV0bV90ZXJtPXByb2R1Y3RpdmVub3Rlcw== ). Anyway, I’d love to know what your biggest repeat obstacle is when it comes to living your own Ideal Week and what you're doing about it over the next week. Talk soon, Ali xx ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ​Lovable: The Gap Between Having an Idea and Actually Building It ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh60o4npbvhqp8pmvlsohqe49l/l2heh6ulxzxlqkhgu0/aHR0cHM6Ly9saW5rLmxvdmFibGUuZGV2L2FsaWFiZGFhbDA4MjY= )​ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quite a few people I speak to often have a half-formed product idea sat in their notes app that’s been there for months and the thing standing in the way usually isn’t the idea, it’s the assumption that building it properly requires a developer and a budget and hours of time. But that’s what Lovable ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh60o4npbvhqp8pmvlsohqe49l/l2heh6ulxzxlqkhgu0/aHR0cHM6Ly9saW5rLmxvdmFibGUuZGV2L2FsaWFiZGFhbDA4MjY= ) is built to help solve. You describe what you want in plain English and get back a working application, with the frontend, backend, database and hosting handled for you. In fact, it was designed from day one for people who don’t write code. We’ve been using it inside the team over the past 12 months to help with various things including mocking up designs that we can then take to our developers to build within our software. Last weekend we were reworking the onboarding pages for Superfocus, our own software, and rather than starting in Figma and debating layouts in the abstract, we scoped the first versions of those screens in Lovable ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh60o4npbvhqp8pmvlsohqe49l/l2heh6ulxzxlqkhgu0/aHR0cHM6Ly9saW5rLmxvdmFibGUuZGV2L2FsaWFiZGFhbDA4MjY= ). Within an hour we had something we could click through and react to, and the designs then went into Figma to be polished properly. What makes it interesting is what comes after that first build. If you want, you can add customer logins and take payments without wrestling with API keys or tax rules, and everything you publish is built to be found by Google and AI search from the moment it goes live. There’s a mobile app too, so the idea you have on a walk doesn’t have to wait until you’re back at your desk which is particularly important for me. Over 40 million projects have been built on the platform by people making that leap, and you can join them too and try it for yourself using this link ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh60o4npbvhqp8pmvlsohqe49l/l2heh6ulxzxlqkhgu0/aHR0cHM6Ly9saW5rLmxvdmFibGUuZGV2L2FsaWFiZGFhbDA4MjY= ). Thanks to Lovable ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh60o4npbvhqp8pmvlsohqe49l/l2heh6ulxzxlqkhgu0/aHR0cHM6Ly9saW5rLmxvdmFibGUuZGV2L2FsaWFiZGFhbDA4MjY= ) for sponsoring this issue of ProductiveNotes 🙏 Enjoying ProductiveNotes? You might love this ★★★★★ "LifeOS completely changed the way I approach productivity and balance. Within the first few weeks, I had more clarity around my goals, my schedule felt calmer, and I was finally following through on habits I'd been planning to start for years." — Callan, LifeOS student If that resonates, check out LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh60o4npbvhqp8pmvlsohqe49l/m2h7h6u347432otluq/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGlmZW9zLz91dG1fc291cmNlPXByb2R1Y3RpdmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1ldmVyZ3JlZW4mdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9Zm9vdGVyX2NhbGxhbl90ZXN0aW1vbmlhbA== ) — my signature course on building a productivity system that actually sticks. Thanks for being part of ProductiveNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh60o4npbvhqp8pmvlsohqe49l ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, Hope you’re well. It’s my final week “off” here in London before heading back to Hong Kong and I’ve been doing some reflecting over the weekend on what I want my ‘normal’ week to look like when we get back into the swing of work when we return. It’s all to easy for that to drift over time and I wanted to revisit this whole idea today. We’ve talked a lot over the years about the idea of designing your Ideal Week. I still think it’s one of the most useful exercises for getting clearer on how we actually want to spend our time. The basic idea is that you map out what a really good week would look like if you were being intentional about it. When would you do your deep work? When would you exercise? When would you have meetings? When would you leave space for family, friends, admin, creative stuff, or literally doing nothing? And then the useful bit is comparing that Ideal Week with what actually happened. Because most of us have a very vague sense that our time is disappearing somewhere, but we don’t always have a clear picture of where it’s going. It’s a bit like checking your bank statement after a month of thinking “I haven’t spent that much”, and then realising that a suspicious amount of money has gone on takeaway, coffees, and random Amazon purchases. The problem is, designing the Ideal Week is the fun part. It’s a lovely hour with a blank calendar and a coffee, imagining the version of you who exercises 4x a week and does their deep work before 10am. But the power of the whole exercise is only fully realised if you come back to it every week and reflect on how your Ideal Week compared to the week you had and you then take steps to get one step closer to the ideal version the following week. I was guilty of this for years. I’d map out my Ideal Week, feel great about it, and then only really look at it again a few weeks or months later. It’s why LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/xmu6lzl2onf6hp4ed2pt5h20gmd3pfnhp8ldx/kkhmh2unx2e74nbku7/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGlmZW9zLz91dG1fc291cmNlPW5ld3NsZXR0ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249ZXZlcmdyZWVuJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PWlkZWFsX3dlZWtfMjQmdXRtX3Rlcm09cHJvZHVjdGl2ZW5vdGVz ) is designed around both weekly and quarterly reviews because you can create your Ideal Week in your Quarterly Review but if you’re not reviewing it weekly, it’s hard to keep it front of mind. That weekly check-in is where the whole thing actually pays off, and it only really takes about 10 minutes at the end of the week, or on a Sunday before the next one kicks off. You just pull up your Ideal Week, put it next to the week you actually had, and have a look at where the two came apart. The point isn’t to feel bad about the gap, because life is life and stuff genuinely does come up, but if you do this a few weeks in a row you’ll start to notice that it tends to be the same 2 or 3 things cropping up again and again. A one-off is nothing to worry about, but if the same thing has derailed you 4 weeks running then that’s less about bad luck and more about how your week is currently built, which is a much easier problem to solve. And that’s really why I think the reflecting matters even more than the planning. If you’ve got 10 minutes, look back at the last 7 days, put it next to the week you’d have designed, and think about the activities or actions that created any obvious gaps between your Ideal Week and the reality that unfolded. If you do this for a few weeks, patterns will start to emerge. (And if you've not created your Ideal Week yet, it's obviously worth starting with that!). The fact that my Ideal Week kept drifting was one of the main things I wanted to tackle with Superfocus ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/xmu6lzl2onf6hp4ed2pt5h20gmd3pfnhp8ldx/58hvh8ug6o0elka7u4/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1pZGVhbF93ZWVrXzI0JnV0bV90ZXJtPXByb2R1Y3RpdmVub3Rlcw== ) because my Ideal Week used to live in my calendar but then my tasks and goals would live somewhere different, and then my work stuff would live somewhere else entirely. So the idea we had in developing it was to bring your goals, your tasks, your priorities into one place on your calendar where you can actually see them, rather than being locked away in a Google Doc you revisit every few months. Anyway, it's been fun building it out and if you want to join at the Founding Member price, you still can here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/xmu6lzl2onf6hp4ed2pt5h20gmd3pfnhp8ldx/58hvh8ug6o0elka7u4/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1pZGVhbF93ZWVrXzI0JnV0bV90ZXJtPXByb2R1Y3RpdmVub3Rlcw== ). Anyway, I’d love to know what your biggest repeat obstacle is when it comes to living your own Ideal Week and what you're doing about it over the next week. Talk soon, Ali xx ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ​Lovable: The Gap Between Having an Idea and Actually Building It ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/xmu6lzl2onf6hp4ed2pt5h20gmd3pfnhp8ldx/25h2h9u3m0g5ndi8u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9saW5rLmxvdmFibGUuZGV2L2FsaWFiZGFhbDA4MjY= )​ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quite a few people I speak to often have a half-formed product idea sat in their notes app that’s been there for months and the thing standing in the way usually isn’t the idea, it’s the assumption that building it properly requires a developer and a budget and hours of time. But that’s what Lovable ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/xmu6lzl2onf6hp4ed2pt5h20gmd3pfnhp8ldx/25h2h9u3m0g5ndi8u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9saW5rLmxvdmFibGUuZGV2L2FsaWFiZGFhbDA4MjY= ) is built to help solve. You describe what you want in plain English and get back a working application, with the frontend, backend, database and hosting handled for you. In fact, it was designed from day one for people who don’t write code. We’ve been using it inside the team over the past 12 months to help with various things including mocking up designs that we can then take to our developers to build within our software. Last weekend we were reworking the onboarding pages for Superfocus, our own software, and rather than starting in Figma and debating layouts in the abstract, we scoped the first versions of those screens in Lovable ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/xmu6lzl2onf6hp4ed2pt5h20gmd3pfnhp8ldx/25h2h9u3m0g5ndi8u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9saW5rLmxvdmFibGUuZGV2L2FsaWFiZGFhbDA4MjY= ). Within an hour we had something we could click through and react to, and the designs then went into Figma to be polished properly. What makes it interesting is what comes after that first build. If you want, you can add customer logins and take payments without wrestling with API keys or tax rules, and everything you publish is built to be found by Google and AI search from the moment it goes live. There’s a mobile app too, so the idea you have on a walk doesn’t have to wait until you’re back at your desk which is particularly important for me. Over 40 million projects have been built on the platform by people making that leap, and you can join them too and try it for yourself using this link ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/xmu6lzl2onf6hp4ed2pt5h20gmd3pfnhp8ldx/25h2h9u3m0g5ndi8u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9saW5rLmxvdmFibGUuZGV2L2FsaWFiZGFhbDA4MjY= ). Thanks to Lovable ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/xmu6lzl2onf6hp4ed2pt5h20gmd3pfnhp8ldx/25h2h9u3m0g5ndi8u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9saW5rLmxvdmFibGUuZGV2L2FsaWFiZGFhbDA4MjY= ) for sponsoring this issue of ProductiveNotes 🙏 Enjoying ProductiveNotes? You might love this ★★★★★ "LifeOS completely changed the way I approach productivity and balance. Within the first few weeks, I had more clarity around my goals, my schedule felt calmer, and I was finally following through on habits I'd been planning to start for years." — Callan, LifeOS student If that resonates, check out LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/xmu6lzl2onf6hp4ed2pt5h20gmd3pfnhp8ldx/qvh8h8udk2vxqqfguk/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGlmZW9zLz91dG1fc291cmNlPXByb2R1Y3RpdmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1ldmVyZ3JlZW4mdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9Zm9vdGVyX2NhbGxhbl90ZXN0aW1vbmlhbA== ) — my signature course on building a productivity system that actually sticks. Thanks for being part of ProductiveNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/xmu6lzl2onf6hp4ed2pt5h20gmd3pfnhp8ldx ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friend, Hope you’re having a good week. I've been having a few days away from filming - trying to take the time visiting family whilst I’m still in the UK. And in between those moments, I've been trying to avoid opening YouTube Studio - instead, mainly focussing on our tool Superfocus ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/d0umkvkz6dt0ho27nozhmhzmkve3zalhogk0v/48hvh7umx5d09laqu7/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD15b3V0dWJlX3VwZGF0ZXNfMTkmdXRtX3Rlcm09Y3JlYXRvcm5vdGVz ) as that's been particularly energising as it comes together. (You can still become a Founding Member here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/d0umkvkz6dt0ho27nozhmhzmkve3zalhogk0v/48hvh7umx5d09laqu7/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD15b3V0dWJlX3VwZGF0ZXNfMTkmdXRtX3Rlcm09Y3JlYXRvcm5vdGVz ) if you’re interested 👀). But I have been keeping an ear to the ground when it comes to YouTube and I wanted to talk about a couple of important updates that you may (or may not) have spotted over the past couple of weeks which are pretty important if you’re a creator or aspiring creator and so thought I’d raise them here. The first relates to the YouTube Partner Program and was announced a couple of weeks back which is that from February 2027, you’ll need to have achieved 8,000 qualified public watch hours on your videos in the previous 12 months to qualify for the full partner programme (or 20 million Shorts views in 90 days - more here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/d0umkvkz6dt0ho27nozhmhzmkve3zalhogk0v/wnh2h6uq052r46hlux/aHR0cHM6Ly9ibG9nLnlvdXR1YmUvbmV3cy1hbmQtZXZlbnRzL3lvdXR1YmUtcGFydG5lci1wcm9ncmFtLXVwZGF0ZXMtMjAyNy1uZXctb3Bwb3J0dW5pdGllcy1lYXJuLw== )). If you weren’t aware, up to now, you’ve needed 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time, so this new benchmark is quite a considerable change. Now, there’s been quite a bit of commentary already which I’m sure you’ve probably seen but I see changes like this as a useful reminder of something we’ve talked about a fair bit in this newsletter, esp as it relates to building a business around your channel, which is that it’s probably not wise to be too reliant on any single third party platform for your income. That’s not me being down on YouTube - AdSense is a great thing to have, and qualifying for the partner programme is still a milestone worth aiming for. But the thresholds, the algorithm and the payout rates are all decided by someone else, and they can shift without much notice. Speaking personally, in the early days, AdSense felt like magic - I made 77 videos before I could even switch it on, and the first month of ad revenue was genuinely one of the most exciting things that had ever happened to me even though it was only like £8 or something. It grew into a very meaningful chunk of income over time, but as we built out other products, AdSense went from being the main event to being a nice bonus and that shift made the whole thing feel a lot less stressful. So it’s worth thinking of ad revenue as one part of the picture rather than the whole thing. The stuff you actually own tends to be far more durable - an email list you can reach directly, your own personal products (courses, digital downloads, memberships, coaching), and to a lesser extent affiliate partnerships and sponsorships where you’re dealing with brands rather than a platform. If you’re still in the early days of finding your audience, I honestly wouldn’t think about any of this yet nor overthink the change to the 4000 vs 8000 milestone - if you’re making valuable content, for the right people, with the right consistency, you'll put yourself on the right path. But if you’re at the point where a change to YouTube’s rules genuinely affects your bottom line, that’s usually a signal it’s time to start building something alongside it - probably starting with an email list, so you’ve always got a way of reaching your people that doesn’t depend on an algorithm. Anyway, the changes to the partner programme are the first of two worth noting. The second one is happening much sooner - next week actually - and that’s that YouTube are changing the way they count views. You might be thinking - who cares? Well, yes - it’s quite a niche thing to want to care about but the reason I wanted to flag it is because it could mean that you see a jump in your average view counts over the coming weeks as they’ll now be counting a view from the very first frame. You can read more about it here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/d0umkvkz6dt0ho27nozhmhzmkve3zalhogk0v/reh8h9um62lq7rh6u6/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdXBwb3J0Lmdvb2dsZS5jb20veW91dHViZS90aHJlYWQvNDMzNDA5OTc2P2hsPWVu ), but the main thing is to just be aware that this change is happening and to take that into account when assessing upcoming views / results. Anyway, I wanted to keep it relatively short this week and just provide information on those 2 updates because I feel they’re important to be aware of. And if you’re looking to take the next step with your channel to perhaps look at other ways that you can monetise away from ad revenue, you might be interested in joining the Part Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/d0umkvkz6dt0ho27nozhmhzmkve3zalhogk0v/08hwhgu2lo6mx6hpu5/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1ldmVyZ3JlZW4mdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9eW91dHViZV91cGRhdGVzXzE5JnV0bV90ZXJtPWNyZWF0b3Jub3Rlcw== ). There’s over 40 hours of content covering all stages of the YouTube growth process, including monetisation, so if that sounds interesting you can sign up here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/d0umkvkz6dt0ho27nozhmhzmkve3zalhogk0v/08hwhgu2lo6mx6hpu5/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1ldmVyZ3JlZW4mdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9eW91dHViZV91cGRhdGVzXzE5JnV0bV90ZXJtPWNyZWF0b3Jub3Rlcw== ). Anyway, that’s all from me this week - would love to hear your thoughts on those changes to YouTube - hit reply and let me know. Talk soon, Ali xx Enjoying CreatorNotes? You might love this ★★★★★ "I followed the system and got to monetisation in 10 weeks with 10 videos. The course gave me a clear path to follow and got me into the mindset of treating everything as an experiment. So, yeah, it worked!" — Tom, PTYA student If that resonates, check out Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/d0umkvkz6dt0ho27nozhmhzmkve3zalhogk0v/8ghqh3uor06g3malu9/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9Y3JlYXRvcm5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1mb290ZXJfdG9tX3Rlc3RpbW9uaWFs ) — my signature course on building a YouTube channel around your day job. Thanks for being part of CreatorNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/d0umkvkz6dt0ho27nozhmhzmkve3zalhogk0v ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friend, Hope you’re having a good week. I've been having a few days away from filming - trying to take the time visiting family whilst I’m still in the UK. And in between those moments, I've been trying to avoid opening YouTube Studio - instead, mainly focussing on our tool Superfocus ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh27xwklakhkzeq2pzt3hoxqzn/08hwhgu2l03e48ipu5/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD15b3V0dWJlX3VwZGF0ZXNfMTkmdXRtX3Rlcm09Y3JlYXRvcm5vdGVz ) as that's been particularly energising as it comes together. (You can still become a Founding Member here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh27xwklakhkzeq2pzt3hoxqzn/08hwhgu2l03e48ipu5/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD15b3V0dWJlX3VwZGF0ZXNfMTkmdXRtX3Rlcm09Y3JlYXRvcm5vdGVz ) if you’re interested 👀). But I have been keeping an ear to the ground when it comes to YouTube and I wanted to talk about a couple of important updates that you may (or may not) have spotted over the past couple of weeks which are pretty important if you’re a creator or aspiring creator and so thought I’d raise them here. The first relates to the YouTube Partner Program and was announced a couple of weeks back which is that from February 2027, you’ll need to have achieved 8,000 qualified public watch hours on your videos in the previous 12 months to qualify for the full partner programme (or 20 million Shorts views in 90 days - more here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh27xwklakhkzeq2pzt3hoxqzn/8ghqh3uoremd4eflu9/aHR0cHM6Ly9ibG9nLnlvdXR1YmUvbmV3cy1hbmQtZXZlbnRzL3lvdXR1YmUtcGFydG5lci1wcm9ncmFtLXVwZGF0ZXMtMjAyNy1uZXctb3Bwb3J0dW5pdGllcy1lYXJuLw== )). If you weren’t aware, up to now, you’ve needed 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time, so this new benchmark is quite a considerable change. Now, there’s been quite a bit of commentary already which I’m sure you’ve probably seen but I see changes like this as a useful reminder of something we’ve talked about a fair bit in this newsletter, esp as it relates to building a business around your channel, which is that it’s probably not wise to be too reliant on any single third party platform for your income. That’s not me being down on YouTube - AdSense is a great thing to have, and qualifying for the partner programme is still a milestone worth aiming for. But the thresholds, the algorithm and the payout rates are all decided by someone else, and they can shift without much notice. Speaking personally, in the early days, AdSense felt like magic - I made 77 videos before I could even switch it on, and the first month of ad revenue was genuinely one of the most exciting things that had ever happened to me even though it was only like £8 or something. It grew into a very meaningful chunk of income over time, but as we built out other products, AdSense went from being the main event to being a nice bonus and that shift made the whole thing feel a lot less stressful. So it’s worth thinking of ad revenue as one part of the picture rather than the whole thing. The stuff you actually own tends to be far more durable - an email list you can reach directly, your own personal products (courses, digital downloads, memberships, coaching), and to a lesser extent affiliate partnerships and sponsorships where you’re dealing with brands rather than a platform. If you’re still in the early days of finding your audience, I honestly wouldn’t think about any of this yet nor overthink the change to the 4000 vs 8000 milestone - if you’re making valuable content, for the right people, with the right consistency, you'll put yourself on the right path. But if you’re at the point where a change to YouTube’s rules genuinely affects your bottom line, that’s usually a signal it’s time to start building something alongside it - probably starting with an email list, so you’ve always got a way of reaching your people that doesn’t depend on an algorithm. Anyway, the changes to the partner programme are the first of two worth noting. The second one is happening much sooner - next week actually - and that’s that YouTube are changing the way they count views. You might be thinking - who cares? Well, yes - it’s quite a niche thing to want to care about but the reason I wanted to flag it is because it could mean that you see a jump in your average view counts over the coming weeks as they’ll now be counting a view from the very first frame. You can read more about it here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh27xwklakhkzeq2pzt3hoxqzn/vqh3hmuow2z05xtwul/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdXBwb3J0Lmdvb2dsZS5jb20veW91dHViZS90aHJlYWQvNDMzNDA5OTc2P2hsPWVu ), but the main thing is to just be aware that this change is happening and to take that into account when assessing upcoming views / results. Anyway, I wanted to keep it relatively short this week and just provide information on those 2 updates because I feel they’re important to be aware of. And if you’re looking to take the next step with your channel to perhaps look at other ways that you can monetise away from ad revenue, you might be interested in joining the Part Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh27xwklakhkzeq2pzt3hoxqzn/l2heh6ulx582gnigu0/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1ldmVyZ3JlZW4mdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9eW91dHViZV91cGRhdGVzXzE5JnV0bV90ZXJtPWNyZWF0b3Jub3Rlcw== ). There’s over 40 hours of content covering all stages of the YouTube growth process, including monetisation, so if that sounds interesting you can sign up here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh27xwklakhkzeq2pzt3hoxqzn/l2heh6ulx582gnigu0/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1ldmVyZ3JlZW4mdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9eW91dHViZV91cGRhdGVzXzE5JnV0bV90ZXJtPWNyZWF0b3Jub3Rlcw== ). Anyway, that’s all from me this week - would love to hear your thoughts on those changes to YouTube - hit reply and let me know. Talk soon, Ali xx Enjoying CreatorNotes? You might love this ★★★★★ "I followed the system and got to monetisation in 10 weeks with 10 videos. The course gave me a clear path to follow and got me into the mindset of treating everything as an experiment. So, yeah, it worked!" — Tom, PTYA student If that resonates, check out Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh27xwklakhkzeq2pzt3hoxqzn/m2h7h6u34kd5r9sluq/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9Y3JlYXRvcm5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1mb290ZXJfdG9tX3Rlc3RpbW9uaWFs ) — my signature course on building a YouTube channel around your day job. Thanks for being part of CreatorNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh27xwklakhkzeq2pzt3hoxqzn ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, Hope you had a great weekend. I wanted to keep it relatively short today and draw your attention to the video ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8qg36gb3hgrpld36fghgkmn3/qvh8h8ud9xgpklhguk/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1mRU1ITWQ3Zm92TQ== ) that we released on Saturday about how to figure out what you want to do with your life. I think this whole area is one that we often overlook when addressing the more blunt/objective question of ‘how do I become more productive’, and yet it's actually a core part of the whole equation, at least from my perspective. In the video, I go through my 3-step method for answering that quite broad