Value of Book Proposals - The book proposal process, while seemingly a scam due to the final product rarely matching the initial pitch, is valuable. - It forces authors to think through their ideas and create a roadmap. - Similar to Eisenhower’s quote about planning, the act of creating a proposal is more important than the proposal itself. - Self-published books often fail due to a lack of this forcing function, resulting in a lack of direction, deadlines, and constraints. Transcript: Ali Abdaal Is why I think like the proposal was a bit of a scam because the proposal, when I look at, compare the proposal to the final result, there’s like almost nothing in there that’s like the Same. Ryan Holiday But that’s how it is in a business plan. Very few businesses resemble the business plan. But there’s an Eisenhower quote, he says, plans are worthless, but planning is everything. And so I think it’s actually similar there in that if you don’t do a proposal, this is why actually I think most self-published books don’t work. It’s that because there’s no forcing function required to get approval to start, there’s no deadline, there’s no constraints as to how long it can be, what it can look like. You can basically do whatever you want, which you would

Rigidity vs. Flexibility - As Ryan Holiday has gotten older and more successful, the rigidity that served him well early on has given way to flexibility. - There’s a tension between flexibility and complacency/laziness. - Holiday questions his motivation each time he chooses flexibility over rigidity. - Rigidity has to become flexibility, or it sucks the fun out and becomes unsustainable. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Have found as I’ve gotten older and more successful that the rigidity that served me well early on has had to give way into a kind of flexibility. Now there’s always a tension or a concern is that flexibility actually just complacency or laziness. And

Routine vs. Practices - As Ryan Holiday gets older and more successful, the rigidity of routine has given way to the flexibility of practices. - There is always a tension whether flexibility is complacency/laziness. - Rigidity has to become flexibility or it sucks the fun out, isn’t sustainable, and is susceptible to disruption. - He has fewer routines and more consistent practices that he moves around depending on what’s happening. Transcript: Ryan Holiday I have found as I’ve gotten older and more successful that the rigidity that served me well early on has had to give way into a kind of flexibility. Now there’s always a tension or a concern is that flexibility actually just complacency or laziness. And I have to question each time, what is my motivation here? But that rigidity has to become flexibility or one, you suck all the fun out of it. And two, it’s not sustainable over a long period of time. And it’s very susceptible to being disrupted or blown apart by the complexity of life. So I’m less, I have less of a routine, and I have more practices that I try to do consistently. And I move them around, depending on what’s happening. Ali Abdaal What are some of those practices? Ryan Holiday Well, I try to get up early. I try to walk. I try to do some form of hard exercise every day. I try to not eat until, like, I try to have kind of a fasting window. And then I try to do writing before I do other things. So, like, I am flexible on a lot of stuff, but I don’t write at three in the afternoon because that’s not conducive to doing it

Rigidity vs. Flexibility in Routine - As you get older and more successful, the rigidity of routine needs to give way to flexibility. - While rigidity can be helpful early on, it eventually becomes unsustainable and susceptible to life’s disruptions. - This flexibility shouldn’t be confused with complacency or laziness. - It’s crucial to maintain core practices (like writing in the morning) but be adaptable with the timing of other tasks. - Aim for an intuitive feel for your schedule rather than a strict, OCD-like adherence to specific times. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Flexibility or one, you suck all the fun out of it. And two, it’s not sustainable over a long period of time. And it’s very susceptible to being disrupted or blown apart by the complexity of life. So I’m less, I have less of a routine, and I have more practices that I try to do consistently. And I move them around, depending on what’s happening. Ali Abdaal What are some of those practices? Ryan Holiday Well, I try to get up early. I try to walk. I try to do some form of hard exercise every day. I try to not eat until, like, I try to have kind of a fasting window. And then I try to do writing before I do other things. So, like, I am flexible on a lot of stuff, but I don’t write at three in the afternoon because that’s not conducive to doing it well. So just you kind of know what it’s more of an intuition or a gut feel as opposed to when I was younger. It was like it was almost it was almost a form of OCD. Like it has to happen at this time. If it doesn’t happen at this time then there is distress and and that distress you’re almost doing the tasks to avoid the distress which

Kids and Grounding - People worry about kids or marriage tying them down, and they do, objectively. - But they tether you to reality. - They provide a structure that’s not all about you. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Stuff that you center your life around. So like, I think people are concerned that like having kids or getting married, it’ll tie you down. And it does. It objectively does. But it ties you down to reality. Like it tethers you to the earth. There are school starts at a time and it ends at a time. Like there’s nap time. There is eating time. There is activities that happen every week. You know, there’s stuff, right? And so it prevents you from making it all about you. And it forces you to sort of have non-negotiable things. I mean, I guess it doesn’t force you. You could be a bad parent if you want. But if you want your kids

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Parenting, Routine & Rigidity - Having kids forces you to center your life around important things, disrupting old routines and making them less self-centered. - Kids introduce non-negotiable realities like school times, naps, and meals, creating structure and routine. - While routine is good for children, rigidity can be detrimental, and parents need to find a balance between structure and flexibility. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Tasks to avoid the distress which is not a good way to live and how did having kids change your relationship with the work what just blows your whole life up yeah in a good way but it blows Your whole life up i remember this new york times reporter was doing this piece on me right as my son was being born. And she, she asked me like, how do you think, you know, like having kids is going to change your routine? And I said something like, I don’t think it’ll change it at all. And which was of course preposterous and, uh, and, uh, very naive, but, uh, it’s just totally blown it apart, but it gives you important stuff that you center your life around. So like, I think people are concerned that like having kids or getting married, it’ll tie you down. And it does. It objectively does. But it ties you down to reality. Like it tethers you to the earth. There are school starts at a time and it ends at a time. Like there’s nap time. There is eating time. There is activities that happen every week. You know, there’s stuff, right? And so it prevents you from making it all about you. And it forces you to sort of have non-negotiable things. I mean, I guess it doesn’t force you. You could be a bad parent if you want. But if you want your kids to not be a nightmare, you realize like routine is very important, structure is very important. But then also rigidity is, you know,

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Daily Physical Activity - Ryan Holiday tries to do some form of strenuous physical activity every day, such as running, swimming, or biking. - He prioritizes this for the mental and emotional benefits. - Any physical health benefits are considered a bonus. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Profess to have no secrets there either, other than I try to run, swim, or bike every day. I just try to do some hard, strenuous physical activity every day.

