7 Habits that Save Me 3+ Hours a Day

Summary

The video outlines seven daily habits that save a total of three hours per day. These include capturing tasks instead of mentally tracking them, planning each day's most important task, color-coding a calendar to eliminate gaps, using a '5-minute rule' to beat procrastination, banning solo TV watching, using an alarm clock instead of a phone, and enabling focus modes on phones. The speaker argues these habits boost productivity and intentionality by reducing distraction and wasted time.

Takeaways

• 😊 The most valuable thing we have is time, so it's important to save time wherever possible
• 📝 Capture things you need to do instead of trying to remember them all
• 🚀 Identify the most important task to accomplish each day
• 🌈 Fill your calendar to avoid unintentionally wasting time
• ⌛️ Use the 5 minute rule to overcome procrastination
• 🔋 Sponsor provides a healthy, affordable meal option
• 📵 Use focus modes and keep phone face down to avoid distractions
• ⏰ Use an alarm clock instead of phone to avoid wasting time in bed
• 📺 Don't watch TV alone as a rule to save over an hour a day
• 💡 Try cutting out TV for a month to see if you actually miss it

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic is 7 habits that save the narrator around 3 hours per day.

What is the 'capture habit' and how does it save time?

The capture habit involves writing down any thoughts or to-dos as they come up instead of trying to remember them later. This saves mental energy and avoids wasting time trying to recall what you forgot.

What is the purpose of identifying a 'daily adventure'?

It encourages focusing on the most important task of the day. It also makes completing tasks more enjoyable by approaching them with more energy and an adventurous mindset.

How does the 'rainbow calendar' save time?

Scheduling out your whole day avoids wasting time on unintentional activities during gaps in your calendar. It encourages living more intentionally.

What is the '5 minute rule'?

If you're procrastinating, it says to just work for 5 minutes, since starting is the hardest part. It also says that 5 minutes of progress is better than nothing.

How does not watching TV alone save time?

Watching TV alone can easily lead to 1-4 wasted hours per day. Removing this habit frees up time for more fulfilling activities.

What app helps reduce phone distractions?

The 'OneSec' app makes you pause before using distracting apps. It encourages switching to more intentional apps instead.

Why use a separate alarm clock?

Phone alarms make it too easy to snooze, cancel alarms, and scroll on your phone in bed, wasting 30-60+ minutes.

What are some benefits realized from these habits?

Benefits include improved productivity, intentionality, mental clarity and energy. More fulfillment, progress towards goals.

Which habit seems most useful or hardest to adopt?

Answers may vary. The rainbow calendar seems very useful but also time-consuming. No TV could be hard since it's a common default activity.

Outlines

00:00

💡 Capturing thoughts to free mental space

Paragraph 1 discusses the 'capture habit' which involves immediately writing down any thoughts or to-dos when they come up. This offloads them from your mind so you don't waste mental energy remembering them and provides a centralized place to review tasks later.

05:02

🚀 Setting a daily priority task or 'adventure'

Paragraph 2 talks about asking each morning what the day's most important task or 'adventure' will be. This helps focus time on priorities, removes the burden of deciding what to do, and frames tasks as fun adventures to generate energy.

10:03

🌈 Blocking calendar gaps to avoid mindless scrolling

Paragraph 3 recommends color coding a daily calendar to minimize open gaps where unintended, non-optimal activities like social media scrolling may occur. Scheduling intentional blocks makes it a habit to follow predefined plans.

⌛ Using 5 minute rule to start and utilize small blocks of time

Paragraph 4 introduces the '5 minute rule' - commit to working on something for 5 minutes to overcome procrastination through getting started, and use small 5 minute blocks as they add up over time.

📵 Rules and settings for avoiding phone distractions

Paragraph 5 suggests phone strategies like scheduled focus modes, face down placement, and apps that impose a delay before mindless scrolling sites to minimize wasted time.

⏰ Physical alarm for pre-sleep willpower & optimal mornings

Paragraph 6 finds consistent benefits from using a separate alarm clock instead of a phone to prevent digital temptations interfering with good sleep and wakeup habits.

📺 Only watching TV intentionally in social settings

Paragraph 7 shares a personal rule to only allow TV watching in fun social contexts, saving an average of 60 minutes daily for more meaningful priorities.

Keywords

💡Time management

The video focuses extensively on time management strategies and habits that can help save time every day. For example, the 'capture habit' involves capturing thoughts and to-do items immediately to avoid wasting mental energy remembering them. The 'daily adventure' concept involves planning the most important task at the start of each day.