question. So step 1 is breaking “life” down into the specific areas you care about (work, health, relationships, that kind of thing) and getting clear on what you want in each of them, and maybe more importantly, what you don’t want. Step 2 is defining your dreams - basically an enormous unfiltered list of everything you want to do and have and experience, without worrying about whether any of it sounds realistic. And then step 3 involves zooming out to the big-picture life vision stuff with a few of my favourite journaling prompts, including one called the Odyssey Plan which I’ve been recommending for years. But what’s this really got to do with productivity? Well, if you’ve been following my content for a while, you’ll know that I don’t really see productivity as this one dimensional thing of just trying to get more done in less time. For me, there’s way more to it and a lot of it can be boiled down to the two core pillars that we talk about in LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8qg36gb3hgrpld36fghgkmn3/9qhzhdudo7kr57izu3/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGlmZW9zLz91dG1fc291cmNlPW5ld3NsZXR0ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249ZXZlcmdyZWVuJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PW9keXNzZXlfMTdfYXVndXN0 ) - vision and action. And so the reason the core components of the video are relevant, as it relates to productivity, is that getting clarity on your why or your purpose is a key part that most people miss and yet without it, you end up sort of getting stuff done but without a real end in mind or a meaning to what you’re doing. On a macro scale, this is more of a wider vision, mission and purpose, but on a more micro, year-to-year, day to day sort of level, the why is often more closely tied to the goal(s) that you’re pursuing in that season of life. And those goals never stay fixed - what I wanted at 22 is different to what I want now at 32 - which is why I think of this stuff as giving you a direction to point in, more than a fixed destination. This is really what we’re trying to build into Superfocus ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8qg36gb3hgrpld36fghgkmn3/3ohphdu3ew6gk6hpun/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1vZHlzc2V5XzE3X2F1Z3VzdA== ) too - helping you get clarity on those goals and then building the systems around them to make progress inevitable rather than incidental or even accidental. (If you’re interested, you can still join as a Founding Member of Superfocus here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8qg36gb3hgrpld36fghgkmn3/3ohphdu3ew6gk6hpun/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1vZHlzc2V5XzE3X2F1Z3VzdA== )). Anyway, if you’ve not already watched it, head over to the channel and give the video a watch ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8qg36gb3hgrpld36fghgkmn3/qvh8h8ud9xgpklhguk/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1mRU1ITWQ3Zm92TQ== ) and let me know which part in particular helped you out. Have a great week, Talk soon, Ali xx Enjoying ProductiveNotes? You might love this ★★★★★ "LifeOS completely changed the way I approach productivity and balance. Within the first few weeks, I had more clarity around my goals, my schedule felt calmer, and I was finally following through on habits I'd been planning to start for years." — Callan, LifeOS student If that resonates, check out LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8qg36gb3hgrpld36fghgkmn3/48hvh7um4oz87phqu7/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGlmZW9zLz91dG1fc291cmNlPXByb2R1Y3RpdmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1ldmVyZ3JlZW4mdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9Zm9vdGVyX2NhbGxhbl90ZXN0aW1vbmlhbA== ) — my signature course on building a productivity system that actually sticks. Thanks for being part of ProductiveNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8qg36gb3hgrpld36fghgkmn3 ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friend, Hope you’ve had a good week. I’ve been doing more filming than I expected over the last few days whilst here in London - both for my channel and Superfocus ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhvqxz9qighvzvekqnu9hplqro/x0hph3ue54kvnvsgul/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1wb3J0Zm9saW9fMTRfYXVndXN0 ) which has been tiring but fun and it's always useful to have more content in the backlog. But it has also made me reflect quite a bit more on the whole content sustainability point that we talked about last week and I wanted to follow up that email with a few additional points and questions that I’ve been reflecting on recently, specifically how that idea shows up when we’re deciding what to make. The way I've started thinking about it is that a channel works best as a portfolio rather than a single formula. There are videos we make because they're useful to the business, the ones that bring in the right people and point at something we sell. There are videos where the idea and the title and the thumbnail are all pulling in the same direction and the thing has a decent chance of finding an audience beyond the people who already know us. And then there are videos we make because they're worth making, regardless of what either of those two columns say. I like to think of this as Value, views, and vibes, basically. Now, obviously ideally you’d want to be making content that hits all three all the time but thinking in this way has opened up my own thought process and creativity when it comes to the channel. If you’re subscribed to my channel, you might’ve seen that I released a video recently about Harry Potter fan fiction ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhvqxz9qighvzvekqnu9hplqro/6qhehoulm3x8pmt9uk/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1nVWJsaExNaGM5NA== ) - objectively not a great idea if I was going after views but honestly that was far more about the vibes and optimising for the enjoyment piece that I mentioned last week. I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by how ‘well’ it’s done (just over 200k last time I checked) but I know it’s not a video that’s going to drive leads to the business and the value is limited to those people interested in the niche subject matter (btw if you are a Harry Potter fan and you’ve not read any of the fan fiction I mention in the video, you’re seriously missing out). But the point is, I’ve found it helpful to think according to these three pillars. And as part of producing content that aligns with these three areas, I’ve started to put together what I call my enjoyment and optimisation checklist which basically involves asking these 7 questions before I create any content: 1 · is this for the audience I want to create content for? 2 · is it about something I care about? 3 · is it in a format I enjoy? 4 · is there a clear viewer problem and promise? 5 · is there a credible title + thumbnail direction? 6 · does the opening deliver proof, promise, plan — and early value? 7 · can the system produce this without heroic motivation? The first 3 are about whether we'll enjoy making it. The next 3 are about whether anyone will watch it. The last one is the one I forget most often, because plenty of ideas are lovely in theory and then require me to become a different, more disciplined person in order to actually finish them. If an idea passes all 7, it's usually worth doing. Obviously some of these are iterations on what I’ve always asked of videos but questions 2 and 3 in particular really make me consider that fun and vibes component which I’ve found to be so important to making this whole process sustainable over the past 8 or so years that I’ve now been making YouTube videos. The reason I care about this so much is that I've come to think the best content compounds in two directions. Outward, it compounds into business results, audience, revenue, the stuff we can put on a dashboard. Inward, it compounds into a more interesting life, because the videos we make shape what we read, who we talk to, and what we end up spending our attention on for the next few years. We're pretty good at measuring the outward bit and almost completely blind to the inward one, which is why the vibes column always looks like the expendable one on a spreadsheet. This is a nice, neat way of framing it and might be a little reductive but after nearly a decade of creating content on YouTube, I feel pretty qualified to be able to make statements like this because I know when I’ve felt most energised by the content creation process and when those moments have overlapped with the growth of the channel (and when it hasn’t). So I suppose the whole point of the newsletters over the past couple of weeks is just to reiterate the importance of finding that purpose and the why to creating content to ensure that it’s sustainable in the long term. Because the thing is, creating content, growing a personal brand and building a business can be (and has been for me) one of the most fun, fulfilling and financially rewarding things you can do and that’s why I’d encourage everyone to be exploring it. But, it only fills all those buckets if you’ve got alignment on that wider why - without it, it quickly becomes a chore that’s draining and demoralising. If you found this helpful, hit reply and let me know what resonated - always keen to hear what others have to say on this whole content sustainability piece because it’s something I think about regularly and keep front of mind. Anyway have a great weekend ahead. Talk soon, Ali xx Enjoying CreatorNotes? You might love this ★★★★★ "I followed the system and got to monetisation in 10 weeks with 10 videos. The course gave me a clear path to follow and got me into the mindset of treating everything as an experiment. So, yeah, it worked!" — Tom, PTYA student If that resonates, check out Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhvqxz9qighvzvekqnu9hplqro/kkhmh2unkoz08xuku7/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9Y3JlYXRvcm5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1mb290ZXJfdG9tX3Rlc3RpbW9uaWFs ) — my signature course on building a YouTube channel around your day job. Thanks for being part of CreatorNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhvqxz9qighvzvekqnu9hplqro ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friend, Hope you’ve had a good week. I’ve been doing more filming than I expected over the last few days whilst here in London - both for my channel and Superfocus ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4lger4clh8n82womu4h8opl6/z2hgh7ueql0k9nszu0/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1wb3J0Zm9saW9fMTRfYXVndXN0 ) which has been tiring but fun and it's always useful to have more content in the backlog. But it has also made me reflect quite a bit more on the whole content sustainability point that we talked about last week and I wanted to follow up that email with a few additional points and questions that I’ve been reflecting on recently, specifically how that idea shows up when we’re deciding what to make. The way I've started thinking about it is that a channel works best as a portfolio rather than a single formula. There are videos we make because they're useful to the business, the ones that bring in the right people and point at something we sell. There are videos where the idea and the title and the thumbnail are all pulling in the same direction and the thing has a decent chance of finding an audience beyond the people who already know us. And then there are videos we make because they're worth making, regardless of what either of those two columns say. I like to think of this as Value, views, and vibes, basically. Now, obviously ideally you’d want to be making content that hits all three all the time but thinking in this way has opened up my own thought process and creativity when it comes to the channel. If you’re subscribed to my channel, you might’ve seen that I released a video recently about Harry Potter fan fiction ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4lger4clh8n82womu4h8opl6/p8hehqu4nq82k6cru3/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1nVWJsaExNaGM5NA== ) - objectively not a great idea if I was going after views but honestly that was far more about the vibes and optimising for the enjoyment piece that I mentioned last week. I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by how ‘well’ it’s done (just over 200k last time I checked) but I know it’s not a video that’s going to drive leads to the business and the value is limited to those people interested in the niche subject matter (btw if you are a Harry Potter fan and you’ve not read any of the fan fiction I mention in the video, you’re seriously missing out). But the point is, I’ve found it helpful to think according to these three pillars. And as part of producing content that aligns with these three areas, I’ve started to put together what I call my enjoyment and optimisation checklist which basically involves asking these 7 questions before I create any content: 1 · is this for the audience I want to create content for? 2 · is it about something I care about? 3 · is it in a format I enjoy? 4 · is there a clear viewer problem and promise? 5 · is there a credible title + thumbnail direction? 6 · does the opening deliver proof, promise, plan — and early value? 7 · can the system produce this without heroic motivation? The first 3 are about whether we'll enjoy making it. The next 3 are about whether anyone will watch it. The last one is the one I forget most often, because plenty of ideas are lovely in theory and then require me to become a different, more disciplined person in order to actually finish them. If an idea passes all 7, it's usually worth doing. Obviously some of these are iterations on what I’ve always asked of videos but questions 2 and 3 in particular really make me consider that fun and vibes component which I’ve found to be so important to making this whole process sustainable over the past 8 or so years that I’ve now been making YouTube videos. The reason I care about this so much is that I've come to think the best content compounds in two directions. Outward, it compounds into business results, audience, revenue, the stuff we can put on a dashboard. Inward, it compounds into a more interesting life, because the videos we make shape what we read, who we talk to, and what we end up spending our attention on for the next few years. We're pretty good at measuring the outward bit and almost completely blind to the inward one, which is why the vibes column always looks like the expendable one on a spreadsheet. This is a nice, neat way of framing it and might be a little reductive but after nearly a decade of creating content on YouTube, I feel pretty qualified to be able to make statements like this because I know when I’ve felt most energised by the content creation process and when those moments have overlapped with the growth of the channel (and when it hasn’t). So I suppose the whole point of the newsletters over the past couple of weeks is just to reiterate the importance of finding that purpose and the why to creating content to ensure that it’s sustainable in the long term. Because the thing is, creating content, growing a personal brand and building a business can be (and has been for me) one of the most fun, fulfilling and financially rewarding things you can do and that’s why I’d encourage everyone to be exploring it. But, it only fills all those buckets if you’ve got alignment on that wider why - without it, it quickly becomes a chore that’s draining and demoralising. If you found this helpful, hit reply and let me know what resonated - always keen to hear what others have to say on this whole content sustainability piece because it’s something I think about regularly and keep front of mind. Anyway have a great weekend ahead. Talk soon, Ali xx Enjoying CreatorNotes? You might love this ★★★★★ "I followed the system and got to monetisation in 10 weeks with 10 videos. The course gave me a clear path to follow and got me into the mindset of treating everything as an experiment. So, yeah, it worked!" — Tom, PTYA student If that resonates, check out Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4lger4clh8n82womu4h8opl6/x0hph3ue5qxp80bgul/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9Y3JlYXRvcm5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1mb290ZXJfdG9tX3Rlc3RpbW9uaWFs ) — my signature course on building a YouTube channel around your day job. Thanks for being part of CreatorNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4lger4clh8n82womu4h8opl6 ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, Hope you're having a great week. Towards the end of last September I went over to West Kowloon, which is a part of Hong Kong I’d never been to before, and ended up in a little coffee shop with a pocket notebook and a handful of decisions about the business that I’d been circling for a couple of months without actually resolving any of them. I try to do this every 3 months or so, usually right as a quarter is turning over, and I always go somewhere unfamiliar. When you’re at home or in your office there are all sorts of subconscious patterns that you just find yourself following, because our brains are sort of prediction machines that conserve energy by defaulting to whatever we decided last time. Going somewhere new is a cheap way of getting the bird’s eye view of your life rather than being stuck in the thick of it. The idea originally comes from Bill Gates I think, who used to take what he called a 'think week', where once or twice a year he’d disappear off to a cabin in the woods, clear his calendar entirely and do nothing but read and think. He credits a decent chunk of Microsoft’s better innovations to those weeks. Most of us don’t have a spare week lying around, but my friend Sahil Bloom writes about a smaller version in his book Five Types of Wealth called a think day, and honestly 4 hours gets you most of the value. There’s a whole method to how I spend those hours, but if I had to reduce it down to the most valuable question that I reflect on as part of that exercise it would be - what would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail? I might’ve mentioned it in one of my newsletters before, but the most useful part of asking yourself that question is actually the follow up - asking why you’re not doing it already, and from my own experience, the answer's usually something around fear like I’m afraid to quit the job or I’m afraid to post the video in case someone at work sees it. There are hundreds of thousands of years of evolution sitting behind that instinct, because for most of human history, failure really did mean not surviving, so it isn’t a personal weakness so much as standard-issue hardware. The problem is that fear stays enormous for as long as we leave it as a vague feeling, and it gets a lot smaller the moment we make it specific. Tim Ferriss has an exercise for this called fear-setting, from a blog post he wrote back in 2017, and it just asks you to define the nightmare in painstaking detail. What is the actual worst case? On a scale of 1 to 10, and how likely is it really? What could you do to repair it? When I sat in that coffee shop and did this, the thing that came up was an online school for lifestyle entrepreneurs, which I’d been toying with for a couple of months already without committing to it. The idea wasn’t new. What the exercise showed me was that I’d been letting a fairly vague worry do the deciding, something along the lines of what if we don’t get enough students to pay but we hire a team anyway. Written down, the worst case was that we’d shut it down, which is disappointing but entirely survivable. But luckily obviously the Lifestyle Business Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh657xveh9hz0025xpbwhz0g26/58hvh8ugrr9kgef7u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD13b3JzdF9jYXNlXzEw ) is a thing now, it’s been going for over 8 months and it’s some of the most fun work I do. So if there’s something you’ve been circling for a while, block out 4 hours this week, go somewhere you’ve never been and take that one question with you. When you land on something, write it down as “before today I was unsure about X, as of today I’ve decided Y, and my next actions are Z”, then put a 15-minute review in your calendar for a week’s time so the decision doesn’t quietly evaporate the moment normal life resumes. I’d love to know what came up for you. Hit reply and let me know. Talk soon, Ali xx The Change That Made Work Move Faster ------------------------------------- When it comes to productivity within the business, most of the team's work doesn't slow down because people aren't working hard, it’s usually a result of everyone waiting on a report, or hunting for numbers that live in 4 different places, or synthesising disparate information sources into place with recommended action steps or waiting to hear back from the 1 person who knows where something is (and if that’s me, it might be even longer…!). That's where Viktor ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh657xveh9hz0025xpbwhz0g26/qvh8h8ud996oo7hguk/aHR0cHM6Ly9yZWYudmlrdG9yLmNvbS92aWstYWEtYXVnLXBu ) has made the biggest difference for us since we started using the tool in July. He's an AI employee who lives in our Slack, so instead of opening another tool, anyone on the team just mentions him in a channel and he goes into the systems we already use and comes back with the finished thing. Nicole, who runs our Instagram, uses him to pull the latest performance data and a read on how the account is doing without waiting on anyone. Owen, our growth lead, uses him to consolidate marketing information that's scattered across several different places into one summary he can actually act on that now gets delivered every week without him asking for it. It even asked whether I wanted it to draft and send a consolidated message to another team member after it’d pulled some data for me last week - something I’d not even thought to do at that point. The result is that the work still happens, but the waiting doesn't. ​Viktor ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh657xveh9hz0025xpbwhz0g26/qvh8h8ud996oo7hguk/aHR0cHM6Ly9yZWYudmlrdG9yLmNvbS92aWstYWEtYXVnLXBu ) connects to 3,200+ tools, so if there's data, research or reporting your team keeps queuing up behind one person, he's worth a look - we’ve saved hours in data collation, research, analysis and more. Get started here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh657xveh9hz0025xpbwhz0g26/qvh8h8ud996oo7hguk/aHR0cHM6Ly9yZWYudmlrdG9yLmNvbS92aWstYWEtYXVnLXBu ) with $100 of his work free. Thanks to Viktor ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh657xveh9hz0025xpbwhz0g26/qvh8h8ud996oo7hguk/aHR0cHM6Ly9yZWYudmlrdG9yLmNvbS92aWstYWEtYXVnLXBu ) for sponsoring this issue of ProductiveNotes 🙏 Enjoying ProductiveNotes? You might love this ★★★★★ "LifeOS completely changed the way I approach productivity and balance. Within the first few weeks, I had more clarity around my goals, my schedule felt calmer, and I was finally following through on habits I'd been planning to start for years." — Callan, LifeOS student If that resonates, check out LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh657xveh9hz0025xpbwhz0g26/9qhzhdudoo2zzxizu3/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGlmZW9zLz91dG1fc291cmNlPXByb2R1Y3RpdmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1ldmVyZ3JlZW4mdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9Zm9vdGVyX2NhbGxhbl90ZXN0aW1vbmlhbA== ) — my signature course on building a productivity system that actually sticks. Thanks for being part of ProductiveNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh657xveh9hz0025xpbwhz0g26 ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friend, Hope you're well and you've had a good start to the month. I need to start with a quick apology for missing a couple of weeks of this newsletter. We’ve had a series of events in quick succession starting with the team offsite followed by a couple of mastermind events which were all great fun, but also pretty intense and all-consuming and so we ended up missing a couple of issues, apologies. But we’re back now and I actually wanted to talk about one of the things that came up in a talk that I delivered at the weekend which is this idea that content creation only stays fun when we’re playing a game we actually chose, rather than one we drifted into because it looked like the sensible move. And I realise this isn’t necessarily a new idea for me, but standing up and talking through it out loud to a room full of entrepreneurs and business owners reminded me just how much this whole philosophy has shaped the way I’ve approached YouTube for the best part of a decade now. Over the last 2/3 years especially, I’ve got a lot more deliberate about which game I’m actually playing with my content in the first place. Because there is a version of YouTube where you study outlier theory, work out which of your videos over-performed against your channel average, and then optimise your packaging and future ideas around whatever you think made those videos tick. And that’s a real skill, and looking at what’s actually working is part of getting good at this whole game, which is why I’d never tell anyone to ignore that. But that’s not the whole game, and underneath all the packaging and the outlier analysis, the question that actually matters is whether we’re enjoying the process, and whether we can tie what we’re making back to some kind of purpose. For some of us that purpose is commercial, the videos feed into a wider business but that still provides a central reason behind the creation. And I know that for others it’s something else entirely, maybe a creative outlet or just a way of thinking out loud in public. The thing that doesn’t work, however, is having no purpose at all beyond chasing whatever the outliers say should perform next, because that’s usually where the fun drains out and the burnout creeps in. From my own perspective, whenever we’ve veered too much into that and I’ve started to feel that sense of ‘urgghhh, I know there’s strong evidence that this video will probably work but it’s just not my vibe’, I’ve tried to catch myself and bring the whole process back in line with making the thing that excites me. Ofc packaging and outlier theory are still part of how I execute that game, they just aren’t the reason I’m playing it. This is basically the whole thesis of Feel-Good Productivity too. The opening chapter is about play, and the argument in there is that when we approach our work in the spirit of a game rather than a chore, we end up enjoying the process more, and weirdly, getting more done too. The fourth experiment is literally “Enjoy the Process, Not