Avoid Audience Capture - Monitor trends over longer periods (e.g., several months) to identify resonating topics and avoid overreacting to individual video performance. - Be mindful of audience capture and avoid becoming a caricature of what initially attracted your audience. - Resist the urge to overuse high-performing keywords or topics, as it can lead to inauthentic content and audience fatigue. - Focus on creating content you genuinely enjoy, rather than chasing views with tactics that feel icky. Transcript: Ali Abdaal Sort of video got like a thousand comments compared to 300. That helps me figure out, okay, maybe what, like, I should do more of this and less of that. But I try not to take it too far because, you know, you get the whole audience capture thing where you become a caricature of um of the person that your audience initially initially enjoyed Yeah and i fell i very much fell into this trap during the pandemic actually so um the word productivity in my videos was like really taking off any video with the word productivity or Productive in it i was like immediately like doing super well and so i was thinking well you know this does really well let me just say every productive in everything. My productive day in the life, my productive desk setup, my productive dating habits, my productive sleeping routine and all this kind of stuff. And after a few videos of it, like people in the comments started to be like, okay, this is getting a bit much. And I started feeling icky about the content because I was putting productive in it to try and get the views. Because videos with the word productive in it were getting more views. I don’t know. Whenever I have this sort of weird relationship with numbers versus what’s in my control. Ryan Holiday Well, it’s interesting too, because it’s somewhat in your control as you’re making it. But then once it’s out, it’s done. But that’s when we spend the most time refreshing. You’ve flung it to the public, you’ve put it out, and now you’re like, well, do they like me? Do they like me? Do they like me? How

The Danger of Positive Feedback - Success can be dangerous when it leads to wasted time. - People often lose a day or more basking in positive feedback, refreshing stats, and soaking in the attention. - This is counterproductive, as the energy could be spent creating something new. - The punishment for success is the loss of productivity. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Of the ways I’ve found it to be dangerous is actually when it works. So, I don’t know, an article comes out about you and it’s positive or a video comes out and it’s doing well. Your book is out, whatever, you’re doing the thing. And then you lose, you lose a day or more than a day just kind of basking in it. You’re just like refreshing and watching. So it’s not even like you’re torturing yourself. You feel crappy that nobody likes you. But it’s like your reward for succeeding is a loss in productivity because you’re just soaking in this thing that’s really not in your control that if it had gone the other way, you would Be trying to work your mind around not taking it seriously. Do you know what I mean? You’d be like, that’s not why I made it. What matters is that I like it. What matters is how it does it the long term. You’d be trying to think through logically why you shouldn’t be devastated by this bad news. But then when the positive happens, you don’t do any of that. And you

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Don’t Bask in Success (or Failure) - When something you create does well, it’s easy to lose a day basking in it. - This is unproductive as you waste time and energy on something out of your control. - Similarly, try not to obsess over negative feedback either. - If you’re going to take time off, fully disconnect instead of refreshing social media feeds. Transcript: Ryan Holiday A loss in productivity because you’re just soaking in this thing that’s really not in your control that if it had gone the other way, you would be trying to work your mind around not taking It seriously. Do you know what I mean? You’d be like, that’s not why I made it. What matters is that I like it. What matters is how it does it the long term. You’d be trying to think through logically why you shouldn’t be devastated by this bad news. But then when the positive happens, you don’t do any of that. And you just, you just kind of sit there and soak it in. And really the punishment though, is that you’re not spending your energy where it matters or where it makes the difference, which is like making the next thing or

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Enjoy the Process - Trusting the process allows creators to enjoy the journey. - Making the process enjoyable increases energy and productivity. Transcript: Ali Abdaal I feel like all of this stuff comes back down to the process. And a big part of what we talk about in that book is trying to find a way to make the process enjoyable and energizing. And,

Maintaining Momentum - Focus on the process of creation rather than external validation. - Stay in a rhythm by consistently working on the next project, regardless of the previous one’s success. - This insulates you from the unpredictable nature of audience reactions and market fluctuations. - It’s better to consistently ‘chop wood and carry water’ than to constantly renegotiate your value. Transcript: Ryan Holiday The special comes out and it’s not a huge hit, they’re working on the next special. And you want to be in a rhythm like that because it insulates you from the thing that’s not in your control, which is whether other people say you’re amazing or whether other people say You suck. Ali Abdaal Yeah, I feel like all of this stuff comes back down to the process. And a big part of what we talk about in that book is trying to find a way to make the process enjoyable and energizing. And, yeah, I find that when I have that in the front of my mind when it comes to the videos or even writing the book, you know, like there were periods in the book journey where I sort of forgot To enjoy the process because the seriousness of writing a book was like weighing on me. And then I would read like, I don’t know, one of your, like your newsletter or one of your books or like Drive by Dan Pink. And I’m like, oh, it’s so good. This stuff is so good. And I’d be comparing it to my first draft and be like, why is my writing so shit? And it would take my editor to remind me that, you know, the whole message of the book is find a way to make it enjoyable and energizing. So, you know. Ryan Holiday Well, it’s hard if people say trust the process, right? But it’s hard to trust a process that you have not been through before. And so, once you’ve done it one time, you have a sense of the full scope of the process or what you think is a full scope of the process. Then you do it again and again and again. And you start to go, oh yeah, this is the part where you start to doubt yourself. This is the part where you get excited. But like in Texas, we have this season,

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Raw vs. Polished - Ali Abdaal’s experience as a YouTuber taught him that raw recordings are messy. - Editing transforms raw footage into polished final products; beginners compare their raw footage to polished videos. Transcript: Ali Abdaal Know, I’ve made like 700 plus YouTube videos in my time. And I know that recording it always feels like a total shit show where i’m making so many mistakes and there’s so much like crap in it sure but i’ve done it enough times i know the final product Is going to be good because our editor’s amazing chop out all the crap and we’ll make it look amazing but then when beginner youtubers see the final result and then they see themselves Recording and suddenly they’re spluttering and swearing all the time and yeah you never see that raw uncut version of a first take.

Trusting the Process - It’s difficult to trust a process you haven’t experienced. - Repeatedly going through a process helps you understand its rhythms, enabling you to trust and enjoy it. - Like riding a roller coaster multiple times, familiarity allows you to anticipate challenges and appreciate the experience. - First drafts are often poor, but as you improve, they become less so, leaving less to refine in the editing process. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Because it’s hard to trust a process that you have not been through. Ali Abdaal Yeah, that’s so true. I think, so I realized this very sort of tangibly. So, you know, I’ve made like 700 plus YouTube videos in my time. And I know that recording it always feels like a total shit show where i’m making so many mistakes and there’s so much like crap in it sure but i’ve done it enough times i know the final product Is going to be good because our editor’s amazing chop out all the crap and we’ll make it look amazing but then when beginner youtubers see the final result and then they see themselves Recording and suddenly they’re spluttering and swearing all the time and yeah you never see that raw uncut version of a first take. You only see the final product. And so now that I’ve been through the process once with the book, knowing how crap the first draft was, and then seeing the magic of editing over several months to trim it down and make It good. I’m like, oh, okay. I don’t mind so much about having a crappy first draft now. Ryan Holiday Well, yeah, you have your crappy first draft. I actually have a shirt. There’s a Heming quote. And he says, I have a print of it in my office. I have a shirt too. But he says, you know, the first draft of everything is shit. And the conceit is that it’s sort of showing how even that sentence probably didn’t write it perfectly the first time. But the idea is that every first draft sucks and you want to get comfortable with that. You have to get comfortable with the messiness of the process. But weirdly, as you get better, I do think your first drafts get less shitty or less wasteful, right? So like you with