💡Intentionality

Being intentional with one's time and not allowing unplanned activities is a recurring theme. The speaker aims to avoid 'gaps' in his calendar that lead to mindless scrolling of apps. He also has a strict no TV rule to avoid passive consumption of content.

💡Procrastination

The 'five minute rule' tactic directly targets procrastination. It suggests just working on a dreaded task for five minutes to build momentum. This rule also states that five minutes of progress is better than nothing when time is limited between activities.

💡Attention management

The speaker uses various methods like blocking distractions, keeping his phone face down and tools like the OneSec app to avoid wasting time and attention on his smartphone.

💡Intentional media consumption

Apart from scheduling activities in his calendar, the speaker is also intentional about media consumption. He has strict rules to avoid casually browsing social media and emphasizes consuming media together socially.

💡Calendar blocking

An integral habit is meticulously planning his calendar by time blocking activities, meetings, tasks and even casual media consumption or leisure to ensure his day has no aimless gaps.

💡Offloading/capturing tasks

A key tactic is offloading to-do items and thoughts immediately to paper or apps like Things to avoid wasting mental focus on trying to remember tasks.

💡Accountability tools

The speaker uses apps like OneSec and physical alarms to hold himself accountable and on track towards intentional and productive activities.

💡Daily planning

Daily planning the 'most important task' at the start of the day ensures it gets top priority. Coloring this calendar with different activities ensures no gaps.

💡Habit formation

Ultimately, building habits and rituals around the concepts of time-boxing, productivity tools, attention management and intentionality ensures the speaker stays on track everyday.

Highlights

The capture habit helps you capture thoughts and ideas immediately so you don't forget them or get distracted.

The daily adventure habit encourages you to identify the most important task to focus on each day.

The rainbow calendar habit involves planning out your day in advance to avoid wasting time.

The five minute rule helps beat procrastination by letting you just get started on something for five minutes.

Gaps in your calendar can lead to aimless social media scrolling, so try to schedule intentional activities.

Even just five minutes of progress is better than nothing.

Making tasks seem more fun can be a huge productivity boost.

The focus phone keeps distractions at bay through focus modes, keeping the phone face down, and apps like One Sec.

Using a separate alarm clock avoids wasting time on your phone before bed.

Cutting out solo TV watching freed up time for goals and experiences.

Getting started is often the hardest part of overcoming procrastination.

Out of calendar time often leads to mindless social media use.

Scheduling even small blocks of focused time adds up.

Apps and tools can curb distraction, but self-discipline is key.

Evaluate whether TV watching is quality time for you.