the Outcome” and even I need to regularly remind myself of that because it’s so easy to slide back into treating content like homework the moment things get busy. Back when I started on YouTube, I was putting out 3 videos a week, and looking back, the energy for that pace didn’t come from discipline. It came from the fact that I’d turned the whole thing into a game I wanted to optimise, setting myself little challenges around titles or thumbnails and seeing how fast I could turn an idea into something worth publishing. Hitting publish felt like levelling up rather than clocking in and the videos were a creative outlet I looked forward to engaging in and I knew that if I was just consistent, posting twice a week, the work would compound positively. So if content creation has started feeling more like a chore than a game lately, it'd be worth sitting down and working out what version of this you’d actually want to be playing in 5 years, then build the system around that answer instead of whatever happens to be trending this month. And if any of this has you thinking about actually starting or restarting your channel but doing it with more intention around what that 5 year path looks like, feel free to check out the Part Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/e5u7l4ldk0h7hlrod0es8h8752e40hlhvgzpn/x0hph3ue5k5wekcgul/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1ldmVyZ3JlZW4mdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9ZnVuXzU= ) where I go through the whole Get Going, Get Good, Get Smart framework in a lot more detail alongside 20+ hours of additional content, workshops and interviews. You can check it out here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/e5u7l4ldk0h7hlrod0es8h8752e40hlhvgzpn/x0hph3ue5k5wekcgul/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1ldmVyZ3JlZW4mdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9ZnVuXzU= ). Anyway, hope this was useful - have a great end to the week, Ali xx P.S - quick note in case you missed my email last month, we’re currently accepting Founding Members into Superfocus ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/e5u7l4ldk0h7hlrod0es8h8752e40hlhvgzpn/6qhehoulmxm7lzb9uk/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1mdW5fNQ== ), the productivity app that my team and I have been developing for the past year to help you not only get clarity on your goals but actually provide the systems to actually achieve them too. You can lock in the founding price by joining today here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/e5u7l4ldk0h7hlrod0es8h8752e40hlhvgzpn/6qhehoulmxm7lzb9uk/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1mdW5fNQ== ). Enjoying CreatorNotes? You might love this ★★★★★ "I followed the system and got to monetisation in 10 weeks with 10 videos. The course gave me a clear path to follow and got me into the mindset of treating everything as an experiment. So, yeah, it worked!" — Tom, PTYA student If that resonates, check out Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/e5u7l4ldk0h7hlrod0es8h8752e40hlhvgzpn/58hvh8ugr3rmg2s7u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9Y3JlYXRvcm5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1mb290ZXJfdG9tX3Rlc3RpbW9uaWFs ) — my signature course on building a YouTube channel around your day job. Thanks for being part of CreatorNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/e5u7l4ldk0h7hlrod0es8h8752e40hlhvgzpn ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey , Hope you’re well and had a great weekend. I’ve just come back from a mastermind event in Scotland - loads of insights and learnings for LBA ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk0neopi7hnezkx7ou8h4lw6v/7qh7h2u9r3kk4qc9u6/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1ib3R0bGVuZWNrXzM= ). It’s always great to get external eyes on your offer or business to spot those potential blindspots or missed opportunities to improve things - the challenge is coming back to the team and filtering the ideas so we don’t end up overwhelmed or distracted within a week... Anyway, that’s actually connected to what I wanted to write about today because a similar pattern can emerge with our personal productivity too. And with productivity, it's not just one-off events where you hear ideas or suggestions - we're surrounded by it everyday. We’re all watching videos, listening to podcasts and reading newsletters (like this one, sorry), but every decent idea we come across arrives with an implied task attached to it or a system improvement we need to make to our lives and all that new information can be useful, but it can also become a distraction. And so the question is really about management and prioritisation. Now, I’ve talked about creating systems for filtering these specific ideas or suggestions before but when confronted with this feeling of impending overwhelm or tempting distractions, there's a couple of additional (simple) questions which I like to return to - what is the bottleneck and what is the number one task that, if done, would move me closer towards my goals? There’s an idea from operations called the Theory of Constraints, which says that a system can only move as fast as its slowest part, so the useful question isn’t “what could I improve this week” but “what’s the one thing that, if I fixed it, would make everything else easier”. It sounds kinda too simple written down but in practice it’s weirdly hard to do, because the constraint is usually the annoying thing we've been putting off, and sitting right next to it is a long list of reasonable jobs that all feel like progress. I’ve had entire months where I tinkered with systems and rewrote things that were already fine, while the one decision I didn’t fancy making sat there waiting. The point is that the constraint, or the bottleneck, is where your attention probably needs to go first. Until that part is resolved, the rest of the system can’t really function efficiently. You can make everything around it neater, faster, or more aesthetically pleasing, but if the constraint is still sitting there unchanged, the whole system will keep moving at the same frustrating speed. I’ve written about this before in FreedomNotes ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk0neopi7hnezkx7ou8h4lw6v/owhkhwuw25kk89aqur/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vZnJlZWRvbS1ub3Rlcy8= ), my business newsletter, but I think the idea applies just as much to personal productivity as it does to building a lifestyle business. A useful way into this is the prioritisation question: what is the number one task that, if done, would move me closest towards my goals? Not the easiest task, or the one that gives you the quickest hit of progress, but the thing that actually moves the needle, even if it’s slightly annoying, ambiguous, or uncomfortable. What I see more often, in myself as much as anyone, is over-prioritisation. Everything on the list is sensible, everything is defensible, and there are simply 11 of them competing for a week that has room for maybe 1 or 2. That’s not really a problem with discipline (although it can be), it’s more just a simple numbers problem. This is one of the reasons I like calendar-first planning. A to-do list can grow forever, but a calendar forces a trade-off - if something is genuinely the priority, it needs to survive contact with the actual hours available in the week and if it doesn’t make it into the calendar, that’s usually a sign that it’s not really the priority yet. (This is the whole idea behind Superfocus ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk0neopi7hnezkx7ou8h4lw6v/z2hgh7ueq044dxizu0/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1ib3R0bGVuZWNrXzM= ) too). So instead of asking what you should do this week, ask what the single biggest bottleneck to moving forward actually is, and then have a look at whether the first thing in your calendar tomorrow has anything to do with it. If the answer is no, that’s still useful information. And if you can’t work out what your constraint is, a decent shortcut is to ask which problem, if it disappeared overnight, would make most of your other problems smaller. Hope this was helpful and we’ll speak soon. Ali xx ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ​🎙️ Wispr Flow: Why Long Replies Sit There For Days ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk0neopi7hnezkx7ou8h4lw6v/p8hehqu4n83370bru3/aHR0cDovL3JlZi53aXNwcmZsb3cuYWkvYWxpX25ld3NsZXR0ZXI= )​ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you look at the things sitting in your inbox or your messages right now, I’d bet most of them aren’t there because they’re complicated. They’re there because they need a proper answer, and a proper answer means sitting down at a keyboard and writing several paragraphs, which is not something you can easily fit in at any one point in the day. So the short replies get dealt with straight away, and the ones that actually matter wait until an imaginary hour that never quite arrives. ​Wispr Flow ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk0neopi7hnezkx7ou8h4lw6v/p8hehqu4n83370bru3/aHR0cDovL3JlZi53aXNwcmZsb3cuYWkvYWxpX25ld3NsZXR0ZXI= ) has been genuinely useful for this. It’s a voice-to-text tool that turns how you naturally speak into clean, properly formatted text in any app, on any device, which means the long reply stops being a desk job. I can answer something substantial while walking to the studio, and what comes out reads like I sat down and wrote it, with the rambling tidied up and the mid-sentence corrections handled. There’s also a whisper mode, so you can use it in a shared office or a train carriage without announcing your entire inbox to the room, which has been more useful than I expected. It works on Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android, with no setup or integrations required. If you want to try it, click here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk0neopi7hnezkx7ou8h4lw6v/p8hehqu4n83370bru3/aHR0cDovL3JlZi53aXNwcmZsb3cuYWkvYWxpX25ld3NsZXR0ZXI= ) and use code ALI for 1 month of Wispr Flow Pro for free. Thanks to Wispr Flow ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk0neopi7hnezkx7ou8h4lw6v/p8hehqu4n83370bru3/aHR0cDovL3JlZi53aXNwcmZsb3cuYWkvYWxpX25ld3NsZXR0ZXI= ) for sponsoring this issue of ProductiveNotes 🙏 Enjoying ProductiveNotes? You might love this ★★★★★ "LifeOS completely changed the way I approach productivity and balance. Within the first few weeks, I had more clarity around my goals, my schedule felt calmer, and I was finally following through on habits I'd been planning to start for years." — Callan, LifeOS student If that resonates, check out LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk0neopi7hnezkx7ou8h4lw6v/x0hph3ue5xrr7vtgul/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGlmZW9zLz91dG1fc291cmNlPXByb2R1Y3RpdmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1ldmVyZ3JlZW4mdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9Zm9vdGVyX2NhbGxhbl90ZXN0aW1vbmlhbA== ) — my signature course on building a productivity system that actually sticks. Thanks for being part of ProductiveNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk0neopi7hnezkx7ou8h4lw6v ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey gang, Quick thing before we start: later today (Saturday 4th July) I’m hosting our annual Summer Reset workshop ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkqwv3wuphwlkq78qh6h923k0/kkhmh2un0zde43iku7/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3N1bW1lci1yZXNldC0yMDI2Lz9sbS1nYSUzRnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1xcjI2XzImdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9bGVhcm5fMw== ), where we’ll be reflecting on the first half of 2026, and setting goals for the rest of the year. It’s totally free. 10,000 people have registered so far (we’ve had to upgrade our atrociously expensive Zoom webinar license to accommodate)… so given that we now have the upgraded license, we may as well get a few more people joining. It’ll be a vibe. I’d love to see you there. Click here to register ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkqwv3wuphwlkq78qh6h923k0/kkhmh2un0zde43iku7/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3N1bW1lci1yZXNldC0yMDI2Lz9sbS1nYSUzRnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1xcjI2XzImdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9bGVhcm5fMw== ). Anyway, the other day I was having a chat with one of our lifestyle business academy students who was struggling to get his first sale for his new business. Let’s call him John. This is how the conversation went (with some creative liberties taken): John: I’ve got a potential client for my business… I did the discovery call with her, and I found that what she really needs help with is her marketing for… but I don’t have any marketing skills so I said I couldn’t help her… and tbh I’ve had a bunch of calls with people who seem to be really struggling with their marketing, but my skill set is around the actual delivery of the service, not in the marketing of the service… so how do I find more people who actually want the delivery thing? Me: John… you literally had a bunch of people telling you that their specific problem was marketing… what’s stopping you from saying yes and actually helping them with their marketing? John: Well, as I said, I don’t have any marketing skills… Me: Hmm… what do you mean by “marketing skills”? John: I dunno… I haven’t done like a marketing degree, or really tried to market anything before… Me: Yeah I totally get that… but like… how long do you think it would take you to learn some “marketing skills” to be able to potentially help these people? John: No idea… maybe a few years? Me: Ahhhh… John, what if I told you, you could actually learn enough about marketing to be able to meaningfully help one of these businesses, within… about a week. John: Wait, what?! Me: Yeah… let’s say one of them is struggling with Instagram ads. That’s a type of “marketing skill”… one of my team members started running Instagram ads in our business recently, and so he watched a couple of YouTube videos, talked to Claude and ChatGPT a bit, and then he knew enough about it to create some pretty reasonable looking Instagram ads… and they’re actually profitable. Probably took him a few hours to learn the skill, and then of course, you improve at the skill over time using data and experiments and stuff… but you don’t need to do a 3-year university degree in “marketing” to learn how to setup an Instagram ad… John: … Me: Have you heard of the Teddy Roosevelt method? We talk about it in some of the curriculum lessons. John: No I haven’t come across that one yet. Me: No worries - basically, there’s a fun quote from Theodore Roosevelt that says: “When someone asks if you can do something, say yes! And then get busy figuring out how to actually do it”. We call this the Teddy Roosevelt Method. It’s a really important mindset shift to have if you’re starting a new business. When you’re an entrepreneur, the way you learn skills is by saying yes to something, and then figuring out how to actually do the thing. And you’d be surprised… between YouTube and ChatGPT, you can pretty much teach yourself any skill in a matter of hours to days, rather than the months to years it would’ve taken in the past. John: But how can I say yes to these people? Won’t I be scamming them if I’m offering to do something I can’t actually do? Me: Two things. Firstly, it’s not that you can’t do it, it’s that you can’t do it YET. And you can figure it out within a few days, so yeah you’re offering to help them, and then you’ll figure it out. And secondly… obviously don’t misrepresent your experience. You could even say: “Hey look, I’ve got a lot of experience on the delivery side of Niche X, but I’ve never done the marketing thing before. I’m confident I can figure it out. How about this: how about I work with you for free for the next 2 weeks and try and add as much value as possible. If you feel like it’s going well, we can talk about upgrading it to a paid engagement afterwards, but because I’m new to this and an unproven asset, I think it’s fair that I show you what I can do first, and we talk about payment after that. How does that sound?” John: Wait, so you’re saying I can just be honest with them? I don’t need to pretend to be an expert? Me: EXACTLY! Obviously you wouldn’t say “I’m the world’s best marketer” when you’ve never done any marketing before. But if you’re honest about it, you’ll be surprised as to how often someone will say yes. These business owners are literally drowning and overwhelmed with all the stuff they need to do… you’ve got experience within their field of expertise (albeit on the delivery side of the business), and they trusted you enough to get on the initial call with you. You could totally offer to help them for free, learn the skill to help them, and see what happens. I bet you’d learn a really valuable skill, AND you’ll actually be able to help them, because tbh learning marketing skills ain’t that hard with all the resources on the internet… John: Alright cool, I’ll give it a go. Thanks :) — There’s a fun quote that I like from Alex Hormozi that goes along the lines of: “You can train anyone to do anything… it’s just a matter of how long it takes. You could take someone off the street, and train them to be a neurosurgeon… if you’ve got 20 years to train them, right?” This rhymes with a mantra I came across when I was 16 years old of: “EVERYTHING is a skill. EVERYTHING can be learned”. (I came across it in a book called “Kickassery” by Charlie Houpert, who later founded Charisma on Command.) But that phrase: “everything is a skill, everything can be learned” is what would go through my mind whenever I was trying anything new, or whenever I was like: “argh I don’t know how to do this thing…”. Everything is a skill, and everything can be learned. And crucially, everything can be learned without having to do a degree in it. YouTube exists. ChatGPT exists. You can teach yourself almost any skill… at least the theoretical aspects of it. Even Medicine tbh - in case you didn’t know, I went to med school at Cambridge, one of the best universities in the world. EVEN there, even with world-class faculty and lecturers and facilities… me and most of my friends learned the bulk of our medical knowledge from… YouTube! Sure, we’d have a lecture or seminar on “how to do the cardiovascular examination” where you get taught how to listen to someone’s heart, and how to identify heart sounds etc. But then… the resource we’d use to ACTUALLY learn it was a YouTube channel called Geeky Medics, and their accompanying website, that had way more information than the lecture, presented in a way better format, with the ability to rewind, fast forward etc. We’d have the YouTube video open in our dorm room, get some friends together, practice it on each other, and literally print off the Geeky Medics “mark scheme” to take into the hospital, and tick things off as we would watch our friends practising on (fully consenting of course) patients. So yeah, medical school gave us the container, the structure and the permission to go into a hospital and talk to people without it being super weird. But a lot of the ACTUAL learning happened through self-studying YouTube videos and using online question banks created by third parties, not the official university resources. I say all this to attempt to further emphasise the value of taking a “you can teach yourself literally anything” approach to life. It’s one of the biggest barriers that stops students in our Lifestyle Business Academy from building their businesses, but thankfully it’s one that gets broken down pretty quickly within days to weeks of them joining us. Everything is a skill. Everything can be learned. It’s just a matter of how long it takes. And conveniently, between YouTube and ChatGPT/Claude, it doesn’t take that long to learn super valuable skills :) Have a great weekend and hope to see some of you at the Summer Reset ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkqwv3wuphwlkq78qh6h923k0/kkhmh2un0zde43iku7/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3N1bW1lci1yZXNldC0yMDI2Lz9sbS1nYSUzRnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1xcjI2XzImdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9bGVhcm5fMw== ) later :) Ali xx P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkqwv3wuphwlkq78qh6h923k0/58hvh8ugd3v0l9b7u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkqwv3wuphwlkq78qh6h923k0/25h2h9u3plvgn7a8u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkqwv3wuphwlkq78qh6h923k0/qvh8h8udme7vqrsguk/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkqwv3wuphwlkq78qh6h923k0 ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey gang, Quick thing before we start: tomorrow (Saturday 4th July) I’m hosting our annual Summer Reset workshop ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h93z03kblhv7ewd4lbnh95n7l/58hvh8ugdlkelrs7u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3N1bW1lci1yZXNldC0yMDI2Lz9sbS1nYSUzRnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1xcjI2XzImdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9bGVhcm5fMw== ), where we’ll be reflecting on the first half of 2026, and setting goals for the rest of the year. It’s totally free. 10,000 people have registered so far (we’ve had to upgrade our atrociously expensive Zoom webinar license to accommodate)… so given that we now have the upgraded license, we may as well get a few more people joining. It’ll be a vibe. I’d love to see you there. Click here to register ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h93z03kblhv7ewd4lbnh95n7l/58hvh8ugdlkelrs7u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3N1bW1lci1yZXNldC0yMDI2Lz9sbS1nYSUzRnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1xcjI2XzImdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9bGVhcm5fMw== ). Anyway, the other day I was having a chat with one of our lifestyle business academy students who was struggling to get his first sale for his new business. Let’s call him John. This is how the conversation went (with some creative liberties taken): John: I’ve got a potential client for my business… I did the discovery call with her, and I found that what she really needs help with is her marketing for… but I don’t have any marketing skills so I said I couldn’t help her… and tbh I’ve had a bunch of calls with people who seem to be really struggling with their marketing, but my skill set is around the actual delivery of the service, not in the marketing of the service… so how do I find more people who actually want the delivery thing? Me: John… you literally had a bunch of people telling you that their specific problem was marketing… what’s stopping you from saying yes and actually helping them with their marketing? John: Well, as I said, I don’t have any marketing skills… Me: Hmm… what do you mean by “marketing skills”? John: I dunno… I haven’t done like a marketing degree, or really tried to market anything before… Me: Yeah I totally get that… but like… how long do you think it would take you to learn some “marketing skills” to be able to potentially help these people? John: No idea… maybe a few years? Me: Ahhhh… John, what if I told you, you could actually learn enough about marketing to be able to meaningfully help one of these businesses, within… about a week. John: Wait, what?! Me: Yeah… let’s say one of them is struggling with Instagram ads. That’s a type of “marketing skill”… one of my team members started running Instagram ads in our business recently, and so he watched a couple of YouTube videos, talked to Claude and ChatGPT a bit, and then he knew enough about it to create some pretty reasonable looking Instagram ads… and they’re actually profitable. Probably took him a few hours to learn the skill, and then of course, you improve at the skill over time using data and experiments and stuff… but you don’t need to do a 3-year university degree in “marketing” to learn how to setup an Instagram ad… John: … Me: Have you heard of the Teddy Roosevelt method? We talk about it in some of the curriculum lessons. John: No I haven’t come across that one yet. Me: No worries - basically, there’s a fun quote from Theodore Roosevelt that says: “When someone asks if you can do something, say yes! And then get busy figuring out how to actually do it”. We call this the Teddy Roosevelt Method. It’s a really important mindset shift to have if you’re starting a new business. When you’re an entrepreneur, the way you learn skills is by saying yes to something, and then figuring out how to actually do the thing. And you’d be surprised… between YouTube and ChatGPT, you can pretty much teach yourself any skill in a matter of hours to days, rather than the months to years it would’ve taken in the past. John: But how can I say yes to these people? Won’t I be scamming them if I’m offering to do something I can’t actually do? Me: Two things. Firstly, it’s not that you can’t do it, it’s that you can’t do it YET. And you can figure it out within a few days, so yeah you’re offering to help them, and then you’ll figure it out. And secondly… obviously don’t misrepresent your experience. You could even say: “Hey look, I’ve got a lot of experience on the delivery side of Niche X, but I’ve never done the marketing thing before. I’m confident I can figure it out. How about this: how about I work with you for free for the next 2 weeks and try and add as much value as possible. If you feel like it’s going well, we can talk about upgrading it to a paid engagement afterwards, but because I’m new to this and an unproven asset, I think it’s fair that I show you what I can do first, and we talk about payment after that. How does that sound?” John: Wait, so you’re saying I can just be honest with them? I don’t need to pretend to be an expert? Me: EXACTLY! Obviously you wouldn’t say “I’m the world’s best marketer” when you’ve never done any marketing before. But if you’re honest about it, you’ll be surprised as to how often someone will say yes. These business owners are literally drowning and overwhelmed with all the stuff they need to do… you’ve got experience within their field of expertise (albeit on the delivery side of the business), and they trusted you enough to get on the initial call with you. You could totally offer to help them for free, learn the skill to help them, and see what happens. I bet you’d learn a really valuable skill, AND you’ll actually be able to help them, because tbh learning marketing skills ain’t that hard with all the resources on the internet… John: Alright cool, I’ll give it a go. Thanks :) — There’s a fun quote that I like from Alex Hormozi that goes along the lines of: “You can train anyone to do anything… it’s just a matter of how long it takes. You could take someone