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Concrete vs. Abstract - Productivity advice often focuses on concrete tools, not deeper questions. - Metaphysical questions about purpose are less digestible than concrete tool recommendations. Transcript: Ryan Holiday I don’t even know if it’s candy. It’s just it’s it’s concrete. Right. So you can go, here’s this sort of ephemeral, you know, metaphysical question about why you’re doing it, what success is, you know, why does it matter? You’re asking these big picture questions. And by the time you get to the end of it, there actually isn’t an answer because it’s about the question. And that’s a lot less clear than these

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Magic Analogy - Ali Abdaal uses a magic analogy: amateurs perform many tricks for one audience, professionals perform a few tricks for many audiences. - Mastery comes from repetition and refinement, not variety. Transcript: Ali Abdaal So back in the day, I used to be a close-up magician. And I would perform at like balls and parties at university and stuff. And there was a phrase that was often, you know, in the world of magic, the amateur magician is the person who performs 100 tricks to, you know, the amateur magician is the person who performs 100 tricks to the same audience. Whereas the professional magician is the one who performs the same tricks to 100 different audiences. Yes. Or worse to that effect. And in the world of magic as well, there was this constant thing, constant like battle between, you know, on the forums, there are the professionals who are actually doing the thing. And then there are all the amateurs being like, what are the best tricks? And the professionals are like, it doesn’t matter. Just pick three to six of them and just do them at nauseam and you will guaranteed be a professional magician. And the amateurs are like, oh, but like, I’ve got a thousand dollars. I want to spend it on like this trick versus that trick versus that trick. It doesn’t matter. Just pick a few and just stick with them and do them repeatedly over a long enough time. And that is how you get good at the thing. But

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Focus on One System - Pick a system and stick with it, even if there might be slightly better options. - Avoid constantly switching between systems, as it’s inefficient. - It’s better to master one system than to dabble in many. - Focus on consistent execution rather than chasing the “perfect” tool. Transcript: Ryan Holiday So am I going to uproot the thing that I’m comfortable with, that works for me, that my old stuff is in for something that’s 9% better? Like if I’m, if I want a 9% productivity increase, that’s pretty easy to find. You know what I mean? As opposed to relearning how I do everything. Yeah. Ali Abdaal So back in the day, I used to be a close-up magician. And I would perform at like balls and parties at university and stuff. And there was a phrase that was often, you know, in the world of magic, the amateur magician is the person who performs 100 tricks to, you know, the amateur magician is the person who performs 100 tricks to the same audience. Whereas the professional magician is the one who performs the same tricks to 100 different audiences. Yes. Or worse to that effect. And in the world of magic as well, there was this constant thing, constant like battle between, you know, on the forums, there are the professionals who are actually doing the thing. And then there are all the amateurs being like, what are the best tricks? And the professionals are like, it doesn’t matter. Just pick three to six of them and just do them at nauseam and you will guaranteed be a professional magician. And the amateurs are like, oh, but like, I’ve got a thousand dollars. I want to spend it on like this trick versus that trick versus that trick. It doesn’t matter. Just pick a few and just stick with them and do them repeatedly over a long enough time. And that is how you get good at the thing. But that’s a lot less sexy sounding advice than this one trick will change your life. Yeah. Ryan Holiday Like I’ve been to conferences that have changed my life, but I’m always interested when I notice people are going to lots of them. Like the chances that every

The $85,000 Mastermind - Some friends attended an $85,000 week-long mastermind retreat. - After day one, they realized what they needed to do and wanted to leave to start working. - However, they felt obligated to stay due to the high cost, even though the remaining days offered little additional value. - They knew they should focus on executing the one key takeaway, but felt compelled to endure the rest of the retreat. - The anecdote suggests sometimes the most valuable insights come early, and further information can be redundant or even distracting. Transcript: Ali Abdaal Got some friends who attended like a sort of $85,000 mastermind week-long retreat type thing. And after day one, they were like, damn, we know what we have to do. We kind of want to leave and just do it. But like, we’ve paid $85,000. So we’ve got to kind of stay for the next five days, knowing full well that like, all of this is going straight over their head, because they just know what they got the one thing. And they just

Energizing Productivity - Productivity doesn’t have to always feel good, but it is more energizing when it does. - Finding ways to make tasks enjoyable leads to more energy and productivity. Transcript: Ali Abdaal My thesis in the book is that it doesn’t have to feel good, but it is generally more energizing when it does. Generally, like positive emotions feel energy, feel creativity, feel like really stressed, all that fun stuff. The question that led to the book in the first place was, you know, when I was trying to juggle working full time as a doctor and also building the YouTube channel and the business on the Side, it just felt like a huge amount of grind in the day job and then a huge amount of grind afterwards to do the videos. And it seemed like, you know, everyone talks about how, you know, journey before destination. And I realized that I wasn’t enjoying my day to day because of this sort of grind approach. And so I tried to find any tweak that I could to make it feel just a little bit better. And that’s not to say that it was fun all the time or that it objectively felt good all the time. But I found a series of strategies that meant that almost anything I could make feel even just a bit better. And if it felt a bit better, it generated more energy. And it meant I had more energy at the end of the day to give to my other hobbies and friends and family and stuff. And

Play, Power, and People - Ali Abdaal and Ryan Holiday discuss how to find more enjoyment in work. - They highlight how it doesn’t always have to feel good, but it is generally more energizing when it does. - Ryan explains how he increased enjoyment in writing his book by lowering the stakes and approaching the task with a sense of play. - This mindset shift is crucial because by reducing the pressure, one can actually perform better and maintain energy for other aspects of life. Transcript: Ali Abdaal Know, when it comes to writing, for example, there are some basic things that I found was, you know, the first chapter in the book is about play, and about trying to approach things in The spirit of play. Now, play, you know, a lot of people have talked about how comes about as a result of, often a result of the stakes being lower. So like, Roger Federer probably isn’t feeling play when he’s in the Wimbledon final, because the stakes are too high. And I found that, for example, with writing the book when i when i was thinking about the stakes being high like this is my first book and it’s traditionally published and it’s a big deal That would suck the joy out of it yeah whereas when i tried to lower the stakes to be like that’s okay i’m just writing because i enjoy it and the goal is for me to write a book i’m proud of suddenly It became more enjoyable so it’s the same thing but like just a different framing that makes it feel the problem is you’re not in the wimbledon finals but you’re fooling yourself into Ryan Holiday Thinking you are that’s where ego comes in and uh anxiety comes in you’re just you’re just like you’re making it much more than it is yeah uh and then you’re actually ironically making Ali Abdaal Yourself worse at it yes exactly you know the other big one is um you know the idea