Transcripts

hey friends welcome back to the channel

as you guys know I'm absolutely obsessed

with trying to save time in any ways

that I can because time is really our

most valuable non-renewable resource we

can always make more money but we can

never make more time and so in this

video I want to talk through seven

habits that I try my best to do every

day and that saved me around three hours

every single day coming in at number

seven we have a habit that saves me

around 10 minutes a day and that is the

capture habit now this is a strategy

from David Allen's book getting things

done which is the Bible of productivity

that first came out in 2003 and the idea

is that anytime you have a thought or

you remember something that you need to

do instead of doing it there and then

you make it a point to immediately

capture it and offload it to some other

sort of system so that your brain is not

having to think about it so for example

if I'm in the middle of doing some work

and I think oh I need to call my grandma

then what I'll do is that I'll either

write it down on a piece of paper

directly in front of me so I know I've

got it captured or more likely I'd put

it straight into the app things which I

use on my Mac it saves a lot of time and

it also saves a lot of headspace because

a you're not distracting yourself trying

to go somewhere else and write down the

thing you're also not wasting time

trying to remember what you think you've

forgotten the only problem is

I can't remember what I've forgotten and

then when you have moments of spare time

you can just look at your to-do list and

think oh cool these are the things I've

already captured and these are the

things that I want to do and you can use

any kind of app for this you can use pen

and paper you can use Post-it nodes you

can use things to do it notion whatever

you want whatever app works for you

Apple reminders Apple notes whatever the

thing might be it really doesn't matter

as long as you have a centralized place

where you can capture your thoughts and

capture your ideas and then not have to

worry too much about it and waste time

having to think about it alright coming

in at number six we have a habit that

saves me around 15 minutes every day and

that is what I call the daily adventure

and this habit is basically where every

single morning I ask myself when I sit

down to work what is today's adventure

going to be now this habit serves two

purposes the main purpose that saves

time is that it encourages me to think

about what is my most important task for

the day in the book make time for

example where I first got this many

years ago when I read the book they call

it the daily highlight where you just

ask yourself what's the most important

thing I need to do today and even if

that's the only one thing that you do

for the day as long as you're doing this

for 365 days you're really winning and

you're saving tons and tons of time and

effort and also moving towards your

goals over the course of a year the

second main benefit of this is that

ideally the most important thing that

you would do would be the first thing

that you do that day when you have a

little bit of spare time so it removes

that kind of cognitive burden of having

to think about what was that thing I

need to do again and the third benefit

and the reason why I call it a daily

Adventure these days rather than a daily

highlight is because thinking about it

as an adventure just makes it seem a

little bit more fun the single biggest

productivity hack of all time is finding

a way to enjoy what you're doing and

finding a way to generate energy from

that thing that you're doing so let's

say I've got this I don't know

PowerPoint presentation that I need to

finish that's like super important I

could think of it as my most important

task or I can think of it as today's

adventure maybe I'd have Harry Potter

music in the background while I'm doing

the thing to make it feel more fun

[Music]

maybe I'd go out to a coffee shop or

maybe I'd sit on a park bench nearby if

it's sunny outside like there are

different things that I can do to

approach this activity that I have to do

with a little bit more enjoyment a

little bit more energy A little bit more

like an adventure all right coming in at

number five we have another habit that

saves me around 15 minutes a day and

that's what I call the Rainbow calendar

and basically the idea behind the

rainbow calendar is that ideally every

morning I want to be planning out my

calendar for the rest of the day and I

like to color code things so it feels as

if it's a rainbow that doesn't have too

many gaps in it because the problem with

gaps in the calendar is that at least

for me I find that the sort of person I

am when I have a gap in my calendar and

I don't know what I intend to do in that

time I inevitably spend that time doing

something non-intentional like randomly

scrolling Instagram or Tick Tock and

generally it's not me living my best

life when I'm randomly scrolling

Instagram and Tick Tock for the record I

have nothing against using social media

I'm a professional social media user

myself but what I want for myself is

that the time I'm spending on YouTube or

social media or whatever is time that I

intend to be spending on YouTube or

social media or whatever not time that

I've accidentally found myself spending

on it because I just didn't have a

default activity that I wanted to do in

that time instead so for example in my

calendar I literally have a Blog every

day for breakfast a block for work a

block for lunch a block for a little

break sometimes a Blog for going to the

walk to get coffee sometimes I have a

block where I'm like okay I'll just do

whatever in that block but then I'm

intending that that block is just for me

to do whatever I've actually tried this

I've run this experiment a few times

where I've not time blocked stuff in the

daytime and I found that inevitably

every sort of it's approached like 12

o'clock and I'm like oh you know I don't

have anything to do right now and then

I'll just end up scrolling Instagram the

more this becomes a habit and the more

you follow your own intentions at least

for me I find that it saves me quite a

lot of time I eat around 15 minutes a

day all right coming in at number four

is a habit that saves me around 20

minutes each day and that is what I call

the five minute Rule now the five minute

rule has two components the first one is

that if I'm struggling to do something I

can just get started for five minutes so

for example filming this video I was

procrastinating a little bit from

filming this video but then I thought

you know what five minute rule I'm just

gonna film the video for five minutes

and then I can stop if I want to but

that's how we beat procrastination

because the hardest part is getting

started it's like when you're like

pushing a trolley in the supermarket

it's a bit of a push to get started but

once the trolley is moving it just kind

of Carries On Moving and now I don't

know we're 12 minutes into filming this

video or however long it's been I'm

enjoying it now it's not a thing that I

need to procrastinate from but the

second aspect of the five minute rule is

that five minutes is way better than

nothing now especially when you organize

your life with your calendar like it's

it's very easy to let like on the hour

be the only legit time that you can

start something like oh it's 11 48 right

now I couldn't possibly do anything for

12 minutes until 12 so I'm just gonna

wait until 12 and then I'll do my next

thing when I'm thinking in that kind of

mindset I'm wasting a lot of time doing

things unintentionally in those 12

minutes whereas I find with a five

minute rule I tell myself oh it's 12 48

okay that's two lots of five minutes I

could spend 10 minutes working on

something interesting that could be

checking through my emails it could be

replying to some friends on WhatsApp it

could be making a little bit of progress

on my book it could even be drafting a

video like there was a five minute blog

this morning where I drafted a whole new

video that I'm gonna do next and people

often ask me you know how did you manage

to make videos while you were working

full-time all that stuff for the first

three years of this YouTube channel and

really a big chunk of it was the five

minute rule when I would have five

minutes in between seeing patients

waiting for some blood test results to

arrive waiting for the tea to brew if

I'm making tea for the nurses I would

generally get out a piece of paper and

then start like drafting out a video in

that time and so using the five minute

rule in This Way saves me around I'd say

20 minutes maybe even more time every

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in at number three we have a habit or a