off the street, and train them to be a neurosurgeon… if you’ve got 20 years to train them, right?” This rhymes with a mantra I came across when I was 16 years old of: “EVERYTHING is a skill. EVERYTHING can be learned”. (I came across it in a book called “Kickassery” by Charlie Houpert, who later founded Charisma on Command.) But that phrase: “everything is a skill, everything can be learned” is what would go through my mind whenever I was trying anything new, or whenever I was like: “argh I don’t know how to do this thing…”. Everything is a skill, and everything can be learned. And crucially, everything can be learned without having to do a degree in it. YouTube exists. ChatGPT exists. You can teach yourself almost any skill… at least the theoretical aspects of it. Even Medicine tbh - in case you didn’t know, I went to med school at Cambridge, one of the best universities in the world. EVEN there, even with world-class faculty and lecturers and facilities… me and most of my friends learned the bulk of our medical knowledge from… YouTube! Sure, we’d have a lecture or seminar on “how to do the cardiovascular examination” where you get taught how to listen to someone’s heart, and how to identify heart sounds etc. But then… the resource we’d use to ACTUALLY learn it was a YouTube channel called Geeky Medics, and their accompanying website, that had way more information than the lecture, presented in a way better format, with the ability to rewind, fast forward etc. We’d have the YouTube video open in our dorm room, get some friends together, practice it on each other, and literally print off the Geeky Medics “mark scheme” to take into the hospital, and tick things off as we would watch our friends practising on (fully consenting of course) patients. So yeah, medical school gave us the container, the structure and the permission to go into a hospital and talk to people without it being super weird. But a lot of the ACTUAL learning happened through self-studying YouTube videos and using online question banks created by third parties, not the official university resources. I say all this to attempt to further emphasise the value of taking a “you can teach yourself literally anything” approach to life. It’s one of the biggest barriers that stops students in our Lifestyle Business Academy from building their businesses, but thankfully it’s one that gets broken down pretty quickly within days to weeks of them joining us. Everything is a skill. Everything can be learned. It’s just a matter of how long it takes. And conveniently, between YouTube and ChatGPT/Claude, it doesn’t take that long to learn super valuable skills :) Have a great weekend and hope to see some of you at the Summer Reset ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h93z03kblhv7ewd4lbnh95n7l/58hvh8ugdlkelrs7u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3N1bW1lci1yZXNldC0yMDI2Lz9sbS1nYSUzRnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1xcjI2XzImdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9bGVhcm5fMw== ) tomorrow :) Ali xx P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h93z03kblhv7ewd4lbnh95n7l/25h2h9u3pn45nmi8u4/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h93z03kblhv7ewd4lbnh95n7l/qvh8h8udmqoxqlhguk/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h93z03kblhv7ewd4lbnh95n7l/g3hnhwum8x6vx2i3u9/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h93z03kblhv7ewd4lbnh95n7l ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey gang, Couple quick things before we start: Firstly, I’m hosting the Summer Reset 2026 on 4th July - it’s our usual free quarterly live workshop where we reflect on the first half of 2026, and set goals for the remainder of the year. Click here to register ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/p9u29w9k6vf9h2nz99guqhpqo8p8vtrh24gkp/qvh8h8udmo8l39sguk/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3N1bW1lci1yZXNldC0yMDI2LyUyMD91dG1fc291cmNlPW5ld3NsZXR0ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249cXIyNl8yJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PXJlZ3JldHNfMjg= ). (Sorry for the US folks, I know it’s a big day for y’all, but it’s early in the morning so I hope you can make it anyway. We’ll email you the recording too if you’re registered, in case you can’t make it live). And secondly, we’re opening a few more Founding Member spots for Superfocus, the brand new productivity platform we’ve been building for the past year, to help you get more clarity, focus and accountability in your life :) Click here for more details ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/p9u29w9k6vf9h2nz99guqhpqo8p8vtrh24gkp/g3hnhwum86e02qh3u9/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1yZWdyZXRzXzI4 ). Anyway, this week I’d like to tell you about the dumbest mistake I’ve made this year. A few months ago, I broke my left elbow (radial head fracture). I was legit trying to help an old lady and ended up falling over, landing on my outstretched left arm, and fracturing the bone. Got it X-rayed etc, it didn’t need surgery, but the surgeon said to keep it immobile for 2 weeks, and then start mobilising to get the movement back in the joint. Before this injury, my health routine was sick: gym 3 times a week, zone 2 cardio running 3 times a week while listening to audiobooks. Friends were commenting that I looked more jacked than ever, and I was delighted. But then… I broke my elbow. Initially I thought: “well there go my gains”… but then my wife (who was a way better doctor than I ever was) informed me: “actually, you could still do leg stuff, eg: squats, and you could train with your right side, and the studies have shown that if you do that, you’ll probably retain a lot of muscle in your left arm too… But… instead of going with that evidence-based approach, I decided to… totally stop doing anything active for a whole 3 months. I stopped running. I stopped getting in 10k steps per day. I stopped any form of weight training. I didn’t even bother with body weight squats or lunges that wouldn’t have affected my elbow in the slightest… but because of the minor discomfort of exercising with a broken elbow, I became a sloth for 3 months. And now… I regret that decision. I look in the mirror, and see myself being noticeably less muscular than I was a few months ago… my shoulders have become narrower, my arms look like my brother’s, and the belly’s gained some fat as well… The sad part is - all of this was totally avoidable, if I’d just not let a simple broken elbow stop me from exercising other parts of my body. But it was a convenient excuse: “Oh I’m injured, I need to take it easy”. And those 3 months of sloth erased like 2 years of effort at the gym. This is a longer-timescale version of the classic: “I’m supposed to be on a diet… but I’ve just eaten a cookie… screw it, it’s all ruined, I’ll just eat the entire box of cookies”. At least with the cookies, it’s just a single day of gluttony. But with my broken elbow, it was a whole 3 months of inactivity. Oh well - it’s a good lesson for something I’ve heard my friend Sahil Bloom say repeatedly whenever I ask him about health advice: “Anything above zero compounds positively. But zero compounds negatively”. Anyway, as of last week I got back into the gym, and the health routine is back on track. But I thought I’d share this as a cautionary tale. Have a great week and hope to see some of you on Saturday at the Summer Reset (reminder register here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/p9u29w9k6vf9h2nz99guqhpqo8p8vtrh24gkp/qvh8h8udmo8l39sguk/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3N1bW1lci1yZXNldC0yMDI2LyUyMD91dG1fc291cmNlPW5ld3NsZXR0ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249cXIyNl8yJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PXJlZ3JldHNfMjg= )). Ali xx P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/p9u29w9k6vf9h2nz99guqhpqo8p8vtrh24gkp/9qhzhdudvzge8ebzu3/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/p9u29w9k6vf9h2nz99guqhpqo8p8vtrh24gkp/3ohphdu354qk88upun/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/p9u29w9k6vf9h2nz99guqhpqo8p8vtrh24gkp/n2hohquv96nl4da0ug/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/p9u29w9k6vf9h2nz99guqhpqo8p8vtrh24gkp ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey gang, Couple quick things before we start: Firstly, I’m hosting the Summer Reset 2026 on 4th July - it’s our usual free quarterly live workshop where we reflect on the first half of 2026, and set goals for the remainder of the year. Click here to register ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh628n3dtvhqenl3l2tohqe49l/m2h7h6u3685w20uluq/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3N1bW1lci1yZXNldC0yMDI2LyUyMD91dG1fc291cmNlPW5ld3NsZXR0ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249cXIyNl8yJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PXJlZ3JldHNfMjg= ). (Sorry for the US folks, I know it’s a big day for y’all, but it’s early in the morning so I hope you can make it anyway. We’ll email you the recording too if you’re registered, in case you can’t make it live). And secondly, we’re opening a few more Founding Member spots for Superfocus, the brand new productivity platform we’ve been building for the past year, to help you get more clarity, focus and accountability in your life :) Click here for more details ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh628n3dtvhqenl3l2tohqe49l/dphehmue906rdmalu4/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJmb2N1cy5tZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1yZWdyZXRzXzI4 ). Anyway, this week I’d like to tell you about the dumbest mistake I’ve made this year. A few months ago, I broke my left elbow (radial head fracture). I was legit trying to help an old lady and ended up falling over, landing on my outstretched left arm, and fracturing the bone. Got it X-rayed etc, it didn’t need surgery, but the surgeon said to keep it immobile for 2 weeks, and then start mobilising to get the movement back in the joint. Before this injury, my health routine was sick: gym 3 times a week, zone 2 cardio running 3 times a week while listening to audiobooks. Friends were commenting that I looked more jacked than ever, and I was delighted. But then… I broke my elbow. Initially I thought: “well there go my gains”… but then my wife (who was a way better doctor than I ever was) informed me: “actually, you could still do leg stuff, eg: squats, and you could train with your right side, and the studies have shown that if you do that, you’ll probably retain a lot of muscle in your left arm too… But… instead of going with that evidence-based approach, I decided to… totally stop doing anything active for a whole 3 months. I stopped running. I stopped getting in 10k steps per day. I stopped any form of weight training. I didn’t even bother with body weight squats or lunges that wouldn’t have affected my elbow in the slightest… but because of the minor discomfort of exercising with a broken elbow, I became a sloth for 3 months. And now… I regret that decision. I look in the mirror, and see myself being noticeably less muscular than I was a few months ago… my shoulders have become narrower, my arms look like my brother’s, and the belly’s gained some fat as well… The sad part is - all of this was totally avoidable, if I’d just not let a simple broken elbow stop me from exercising other parts of my body. But it was a convenient excuse: “Oh I’m injured, I need to take it easy”. And those 3 months of sloth erased like 2 years of effort at the gym. This is a longer-timescale version of the classic: “I’m supposed to be on a diet… but I’ve just eaten a cookie… screw it, it’s all ruined, I’ll just eat the entire box of cookies”. At least with the cookies, it’s just a single day of gluttony. But with my broken elbow, it was a whole 3 months of inactivity. Oh well - it’s a good lesson for something I’ve heard my friend Sahil Bloom say repeatedly whenever I ask him about health advice: “Anything above zero compounds positively. But zero compounds negatively”. Anyway, as of last week I got back into the gym, and the health routine is back on track. But I thought I’d share this as a cautionary tale. Have a great week and hope to see some of you on Saturday at the Summer Reset (reminder register here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh628n3dtvhqenl3l2tohqe49l/m2h7h6u3685w20uluq/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3N1bW1lci1yZXNldC0yMDI2LyUyMD91dG1fc291cmNlPW5ld3NsZXR0ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249cXIyNl8yJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PXJlZ3JldHNfMjg= )). Ali xx P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh628n3dtvhqenl3l2tohqe49l/e0hph0u730v5mna7u2/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh628n3dtvhqenl3l2tohqe49l/7qh7h2u92ol3d0u9u6/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh628n3dtvhqenl3l2tohqe49l/owhkhwuwmr95xrbqur/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh628n3dtvhqenl3l2tohqe49l ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey gang, Greetings from Tuscany, Italy where I’ve just attended a lovely wedding. I’d like to share an interesting conversation I had with a friend while I was there. This friend in question is called Duranka - we’ve been close friends since we were 11 years old…so damn it’s been like 21 years. My goodness. Fun fact: Duranka is also one of the best singers I know, and featured in the VERY first videos I made on YouTube, back in March 2016. If you sort my channel by oldest-videos-first, you’ll see him feature there quite a lot :) This was back when I thought I was going to be a music YouTuber… Anyway, Duranka’s a few years into his Neurosurgery residency program. Yep - he’s literally a brain surgeon. Neurosurgery is one of the most competitive medical specialities, and Duranka worked insanely hard to get in. This is how our conversation about it went. Me: So how’s things going with neurosurgery? Must be pretty stressful right? D: Well…you’d think so, but it’s actually not too bad. Me: What do you mean? Don’t you have to work insanely long hours? D: Well yeah…like over the past few weeks, I’ve had to stay behind several hours after the end of each shift to deal with emergencies. But hey ho, that’s just what you sign up for right? Me: Haha yeah, but most of the doctors I know love to complain about their lives…you seem pretty chipper about it in comparison :) D: You know…I’ll be honest, sometimes I’m tempted to complain about stuff…but then I remind myself of something. Me: What’s that? D: I worked really really hard to get into neurosurgery speciality training. I remind myself that the problems I have now that I’m inside it, are EXACTLY the problems I DREAMED for a few years ago when I was working to get in. While I was grinding away on my CV and doing interview practice, I was literally dreaming of the day where I’d get to deal with a neurosurgical emergency and potentially save someone’s life. So now that that’s happening for real, what’s there to complain about? I left the conversation feeling very inspired, and also thinking “ooh this would be a good thing to write about in LifeNotes”. In my case, a lot of what I grumble about to myself internally, are actually “problems” that the younger version of me was actively campaigning for: the “problem” of a team relying on me, of an audience big enough that publishing stuff feels like pressure, of a book deadline from a world-renowned publisher, of way too many options of interesting projects to pursue. Even the “problem” of a baby screaming at night…tbh that’s something that younger me would’ve been delighted by. So here’s the practice I’m taking away from the conversation with Duranka that I’d invite you to join me in trying out: Next time you catch yourself complaining about something, pause and ask: “Is this a problem that a younger version of me was once dreaming about?” Of course, not everything will pass that particular test. But if you’re anything like me, you might be surprised by just how many of your day-to-day frustrations are, on closer inspection, the exact shape of an old dream that came true. Have a great week! Ali xx PS: We’ve got a handful of spots open for the next cohort of the Lifestyle Business Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh6m4kz0fvhqemp3m5hohqe49l/7qh7h2u97d3w7dt9/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1uZXVyb3N1cmdlcnlfMQ== ). If you’d like to build your own $100k+ lifestyle business to work towards financial and time freedom, and would like 1:1 mentorship from me and my team, plus daily coaching clinics and workshops…there’s more details here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh6m4kz0fvhqemp3m5hohqe49l/7qh7h2u97d3w7dt9/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1uZXVyb3N1cmdlcnlfMQ== ) ;) ​ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ​🌍 80,000 Hours: Build a Career That Makes a Difference ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh6m4kz0fvhqemp3m5hohqe49l/owhkhwuwvx5gvpuq/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9nZXR0aGVndWlkZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj0yMDI1LTgwS01BUi1hbGktYWJkYWFsLXN1bmRheSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPXNwb25zb3JzaGlw )​ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A lot of us (myself included sometimes) spend more time thinking about HOW we work than we do about WHAT we’re actually working on. That’s why I love 80,000 Hours ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh6m4kz0fvhqemp3m5hohqe49l/owhkhwuwvx5gvpuq/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9nZXR0aGVndWlkZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj0yMDI1LTgwS01BUi1hbGktYWJkYWFsLXN1bmRheSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPXNwb25zb3JzaGlw ). I first stumbled across their stuff back when I was in medical school, and they’re basically a non-profit that's spent over 10 years researching how you can use your career to help solve the world's most pressing problems and do work that feels genuinely fulfilling to you at the same time. Because they take this research-based approach, they can make concrete recommendations rather than just giving you generic advice, and they've identified areas like AI safety, pandemic prevention, even space governance as fields where, even if you don't have a super technical background, you could genuinely make a big difference. They've got in-depth career guides, 1-1 advising calls, a job board with hundreds of open high-impact roles, and a brilliant podcast. And even better, everything is free because they're a nonprofit just trying to help solve global problems by helping people find impactful careers. So whether you're trying to figure out your first career move or reconsidering your current path, I'd recommend having a look at their website by clicking here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh6m4kz0fvhqemp3m5hohqe49l/owhkhwuwvx5gvpuq/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9nZXR0aGVndWlkZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj0yMDI1LTgwS01BUi1hbGktYWJkYWFsLXN1bmRheSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPXNwb25zb3JzaGlw ). Thanks to 80,000 Hours ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh6m4kz0fvhqemp3m5hohqe49l/owhkhwuwvx5gvpuq/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9nZXR0aGVndWlkZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj0yMDI1LTgwS01BUi1hbGktYWJkYWFsLXN1bmRheSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPXNwb25zb3JzaGlw ) for sponsoring this issue of LifeNotes 🙏 P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh6m4kz0fvhqemp3m5hohqe49l/z2hgh7uev50pv6sz/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh6m4kz0fvhqemp3m5hohqe49l/x0hph3ue6kx966bg/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh6m4kz0fvhqemp3m5hohqe49l/6qhehoulgx0ng8h9/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/o8unw5wdx8fqh6m4kz0fvhqemp3m5hohqe49l ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey gang, Greetings from Tuscany, Italy where I’ve just attended a lovely wedding. I’d like to share an interesting conversation I had with a friend while I was there. This friend in question is called Duranka - we’ve been close friends since we were 11 years old…so damn it’s been like 21 years. My goodness. Fun fact: Duranka is also one of the best singers I know, and featured in the VERY first videos I made on YouTube, back in March 2016. If you sort my channel by oldest-videos-first, you’ll see him feature there quite a lot :) This was back when I thought I was going to be a music YouTuber… Anyway, Duranka’s a few years into his Neurosurgery residency program. Yep - he’s literally a brain surgeon. Neurosurgery is one of the most competitive medical specialities, and Duranka worked insanely hard to get in. This is how our conversation about it went. Me: So how’s things going with neurosurgery? Must be pretty stressful right? D: Well…you’d think so, but it’s actually not too bad. Me: What do you mean? Don’t you have to work insanely long hours? D: Well yeah…like over the past few weeks, I’ve had to stay behind several hours after the end of each shift to deal with emergencies. But hey ho, that’s just what you sign up for right? Me: Haha yeah, but most of the doctors I know love to complain about their lives…you seem pretty chipper about it in comparison :) D: You know…I’ll be honest, sometimes I’m tempted to complain about stuff…but then I remind myself of something. Me: What’s that? D: I worked really really hard to get into neurosurgery speciality training. I remind myself that the problems I have now that I’m inside it, are EXACTLY the problems I DREAMED for a few years ago when I was working to get in. While I was grinding away on my CV and doing interview practice, I was literally dreaming of the day where I’d get to deal with a neurosurgical emergency and potentially save someone’s life. So now that that’s happening for real, what’s there to complain about? I left the conversation feeling very inspired, and also thinking “ooh this would be a good thing to write about in LifeNotes”. In my case, a lot of what I grumble about to myself internally, are actually “problems” that the younger version of me was actively campaigning for: the “problem” of a team relying on me, of an audience big enough that publishing stuff feels like pressure, of a book deadline from a world-renowned publisher, of way too many options of interesting projects to pursue. Even the “problem” of a baby screaming at night…tbh that’s something that younger me would’ve been delighted by. So here’s the practice I’m taking away from the conversation with Duranka that I’d invite you to join me in trying out: Next time you catch yourself complaining about something, pause and ask: “Is this a problem that a younger version of me was once dreaming about?” Of course, not everything will pass that particular test. But if you’re anything like me, you might be surprised by just how many of your day-to-day frustrations are, on closer inspection, the exact shape of an old dream that came true. Have a great week! Ali xx PS: We’ve got a handful of spots open for the next cohort of the Lifestyle Business Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhv9dn86tghvkwx8wqf9hplqro/p8hehqu408dn29sr/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1uZXVyb3N1cmdlcnlfMQ== ). If you’d like to build your own $100k+ lifestyle business to work towards financial and time freedom, and would like 1:1 mentorship from me and my team, plus daily coaching clinics and workshops…there’s more details here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhv9dn86tghvkwx8wqf9hplqro/p8hehqu408dn29sr/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1uZXVyb3N1cmdlcnlfMQ== ) ;) ​ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ​🌍 80,000 Hours: Build a Career That Makes a Difference ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhv9dn86tghvkwx8wqf9hplqro/x0hph3ue6xz5pwhg/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9nZXR0aGVndWlkZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj0yMDI1LTgwS01BUi1hbGktYWJkYWFsLXN1bmRheSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPXNwb25zb3JzaGlw )​ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A lot of us (myself included sometimes) spend more time thinking about HOW we work than we do about WHAT we’re actually working on. That’s why I love 80,000 Hours ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhv9dn86tghvkwx8wqf9hplqro/x0hph3ue6xz5pwhg/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9nZXR0aGVndWlkZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj0yMDI1LTgwS01BUi1hbGktYWJkYWFsLXN1bmRheSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPXNwb25zb3JzaGlw ). I first stumbled across their stuff back when I was in medical school, and they’re basically a non-profit that's spent over 10 years researching how you can use your career to help solve the world's most pressing problems and do work that feels genuinely fulfilling to you at the same time. Because they take this research-based approach, they can make concrete recommendations rather than just giving you generic advice, and they've identified areas like AI safety, pandemic prevention, even space governance as fields where, even if you don't have a super technical background, you could genuinely make a big difference. They've got in-depth career guides, 1-1 advising calls, a job board with hundreds of open high-impact roles, and a brilliant podcast. And even better, everything is free because they're a nonprofit just trying to help solve global problems by helping people find impactful careers. So whether you're trying to figure out your first career move or reconsidering your current path, I'd recommend having a look at their website by clicking here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhv9dn86tghvkwx8wqf9hplqro/x0hph3ue6xz5pwhg/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9nZXR0aGVndWlkZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj0yMDI1LTgwS01BUi1hbGktYWJkYWFsLXN1bmRheSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPXNwb25zb3JzaGlw ). Thanks to 80,000 Hours ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhv9dn86tghvkwx8wqf9hplqro/x0hph3ue6xz5pwhg/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9nZXR0aGVndWlkZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj0yMDI1LTgwS01BUi1hbGktYWJkYWFsLXN1bmRheSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPXNwb25zb3JzaGlw ) for sponsoring this issue of LifeNotes 🙏 P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhv9dn86tghvkwx8wqf9hplqro/6qhehoulg0wm5lf9/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhv9dn86tghvkwx8wqf9hplqro/kkhmh2unq4ek56tk/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhv9dn86tghvkwx8wqf9hplqro/58hvh8ug8l0rn7a7/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/v8upmnm697irhv9dn86tghvkwx8wqf9hplqro ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey gang, Two quick reminders before we get into things: * We’ve got a few roles that we’re hiring for atm across different areas of the business, including growth co-founder for our software, sales roles, social media positions amongst others. You can find them all listed here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h958x2wtlhv7kmgz2unh95n7l/3ohphdu3lqoplxap/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2pvYnMv ). * And secondly, we’re currently accepting applications for the next intake of the Lifestyle Business Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h958x2wtlhv7kmgz2unh95n7l/n2hohquvpn87pmu0/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1oYXBwaWVzdF8yNA== ) that’s starting in just a couple of weeks. Places are limited so if you’re interested, you can get more information and apply here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h958x2wtlhv7kmgz2unh95n7l/n2hohquvpn87pmu0/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1oYXBwaWVzdF8yNA== ). On with the email - I recently attended an in-person retreat type thing hosted by the Art of Accomplishment team. And while I was there, I came across one of the happiest-seeming people I’ve ever met. Let’s call her Jane. Jane had a smile on her face pretty much 24/7. She was always the first to burst out laughing when anything funny happened, or anytime someone told a joke, and she’d laugh borderline-hysterically for longer than anyone else did too, often with tears streaming down her face. Her laughter and enthusiasm was so infectious that our group would often end up laughing for 2-3 times longer than would be reasonably warranted by the joke or situation. And we all had a great time. Towards the end of the retreat, I asked Jane what her secret was. This is how the convo went. Me: Jane… you’re like the happiest person I’ve ever seen. Have you always been like this? Or is it a recent thing? Jane: Oh haha it’s totally a recent thing. I wasn’t a very “happy” person for most of my life, but for the last 2 years, I’ve become one of the happiest people I know. Me: Sick - what changed 2 years ago? Was it a sudden thing or a slow process? Jane: Pretty slow process. But 2 years ago I decided to incorporate two specific things into my life: one’s a principle, and the other’s a practice. Me: Okay… what’s the principle and what’s the practice? Jane: The principle is “No Pleasure Left Behind”. Me: … what do you mean? Jane: Exactly that. No pleasure left behind. It means that whatever’s happening in my life, I’ve try and make sure to extract the maximum possible pleasure from it. In other words, “No Pleasure Left Behind”. So like, if I’m driving somewhere, when my mind starts to wander, I’ve sort-of trained myself to think: “What would make this moment even more pleasurable?” So if I’m driving for example, I’ll suddenly feel my body a bit more, relax my legs, take in the scenery around me, notice how pretty everything looks, notice that my body and mind are healthy, notice that the music’s pretty awesome, jiggle around with it a little while driving. And all that’s really nice, and way more pleasurable than letting my mind wander and worry about the admin that’s piling up at home, or the various things going wrong with the business. Me: Huh… okay, so you just sort-of “remind yourself” to notice those things? Jane: Yeah pretty much. I literally think: “My principle is No Pleasure Left Behind, so what would it look like to maximise my pleasure in this moment?”