Have To vs. Get To - Ali Abdaal shares a story about reframing his mindset during a long medical shift. - After a 13-hour shift, he was asked to insert an IV, which felt like an added burden. - Overhearing a patient praise a doctor’s kindness, he remembered Seth Godin’s advice to reframe ‘have to’ into ‘get to’. - This mindset shift, from obligation to opportunity, brought him a sense of relief. - He realized he gets to help people, improving their experience and well-being. Transcript: Ali Abdaal Really found this a lot when I was working in medicine where, you know, there was one day where I’d finished the end of like a 13 hour shift and I was just about to go home to be like, yes, I’m Going to go home. And then the nurse was like, hey, Ali, can you put an IV, a cannula in this lady in bay number four or whatever it was? I was like, oh, shit, like this is going to be another half an hour job. It’s like the nurses tried and she couldn’t do it. And so this is going to be really hard. I was just about to go home with 13 freaking hours. I haven’t eaten. And then I overheard that some other patient talking about like, oh, it’s so nice being in hospital. The doctor’s been so nice to me and things. I kind of realized that I’d been falling into that trap of thinking I have to do this thing. And I think Seth Godin has a blog post about this that I remembered at the time, which was, you can just reframe that to I get to do the thing. So I was like, huh, I get to do this kind of, I get to make this person’s morning sickness better so that, you know, her baby’s better and that she’s better. Because I was working on OBGYN. And it was just like this huge wave of relief that came over me purely as a result of a simple mindset shift of like have to becomes get to. Ryan Holiday Well, also, I think one of the things I add to that is, is like important things are hard, right? And so, uh, if you are good at something, if you have some sort of calling, um, you’re supposed like, like, I, I feel like each of us has kind of a unique potential or, as get sort of certain Opportunities

Self-Awareness and Motivation - Ryan Holiday emphasizes the importance of self-awareness. - He questions his motivations to determine if actions align with his higher self or are driven by avoidance. Transcript: Ali Abdaal Was kind of thinking in my mind, like, why does it matter? Like, why does it matter to you if you’re being lazy or complacent? You know, you’ve written like a book a year for the last like 10 years or something like that. Ryan Holiday Well i think like you have i i would argue that we sort of have a higher self and a lower self right and you know the lower self says just like eat whatever you want uh work only when you want Um i don’t know say whatever you want don’t think about consequence. Like there’s this, the sort of immediate gratification, sort of short-term impulses that we all have, right? That if indulged repeatedly, tend to get us in a place that we actually don’t want to be, right? The person, they don’t have any friends because they say mean things, right? They feel gross. They look gross. They’re not in good health because they don’t take good care of themselves. You know, they look back and they go, oh, I wish, you

Secret to Long Relationships - The secret to a lasting relationship is to not break up. - Committing to one person and sticking with them through life’s ups and downs is crucial. - The ease of breaking up and finding someone new in the modern dating world makes it harder to embrace the necessary sacrifices and struggles of a long-term relationship. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Lasting that long is. And I usually say that the secret is to not break up. That’s the secret. That’s the number one secret is to just not break up. Because I’m joking, but I’m also not joking, right? Like, I think just as a productivity system or a business or a lifestyle, It’s about picking a thing and then sticking with that thing, right? Through the ups and downs of what life inevitably brings you. And I find, you know, obviously we got together before online dating was really even a thing, but then dating apps. And like, I noticed that a lot of my friends struggle because it’s easy to break up and it’s easy to find another person. Do you know what I mean? Like essentially an unlimited amount of other fish in the sea exist. And if you conceive of that, it makes it very hard to do what a relationship requires you know what i mean which is sacrifice which is struggle which is

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Honest Self-Assessment - Reflect on your motivations for taking breaks or avoiding tasks. - Distinguish between genuine self-care and avoidance due to difficulty or intimidation. - True rest is valuable, but avoiding challenges hinders growth. - Acknowledge that difficulty is often inherent in worthwhile pursuits. - The value of an activity is often tied to its difficulty. Transcript: Ryan Holiday The other thing is, uh, gonna take more out of me and I’m scared or intimidated by that. So it’s not like I feel like, oh, I have to write these certain number of books. So then I’ll be remembered forever. It’s just, so I just took today off. But what did I get at? Like, for what reason? Do you know what I mean? Like, so I watched TV all day. I sat around all day. If I decided not to work because I’m going to hang out with my family or I’m’m gonna take a long walk on the beach i’m gonna read or i’m gonna take care of myself that’s perfectly fine that’s A part of a great life sure um doing it because i want to watch tv yeah that doesn’t i don’t think that gets you where you want to go some people might argue that watching tv is self-care. Ali Abdaal And so it’s like, oh, I didn’t work today because I felt, I don’t know, stressed or burned out and I needed to watch TV. Ryan Holiday No, I think if you’re doing that, because if that’s actually what it is, more power to you. But is is that it or are you lying to yourself? Ali Abdaal So for you, when it comes to like writing more books. Ryan Holiday I’ll put it this way. Recovery is important, right? Like if you work out, recovery is important. You have to have a certain number of days where you recover. You let the body rest and recuperate. Yeah. Is that what you’re doing or are you just not doing it because it’s hard to do? It’s always hard to do, right? So,

Honest Self-Assessment for Productivity - Be honest with yourself about why you’re not working on something. - Taking breaks for family, walks, or self-care is valid. - But, don’t confuse procrastination or fear of difficulty with genuine self-care. - Are you avoiding work due to real exhaustion or using it as a pretext? Transcript: Ryan Holiday You know what I mean? Like, so I watched TV all day. I sat around all day. If I decided not to work because I’m going to hang out with my family or I’m’m gonna take a long walk on the beach i’m gonna read or i’m gonna take care of myself that’s perfectly fine that’s A part of a great life sure um doing it because i want to watch tv yeah that doesn’t i don’t think that gets you where you want to go some people might argue that watching tv is self-care. Ali Abdaal And so it’s like, oh, I didn’t work today because I felt, I don’t know, stressed or burned out and I needed to watch TV. Ryan Holiday No, I think if you’re doing that, because if that’s actually what it is, more power to you. But is is that it or are you lying to yourself? Ali Abdaal So for you, when it comes to like writing more books. Ryan Holiday I’ll put it this way. Recovery is important, right? Like if you work out, recovery is important. You have to have a certain number of days where you recover. You let the body rest and recuperate. Yeah. Is that what you’re doing or are you just not doing it because it’s hard to do? It’s always hard to do, right? So, and the whole point is that it’s hard to do. If it was easy to do, there wouldn’t be any benefits to it, right? So, you know, are you stopping because you’re sensitive to an injury or are you stopping because pretending that you’re being sensitive to an injury is an excuse to stop? Ali Abdaal This

Shame vs. Good - Musonius Rufus said, “When you do something shameful for pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures.” - Conversely, when you do something hard for good, the effort passes quickly, but the good endures. - This applies to physical challenges, big projects, and sacrifices for others. - You quickly forget the effort and remember the positive impact or the elevated state you reached. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Yeah, one of the Stoics, his name was Mussonis Rufus. He says, when you do something shameful for pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures. And then he says, but when you do something hard for good, the effort passes quickly, but the good endures. Oh, nice. And I think you find whether it’s pushing yourself physically, like exercise, that’s throwing yourself into a big project, you know, whether it’s sacrificing for someone or something, You know, you quickly forget all that it took out of you and all that went into it. And you think about the impact that you had, or you just think about the plane