system rather that saves me at least 30

minutes every day and that's what I call

the focus phone now phones are an

absolutely incredible device incredible

invention but they're an absolute time

sink when it comes to distracting us

from the things that we actually want to

do most of us do not intentionally spend

a lot of time on our phone we find

ourselves spending time on our phone so

there are three things in particular

that I do to help me focus more and

waste less time on my phone the first

one is that my phone is almost always on

some kind of focus mode now this happens

automatically because I actually time

block everything in my calendar and so

right now my phone is in work mode which

means I'm not going to see any

notifications except my girlfriend my

mum my brother and my sister-in-law

those are the only four people whose

notifications come through while my

phone is in any kind of focus mode and

that means that when I want to open

WhatsApp group chats I'm doing it

intentionally on my own time rather than

on someone else's time secondly what I

do is I always keep my phone face down

there is something about having a phone

face up in front of you that is just

like a recipe for disaster and a recipe

for distraction and there's something

about the phone being face down that

makes it seem a lot less threatening and

a lot less inviting as a device and the

third strategy that I found helpful is

that when I have periods where I'm

spending too much time on social media I

install a quick app called one sec but

essentially what one sec does is that

anytime you open Instagram or Tick Tock

or YouTube and you and you can decide

what apps it is it like opens up with

this thing and it makes you take a

breath and then breathe out again and

then it says hey would you like to go on

Kindle or audible in that time instead

because you can set what kind of more

intentional apps you want in that time

and usually by the time I've taken a few

seconds to take a breath and breathe out

again and ask myself do I really want to

be going on Instagram right now the

answer is hell no and then I close

Instagram now I like this app so much

that I reached out to the guy who made

it on Twitter and he's very kindly

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a slot so that'll be linked down below

if you want to check it out all right

coming in at habit number two is another

habit that saves me at least 30 minutes

every day sometimes 60 Minutes sometimes

longer than that and that is the alarm

clock and basically the idea here is

using a physical alarm clock as my

bedtime alarm clock rather than my phone

now I've been on and off with this habit

for the last several years but I find

that whenever I don't use a physical

alarm clock and I think oh it's fine my

phone is my alarm it's way easier than a

physical alarm clock and I have my phone

charging on my bedside inevitably I

waste at least half an hour sometimes an

hour sometimes even two or three hours

before I sleep and then even when I wake

up in the morning it's too easy a to

snooze the alarm B to cancel the alarm

and see to then just lie in bed and just

go on my phone for a bit especially if I

don't have anything that morning and now

we have habit number one which saves me

at least 60 Minutes every day sometimes

more and that is a simple rule that I am

not allowed to watch TV unless it's with

friends this is a very controversial

thing I know some people are like like

feel borderline religious about oh my

God I need to have my two hours of

watching Netflix every night because if

I don't then it's really bad for my

health and all this I call BS to most of

that kind of stuff I used to watch so

much TV when I was younger I used to

watch quite a lot of TV at University

and then one day I realized hang on I'm

wasting like so much time watching TV I

think the average American watches

somewhere between one and four hours

every day of TV for me it was about an

hour a day on average and I realized

that you know when I was on my deathbed

I probably wouldn't regret not having

watched more TV and so I tried this I

tried making this rule for myself when I

was at University no TV unless it's with

friends so when Game of Thrones would

come out we'd do a Sig Game of Thrones

nights we'll invite people over it would

be super fun and that would turn into a

social experience but it meant that I

wasn't spending every evening after

lectures catching up on Gray's Anatomy

or The Vampire Diaries or the office or

watching reruns of friends or whatever

and that freed up so much time in my

life at University to build my business

to build my YouTube channel I almost

never watched TV when I was working as a

doctor as well I would do YouTube stuff

in the evenings and all of that was way

more fulfilling and way more intentional

than sitting down and trying to watch TV

for example now I'm know this is

controversial I know some people want to

cancel me for promoting toxic

productivity and hustle clutch and all

that kind of stuff all I'm saying is try

cutting out TV from your life for like a

month and see if you miss it and if you

really miss it if you really can't live

without it if it's really you living

your best life by watching more TV on

your own sitting on your computer and

watching Netflix by all means you're

living your best life and you're living

intentionally but if in my case I

realized hang on I'm actually not proud

of that time I spent watching TV I'd

rather go for a walk in nature rather go

for a run rather go to the gym so

overall these seven habits save me at

least three hours every single day I

hope you found at least some of them

helpful and you might try and

incorporate them into your life and if

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there thank you so much for watching and

I'll see you later bye