. And then I find all sorts of things that I wasn’t paying attention to previously. Me: Do you ever forget to do that? How do you remind yourself? Jane: 2 years ago, I used to forget a LOT. I’d only remember to ask the question maybe like once a week. But over time, as I did it more and more, it sort-of became almost second nature. Now I remember to ask it more often than not. Of course, there are still times, particularly when I’m stressed or tired, where it’s easy for my mind to wander and I forget the principle. But for the most part, I remember to do it, and so I naturally notice way happier things than maybe other people do. Me: That’s super interesting… okay I’m going to try this! You mentioned there was a practice too? Jane: Yeah, so “No Pleasure Left Behind” is a principle that I like to live my day-to-day by. But I also started doing a Gratitude Practice multiple times a day, around 2 years ago, and that’s been absolutely life-changing. Me: Gratitude practice? Like, gratitude journaling or something? Jane: Way better than that. 2 years ago, when I did the first Art of Accomplishment course, I joined a WhatsApp group with other course participants from all around the world. And to this day, multiple times a day, me or someone else will message in the group saying: “Anyone want to do 5 minutes of gratitude?” And then we’ll get on a Zoom call, sometimes with just 2 people, sometimes with 5, and we’ll spend 5 minutes going around and saying things we’re grateful for. Me: Whoah… how often do you do this? Jane: Oh like 3-5 ish times a day. Me: WHAT? 3-5 times a day??! You’re saying that like 3-5 times a DAY, you join a Zoom call with a couple of strangers around the world, and you spend 5 minutes just listing out what y’all are grateful for? Jane: Exactly. I know, it sounds weird, I thought it was weird when I first started doing it. But from literally the first session, I realised I was WAY happier for hours afterwards… so then I started doing it twice a day, then 3 times a day, and now I try and do it 5 times a day. It’s the best thing ever. Me: Damn… The retreat where I met Jane was a few months ago, and I still keep on meaning to remind myself to do more of this “No Pleasure Left Behind” and Gratitude stuff… I’d love to know from you - what’s a simple practice you’ve got in your life that you find really boosts your day-to-day happiness? Have a great week! Ali xx ​🤝 80,000 Hours - Your career is your most important decision ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h958x2wtlhv7kmgz2unh95n7l/48hvh7ume05xelsq/aHR0cDovLzgwMDAwaG91cnMub3JnL2xpZmVub3Rlcw== )​ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I’ve been a long-time fan of 80,000 Hours ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h958x2wtlhv7kmgz2unh95n7l/wnh2h6uqpr50p6fl/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9saWZlbm90ZXM= ), a nonprofit whose goal is to help you find a fulfilling career that does good. We spend so much of our time at work, so how we direct that time really matters. They’ve got a new book coming out this week, based on more than a decade of research and hundreds of conversations with experts, and updated for the present moment in AI and the job market. ​The book ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h958x2wtlhv7kmgz2unh95n7l/wnh2h6uqpr50p6fl/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9saWZlbm90ZXM= ) is research-driven and ridiculously in-depth — it talks you through how to find the highest-impact career with practical advice and exercises, so that by the end you’ll have a full career plan you feel confident in. By the way, UK subscribers can get 10% off their copy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h958x2wtlhv7kmgz2unh95n7l/reh8h9umrq26rrb6/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9wcmVvcmRlci1mcmVlLWNoYXB0ZXItZGlzY291bnQtY29kZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj0yMDI2LTgwS01BUi1hbGktYWJkYWFsLW5ld3NsZXR0ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1zcG9uc29yc2hpcA== ) if they order before the 28th May. Preorders also get you into a live career Q&A with the author, Benjamin Todd. Get help finding a fulfilling career that does good at 80000hours.org/lifenotes ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h958x2wtlhv7kmgz2unh95n7l/48hvh7ume05xelsq/aHR0cDovLzgwMDAwaG91cnMub3JnL2xpZmVub3Rlcw== )! Thanks to 80,000 Hours for sponsoring this issue of LifeNotes 🙏 P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h958x2wtlhv7kmgz2unh95n7l/08hwhgu25mol56bp/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h958x2wtlhv7kmgz2unh95n7l/8ghqh3uovg0rvmul/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h958x2wtlhv7kmgz2unh95n7l/vqh3hmuo7nxw7wiw/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h958x2wtlhv7kmgz2unh95n7l ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey gang, Two quick reminders before we get into things: * We’ve got a few roles that we’re hiring for atm across different areas of the business, including growth co-founder for our software, sales roles, social media positions amongst others. You can find them all listed here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh2v895eskhko0n6n7a3hoxqzn/x0hph3ue679vnnsg/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2pvYnMv ). * And secondly, we’re currently accepting applications for the next intake of the Lifestyle Business Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh2v895eskhko0n6n7a3hoxqzn/6qhehoulg2n8p7i9/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1oYXBwaWVzdF8yNA== ) that’s starting in just a couple of weeks. Places are limited so if you’re interested, you can get more information and apply here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh2v895eskhko0n6n7a3hoxqzn/6qhehoulg2n8p7i9/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1oYXBwaWVzdF8yNA== ). On with the email - I recently attended an in-person retreat type thing hosted by the Art of Accomplishment team. And while I was there, I came across one of the happiest-seeming people I’ve ever met. Let’s call her Jane. Jane had a smile on her face pretty much 24/7. She was always the first to burst out laughing when anything funny happened, or anytime someone told a joke, and she’d laugh borderline-hysterically for longer than anyone else did too, often with tears streaming down her face. Her laughter and enthusiasm was so infectious that our group would often end up laughing for 2-3 times longer than would be reasonably warranted by the joke or situation. And we all had a great time. Towards the end of the retreat, I asked Jane what her secret was. This is how the convo went. Me: Jane… you’re like the happiest person I’ve ever seen. Have you always been like this? Or is it a recent thing? Jane: Oh haha it’s totally a recent thing. I wasn’t a very “happy” person for most of my life, but for the last 2 years, I’ve become one of the happiest people I know. Me: Sick - what changed 2 years ago? Was it a sudden thing or a slow process? Jane: Pretty slow process. But 2 years ago I decided to incorporate two specific things into my life: one’s a principle, and the other’s a practice. Me: Okay… what’s the principle and what’s the practice? Jane: The principle is “No Pleasure Left Behind”. Me: … what do you mean? Jane: Exactly that. No pleasure left behind. It means that whatever’s happening in my life, I’ve try and make sure to extract the maximum possible pleasure from it. In other words, “No Pleasure Left Behind”. So like, if I’m driving somewhere, when my mind starts to wander, I’ve sort-of trained myself to think: “What would make this moment even more pleasurable?” So if I’m driving for example, I’ll suddenly feel my body a bit more, relax my legs, take in the scenery around me, notice how pretty everything looks, notice that my body and mind are healthy, notice that the music’s pretty awesome, jiggle around with it a little while driving. And all that’s really nice, and way more pleasurable than letting my mind wander and worry about the admin that’s piling up at home, or the various things going wrong with the business. Me: Huh… okay, so you just sort-of “remind yourself” to notice those things? Jane: Yeah pretty much. I literally think: “My principle is No Pleasure Left Behind, so what would it look like to maximise my pleasure in this moment?”. And then I find all sorts of things that I wasn’t paying attention to previously. Me: Do you ever forget to do that? How do you remind yourself? Jane: 2 years ago, I used to forget a LOT. I’d only remember to ask the question maybe like once a week. But over time, as I did it more and more, it sort-of became almost second nature. Now I remember to ask it more often than not. Of course, there are still times, particularly when I’m stressed or tired, where it’s easy for my mind to wander and I forget the principle. But for the most part, I remember to do it, and so I naturally notice way happier things than maybe other people do. Me: That’s super interesting… okay I’m going to try this! You mentioned there was a practice too? Jane: Yeah, so “No Pleasure Left Behind” is a principle that I like to live my day-to-day by. But I also started doing a Gratitude Practice multiple times a day, around 2 years ago, and that’s been absolutely life-changing. Me: Gratitude practice? Like, gratitude journaling or something? Jane: Way better than that. 2 years ago, when I did the first Art of Accomplishment course, I joined a WhatsApp group with other course participants from all around the world. And to this day, multiple times a day, me or someone else will message in the group saying: “Anyone want to do 5 minutes of gratitude?” And then we’ll get on a Zoom call, sometimes with just 2 people, sometimes with 5, and we’ll spend 5 minutes going around and saying things we’re grateful for. Me: Whoah… how often do you do this? Jane: Oh like 3-5 ish times a day. Me: WHAT? 3-5 times a day??! You’re saying that like 3-5 times a DAY, you join a Zoom call with a couple of strangers around the world, and you spend 5 minutes just listing out what y’all are grateful for? Jane: Exactly. I know, it sounds weird, I thought it was weird when I first started doing it. But from literally the first session, I realised I was WAY happier for hours afterwards… so then I started doing it twice a day, then 3 times a day, and now I try and do it 5 times a day. It’s the best thing ever. Me: Damn… The retreat where I met Jane was a few months ago, and I still keep on meaning to remind myself to do more of this “No Pleasure Left Behind” and Gratitude stuff… I’d love to know from you - what’s a simple practice you’ve got in your life that you find really boosts your day-to-day happiness? Have a great week! Ali xx ​🤝 80,000 Hours - Your career is your most important decision ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh2v895eskhko0n6n7a3hoxqzn/kkhmh2unq9608nhk/aHR0cDovLzgwMDAwaG91cnMub3JnL2xpZmVub3Rlcw== )​ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I’ve been a long-time fan of 80,000 Hours ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh2v895eskhko0n6n7a3hoxqzn/58hvh8ug89kd5ks7/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9saWZlbm90ZXM= ), a nonprofit whose goal is to help you find a fulfilling career that does good. We spend so much of our time at work, so how we direct that time really matters. They’ve got a new book coming out this week, based on more than a decade of research and hundreds of conversations with experts, and updated for the present moment in AI and the job market. ​The book ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh2v895eskhko0n6n7a3hoxqzn/58hvh8ug89kd5ks7/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9saWZlbm90ZXM= ) is research-driven and ridiculously in-depth — it talks you through how to find the highest-impact career with practical advice and exercises, so that by the end you’ll have a full career plan you feel confident in. By the way, UK subscribers can get 10% off their copy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh2v895eskhko0n6n7a3hoxqzn/25h2h9u3zo4p7db8/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9wcmVvcmRlci1mcmVlLWNoYXB0ZXItZGlzY291bnQtY29kZS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj0yMDI2LTgwS01BUi1hbGktYWJkYWFsLW5ld3NsZXR0ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1zcG9uc29yc2hpcA== ) if they order before the 28th May. Preorders also get you into a live career Q&A with the author, Benjamin Todd. Get help finding a fulfilling career that does good at 80000hours.org/lifenotes ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh2v895eskhko0n6n7a3hoxqzn/kkhmh2unq9608nhk/aHR0cDovLzgwMDAwaG91cnMub3JnL2xpZmVub3Rlcw== )! Thanks to 80,000 Hours for sponsoring this issue of LifeNotes 🙏 P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh2v895eskhko0n6n7a3hoxqzn/qvh8h8ud56om8qhg/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh2v895eskhko0n6n7a3hoxqzn/g3hnhwum5z68egi3/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh2v895eskhko0n6n7a3hoxqzn/9qhzhdudm2zvg0iz/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/8kuwp6p9ogsoh2v895eskhko0n6n7a3hoxqzn ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, Quick thing before we start: we’ve just opened up places to join the next cohort of the Lifestyle Business Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh6mvglzt9hzqk47d0bwhz0g26/reh8h9umr727w4s6/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD10aW1lZnJhbWVzXzE3 ) - our flagship business programme helping you build a six-figure lifestyle business that gives you financial, time and creative freedom. Places are limited but if you’re interested in joining, you can get more info and submit an application here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh6mvglzt9hzqk47d0bwhz0g26/reh8h9umr727w4s6/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD10aW1lZnJhbWVzXzE3 ). Anyway, on with the newsletter and I wanted to use today to talk about an interesting insight that I took from an entrepreneur event thing that Izzy and I attended a few weeks ago. We hung out with a husband/wife combo who run a sex toy business. Yep, not kidding. Not sure I should even mention that in this email… is this more likely to end up in spam because of it? Who knows. But anyway - yeah they manufacture and sell sex toys online. Customers (apparently) love the product, and the company’s doing super well. But, I overheard the guy make a casual comment when talking over dinner. He said something like: “Yeah we’ve only been going for 3 years, so obviously there’s loads more work to do to improve the brand”. Later on, there was a talk by a big investor guy who’s a bajillionaire or something. He was talking about his fund’s investment strategy - they apparently manage tens of billions of dollars of capital. When talking about one of the companies they invest in, he casually threw out: “oh yeah we only invested in those guys 15 years ago, so we’re not making any changes to our position just yet”. And then a few weeks ago, we were in Australia for another entrepreneur event. I was chatting to someone who’s business is also mega successful, who said something like: “Oh yeah we’ve only been doing YouTube seriously for 2 years, so obviously there’s still plenty of room for improvement”. These kinds of timeframes are nothing special in entrepreneur land - well, except maybe the 15 year one, everyone was surprised by that. But the “oh it’s only been 2/3/5 years” is fairly common thinking amongst business owners. I’m mentioning it here because it’s NOT particularly common thinking amongst most beginners wanting to START a business (which according to our surveys is around 80% of y’all reading this email). Amongst most of the students we coach in our YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh6mvglzt9hzqk47d0bwhz0g26/8ghqh3uov303qntl/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1jdzI2JnV0bV9jb250ZW50PXRpbWVmcmFtZXNfMTc= ) and also our Lifestyle Business Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh6mvglzt9hzqk47d0bwhz0g26/reh8h9umr727w4s6/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD10aW1lZnJhbWVzXzE3 ), hearing “oh yeah this might take years” often surprises people. It’s probably because the stuff you hear about starting a business or making money etc on YouTube is incentivised to sell “get as rich as possible in as short a time as possible”. Tbh some of our own videos have probably contributed. We featured a case study of my friend Suhail who quit his job and then built his software to $1m/year in recurring revenue within 2 years… this is a very ABNORMAL result, which is precisely why I did the video with him… and it’s not that interesting to do a video with someone who’s 2y into the journey and struggling to make it… but this inherent survivor / publication bias gives people the wrong idea of timelines… maybe we should do some more videos with entrepreneurs who are in the grind stage, who are actually struggling to make it. That could be fun. Reminds me of the quote from Marques Brownlee’s interview on the YCombinator podcast many years ago. When asked: “What’s the secret to your success on YouTube” he replied with something like “well… when you stick with something for 10+ years, it’s kinda hard to NOT be successful at it”. I remember hearing this a couple of years into my own YouTube journey and being mega inspired to continue for at least a decade. So far, we’re coming up to (only) 9 years since I started making YouTube videos in my university dorm room giving advice to medical students. Planning to continue for at least another decade :) Maybe this email is getting overly quotey but I also just finished listening to a 3h-long podcast between Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgensen. Naval quipped something towards the end: “obviously all the best things in life come from compounding returns, so the trick is to JUST NOT QUIT - find the thing you enjoy so much that it looks like work to others but feels like play to you, that’s the secret to sustaining it”. Yeah I know, cliche advice, but always a useful reminder. I found myself nodding along vigorously before looking around to make sure I wasn’t being weird in public. Anyway, all these quotes from people IRL, people in podcasts, and people in YouTube videos, have reminded me recently that we’re playing the long game. Maybe this reminder helps you too :) Have a great week! Ali xx P.S - talked a bit about YouTube in this issue so just wanted to add that if you’re interested in starting or scaling your channel, we’ve got an offer on the Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh6mvglzt9hzqk47d0bwhz0g26/8ghqh3uov303qntl/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1jdzI2JnV0bV9jb250ZW50PXRpbWVmcmFtZXNfMTc= ) ending tomorrow (Monday) - more info here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh6mvglzt9hzqk47d0bwhz0g26/8ghqh3uov303qntl/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1jdzI2JnV0bV9jb250ZW50PXRpbWVmcmFtZXNfMTc= ). P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh6mvglzt9hzqk47d0bwhz0g26/l2heh6ul94046msg/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh6mvglzt9hzqk47d0bwhz0g26/m2h7h6u3p9g9mdal/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh6mvglzt9hzqk47d0bwhz0g26/e0hph0u7gepeqdc7/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/92ulx5xgq2fnh6mvglzt9hzqk47d0bwhz0g26 ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, Quick thing before we start: we’ve just opened up places to join the next cohort of the Lifestyle Business Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkvx3r8fphwl6rev4f6h923k0/n2hohquvp8e84pu0/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD10aW1lZnJhbWVzXzE3 ) - our flagship business programme helping you build a six-figure lifestyle business that gives you financial, time and creative freedom. Places are limited but if you’re interested in joining, you can get more info and submit an application here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkvx3r8fphwl6rev4f6h923k0/n2hohquvp8e84pu0/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD10aW1lZnJhbWVzXzE3 ). Anyway, on with the newsletter and I wanted to use today to talk about an interesting insight that I took from an entrepreneur event thing that Izzy and I attended a few weeks ago. We hung out with a husband/wife combo who run a sex toy business. Yep, not kidding. Not sure I should even mention that in this email… is this more likely to end up in spam because of it? Who knows. But anyway - yeah they manufacture and sell sex toys online. Customers (apparently) love the product, and the company’s doing super well. But, I overheard the guy make a casual comment when talking over dinner. He said something like: “Yeah we’ve only been going for 3 years, so obviously there’s loads more work to do to improve the brand”. Later on, there was a talk by a big investor guy who’s a bajillionaire or something. He was talking about his fund’s investment strategy - they apparently manage tens of billions of dollars of capital. When talking about one of the companies they invest in, he casually threw out: “oh yeah we only invested in those guys 15 years ago, so we’re not making any changes to our position just yet”. And then a few weeks ago, we were in Australia for another entrepreneur event. I was chatting to someone who’s business is also mega successful, who said something like: “Oh yeah we’ve only been doing YouTube seriously for 2 years, so obviously there’s still plenty of room for improvement”. These kinds of timeframes are nothing special in entrepreneur land - well, except maybe the 15 year one, everyone was surprised by that. But the “oh it’s only been 2/3/5 years” is fairly common thinking amongst business owners. I’m mentioning it here because it’s NOT particularly common thinking amongst most beginners wanting to START a business (which according to our surveys is around 80% of y’all reading this email). Amongst most of the students we coach in our YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkvx3r8fphwl6rev4f6h923k0/48hvh7ume5k53dhq/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1jdzI2JnV0bV9jb250ZW50PXRpbWVmcmFtZXNfMTc= ) and also our Lifestyle Business Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkvx3r8fphwl6rev4f6h923k0/n2hohquvp8e84pu0/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vYWNhZGVteS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWV2ZXJncmVlbiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD10aW1lZnJhbWVzXzE3 ), hearing “oh yeah this might take years” often surprises people. It’s probably because the stuff you hear about starting a business or making money etc on YouTube is incentivised to sell “get as rich as possible in as short a time as possible”. Tbh some of our own videos have probably contributed. We featured a case study of my friend Suhail who quit his job and then built his software to $1m/year in recurring revenue within 2 years… this is a very ABNORMAL result, which is precisely why I did the video with him… and it’s not that interesting to do a video with someone who’s 2y into the journey and struggling to make it… but this inherent survivor / publication bias gives people the wrong idea of timelines… maybe we should do some more videos with entrepreneurs who are in the grind stage, who are actually struggling to make