Selfishness Masked as Selflessness - Working hard and sacrificing for family, while seemingly selfless, can be a disguised form of selfishness. - People often justify long hours and dedication to their careers by claiming it’s “for the family.” - However, children rarely prioritize material possessions; they value time spent together. - This justification becomes a tragic irony when “doing it all for them” leads to absence and disconnect. Transcript: Ryan Holiday It’s very insidious because you say I’m doing it all for them. And so you are doing something very selfish, but you are cloaking it in selflessness. Like, that’s why I’m getting on this airplane. That’s why I’m staying this late at the office. That’s why I’m, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. But if you asked your kids, you know, what do they want? Like more money would be nowhere in that list, right? Or if, if it, if it was on the list, it would be such a preposterously and refreshingly childlike understanding of money, you know, that it would, I think it would humble you. So you’re, you’re saying you’re doing it for them, but you’re not, you’re doing it for you. You’re doing it for you. Um, and the tragedy of, of, and the irony of I’m doing it, I’m doing all this for the people I never see is a very sad, fucked up place that a lot of sort of high-powered,

Re-Parenting Yourself - Having children can offer an opportunity for self-healing and personal growth. - By understanding your child’s experiences, you may recognize unmet needs from your own childhood. - Addressing these needs in your child can also be a form of addressing them in yourself. Transcript: Ryan Holiday I can also empathize, connect with an earlier version of myself that needed those things too. And that by giving that thing to someone else, you’re also partly healing yourself. Ali Abdaal That’s great stuff. You’re in pretty good shape. What are some of the secrets to staying in good shape as you’ve been a parent? Ryan Holiday I profess to have no secrets there

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Measure of Success - Many high-achieving people justify their busy schedules by claiming it’s for their family, when it’s actually for their own ambition. - True success is not about inheritance but whether your kids want to be around you in adulthood. - This requires actively investing time now, because this kind of relationship can’t be cultivated later in life. - One female writer’s ideal was to be an ‘art monster’ - consumed by her work and family but nothing else. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Heard something great when someone said, like, success is your kids wanting to be with you when you’re an adult. And so, like, how will you measure your life at the end, right? It won’t be, like, the size of the inheritance that you leave them. It will be, you know, are you still in each other’s lives now? So how do you invest in, that’s not something you can do later. You know what I mean? So you have to make those decisions now. And they’re costly and uncertain. And the worst part is you don’t even know how much it’s costing. I mean, this is obviously much scarier and sort of systemically imposed on women, right? So like you’re going to take three years out of your, you know, cumulatively three years out of your working life in your 20s and 30s, which has this enormous cumulative compounding Effect on the trajectory that you’re going to end up on, you know, that’s a very scary thing. And it’s unfair in a lot of ways. But at the end of your life, you know, it’s probably going to be something you’re glad that you did. And so I think a lot of men just sort of unthinkingly don’t do it at all. But I’ve tried to sort of go, yeah, what is it that you want to do and who do you want to be? There’s this great term, an art monster. I forget this female writer, she was saying like, my dream was to be an art monster.

Daily Dad’s Impact - Ryan Holiday explains writing Daily Dad improved his parenting. - Intentional writing and publishing about parenting made him a better parent. Transcript: Ali Abdaal Did you decide to, you know, go into the dad stuff rather than stay in your lane as the stoic guy? Ryan Holiday I don’t know if I really decided it. I mean, so writing The Daily Dad, I mean, the reason I decided to do The Daily Dad was that writing The Daily Stoic made me better as a person. You can’t every single day sit down and try to take insights from the wisest people who ever lived and distill them down into a couple hundred words over and over and over again and not Emerge somewhat bonded to those ideas. It gets in your bloodstream, right? That’s what stoicism is. What Mark Stoicism is doing in his meditations was writing down things. A lot of it comes from other stoic texts. He’s just writing it down, rephrasing it, and writing it down, and writing it down, and rephrasing it, and looking at it this way. He’s having this philosophical discussion with himself. And that’s how Mark’s realist becomes Mark’s realist. So the process of writing the Daily Stoic book and then writing the Daily Stoic every day now for seven years, it’s almost a million words that I published for free to, you know, I think We’ve done 3,000 daily stoking emails. That’s like seven or eight books worth of content. I have benefited from that. Like it’s built a business around it. But like if I had made precisely zero dollars, that would have been the bargain of a lifetime, right? Like I’ve gotten so much better from having done that. And so I just decided that I would do the same thing about parenting. And if it helps other people, great. If it sells books, great. But the process of having to intentionally sit down and think about and then write about and then publish, you know, how I want to think about these things has made me better. Hmm. And

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Absorbing Information Gradually - To truly absorb a philosophy or new way of thinking, avoid reading 300 pages in a month and expecting transformation. - Instead, adopt a “page-a-day” approach, revisiting the material consistently over an extended period (a year, two, or three). - This method, employed in Daily Stoic and Daily Dad, allows for deeper integration of the concepts. - Ryan Holiday found that revisiting material, like when writing for Daily Dad, yielded more value than the initial read-through. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Read it over like six months, like a couple pages a day. I just read this great book by this parenting expert named Dr. Becky Kennedy. And so I read it. But then because I’m going to write about it for Daily Dad, I went through it page by page after and took out all the stuff that I liked. And it was the second part was where I got stuff out of it, not the reading at once from cover to cover. And so there’s something about the page a day format that’s worked in Daily Stoic and Daily Dad. Like if you’re trying to absorb a philosophy or a new way of thinking or transform yourself from here to there. It’s not 300 pages that you read from October 1st to November 17th. That takes

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Parenting Advice: Focus on Repair - Don’t strive for perfect parenting. - Instead, focus on being good at repairing relationships with your children. - Reconnect after conflicts, fix things when they go wrong, and be skilled at mending the relationship. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Try to be a perfect parent. Try to be a parent who’s really good at repair, like at fixing it when you mess up, fixing it when things didn’t go the way that you wanted them to go, you know, reconnecting when, you know, There is conflict or when people go in separate directions, but repair. So I would say those are sort of the perennial ones that I struggle with and I’m thinking about. That’s really cool. Yeah.

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Learning Through Teaching - Teaching helps solidify one’s own understanding of a topic. - By articulating, explaining, and distilling information for others, the teacher reinforces their own learning. - This creates a feedback loop where both the teacher and the student benefit from the learning process. - This approach is contrasted with egotistical teaching, where the teacher assumes they know everything and simply impart knowledge. - Instead, framing teaching as a shared journey of learning and discovery can be more beneficial. Transcript: Ali Abdaal Otherwise. Ryan Holiday Yeah, yeah. Seneca says we learn as we teach. And so if you as a person who writes self-help books or makes YouTube videos or has pockets or whatever, if you’re thinking I’m really smart and I am telling you everything that I know, Not only is that egotistical, but it actually continues to inflate and puff up the ego. Right. But if instead you see it as like, I am trying to figure things out and I am explaining what I am learning as I am learning it. Yeah. You are learning it and other people are learning it. And you’re creating this feedback loop in which you’re both learning at the same time. And by having to articulate it and explain it and distill it, you are understanding it better than if you were just learning it for yourself. Yeah. Ali Abdaal Yeah. There’s a book I’m reading at the moment called uh notes from a fellow traveler by derren brown he’s a magician yeah yeah he’s really into stoicism oh he’s he is his book happy is very good Basically all about stoicism um but i really like the title of that book notes from a fellow traveler he’s sort of a book written for other magicians um but that framing like a fellow traveler I really like that because he’s not trying

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Benefits of Daily Exercise - Practice having a practice: Doing a hard activity daily, even when it’s not fun, builds the habit of doing what you say you’ll do. - Facilitate flow state: Exercise provides a screen-free, single-focus headspace ideal for achieving flow. - Bonus health benefit: Any physical health improvements are a bonus on top of the mental benefits. Transcript: Ryan Holiday You are literally practicing having a practice. Like every day I go for a run. The default is that I do the thing. And every time I do the thing, I am building the muscle of doing the thing and being the kind of person that does what I say I’m going to do. Like, it’s not fun to do it. It can hurt to do it. But I get up off the couch and I do the thing that I say I’m going to do. Is that it’s usually getting the mind moving in some way. And so, you know, there’s no screens, there’s no multitasking. You’re just in that headspace. So, like, I have the flow state every day from the physical activity and the days when i don’t have it nothing else is as works as well do you do any weight training yeah i try to lift weights Like i don’t know a couple times a week i feel like i’ve seen some b-roll of you in like the backyard yeah like kettlebells or i have like a squat rack i do some stuff. In the pandemic, I got more into it than I do now. The important thing for me is I run, swim, or bike. Like I do some form of cardio exercise for a

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Comparing Yourself To Others Is Madness - Comparing yourself to others without knowing their full story is pointless. - You don’t know when they started, where they’re going, or what their goals are. - Focus on your own race and definition of success. - It’s easy to get caught up in comparisons, but it’s essential to remember everyone’s journey is different. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Than you. They could be doing steroids. You know, like the idea that you’re comparing yourself to this person when you don’t know when they started and you don’t know where they’re finished, finishing is madness. Right. And life is like that. Like we’re all running our own races and you’ve got to have a sense of the race that you are running and what victory or success in that race is to you. So I think that’s like the number one life lesson and something I remember learning and run around this track in college. And I would sometimes catch myself picking up my pace to keep up with someone else.

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Jealousy Is A Two-Way Street - Ryan Holiday shares an observation about jealousy and the surreal experience of realizing it can be a two-way street. - He noticed that people he perceived as having it all, sometimes envied aspects of his life. - This reminded him to appreciate what he has, especially the opportunity to write books, which billionaires seem to crave. Transcript: Ryan Holiday I’ve had this surreal sort of experience pertaining to that, where you meet people and you think they have it all. And then, you know, you’re jealous of them. And then it turns out they’re jealous of you, right? Like you, you, jealousy almost always takes for granted what you have because it’s, you know, eyeing what someone else has. And there’s usually an ignorance of would you actually, what is it actually like to be that other person? And yeah, I found it’s funny. You meet these billionaires or whatever, and what do they actually want to do? They want to write books. They have all the money in the world, and what are they trying to spend the money on? They’re trying to spend it on having the thing that I get to do. And so I try to remind myself of that and count myself as lucky to get to do this. Ali Abdaal Do you feel that sense of comparison or do you slash, did you ever feel that sense of comparison when it comes to, uh, bestseller lists and book sales numbers and James Clear has got this Many five-star reviews on Amazon and I’ve only got this many, you know, that whole shebang. Ryan Holiday Well, why it’s important to understand what race you’re running right so um i remember i was at a conference in canada i don’t remember i was at some conference and james who was uh then

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Ryan Holiday on James Clear’s Success - Ryan Holiday recounts advising James Clear, who was skeptical about traditional publishing. - Years later, Clear’s Atomic Habits outsold all of Holiday’s books combined. - Holiday chose not to feel jealous, acknowledging Clear’s talent and the book’s quality. - Realizing that their successes didn’t detract from his own, Holiday focused on his unique writing niche and how it differs from Clear’s. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Canada i don’t remember i was at some conference and james who was uh then he had this popular newsletter and i sort of vaguely knew his work we talked a couple. I was doing a panel or a session on publishing and he came and he asked for a bunch of advice, but he was just generally, if I remember correctly, quite skeptical about why anyone would Traditionally publish or publish a book at all. He’s like, why would I do this? I have this huge email newsletter. Why wouldn’t I just write stuff on the internet? And I thought, I said, look, people have read books for thousands of years. It’s a, it’s a medium that has a certain cultural significance and books are actually a great way to deliver ideas. Right. But there, I was a person who published, you know, a few successful books at that point. And I’m sort of like condescendingly telling this internet writer, publishing should, you know, be something that he considers. And then a couple of years later, he puts out a book and that one book has sold more than all of my books combined and then some. So, you know, the one reaction to that would just be jealousy, scorn, sentence, like you could, you could, that could make you feel shitty. And I think there are times in my life when maybe that would have made me feel shitty. But first off, I like James. Second, I think he’s a great writer. And I think Atomic Habits is actually a very good book. And third, I don’t know how many I’m counting now, but whatever. There is no universe in which that book selling more or less copies affects my life in any negative or positive way. Right? Like, so that book could sell a hundred million copies. They’re not, it’s not coming out of my pocket.

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Choosing Your Path - Ryan Holiday highlights the importance of choosing one’s creative path. - He acknowledges different paths have different outcomes, and accepting this is key. Transcript: Ali Abdaal You ever meet writers who you feel have uh sort of this unhealthy relationship with comparison like or most of the people you hang out with fairly enlightened no no i mean definitely Ryan Holiday There’s people that are you know sort of driven by how much they sell or how much money they make or whatever but again if that’s why you got into books, you fucked up. You know what I mean? Like if you got into writing books for money and fame and power, you’re an idiot. Like there’s, that’s not even, that’s like, that’s probably the worst of all the different genres of entertainment or show business. Yeah. You pick the worst one. Like for that, if that’s what you’re optimizing for, you pick the worst one.