it. That could be fun. Reminds me of the quote from Marques Brownlee’s interview on the YCombinator podcast many years ago. When asked: “What’s the secret to your success on YouTube” he replied with something like “well… when you stick with something for 10+ years, it’s kinda hard to NOT be successful at it”. I remember hearing this a couple of years into my own YouTube journey and being mega inspired to continue for at least a decade. So far, we’re coming up to (only) 9 years since I started making YouTube videos in my university dorm room giving advice to medical students. Planning to continue for at least another decade :) Maybe this email is getting overly quotey but I also just finished listening to a 3h-long podcast between Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgensen. Naval quipped something towards the end: “obviously all the best things in life come from compounding returns, so the trick is to JUST NOT QUIT - find the thing you enjoy so much that it looks like work to others but feels like play to you, that’s the secret to sustaining it”. Yeah I know, cliche advice, but always a useful reminder. I found myself nodding along vigorously before looking around to make sure I wasn’t being weird in public. Anyway, all these quotes from people IRL, people in podcasts, and people in YouTube videos, have reminded me recently that we’re playing the long game. Maybe this reminder helps you too :) Have a great week! Ali xx P.S - talked a bit about YouTube in this issue so just wanted to add that if you’re interested in starting or scaling your channel, we’ve got an offer on the Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkvx3r8fphwl6rev4f6h923k0/48hvh7ume5k53dhq/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1jdzI2JnV0bV9jb250ZW50PXRpbWVmcmFtZXNfMTc= ) ending tomorrow (Monday) - more info here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkvx3r8fphwl6rev4f6h923k0/48hvh7ume5k53dhq/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vcGFydC10aW1lLXlvdXR1YmVyLWFjYWRlbXkvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1jdzI2JnV0bV9jb250ZW50PXRpbWVmcmFtZXNfMTc= ). P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkvx3r8fphwl6rev4f6h923k0/wnh2h6uqp585decl/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkvx3r8fphwl6rev4f6h923k0/reh8h9umr2n2p6i6/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkvx3r8fphwl6rev4f6h923k0/8ghqh3uov0k088ul/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkvx3r8fphwl6rev4f6h923k0 ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey gang, Quick thing before we start - we're currently hiring for a few key roles within the business. Firstly, we're looking for a growth co-founder for our software studio. This is an incredibly important role as we look to build and grow our software ventures - more info on that here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/68unogov26f8h5gn78ltohp4zml7nf9hnplgo/p8hehqu4oqomv6fr/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2pvYnMvZ3Jvd3RoLWNvLWZvdW5kZXItc29mdHdhcmUtc3R1ZGlvLXJlbW90ZS8= ); secondly, we're looking for a YouTube Producer for my channel which is an in-person role and we're open to helping with relocation; more info on that here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/68unogov26f8h5gn78ltohp4zml7nf9hnplgo/x0hph3ue0q0og0fg/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2pvYnMveW91dHViZS1jcmVhdGl2ZS1kaXJlY3Rvci8= ). If either of these sound interesting, please do apply and we'll be in touch if we think you'd be a fit. Anyway, on with the email and it’s been an interesting week. I was in Malaga, Spain for my friend and software co-founder Pablo’s bachelor party. And then I decided to head over to London for a few days to hang out with the fam, see the birth of my new niece, and host/attend various work-themed events. It’s been an awesome few days, although in that time, our daughter seems to have started to actually walk - when I left a week ago, she was able to take a couple of steps, but now she can walk for metres at a time! Man, they grow up so fast. Anyway, I’d like to tell you about an interesting moment that happened while I was checking in to my flight from London Heathrow back to Hong Kong. I’d checked in online, but headed over to the counter to check-in some bags. The air host chap on the other side of the counter recognised me, and thanked me for the videos I’ve made over the years. Firstly, that was pretty cool - always nice when that sort of thing happens. Never would’ve thought this would happen to me back when i started making YouTube videos back in 2017, but hey ho. But secondly, he came up to me after I checked in, and he said: “Mr Abdaal, is it okay if I ask you a question?” Because I’m a nice chap, I said “of course”… but now that I’m writing this I should’ve said “actually, it’s DOCTOR Abdaal”. Just kidding. Anyway, this is how the convo went: Him: I know this is kind of intense… but do you have any advice for me about how I can find my purpose? Me: Ahhhh haha that’s a big question… Him: I know, and I’m sorry if it’s wasting your time, but I’ve really enjoyed your videos and… I don’t know, I just feel a bit lost right now… I’m not really sure what my purpose is… I mean, I enjoy my work (serving passengers etc) but it’s not as fulfilling as I’d like… I think if I find what I’m really meant to do then I’d be happier… Me: You know… there’s one question I always come back to whenever this thought crosses my own mind: what would you do if you didn’t care about money? Him: Errrr… you know, that’s a really good question, I’ve never really thought about it… Me: Yeah it’s a good one to think about. Like, imagine you’ve won the lottery, you’ve got $100m in the bank, you don’t need to worry about money ever again. BUT you have to do SOMETHING that helps people in SOME way… you wouldn’t just do nothing, because then you’d end up depressed and suicidal if you didn’t have anything to do… so you’ve got to do SOMETHING that helps people in SOME way… ever thought about what that might be? Him: Damn… yeah I’ve never thought about that… Me: It’s worth thinking about. With me for example, I had a period of about 6 months actually, last year (2025), where for the first half of the year, I really felt at a bit of a loss about what I was doing with my life. My daughter had been born, which was great, but on the work front, I wasn’t sure I was fully fulfilled… I kept sort of thinking “do I really want to be doing these YouTube videos anymore…” Him: Haha it’s funny to hear you say that, from the outside it looks like you’ve made it, you’ve got everything together… Me: Haha yeah I guess it often seems that way, but on the inside, for like 6 months, I was really confused about what I actually want to be doing with my life… so I sort-of sat with that question of: “What would I do if I didn’t care about making money”… and after like 6 months, I landed on: “You know… I really want to build my own business school…” and so that’s what I did. From August last year, I decided to build this online business school thing, and that’s been super fun and fulfilling. I don’t know if it’s my “life’s purpose”, because that’ll probably change over time, but for this season of life right now, I genuinely wake up in the morning excited to work on that mission. But it took me like 6 months of sitting with that question to land on it. Him: Whoahhhh okay that’s really great to hear, thank you so much, I’ll definitely have a think about that. I’ve taken up enough of your time, please enjoy your flight :) And that was that. Fun conversation, very polite chap, suffering from “what the hell should I do with my life”… which tbh is probably the question that I get from 50% of people I speak to these days. It’s interesting… I’ll give a talk about productivity, or time management, or how to become a creator, or how to build a business… and when people come up to me afterwards, 50% of the time the questions are about the specific thing I spoke about… but the other 50% of the time, the questions basically converge on: “Help me figure out what to do with my life”. I don’t feel like I’ve got it cracked, but that question of: “What would you do if you didn’t care about the money” is always my favourite starting point. So I’m curious: if you got to the end of the email… what would you do if you didn’t care about the money? Please hit reply and let me know :) Have a great week! Ali xx P.S - we've just created a new productivity assessment to help you understand where your Clarity, Energy and Focus currently stand - you can check it out here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/68unogov26f8h5gn78ltohp4zml7nf9hnplgo/6qhehoule9ezqgb9/aHR0cHM6Ly9nby5zcGFya2xlLnNvL2xpZmVub3Rlc18xMQ== ). It only takes a couple of minutes but you'll get a full PDF report with your results and suggested actions. Let me know how you get on :) P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/68unogov26f8h5gn78ltohp4zml7nf9hnplgo/kkhmh2unvxvr70hk/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/68unogov26f8h5gn78ltohp4zml7nf9hnplgo/58hvh8ug262qera7/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/68unogov26f8h5gn78ltohp4zml7nf9hnplgo/25h2h9u3wmw65mc8/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/68unogov26f8h5gn78ltohp4zml7nf9hnplgo ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, Quick thing before we get started - on Monday 4th May (which is today/tomorrow depending on when you’re reading this), I’m hosting a live Zoom workshop ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8zgwegb3hg937rxxcghgkmn3/vqh3hmuor0d35qsw/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGlmZXN0eWxlLWJ1c2luZXNzLW1hc3RlcmNsYXNzLz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1sYmExJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PWNoaWxsaV9ub29kbGVzXzM= ) all about how to come up with a decent business idea. If you’ve been thinking about someday starting your own business as a vehicle to get you closer to financial & time freedom, but you’ve been held back by The Ideas Problem (either not having the right idea, or having too many ideas and not knowing which to pick), you’ll hopefully get a lot of value and clarity from the workshop ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8zgwegb3hg937rxxcghgkmn3/vqh3hmuor0d35qsw/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGlmZXN0eWxlLWJ1c2luZXNzLW1hc3RlcmNsYXNzLz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1sYmExJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PWNoaWxsaV9ub29kbGVzXzM= ). It’s at 4pm UK time (morning US time, night-time Asia time), it’s recorded and you’ll get a bunch of resources we’ve put together too. Sign up here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8zgwegb3hg937rxxcghgkmn3/vqh3hmuor0d35qsw/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGlmZXN0eWxlLWJ1c2luZXNzLW1hc3RlcmNsYXNzLz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1sYmExJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PWNoaWxsaV9ub29kbGVzXzM= ) if you’re interested. Anyway, a few weeks ago, I was eating a bowl of Sichuan chilli noodles and had a thought about work. Specifically, I noticed that a few of our Lifestyle Business Academy students were making the same mistake around getting their first sales, and I had the instinct: we should do a workshop on this. On its own, that’s a pretty neutral thought - it was a mild realisation and a mild plan. But because I was eating aggressively spicy (and numbing) noodles, the thought arrived tinged with the anxiety of the spice, so instead of “oh cool, let me schedule a workshop”, it was more like: “argh we’ve got all these students who are struggling, argh they must think our curriculum is terrible, argh they’re going to burn out and disengage and then they’ll decide LBA is a waste of money and tell all their friends and then…” - you get the idea. The thought itself wasn’t anxious, it was the famous Sichuan chilli making me anxious and the thought just got caught in the crossfire. Since then, I’ve been paying attention to this pattern - I’ve noticed it over the years (and written about it occasionally in this newsletter) but now I see it almost every day. When I think about something while needing a wee, every thought gets tinged with a frantic urgency, like “arghhh I need to solve this right now”, even if it’s something that doesn’t need solving until next month. When my tummy’s a bit off from last night’s takeaway, those same thoughts take on a sinking-feeling-in-the-stomach despairing quality: “this is probably hopeless, nothing’s going to work, why are we even trying.” But when I think about the exact same things while I’m feeling calm and rested and physically fine, suddenly they feel manageable / interesting / like thinking about a video game, even though the thought itself is identical. This has led me to the realisation: I really can’t trust my own thoughts and feelings at face value, because they’re so influenced by what’s happening in my gut, my tongue, and my bladder at any given moment. The Buddhist take on this, which I’ve bumped into across various books and meditation apps, is that thoughts and feelings are apparently merely appearances in awareness, like clouds passing overhead, patterns of energy that arise and dissolve and have nothing particularly to do with you… so don’t take them too personally. It’s a nice framing but as someone who’s not yet an enlightened Zen master, it’s hard to actually internalise. When the anxious work / life thought arrives, “this is merely a cloud of energy arising in consciousness” isn’t my first instinct. What I find more useful is to think: A thought is just a data point, and that data point is often contaminated by whatever physical sensation happens to be around at the time. So when the worried thought arrives alongside a mouthful of numbing (yet somehow still very spicy) Sichuan chilli, I can catch it and think: “aaaah, this thought has been spiked, the actual signal is “I should run a workshop”, and the doom spiral is just the noodles”. The obvious counter to all this is that sometimes thoughts and feelings ARE worth listening to and you can’t just dismiss everything. Fair point - if I’m doing a business review and I feel a sinking sensation while looking at the numbers, and the thought arises “I think our profitability is slipping”, that’s obviously worth paying attention to. The thought is directly relevant to what I’m doing, and the sensation is probably pointing at something legit. But if that same thought arises while I’m on a run, or in the sauna, or at dinner with Izzy & the baby, it’s not particularly useful there. I can mentally note it down as a “gut feeling to revisit Monday morning” and let it go. Sitting with the anxious churn doesn’t make the profitability any better, it just makes the experience of dinner significantly worse. So now, when a (particular negative) thought arrives with extra emotional charge, especially when I’m in the middle of something completely unrelated, I try and remind myself to do a quick scan: is there a physical sensation (eg: spice, bladder, bowel, or anything else) colouring this right now? More often than not, there is, and that’s usually enough to take the sting out of it. Have a great week! Ali xx P.S - just a reminder about the workshop, more details here ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8zgwegb3hg937rxxcghgkmn3/vqh3hmuor0d35qsw/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGlmZXN0eWxlLWJ1c2luZXNzLW1hc3RlcmNsYXNzLz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1sYmExJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PWNoaWxsaV9ub29kbGVzXzM= ) if you’re interested in attending. P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8zgwegb3hg937rxxcghgkmn3/l2heh6ul72zvgpug/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8zgwegb3hg937rxxcghgkmn3/m2h7h6u3z570rrbl/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8zgwegb3hg937rxxcghgkmn3/dphehmuen6mmzzsl/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/27uql5lz6ohoh8zgwegb3hg937rxxcghgkmn3 ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, Quick thing before today’s issue: we’re hiring! We’ve got various roles open on the team, some remote and some in-person in Hong Kong - including Client Success Director for our Lifestyle Business Academy, and CREATIVE DIRECTOR for my YouTube channel :) There’s more details here if you’re interested ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkxnm69aphwlr7rzqb6h923k0/m2h7h6u3z07pm6sl/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2pvYnMv ). And we’re offering a $1k USD reward if you refer the person we end up hiring for each role, so if you’ve got any friends who might be interested, please let them know too 😉 Anyway, this week I’ve been thinking a lot about the question: “Do you feel like you’re playing in the main round, or in the bonus round?” This is what my friend James asked me while we were hanging out in a spa, in the jacuzzi, after a sauna and cold plunge session (not kidding). James is a cardiology fellow in New York visiting Hong Kong for a few days. We went to school together, started our first business (the med school admissions courses business, back in 2012) together. Our paths were pretty similar: same secondary school, good grades, dabbling with entrepreneurship in our teenage years. We both went to fancy med schools, graduated, and then worked for 2 years in the UK as junior doctors. Then our paths diverged. As you may know, I took a break from Medicine to explore entrepreneurship full-time. James, meanwhile, took the USMLE and decided to move to the US to do his internal medicine residency in New York, and chose to specialise in cardiology. Anyway, in the spa, one topic that came up was the “stress” of our work. Neither of us particularly like the word “stress”… so we operationalised it with: “How often do you have worries, concerns or anxieties about work-related stuff during the weekends and evenings when you’re not in work-mode?” Interestingly, both our answers were “all the time”. This surprised both of us. I was surprised that James worries about work outside of the hospital. I was under the impression that one of the nice parts of Medicine is that once you’re out of the hospital, you can switch off, because you’ve “handed over” to the next person on the shift, and plus, there’s not much you can do for your patients when you’re at home and they’re in the hospital, right? James said that this might be true for the real “clock in, clock out” specialities especially when you’re junior … but that at his level in cardiology, he was in fact responsible for patients, and often worrying about them. Plus, especially in the US, where there are electronic patient record systems and now apps, patients can actually message you at any time, and you can look at their vitals and results from your phone. So if there’s a problem, or if your patient messages you, you’re sort of expected to respond, even outside of work hours, even when you’re not physically in the hospital. On top of that patient-related “stress”, there’s always more you could be doing to boost your CV, get more publications, get more publications in fancier journals, start a medical tech startup (which everyone seems to be doing these days), work more with AI, and so on. So it was far from a “clock in, clock out” situation. Hence why he (and almost every other doctor he knew) had varying degrees of baseline “stress” from “thinking and worrying about work even when you’re not at work”. Makes sense. Then he asked me how often I “worry” about work stuff when I’m not working… and I too replied: “All the time”. This surprised him. So he asked the question: “Do you feel like you’re still playing in the main round? Or do you feel like you’ve already completed the main round, and now it’s the bonus round, where everything’s just a bonus from here?” I was like whoahhhhhh that’s a great question, and one that I’d never heard before. I thought I’d come across all the different mindset shift questions and journaling prompts, but clearly there was more. I said: “huh that’s a really good question… it still definitely feels like I’m playing in the main round… like, my mind often goes to things like how do we sustain views on the youtube channel, how do we make our lifestyle business academy really good, how do we keep on top of the AI stuff, how do i make sure the team’s happy and healthy and thriving, what if projects XYZ don’t work out…” He said (paraphrasing): “I’m surprised you’re still worried about those things… haven’t you already like, made it? You’re financially free right? You could stop working and be fine…” Me: “Well, sort of… we’d have to downgrade our lifestyle for sure, but yeah we could do that if we wanted to or needed to…” Him: “So then, what’s stopping you from acting as if you’ve already won the main game, and now everything’s a bonus from here?” Me: “Whoahhhhh… that’s some good stuff…” We riffed on this idea a bit more, and realised that the Bonus Round Mindset didn’t have to come from a particular net-worth or financial-freedom target. I’ve got a few friends who have beaten cancer, for example. There was a good chance they could’ve died, but things worked out, and all of them have said some variation of: “surviving cancer made me realise that I’ve been given another chance, a bonus round at life, and so I worry about stuff a lot less now, and I focus on enjoying life”. I have another friend who seems to have genuinely absorbed the idea that: “the chances of me being alive on this planet are so infinitesimally small… for me to be here, the exact right combination of ancestors had to have gotten together for hundreds of generations… given that, this life is a gift, and I’m going to focus on enjoying myself and not worrying too much about stuff”. It seems to me that this is all pointing to the general Bonus Round Mindset… the idea that we can choose to act as if we’re no longer in the struggle for survival and status and security. We can choose to act as if the fact of us being alive and (more or less) healthy means we’ve ALREADY won the game. So all there’s left to do is enjoy ourselves… So this is a new experiment I’ve been running since the convo with James (and probably need to remind myself of repeatedly): How would I feel if I treated life as a gift, and work as a “bonus” rather than a battle for survival? Sort of reminds me of this Kapil Gupta quote: Perhaps the greatest realization we can have is that we are free to do whatever we wish. But in order to remain in this freedom, we must discard the notion of significance. My friend, there was a day that you were not here. And there will soon be a day when you are no longer here. And once you realize this, you will understand that all there is left to do is play. Have a great week! Ali xx PS: Huge thank you to everyone for the nice messages about our hacking situation. And apologies to the various people who pointed it out that I probably used the phrase “Russian hackers” a few too many times. PPS: Check out our various open roles if you’re interested in joining our team, or know someone who might be - https://aliabdaal.com/jobs/ ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkxnm69aphwlr7rzqb6h923k0/m2h7h6u3z07pm6sl/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2pvYnMv )​ P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkxnm69aphwlr7rzqb6h923k0/dphehmuenwmg8lsl/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkxnm69aphwlr7rzqb6h923k0/e0hph0u7ow2gqrb7/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVzJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWZvb3Rlcg== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkxnm69aphwlr7rzqb6h923k0/7qh7h2u95pm7wxh9/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3RlcyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXI= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/zlu5omow9qhnhkxnm69aphwlr7rzqb6h923k0 ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, Hope your Easter’s been better than ours 😢 On Friday, we got hacked by (what we think are) Russian crypto scammers. They targeted our website (aliabdaal.com) and our email list, and exploited a vulnerability in a third-party plugin to send 3 emails to our email list promoting a scammy “crypto token drop”. We realised what was happening within a few minutes, and locked down our email and website systems to prevent further damage. And we’ve spent the past few days working with our website and email service providers to figure out what happened and stop it from happening again. In this email, I’ll talk you through the details of what we know, what we’ve done about it, and what it means for you. ------------- What happened ------------- On 3 April 2026, we discovered that an unauthorised third party gained access to the server hosting aliabdaal.com ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk6vn0ds7hnz48rx2t8h4lw6v/dphehmue69gn2xsl/aHR0cDovL2FsaWFiZGFhbC5jb20= ), by exploiting a vulnerability in a third-party plugin we were using. The attacker was able to access our website's backend systems, including the connection between our site and our email platform. They used this access to send 3 scam emails to our mailing list promoting a fake cryptocurrency "airdrop" - some of you may have gotten one of these emails, or they (hopefully) ended up in your spam folders. ----------------------------- What information was affected ----------------------------- Based on our investigation, we believe the attacker likely had access to subscriber information held on our mailing list. This includes your email address, and if you provided it, your first name. It may also include metadata such as when you subscribed and which topics you signed up for (eg: productivity, creator stuff, business topics). We have no evidence that passwords, payment details, or any financial information were accessed - we don’t store this type of data on our mailing list. In fact, we don’t store payment information anywhere: that’s all held securely by Stripe with bank-grade security, rather than being on our own servers. --------------- What we've done --------------- As soon as we discovered the breach (within a few minutes of the first email being sent), we took the following steps: * Took the website offline and removed the attacker's access and all malicious code from our server, including completely removing the integration with our email provider * Revoked all API credentials and security keys * Forced password resets for all website accounts * Disconnected and re-secured our email platform integration * Engaged with our email service provider to investigate the full extent of access to subscriber data We’ve now reported the incident to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), completed a full security audit of our systems, and begun migrating to a new, hardened hosting