The Obstacle is the Way - Slow Success - Ryan Holiday’s book, ‘The Obstacle is the Way,’ about ancient philosophy, faced an uphill battle from the start. - It took two years to write and sold only three to four thousand copies in its first week in May 2014. - It didn’t make the New York Times bestseller list, likely only making the extended list, and even missed the Wall Street Journal hardcover business list due to a categorization error by the publisher. - Despite this initial slow start, the book eventually became a success, proving that success is often a marathon, not a sprint, and requires continuous effort. Transcript: Ryan Holiday If not delusional. And so it takes a lot of work to break through. You know, the obstacle is away when it came out. First off, I said to myself, I’m writing a book about ancient philosophy. Most people are not interested in ancient philosophy. Yeah. So it’s already an uphill battle. And then I said to myself, I read a lot. How many books do I read the week they come out? Or the month they come out? Or the year they come out? And I read way more than most people. How many books have I pre-ordered ever in my life? Maybe one or two. So the idea that this thing is going to come out of the gates as a hit is stupid. It’s going to take a long time. So first off, you try to make something that doesn’t need doesn’t have an expiration date on it that’s number one number two seeing it as a marathon and not a sprint it’s really really Important so the obstacles away came out in may of 2014 i’d started writing it in 2012 so it took two years, came out. It sold three, 4,000 copies its first week. It got skunked on the New York Times bestseller list. It probably sold enough to hit what was then the extended list. There was 20 spots on the advice how to then, and it didn’t. And certainly sold enough to hit the wall street journal hardcover business list and uh someone at my

New Audiences - Creators should remember most people encounter their content for the first time. - Repeating core messages is necessary for reaching a wider audience. Transcript: Ali Abdaal We have a Telegram group for our podcast and we said we were going to interview you and we had loads of people asking loads of questions. There’s one comment from one guy that I felt a bit salty about. He was like, Ryan Holiday says the same stuff on every podcast he’s interviewed on. And I was like, hmm, because I also I say the same stuff every podcast I’m interviewed on. And it’s like, it’s kind of like a thing you have to do. And like, I found that it was it was less uncommon than you and more like, I started thinking, fuck, you know, I’ve made the same video so many times. I’ve been talking about productivity for like six plus years now. I’ve basically been saying the same stuff. But each month we get like 100,000 new subscribers. It’s clearly new to someone. Ryan Holiday Yeah, there’s some main character energy in people who don’t realize that most people are consuming this thing for the first time and hearing about this person for the first time. So, you know, as a creator, there’s a little bit of narcissism in that you go, like, everyone’s following everything that I do. And in fact, not only does most people not know that you exist, even the people that know you exist and are fans, you’re like 500th on their list of priorities. Like I think about my favorite bands, my favorite authors, like how closely am I following their life? Like not at all. I’m the main character energy in my own life. So realizing that like that

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Freshness in Repetition - Ryan Holiday explains how he keeps his writing fresh despite revisiting similar themes. - He uses the Greek idea that “we don’t step in the same river twice” because both the river and we change. - Applying this to his daily email, he finds that even using the same quotes feels new because his approach, the audience, and the world are different. - This ensures the content remains fresh and relevant. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Because one of the ideas from the greeks is this idea that we don’t step in the same river twice because the river changes and you change. And so, I mean, I’ve been doing the Daily Stoking email every day for seven years and I’ve probably used some of the same quotes hundreds of times at this point, but it feels new to me every Time I do it because what I’m trying to say or the way into the idea is different. And I know the audience is different and I know what’s happening in the world is different. So it keeps, it certainly

Evolving Productivity - Productivity changes based on your life stage and circumstances, like being in medical school versus not or having one employee versus ten. - Applying productivity principles in different contexts gives you a broader understanding and experience. - Even when discussing similar productivity concepts, your perspective evolves and deepens with more experience. Transcript: Ryan Holiday But, but also, you know, productivity to you when you were in medical school is different than what productivity is to you now as you are not in medicine. It’s different to you when you had one employee, it’s different to you when you had 10, you know, what you’re going through and where you’re applying it is fundamentally different. So even if you’re talking about the same ideas, you have a larger sense of it. You have a larger set of experiences to draw from. And so even if it is the same, it’s better and different because it’s based on more. Nice. Why do you think people are so interested in passive income? Ali Abdaal Oh, I’m really interested in passive income does it exist i i think it does um so there’s this the this whole dream i i’m not sure if if tim ferris used the phrase in for our work week or if It was a thing afterwards but i remember reading that book when i was like 17 and just about to work yeah and just like just about to apply to medical school and my mind just absolutely blew Wide open at the thought that i could be making money while i slept and just that thing of like you know was always always in the back of my mind and

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Passive Income Desire - The pursuit of passive income is driven by a desire for freedom and independence. - People admire those actively engaged in their pursuits, not passive earners. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Do you think people are so interested in passive income? Ali Abdaal Oh, I’m really interested in passive income does it exist i i think it does um so there’s this the this whole dream i i’m not sure if if tim ferris used the phrase in for our work week or if It was a thing afterwards but i remember reading that book when i was like 17 and just about to work yeah and just like just about to apply to medical school and my mind just absolutely blew Wide open at the thought that i could be making money while i slept and just that thing of like you know was always always in the back of my mind and now we know it’s another one of those things That anytime we make a video on youtube uh with the with the phrase passive income in it we know it’s going to do well because people love the idea of doing a thing and then it making money Without needing your additional input. I think kind of like books. Books are a source of passive income. Yeah, well, intellectual property. Exactly, yeah. You wrote The Obstacle is the Way 10 years ago. And it’s now been making you passive income ever since. I’ve certainly found in our business, the stuff that I get so much satisfaction out of seeing like a stripe notification that someone bought a course i filmed three years ago and i’ve Made 149 dollars from it and way less satisfaction making way more money on a sponsored video because there’s something about it being an asset that is spinning off i guess free money That is like really nice. And also, I guess it really appeals to other people. Ryan Holiday Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I was talking to an internet marketer person that I knew and, you know, like, let’s say he was saying like the email subject line, like follow a strategy to make $1,000 a month or to make Thousands of dollars a month would actually perform worse than say like this strategy helps me make $1,444 per month. Like the spec, he was saying like the specificity of it, even if it was total nonsense, resonated, resonated with people more. Um, and I always wondered what, there’s something naive is not the wrong, right word. Maybe unsophisticated is a nicer way to say it, about the idea that if you just do all this stuff, at some point you won’t have to do anything. Do you know what I mean? Because that’s not really how life works in my experience. Ali Abdaal Yeah. No, it’s not really how life works. Ryan Holiday Nor is it how you would actually, nor is it how the life works for most of the people that you admire do you know what i mean yeah like people who do stuff that you’re like that’s cool i want To be like that are not people who own a series of vending machines that passively make money while they sleep do you you know what I mean? They’re people who are actively engaged in

The Mono Anecdote - Someone advised Ryan Holiday to drop out of college, and Ryan worried about what would happen if it didn’t work out. - The advisor shared an anecdote about getting mono in college and needing a year to recover. - He then pointed out that no one ever asks about that gap year later in life. - The point was that even if the risk doesn’t work out, Ryan could return to college and it wouldn’t matter long-term. - It’s a rounding error in the grand scheme of life. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Yeah, I remember when I was thinking of dropping out, I was talking to this person and he was telling me I should do it. And I go, you know, what happens if it doesn’t work out? You know, and he was like, when I was in college, he’s like, I got mono or something. He got something and he spent a year recovering. And he’s like, do you know how many times this has come up in my life that it took me five years to graduate from college? Zero times. Nobody knows. Nobody even does the math. You started college at this date. You got your first, like, nobody knows. It just, it, as more time goes by, it just all gone. Like, you spent your time in college. Now you’re not in college. No one’s like, oh, but what about that year between your sophomore and your junior year what was that about it never comes up and his point was like if i take this risk and it doesn’t work Out i just go back and it takes you four years to graduate five years whatever it’s it’s a it’s a rounding error in the big scheme of things there’s a good i think it’s the thing that jeff Ali Abdaal Bezos says um which is like you know he’s talking

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Demystifying Success - Even challenging goals can seem attainable if you surround yourself with examples of people achieving them. - Seeing others succeed ‘demystifies’ the process and helps you realize it’s possible. - This applies to careers, like becoming a doctor, writer, entrepreneur, or even developing productive habits. - The more information you consume about the process of success, the less daunting it feels. Transcript: Ryan Holiday To become that thing. And the reality is it’s not. People do it every fucking day. And it’s not to say it’s easy, but it is possible. It’s very possible. And if you steep yourself in how possible it is and surround yourself, not physically, but intellectually with people who have done it, you figure out how it can be done. And we talk a lot these days about like nepo babies and nepotism. I think so much of that is if your mom was a famous actress, sure, that gives you advantages and introductions and you’re in this sort of milieu that’s beneficial but also that doesn’t Seem impossible or impractical because your mom is doing it she’s not that great do you know what i mean she’s like you know you’re just like people do this it is a job you see how it works It’s deconstructed and demystified for you in a way that allows you to go, to give yourself that self-assignment. Like, I could do that. Ali Abdaal Yeah, it was the same for me with the medicine stuff. Like, I didn’t have any official advantage getting into med school. But both my parents are doctors. All of my friends’ parents are doctors. Basically, everyone I knew growing up was a doctor. And so, like, it doesn’t seem that hard people become doctors people become doctors and then you know it was only when i started applying to med school and stuff where some people oh my Oh my god you’re applying to med wow that’s so hard is it like everyone i know is a doctor like it’s not that big a deal um i think it’s that same concept applied to anything.

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Three Steps to Productivity - Define your goals clearly. Don’t just aim for vague productivity; understand what you’re working towards. - Translate your goals into weekly actions. If you want to write a book, decide how many words or hours you’ll dedicate each week. - Schedule these actions in your calendar. Treat these appointments seriously to build consistency and follow-through. Transcript: Ali Abdaal Things. Number one is actually just figure out or at least make a rough first draft of where do you actually want to go? Like, sure, you can be more productive by cranking out more words per day or whatever, but like, if you’re not trying to be a writer. Ryan Holiday Don’t have a vague sense of what productivity is not a goal. Exactly. Yes. Ali Abdaal Productivity is like a sort of an effectiveness measurement on route to a particular goal. And if you don’t have that goal, then optimizing for productivity is completely pointless. Yeah. So I think step one is to figure out what the goal is. You know, some people don’t like the word goal. The most helpful exercise I’ve ever found for this is something called the Odyssey Plan from the book Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and this other guy who’s like some Stanford Professors. And basically the idea is that you imagine your life three to five years in the future if you continue down your current path and you write out what it would look like. Then you go back to day one, back to today, and you imagine your life three to five years from now, if you had to take a completely different path, and then you go back. And then you imagine your life three to five years from now, if you had to take a completely different path, but money was no object and you didn’t care about what people thought of you. And that just gives you sort of this divergent thinking that most people just never do. And I personally enjoy like doing that exercise every year and then converting it into a, okay, what does my 12 month celebration look like? 12 months from now, what would I like to be celebrating in the different realms of life? Health, work, relationships, joy. Those are the four that I like personally. And now I’ve got some goals written down. And there’s so much evidence that says that people who write down goals, people who have goals are way more productive than people who don’t. And people who write them down are even way more productive than people who don’t write them down. So step one, figure out what your goals are and just write them down. Step two, I find it super helpful to just convert all of those goals into what is the action I have to take each week. So if you’re, for example, trying to write a book, it might be a daily action of writing for two hours a day or a thousand words or whatever the thing might be. In my case, I’m trying to get fit. And so weight training three times, three times a week is the habit or the system I’m trying to develop. And then number three is putting all those things in the calendar. And then if they’re in the calendar and you can turn and you can make yourself the sort of person that does what’s in the calendar. Honestly, that is like 95% of all of the world’s productivity advice condensed into three things. Figure out where you want to go, turn it into and figure out how you’re going to get there and then just put

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Three Productivity Steps - To boost productivity, define goals, turn them into weekly actions, and schedule them. - Writing down goals and scheduling related tasks significantly increases productivity. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Someone wants to be more productive next year. Ali Abdaal All right, I’ve got three things. Number one is actually just figure out or at least make a rough first draft of where do you actually want to go? Like, sure, you can be more productive by cranking out more words per day or whatever, but like, if you’re not trying to be a writer. Ryan Holiday Don’t have a vague sense of what productivity is not a goal. Exactly. Yes. Ali Abdaal Productivity is like a sort of an effectiveness measurement on route to a particular goal. And if you don’t have that goal, then optimizing for productivity is completely pointless. Yeah. So I think step one is to figure out what the goal is. You know, some people don’t like the word goal. The most helpful exercise I’ve ever found for this is something called the Odyssey Plan from the book Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and this other guy who’s like some Stanford Professors. And basically the idea is that you imagine your life three to five years in the future if you continue down your current path and you write out what it would look like. Then you go back to day one, back to today, and you imagine your life three to five years from now, if you had to take a completely different path, and then you go back. And then you imagine your life three to five years from now, if you had to take a completely different path, but money was no object and you didn’t care about what people thought of you. And that just gives you sort of this divergent thinking that most people just never do. And I personally enjoy like doing that exercise every year and then converting it into a, okay, what does my 12 month celebration look like? 12 months from now, what would I like to be celebrating in the different realms of life? Health, work, relationships, joy. Those are the four that I like personally. And now I’ve got some goals written down. And there’s so much evidence that says that people who write down goals, people who have goals are way more productive than people who don’t. And people who write them down are even way more productive than people who don’t write them down. So step one, figure out what your goals are and just write them down. Step two, I find it super helpful to just convert all of those goals into what is the action I have to take each week. So if you’re, for example, trying to write a book, it might be a daily action of writing for two hours a day or a thousand words or whatever the thing might be. In my case, I’m trying to get fit. And so weight training three times, three times a week is the habit or the system I’m trying to develop. And then number three is putting all those things in the calendar. And then if they’re in the calendar and you can turn and you can make yourself the sort of person that does what’s in the calendar. Honestly, that is like 95% of all of the world’s productivity advice condensed into three things. Figure out where you want to go, turn it into and figure out how you’re going to get there and then just put it in the calendar and do the thing when it comes around. With

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Control and Productivity - Apply the Stoic dichotomy of control to productivity. - Focus on controlling what you can (process, approach) even when tasks are dictated. Transcript: Ryan Holiday Right, last question. What’s something you feel like the Stoics can teach a person who wants feel good productivity? Ali Abdaal Yeah, I think the main one I always come back to is the dichotomy of control. Epictetus is it? Yeah. You know, there are some things that are within our control and there are other things that are not within our control. And any amount of worrying about the things that are not within our control is usually worried that it’s wasted. And I think a big part of feel-good productivity is find

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