environment. ------------------ What you should do ------------------ If you got a suspicious email from us on or around 3rd April - particularly one mentioning a cryptocurrency airdrop, token claim, or asking you to connect a wallet - please do not click any links in it. Delete it ideally. If you did interact with any links or connect a cryptocurrency wallet, please check your crypto wallet for unauthorised transactions immediately. Beyond that, as a precaution, please be wary of any follow-up emails that reference this incident and ask you to click links or provide information - we’ll never ask for passwords or financial details by email, nor will we ever promote a cryptocurrency offer like this via email (or any other means). – You've been kind enough to let me send emails straight to your inbox, and I don't take that lightly. Having random (but annoyingly quite sophisticated) Russian hackers abuse that trust and use it to try to scam you is genuinely awful, and I'm sorry it happened. We caught it within minutes, we've done a full audit, and we're rebuilding our entire web infrastructure to make sure it can't happen again. Thanks for your patience while we sort it. Hope the rest of your week involves zero Russian hackers 🙂 Ali xx PS: If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to data@aliabdaal.com ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk6vn0ds7hnz48rx2t8h4lw6v/e0hph0u7v3godxi7/bWFpbHRvOmRhdGFAYWxpYWJkYWFsLmNvbQ== ) - we’ve set this email up specifically for questions about this. ​Unsubscribe ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk6vn0ds7hnz48rx2t8h4lw6v ) | Update your profile ( https://preferences.kit-mail3.com/wvuwkmkp73sghk6vn0ds7hnz48rx2t8h4lw6v ) | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, Hope your Easter’s been better than ours 😢 On Friday, we got hacked by (what we think are) Russian crypto scammers. They targeted our website (aliabdaal.com) and our email list, and exploited a vulnerability in a third-party plugin to send 3 emails to our email list promoting a scammy “crypto token drop”. We realised what was happening within a few minutes, and locked down our email and website systems to prevent further damage. And we’ve spent the past few days working with our website and email service providers to figure out what happened and stop it from happening again. In this email, I’ll talk you through the details of what we know, what we’ve done about it, and what it means for you. ------------- What happened ------------- On 3 April 2026, we discovered that an unauthorised third party gained access to the server hosting aliabdaal.com ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/r8ux9g9o5nfoh3zv37za2hdn9g05ob7hmo436/6qhehoulr8d0voi9/aHR0cDovL2FsaWFiZGFhbC5jb20= ), by exploiting a vulnerability in a third-party plugin we were using. The attacker was able to access our website's backend systems, including the connection between our site and our email platform. They used this access to send 3 scam emails to our mailing list promoting a fake cryptocurrency "airdrop" - some of you may have gotten one of these emails, or they (hopefully) ended up in your spam folders. ----------------------------- What information was affected ----------------------------- Based on our investigation, we believe the attacker likely had access to subscriber information held on our mailing list. This includes your email address, and if you provided it, your first name. It may also include metadata such as when you subscribed and which topics you signed up for (eg: productivity, creator stuff, business topics). We have no evidence that passwords, payment details, or any financial information were accessed - we don’t store this type of data on our mailing list. In fact, we don’t store payment information anywhere: that’s all held securely by Stripe with bank-grade security, rather than being on our own servers. --------------- What we've done --------------- As soon as we discovered the breach (within a few minutes of the first email being sent), we took the following steps: * Took the website offline and removed the attacker's access and all malicious code from our server, including completely removing the integration with our email provider * Revoked all API credentials and security keys * Forced password resets for all website accounts * Disconnected and re-secured our email platform integration * Engaged with our email service provider to investigate the full extent of access to subscriber data We’ve now reported the incident to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), completed a full security audit of our systems, and begun migrating to a new, hardened hosting environment. ------------------ What you should do ------------------ If you got a suspicious email from us on or around 3rd April - particularly one mentioning a cryptocurrency airdrop, token claim, or asking you to connect a wallet - please do not click any links in it. Delete it ideally. If you did interact with any links or connect a cryptocurrency wallet, please check your crypto wallet for unauthorised transactions immediately. Beyond that, as a precaution, please be wary of any follow-up emails that reference this incident and ask you to click links or provide information - we’ll never ask for passwords or financial details by email, nor will we ever promote a cryptocurrency offer like this via email (or any other means). – You've been kind enough to let me send emails straight to your inbox, and I don't take that lightly. Having random (but annoyingly quite sophisticated) Russian hackers abuse that trust and use it to try to scam you is genuinely awful, and I'm sorry it happened. We caught it within minutes, we've done a full audit, and we're rebuilding our entire web infrastructure to make sure it can't happen again. Thanks for your patience while we sort it. Hope the rest of your week involves zero Russian hackers 🙂 Ali xx PS: If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to data@aliabdaal.com ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/r8ux9g9o5nfoh3zv37za2hdn9g05ob7hmo436/kkhmh2unw034g4uk/bWFpbHRvOmRhdGFAYWxpYWJkYWFsLmNvbQ== ) - we’ve set this email up specifically for questions about this. ​Unsubscribe ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/r8ux9g9o5nfoh3zv37za2hdn9g05ob7hmo436 ) | Update your profile ( https://preferences.kit-mail3.com/r8ux9g9o5nfoh3zv37za2hdn9g05ob7hmo436 ) | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey , You may have just received an email apparently from me with the subject line “Solana Creator Token (Free Airdrop)”. Please ignore this message and do not click on any links within the email. This was not sent by us and we're actively investigating. Very sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. Ali P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4p47qmulh8dpzv5zi4h8opl6/08hwhgu2ermqwqap/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4p47qmulh8dpzv5zi4h8opl6/8ghqh3uodngkpwal/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3Rlcw== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.kit-mail3.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4p47qmulh8dpzv5zi4h8opl6/l2heh6ul27owv2sg/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249Zm9vdGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1saWZlbm90ZXM= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. Thanks for being part of LifeNotes - you can update your email preferences here ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4p47qmulh8dpzv5zi4h8opl6 ) at any time | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, Quick thing before we start - we’re looking to hire a Growth / Content Marketing Lead for our latest productivity app. If you (or someone you know) are interested in a high autonomy, high equity role at a very fast growing startup, we’d love to hear from you here ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/7qh7h2u9q9qxppa9/aHR0cHM6Ly9kb2NzLmdvb2dsZS5jb20vZm9ybXMvZC9lLzFGQUlwUUxTZVRTM2NpeWU1X0hmMC1vRnVlb3gyS2E2WGM2SlpaMVE2dGJGNHpQU0dleUNfLXFnL3ZpZXdmb3Jt ). Anyway, big thank you to everyone who replied to last week’s issue - a bunch of you said that you quite enjoy it when I send emails with recommendations for stuff I’ve been reading, watching, playing around with etc, so I thought this week we’d do a roundup of My Favourite Things from Feb 2026 :) 1 - AI Tool: OpenClaw ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/owhkhwuwpwp0l7bq/aHR0cHM6Ly9vcGVuY2xhdy5haS8= ) - I’ve been hearing about this new ClawdBot AI thing (now renamed to OpenClaw) on Twitter for the past few weeks, but after a glowing endorsement from my brother, and then the same day, another equally glowing endorsement from one of my entrepreneur friends in Hong Kong, I decided to give it a whirl and see what all the fuss was about. And man… the future is here. I’ve been obsessed with this thing for the past 48h pretty much non-stop, and know it’s going to be a major major part of my life productivity system for literally everything moving forward. If you’ve been hearing about it for a few weeks and like me, were putting off playing around with it, consider this another piece of data that “yes this is amazing” and “yes you should give it a go”. Along with “yes you should take the security settings seriously” and “yes it’ll take some tinkering to get it to work but it’s worth it”. 2 - Book: Backwards with Purpose ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/p8hehqu4m4mp59tr/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZmFuZmljdGlvbi5uZXQvcy80MTAxNjUwLzEvQmFja3dhcmQtV2l0aC1QdXJwb3NlLVBhcnQtSS1BbHdheXMtYW5kLUFsd2F5cw== ) - This is a 2-part Harry Potter fan fiction series that I finished a couple of weeks ago. It’s incredible. It’s set in an alternate universe where our heroes defeat Voldemort in book 7… but… okay you know how in the “proper” / “canon” Deathly Hallows, there’s the Battle of Hogwarts at the end and basically all the good guys (minus a few sad exceptions) survive and live happily ever after… well, in this fan fiction, the good guys do still defeat Voldemort, but it’s just Harry, Ginny and Ron that survive. Everyone else dies during the battle, including Hermione, the rest of the Weasleys, pretty much everyone else at Hogwarts etc. So then Harry, Ron and Ginny are super depressed… and so they attempt to travel back in time 7 years to fix things. To defeat Voldemort without all the sacrifices. So they travel back to when they were 10/11 years old, except they retain all their memories and skills, and that’s the premise. It’s really really well done, it’s really clever, it handles time travel in a really interesting way, I loved it and couldn’t put it down for weeks. 3 - AI Tool: Claude Code / CoWork ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/x0hph3ueoeo4dwag/aHR0cHM6Ly9jb2RlLmNsYXVkZS5jb20v ) - Yep, it’s another hyped AI tool. This is another one I’ve been sleeping on, but for like 6+ months rather than a few weeks. I thought I was pretty pro at using AI because I’m always chatting to Claude, I’ve got loads of projects on the go etc, but my powers have levelled up like 10x since I discovered Claude Code. The key realisation was: “wait a minute, you can do WAY more than just coding with Claude Code”. If you find the thought of using a terminal user-interface daunting (like I did until recently), Claude Cowork is 100% worth exploring too - it’s basically Claude Code but in a more accessible interface. I won’t go into the technical details here, but just in case you’re anything like me and you’ve been hearing about Claude Code/CoWork but haven’t tried them out… this might be your sign to give them a go. Or not - I don’t want to add to the “I’m behind with AI” feeling that we all perpetually have these days… but still… 4 - Podcast: Jason Fried x David Senra ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/6qhehoulzlz36ls9/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_c2k9c0NXZHVmdlRaQkk2Vy1mYSZ2PUJkREN0TUExZ1N3 ) - Absolutely loved this conversation. Jason Fried has been a long-time hero of mine, I’ve read all his books and love his approach to entrepreneurship, which has very much inspired my own “Lifestyle Business” philosophy. His whole vibe is: “look, a business doesn’t need to be this huge massive thing that’s always growing and that takes over your life. It can totally be a small(ish) thing that you enjoy working on, with a small team of people you like hanging out with, building cool product(s) for a small(ish) number of customers who get a lot for value from them”. Have a great week! Ali xx PS: I’m the headline speaker at a free 6-hour long online summit on Thursday 26th Feb, all about content creation and entrepreneurship in the world of AI. It’s hosted by my friend Joe Gannon, and features some other great speakers, and it’s totally free. If you’d like to check it out and see me spiel about this stuff, you can register here ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/kkhmh2unrnro26ck/aHR0cHM6Ly9iaXQubHkvNHFGM1NGUw== ) (it’s recorded too). P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/25h2h9u3636q0nh8/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 If you're enjoying this newsletter, you might also want to check out my two other newsletters: 1️⃣ ProductiveNotes ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/x0hg38x0a3ueoeo4dkfg/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3Byb2Rub3Rlcw== ): Weekly actionable productivity tips to help you do more of what matters. 2️⃣ CreatorNotes ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/25hgxw3lu9u3636q06i8/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP2NyZWF0b3Jub3Rlcw== ): Weekly tips for aspiring creators to create more consistent and high-value content. YouTube ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/9qhzhdud0d0e3wbz/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vYWxpYWJkYWFs ) | Blog ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/3ohphdu3030k9gtp/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXIv ) | Podcast ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/n2hohquvmvml5pa0/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vQERlZXBEaXZld2l0aEFsaUFiZGFhbC92aWRlb3M= ) | Instagram ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v/48hvh7umvmv7qduq/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5zdGFncmFtLmNvbS9hbGlhYmRhYWwv ) | Update Your Email Preferences ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.convertkit-mail2.com/d0umkvkz6dt0hovnlmqtdfz2q2r9pilhogk0v ) | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve sent an issue of this newsletter. Feels like I need to come up with an interesting insight or something and these days with life settling into a “regular” rhythm it feels like I’m having insights about life a lot less than I used to. I guess a few years ago, I’d spend all my spare time reading personal development books, and learning all these new things about how to manage my time, how to change my mindset, how to approach business building. These days, I don’t spend much of my spare time reading personal development books… instead, I finish work by 6:30pm, hang out with my wife and baby, go for a run, then spend the evening on the sofa reading Harry Potter Fan Fiction while my wife watches Bridgerton. With this sort of pedestrian life setup, I often get to the weekend thinking: “hmm I should kinda be writing an issue of LifeNotes… but I feel like I just don’t have anything useful or interesting to share lol” I guess I always have interesting things to say about business growth, especially now that our Lifestyle Business Academy ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/owhkhwuwpl87x3sq/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbGJhLXdhaXRsaXN0Lz91dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249ZXZlcmdyZWVuJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PWJ1enpfZGlzc2FzdGlzZmFjdGlvbiZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVz ) is well underway, with 100+ students, and I’m running workshops every week, making changes to the curriculum all the time, and working directly with students to help them figure out their businesses. But… there’s very little that comes out of that that isn’t super specific to the world of starting an online business, which judging from what I hear in the replies to these emails, isn’t something particularly interesting to most of you. (Btw, if you ARE in fact interested in those things, we write about them in FreedomNotes ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/z2hgh7uenrd854hz/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vZnJlZWRvbS1ub3Rlcy8_bG0tZ2E= ), our dedicated “business” newsletter). Anyway, with those lamentations aside, there is something I did want to share this week. Not sure how useful or interesting it is but oh well... One of the things you learn in meditation is becoming more aware of your own thoughts and feelings. When you’re meditating, you “observe” your thoughts, feelings and sensations, and then… don’t do anything at all. You just “observe” that a thought or feeling arises, and sit there as the “passive witnessing”, and then observe as it passes. I’m not particularly consistent with my meditation practice but I’ve done it enough over the years on-and-off to have gotten better at recognising my own thoughts and feelings as I go through day-to-day life, and generally doing a good job of not getting “caught up” in them. At least that’s what I thought. Until I caught myself many times in the past few weeks feeling… dissatisfied for some reason. Here’s what tended to happen: it’s an evening, I’m hanging with the wife +/- baby (depending on what time it is), reading some Harry Potter Fan Fiction. We start getting ready for bed. I use the toilet, turn on my phone, check Slack and see a bunch of notifications for work-themed stuff, with various things that need my input, or that seem to be going wrong, or that could be optimised. I then think “cool, all that can wait until tomorrow”, and start getting ready for bed. But as I’m getting ready for bed, I feel a subtle undercurrent of… dissatisfaction… colouring my mood, and my experience of the moment. It’s like an internal “buzzing” of sorts… and then I think “huh, why do I feel weirdly discontent even though life is awesome”, and I examine the feeling, and realise that there’s a subtle energy of “uh oh the business is going to crumble, we gotta hustle harder” beneath it. And then I’m like “huh that’s interesting, even though I thought I put the Slack messages out of my mind, they’re actually still there under the surface, and they seem to have triggered this pattern of energy that’s fearful and anxious about whether the business is going to die”. And then I’m like: “huh that’s interesting…” and then I sort-of “smile” at the feeling, in a “thank you for looking out for me, we don’t need to worry about this right now” and focus on enjoying the peace and serenity of getting ready for bed. I realised recently that I’ve been telling myself a story of “I’m pretty good at not getting caught up in my thoughts and feelings” that’s only partly true. Yes I was good at noticing the loud, obvious stuff, but the lower-level anxiety that was presenting as a hum of background noise was still totally there, I just wasn’t aware of it. My friend Alok said once that meditation is like peeling back the layers of an onion - there are always more layers. Guess I’ll have to do more meditation to find more and more of these layers. The more I’ve noticed this feeling, the more I’ve realised how often it’s there, this persistent, low-level hum of “there are Problems to solve in the business, we should Figure Them Out”. But all it takes for the spell to break (at least temporarily) is to just notice it’s there. If any of this resonates, I’d love to know. What’s been your experience of the subtle buzz of dissatisfaction? Feel free to hit reply and let me know :) Have a great week! Ali xx ​💫 80,000 Hours: Find Work That Truly Matters ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/p8hehqu4m57lr2ar/aHR0cDovLzgwMDAwaG91cnMub3JnL2xpZmVub3Rlcw== )​ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Most career advice focuses on pretty surface-level stuff - salary, work-life balance, whether you’ve got nice colleagues or not, stuff like that. And don’t get me wrong, these things are all important to some degree, but I find there’s always something missing. How can you find a career that’s both fulfilling and genuinely impactful? Well, that’s the question 80,000 Hours ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/p8hehqu4m57lr2ar/aHR0cDovLzgwMDAwaG91cnMub3JnL2xpZmVub3Rlcw== ) tries to figure out. They’re a non-profit organisation that’s spent over a decade researching how you can find a career that makes a positive difference in the world, asking big questions like: * What are humanity’s most pressing problems right now? * Which skills should I be focusing on learning? * What can I do today to start planning a more meaningful career? I’ve been reading their stuff since I was in medical school, so I’m a big fan of what they do, and they’ve got everything from in-depth career guides to a job board with hundreds of open positions in high-impact roles, 1-1 career advising, and a brilliant podcast where they interview experts about humanity’s biggest challenges. Even better, everything they provide is totally free. So whether you’re just starting out or halfway through your career wondering “is this it?”, I’d highly recommend checking them out. Click the link here ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/p8hehqu4m57lr2ar/aHR0cDovLzgwMDAwaG91cnMub3JnL2xpZmVub3Rlcw== ). Thanks to 80,000 Hours ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/p8hehqu4m57lr2ar/aHR0cDovLzgwMDAwaG91cnMub3JnL2xpZmVub3Rlcw== ) for sponsoring this issue of LifeNotes 🙏 P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/x0hph3ueod7lkzig/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/6qhehoulz62dx6u9/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3Rlcw== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/kkhmh2unr293z3bk/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249Zm9vdGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1saWZlbm90ZXM= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. YouTube ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/58hvh8ugqo9z39t7/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vYWxpYWJkYWFs ) | Blog ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/25h2h9u360oel7t8/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXIv ) | Podcast ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/qvh8h8udz260erfg/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vQERlZXBEaXZld2l0aEFsaUFiZGFhbC92aWRlb3M= ) | Instagram ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/g3hnhwumrozkgmt3/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5zdGFncmFtLmNvbS9hbGlhYmRhYWwv ) | Update Your Email Preferences ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l ) | Unsubscribe from LifeNotes ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/38ugd8dve2skh20zd0vfnf4ppzpnnf7h6x45l/7qhoo8zdu2u9qp4mdwu9/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3NvcnJ5LXRvLXNlZS15b3UtZ28_bGlmZW5vdGVz ) | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, A couple weeks ago, I was interviewed ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/kkhmh2unz2qg6vck/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj02Z2tvalNLXzZBRQ== ) on my friend and former coach Corey’s podcast. One topic we talked about was the backstory behind why and how I decided to build an online business school ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/58hvh8ug3o8pk8h7/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20v ) this year. One interesting tidbit (or so listeners to that episode tell me) was that I kept the project a secret from my team for 6 months…not because I didn’t trust them obviously, but because I’ve hopefully (finally) learned an important lesson about running a business (that I think also applies to our personal lives): that a business, once established, is more likely to die of overeating than of starvation. I watched an interview where Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon) was talking about this (paraphrased): I’m an ideas guy - if you put me in front of a whiteboard and I can come up with 100 ideas in half an hour. But early in Amazon’s history, Jeff Wilke (one of my executives and mentors) came up to me and said: “Jeff, you have enough ideas per minute, per day, per week, to destroy Amazon”. And this was such a shocking idea for me… I said: “What do you mean?” He said: “You have to release the work at the right rate that the organisation can accept it”. Wilke explained that every time I released a new idea, I was creating a backlog, a queue, of work in process, and because it was just stacking up, it was adding no value. In fact, it was creating distraction. And so Wilke said: “You have to figure out when to release the ideas at a rate that the organisation can accept”. And this sounds so obvious, but it wasn’t obvious to me at the time. And this was a profound insight for me: so I started prioritising ideas better, keeping a list of them, keeping them to myself, until the organisation was ready for the ideas. When I heard this, it immediately resonated. Our business is obviously way smaller than Amazon, but even at our scale (with around 15 team members), I’ve been guilty of this exact thing: throwing ideas into the business at a faster rate than the organisation can handle them. In the early days of the business and YouTube channel, I could pivot on a whim. New video series? Great let’s try it tomorrow. Launch a brand new course? Easy, we can do that in a week. Switch website platforms? Sure why not. The cost of a failed experiment was basically zero. But now our expenses are $2m+ per year, with team salaries making up the bulk of that. We have people whose livelihoods depend on executing well on the things we’ve already committed to. If I get onto a team Zoom meeting and say “Hey, I’ve got this exciting new idea for an online business school!”, suddenly everyone’s focus shifts. The other projects get deprioritised, energy gets scattered, the stuff we’re already doing starts to suffer. Even if I preface it with “but this is just an idea at this stage guys, don’t worry about it, I’m just throwing it out there for a discussion”, it’s way too easy for the team to think: “okay but what does that mean for all the stuff we’re already doing… wait a minute, maybe we shouldn’t be investing in project X or Y because this new thing seems to be exciting”. This is all well and good if we end up actually pursuing the new thing, but I’ve often changed my mind on exciting new ideas just as fast as I’ve suggested them to the team, which creates “organisational whiplash” and is a total nightmare to deal with (or so I’m told when I ask team members to give me feedback…) Maybe this is something you can relate to if you’ve ever had a manager or a boss who considers themselves “an ideas guy” - they have dozens of new ideas every month, but end up sticking to very few of them, which means you end up wasting a tonne of time, energy and mental bandwidth changing direction. Not fun. So anyway, this time with this online business school thing, I tried my best to NOT introduce the idea to the team until I felt (a) I was solid in actually wanting to do it, and (b) I’d spoken to a bunch of friends and mentors about it, and (c) we’d validated it with a lower-lift experiment. This ended up taking like 9 months: around September 2024 was when I was chatting to one of my mentors, Olly, and said: “hey I think I really want to build an online business school”. Then a few months passed, I noodled on the idea a bit, I signed up to some online courses from other people doing similar things to see if I was still interested in it, I tried out some YouTube videos talking about “how to build an online business” to see if it would be fun. Last summer, we also ran a “$1k Challenge” as an experiment: a 6-week bootcamp that would help people earn their first $1,000 online. That turned out to be quite fun to run, and students got a lot of value out of it, so it was good validation for the idea that would ultimately become the Lifestyle Business Academy ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/58hvh8ug3o8pk8h7/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWZlc3R5bGVidXNpbmVzcy5jb20v ). But there’s another thing I’ve noticed especially in the new year, when we’re all about reinventing ourselves and setting goals etc… we get our journals out, decide to learn Spanish, decide to start a podcast, decide to go to the gym more regularly, run a marathon, do a hyrox (whatever that means), read 50 books this year, and so much more. And then we wonder why, by February, we feel overwhelmed and haven’t made meaningful progress towards any of these goals. Just like a business (even one at the scale of Amazon) can only work on a finite number of things at once, the same is true for us as individuals. Our time, energy, focus, attention and motivation are all finite resources. And trying to do lots of things in parallel is often a recipe for burnout and overwhelm. So the same Bezos principle applies to our personal lives: instead of introducing new goals and habits into your life at an overwhelming rate, it’s probably better to drip-feed new ideas at a rate that we can actually handle sustainably. I’ve started asking myself a question whenever I feel the urge to start something new: “What am I already doing that this would compete with?” Every new commitment takes bandwidth. And bandwidth is finite. So if I’m honest with myself, I can only really make meaningful progress on 1-3 things at any given time. Maybe less lol. This is why I often preach the idea of setting a primary “Quarterly Quest” for work and for life - the ONE THING, in each of these areas, that if you did in the next 90 days, would have the biggest impact. If you’ve read this far in this email, you’re probably like me - lots of ideas, lots of things you want to work on, very good-looking etc. The problem with people like us is that rather than screwing up our lives due to laziness and sloth, we’re actually much more likely to burn ourselves into the ground through ambition, lack of balance, and a failure to show restraint when setting goals. Have a great week! Ali xx PS: This week we were working on a bunch of features in our new productivity platform to help solve this exact issue. If you’d like to hear more when it’s ready, I’d love to invite you to join the waitlist ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/qvh8h8ude25go9sg/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3VwZXJvcy5tZS8= ) :) ​⏰ 80,000 Hours: The Time You Spend At Work ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/g3hnhwumgo576qt3/aHR0cDovLzgwMDAwaG91cnMub3JnL2xpZmVub3Rlcw== )​ ----------------------------------------------------------------- This might sound a tad scary, but the average person spends about 80,000 hours working across their lifetime. That’s 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, for 40 years. When you think about it like that, your career isn’t just about paying the bills or climbing the corporate ladder - it’s probably your biggest opportunity to actually make a positive difference in the world, which is a pretty big deal. And that’s where 80,000 Hours ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/g3hnhwumgo576qt3/aHR0cDovLzgwMDAwaG91cnMub3JnL2xpZmVub3Rlcw== ) comes in - they’re a fantastic non-profit organisation that’s been researching which careers actually have the most impact for over a decade, using proper evidence-based methods. ​80,000 Hours ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/g3hnhwumgo576qt3/aHR0cDovLzgwMDAwaG91cnMub3JnL2xpZmVub3Rlcw== ) looks at which problems are most pressing and neglected, and where your specific skills could make the biggest difference in the world. So one thing that keeps coming up a lot lately is AI safety. As AI systems get more and more powerful, making sure they’re aligned with human values is super important and there’s huge potential for impact even if you’re not a hardcore computer scientist. They’ve got a ridiculously in-depth career guide, 1-1 career advising, a job board with currently open roles in high-impact fields, and a brilliant podcast. Oh and everything they provide is completely free because they’re a nonprofit. So if any of that resonates with you, it’s definitely worth checking out by clicking the link here ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/g3hnhwumgo576qt3/aHR0cDovLzgwMDAwaG91cnMub3JnL2xpZmVub3Rlcw== ). Thanks to 80,000 Hours for sponsoring this issue of LifeNotes 🙏 P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/9qhzhdud43mkzebz/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other (free) resources you can check out: 1️⃣ Learn to focus better ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/3ohphdu3x9l648up/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tLzctZGF5LWZvY3VzLWNyYXNoLWNvdXJzZS8= ): My free 7-day email course where I’ll teach you how to improve your focus and concentration with evidence-based techniques. 2️⃣ YouTube Growth Scorecard ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/n2hohquv25pw6db0/aHR0cHM6Ly9wbGF5LmFsaWFiZGFhbC5jb20veW91dHViZS1ncm93dGgtcG90ZW50aWFs ): Take my quiz to get customised advice on how to grow your YouTube channel. YouTube ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/48hvh7umwqezgzbq/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vYWxpYWJkYWFs ) | Blog ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/wnh2h6uqmvp9g5al/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXIv ) | Podcast ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/reh8h9umkvr9x3u6/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vQERlZXBEaXZld2l0aEFsaUFiZGFhbC92aWRlb3M= ) | Instagram ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/08hwhgu2nw50zxfp/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5zdGFncmFtLmNvbS9hbGlhYmRhYWwv ) | Update Your Email Preferences ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9 ) | Unsubscribe from LifeNotes ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/4zu9e5exn2fehpwk050srf6kd8l77a5h6gnw9/58hww87qc8ug3o8p7ot7/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3NvcnJ5LXRvLXNlZS15b3UtZ28_bGlmZW5vdGVz ) | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, Last week we hosted Spark 2026, our free annual workshop where me and some guest speakers walked participants through reflecting on 2025, figuring out where there life’s going, and setting goals for 2026. Big thank you to everyone who attended: I had a great time running it, and I hope you got some value out of it :) The event was very focused around Goals. So this week’s email is going to be about Goals. But before we get started, I’d like to talk about a video game. You see, the other day I was reclining on the couch playing God of War (2018) on the PS5. I’m a few hours into the game, and I found myself at a crossroads (literally and metaphorically). I could choose to row my boat LEFT, and progress the main storyline. Or I could choose to row my boat RIGHT, and do a side quest that seemed interesting but that wouldn’t progress the main story. I noticed my default thought process was: “well, we’ve gotta go LEFT, because that’ll get us moving through the storyline faster”. But then I stopped and noticed that thought. I was like: “hmm that’s interesting… I’m playing a video game here… why do I feel the need to play it efficiently? Why did my first thought go to: what’s the fastest way to progress through the game?” After some thinking, I landed on the question: “What’s actually the point of playing this video game?” And the answer came pretty quickly: “The point is simply to enjoy the journey of playing it”. There’s no cosmic significance to my playing God of War. It isn’t an exercise in “self improvement”. The “points” or “levels” I earn in the game have less than zero impact on my life. It’s simply an arbitrary video game, I’m playing at an arbitrary difficulty level (hard, but not ultra-hard), purely for the purposes of passing the time doing something enjoyable. So I decided to turn right, and take the more scenic route, doing the side quest that had no bearing on the main storyline, but enjoying myself, and playing in a relaxed fashion with the attitude of “leaning back, relaxing and enjoying the challenge of this arbitrary video game”. The following morning, I was in the office with the team, and working on some designs for our new productivity app ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6/g3hnhwumx2z0p6u3/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdXBlcm9zLm1l ). I found myself feeling a tad on-edge with how little time I had available to work on it: just a few hours of deep work before the next meeting, and then it’s lunchtime, and then my afternoon’s packed with gym followed by a couple more meetings with the dev team. I found myself approaching the designs with an air of franticness, an air of feeling like I was running out of time, and therefore had to make progress on this quickly. But then I remembered the feeling when playing God of War. The feeling of trying to do things “efficiently”. So I asked myself that question again: “What’s actually the point of us building this productivity app?” Sure, if the app does well, it’ll mean more money for the business. And sure, it would be cool to be building an app that lots of people around the world use and enjoy that helps them manage their time and achieve their goals. But in the grand scheme of things… a few decades from now (if not way sooner), the app will be forgotten. A few more decades from now (hopefully a lot longer), me and the dev team will be dead, and no one will particularly care about this app that we spent a few years building in the 2020s on planet Earth. This app has zero cosmic significance. So what’s the point? I realised that much like a video game, the point is primarily to “enjoy the experience of building this thing”. If we build it well, it’ll hopefully have a little more impact on our lives than literally spending those hours playing more video games. But not that much more, on a cosmic scale. In many ways, the journey of building an app is much like the journey of playing a video game: it’s an arbitrary goal, with an arbitrary level of difficulty (how complex and full-featured do we want to make it?), played for the primary purpose of “building something cool” and “enjoying the journey of building it”. So I thought, “huh, if the point of building this app is actually primarily to enjoy the journey of building this app, what if I approached it like I approached playing God of War… what if instead of approaching it with an attitude of franticness or stress, I instead leaned back, relaxed, and enjoyed the challenge?” So I tried it. I took a breath, I leaned back, I relaxed, and I remembered that building the app is an arbitrary video game, where the primary goal is to simply enjoy the challenge. And you know what… I had a great time. For the next few hours, I had my Study with Me Spotify playlist playing through my headphones. I took breaks every now and then to get a coffee and use the loo. I chatted to the team a bit while waiting for Lovable to mock up designs. And while approaching it in this “relaxed” fashion, I made a load of progress, came up with a bunch of cool new ideas, and felt great. The very first chapter of Feel-Good Productivity ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6/9qhzhdudn82e99iz/aHR0cHM6Ly9nby5mZWVsZ29vZHByb2R1Y3Rpdml0eS5jb20vYW1hem9u ) is titled Play. The whole thesis of the entire book is that when we approach our work in the spirit of play, treating it with a little more lightness than we’re used to, we actually become more productive, more creative, and less stressed. AND on top of that, the work ends up generating rather than draining our energy. But even though I’ve written that chapter, and I’ve seen first-hand the benefits of taking a more “playful” approach to work, I still find myself defaulting to the mode of “this is a Serious Thing that Needs To Be Done Quickly and Productively and Efficiently”. Over time, I’ve gotten better at catching myself when I do this, and deliberately switching over to “play mode”. But it still isn’t my default. I’d love for it to be, so that my approach to practically every goal or project, in work and in life, is to treat it with an attitude of lightness, ease and sincerity, rather than Heaviness and Seriousness. Zooming out even more, I’ve found myself wondering this: What if every goal we’re working towards, in our work, our health, our relationships, our home life… What if all those goals are “merely” arbitrary video games, played on an arbitrary level of difficulty, where the primary purpose is to enjoy the journey of playing them? What if… the journey is in fact, the destination? Dammit, after all that, we’ve landed on a cliche. Have a great week! Ali xx PS: My friend and former coach Dr Corey Wilks (clinical psychologist who helps creators and entrepreneurs overcome psychological barriers) has just opened up enrolment for his Alchemy of Fear ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6/3ohphdu3v8dkzvsp/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY3JlYXRvcmFsY2hlbXkuY29tL2FsY2hlbXktb2YtZmVhci1wcm9ncmFt ) live 6-week program starting in a few weeks. Me and my team have taken the program, we love it. If you want to check it out, Corey’s offering $400 off for our audience: you can use the coupon ALI400 to get the discount. FYI: There’s no affiliate arrangement here, I get no kickback etc, I just love Corey’s work and think his program’s awesome, and he’s kindly offered a no-strings discount for our audience 😊 PPS: I just recorded a mega 2h20m long episode with Corey for his Creator Alchemy podcast. If you’d like to hear me yap for 2 hours, you might like to check it out ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6/48hvh7umk327gvcq/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj02Z2tvalNLXzZBRQ== ). P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6/wnh2h6uq8dolg7cl/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6/reh8h9umnp5oxza6/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3Rlcw== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6/08hwhgu2q47pz5up/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249Zm9vdGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1saWZlbm90ZXM= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. YouTube ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6/8ghqh3uok85796fl/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vYWxpYWJkYWFs ) | Blog ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6/vqh3hmuo86kqgztw/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXIv ) | Podcast ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6/l2heh6ulwpkdrxcg/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vQERlZXBEaXZld2l0aEFsaUFiZGFhbC92aWRlb3M= ) | Instagram ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6/dphehmuerx725xcl/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5zdGFncmFtLmNvbS9hbGlhYmRhYWwv ) | Update Your Email Preferences ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6 ) | Unsubscribe from LifeNotes ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/qdu2g5gvk6f7h4e65eqc8f82pvrkki4h8opl6/3oh44md9bdu3v8dkzwbp/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3NvcnJ5LXRvLXNlZS15b3UtZ28_bGlmZW5vdGVz ) | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY

Hey friends, Happy New Year! Quick thing before we start - in case you haven’t heard, I’m hosting a totally free 2-day workshop this weekend (Sat and Sun 3rd + 4th January) called Spark 2026. It’s the 2nd year we’re doing this: a free series of “Annual Planning, Goal Setting and Reflection” workshops to help you make 2026 the best year of your life :) 65,000 people registered so far from all over the world, would be great to see you there. You can find out more here if you like ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/6qhehoul0x97pxa9/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3NwYXJrLTIwMjYvP3V0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1zcGsyNiZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1taWRuaWdodF9zY3JvbGxpbmdfMiZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bGlmZW5vdGVz ) 😊 Anyway, while I was lying in bed last night, I made the mistake of clicking on a notification from Twitter/X. Can’t remember what it was, but it was intriguing and I clicked on it. And then without realising it, I found myself scrolling the feed for over an hour. And it wasn’t just that I was scrolling for over an hour - it was that I found myself feeling a sense of “falling behind” while doing it. My Instagram feed these days is quite wholesome: relationship content, baby content, some desk setups, some music stuff, some health stuff. Ie: broadly wholesome things I’m interested in. So even though I try not to make a habit of it, I don’t feel too bad when I scroll through Instagram. But…my Twitter feed has none of that. Instead, it’s almost 100% AI + tech startup stuff, with every other post talking about how you’re falling behind if you’re not using Claude Code, or Google’s new Antigravity, or this-or-that new app or model. And how you’re falling behind if you’re not using these hot new marketing tactics that so-and-so app used to get to $100m in revenue in just 6 months! Or how if you’re an entrepreneur and you haven’t yet replaced your entire team with AI agents, wtf are you even doing. And so on. I started seeing some of these while scrolling and initially, I was like: “ooh maybe I DO need to try out this specific Claude Code workflow to boost my productivity”. But then I saw another. And another. And more. And before I knew it - instead of seeing any individual post as a source of inspiration, I fell into the “doom scroll” of continuing to scroll, not getting any inspiration or motivation from it, and instead feeling a sense of dread that I was truly falling behind and that my business is going to crumble around me. Now, I like to think of myself as more enlightened than to fall into this trap. It’s just… so basic. I’m supposed to be a productivity expert for goodness sake. It’s such basic-ass advice to (a) not have your phone next to you in bed, (b) to block social media apps after 9pm, and (c) even if you do feel like scrolling, make sure you’re being intentional about it and actually getting value that’s improving your life. For many years, I didn’t have my phone next to my bedside. For many years, I had app blocking active after 9pm. But then… one of the apps stopped working a few months ago, and I didn’t bother figuring out why. I thought: “meh I can totally control myself, I don’t need this stuff”. And then, I left my extra phone charger behind somewhere while travelling, and thought: “you know what, I don’t need to charge my phone in a different room, I can totally charge it on my bedside table, I’m not one of those degenerates that needs to put these systems in place to NOT use my phone for goodness sake”. And so thanks to my hubris of thinking that me as a sole individual can reliably beat the thousands of well-paid engineers working for social media companies, who’s literal job it is to hijack my brain into continuing to scroll… thanks to me thinking I was above it all, I ended up wasting time and energy, and also feeling bad about my life, at midnight last night. So consider this email a (semi) public commitment that: * I’m setting up app blocking again (on Superfocus ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/25h2h9u3nlm27wt8/aHR0cHM6Ly9hcHBzLmFwcGxlLmNvbS9nYi9hcHAvc3VwZXJmb2N1cy1lZmZvcnRsZXNzLWZsb3cvaWQ2NzM4ODQ1NjEz )) so that from 10pm to 8am, I can’t access Twitter, Instagram, Reddit or YouTube. * My phone will charge on my desk in a separate room overnight, rather than on my bedside table. I’m going back to having the only device on my nightstand be my Kindle. If you’d like to join me in doing these sorts of drastic actions, you’re very welcome to. Have a great week! Ali xx ----------------------------------------------------------------- ​🔮 Stan: A Year To Chase Your Dream ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/qvh8h8udqekr85hg/aHR0cHM6Ly9kYXJldG9kcmVhbS5zdGFuLnN0b3JlLz91dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249ZGFyZXRvZHJlYW0yNiZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWFsaWFiZGFhbCZ1dG1fc291cmNlPW5ld3NsZXR0ZXI= )​ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Quick question before we finish today’s email: If your salary and rent were covered for an entire year, what would you actually do with that time? Not in a fantasy or “winning the lottery” kinda way, but genuinely, what’s the one thing that you’d finally give yourself permission to try? Start a YouTube channel? Build an online course? Launch your own lifestyle business that you can never quite find the time for? This is the question that Stan ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/g3hnhwumxgq3e8t3/aHR0cHM6Ly9qb2luLnN0YW4uc3RvcmUvYWxpYWJkYWFs ) is asking right now - an awesome platform and toolkit for creators and solopreneurs where you can basically set up a beautiful digital storefront to sell literally anything you create (courses, digital downloads, coaching calls, stuff like that). And the team at Stan ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/g3hnhwumxgq3e8t3/aHR0cHM6Ly9qb2luLnN0YW4uc3RvcmUvYWxpYWJkYWFs ) are backing up this question with something pretty epic in 2026 - they’re giving away $100K USD to help one person go all-in on their dream, which is your salary and cost of living covered for a full year. Why? Because not everyone has a safety net that lets them explore creative paths or take the leap into entrepreneurship, and having that runway changes everything. Beyond the $100K you’ll also get Lifetime access to Stan Pro and Stanley (their AI companion for Instagram that helps you grow), coaching and mentorship to guide you along the way, and exposure across Stan’s socials. So if you’ve been sitting on an idea for a while, this could be your shot to make it happen and all you need to do is the following: 1️⃣ Sign up for Stanley (which is free) 2️⃣ Post a video (2 mins or less) on a public TikTok or Instagram page sharing your story, your dream, and how you plan to bring it to life using the hashtag #standaretodream26 and tagging @stanforcreators. 3️⃣ Fill out the submission form to make sure you’re eligible.That’s literally it and they started accepting submissions on 1st of January 2026. Oh and btw, you don’t need a massive following to enter and you don’t need to already have a business up and running - all you need is an idea and the willingness to share it. You can find more information here ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/qvh8h8udqekr85hg/aHR0cHM6Ly9kYXJldG9kcmVhbS5zdGFuLnN0b3JlLz91dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249ZGFyZXRvZHJlYW0yNiZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWFsaWFiZGFhbCZ1dG1fc291cmNlPW5ld3NsZXR0ZXI= ). ​Thanks to Stan for sponsoring this issue of LifeNotes 🙏 ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/g3hnhwumxgq3e8t3/aHR0cHM6Ly9qb2luLnN0YW4uc3RvcmUvYWxpYWJkYWFs )​ P.S. Do you mind taking 50 seconds to answer a few questions ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/9qhzhdudn45pgoiz/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXItc2lnbi11cC10aGFuay15b3UvP3N1cnZleQ== ) so that I can send the most helpful content possible? Thanks in advance 🙂 Whenever you're ready, here are some other ways I can help you: 🎬 Part-Time YouTuber Academy ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/3ohphdu3vxp7qpbp/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3BhcnQtdGltZS15b3V0dWJlci1hY2FkZW15P3V0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1mb290ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fc291cmNlPWxpZmVub3Rlcw== ): 8+ years of YouTube experienced condensed into a self-paced course that teaches you everything you need to know to grow on YouTube. 🧭 LifeOS ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/n2hohquve273nlf0/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL2xpZmVvcz91dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249Zm9vdGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1saWZlbm90ZXM= ): Design your own productivity system to help you take action, beat procrastination, and work towards your goals. YouTube ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/48hvh7umkwxr03bq/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vYWxpYWJkYWFs ) | Blog ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/wnh2h6uq8m0wrzal/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXIv ) | Podcast ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/reh8h9umnk6009u6/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vQERlZXBEaXZld2l0aEFsaUFiZGFhbC92aWRlb3M= ) | Instagram ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/08hwhgu2qnlddofp/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5zdGFncmFtLmNvbS9hbGlhYmRhYWwv ) | Update Your Email Preferences ( https://844e968a.unsubscribe.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l ) | Unsubscribe from LifeNotes ( https://844e968a.click.convertkit-mail2.com/0vu59m9rp3h9h9n0dgphkfvze4k55hnh95n7l/58hww87qc8ugl36mmnf7/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGlhYmRhYWwuY29tL3NvcnJ5LXRvLXNlZS15b3UtZ28_bGlmZW5vdGVz ) | 48 George Street, Floor 2, London, W1U 7DY