What does your ideal Tuesday look like?

Hey friends,

Firstly, apologies for the broken link in last week’s email. I intended to link to the YouTube Growth Scorecard but forgot to change the link in the template I recycled from a previous issue. Sorry about that 😅

In other news, a couple of weeks ago, I gave a talk at the International Fitness Summit in Brighton (where I had the smallest biceps out of all the speakers). My friend and fellow creator Chris Williamson was interviewing me about the top methods I use to stay productive. Naturally, lots of the conversation was centred around the strategies and ideas in my upcoming book, Feel-Good Productivity (which you can preorder here if you haven’t already, and a massive thank you if you have).

I boiled productivity down to a simple, 5-step process. This isn’t explicitly in the book, but it’s something I’ve distilled from all the research and reading I’ve done in the field of productivity.

1. Step 1 – Set your Direction
2. Step 2 – Turn your Goals into Weekly Inputs
3. Step 3 – Make Time in your Calendar for those Weekly Inputs
4. Step 4 – Do the Thing, and Do it for a Long Time
5. Step 5 – Reflect and Adjust as needed

As part of the conversation, I talked about the Ideal Week time management method that you might’ve seen some of my videos about. Essentially, the idea is that you create a blank Google Calendar and you ask: “What would my ideal ordinary week look like?” And you block out the relevant areas. I won’t go into it in too much detail here – you can find a detailed walkthrough here

Chris had a great follow-up to the method. He referenced something that Tim Ferriss once said, around “Crushing It Tuesdays”:

Your life is made up of a series of ordinary Tuesdays. Figure out what your ideal normal Tuesday looks like. Because if you can have an amazing Tuesday, you’ll probably have an amazing life.

I love this framing. I’ve been using the Ideal Week method for nearly a year, but I hadn’t really thought about: “What does my ideal day look like?”

I’ve now landed on something like this, for the ideal Tuesday:

• 7am – 9am: Wake up, morning routine, journaling, taking stock of the day.
• 9am-1pm: 4h of deep work: reading, learning, writing.
• 1pm-3pm: Leisurely lunch, ideally with others.
• 3pm-6pm: Work stuff – meetings, filming bits, etc. But ideally unscheduled so I can continue to read and write.
• 6pm-7pm: Gym / Exercise / Yoga class / Martial arts class.
• 7pm – 10pm: Invite people over to my place for dinner
• 10-11pm: Wind down, read in bed.
• 11pm – 7am: Sleep.

This is a cool method. It’s a lot simpler than the Ideal Week but it serves a similar purpose. When I asked the various people in my team what they learned from the weekend in Brighton, they all said: “That ideal day thing that Chris Williamson talked about was really useful!”

So here’s the question for you for this week: What does your ideal Tuesday look like?

Have a great week!

Ali xxWrite newsletter content here.

Have a great week!

Ali xx

♥️ My Favourite Things this Week

1. Fiction Book – I’ve been absolutely LOVING the book Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. It’s the story of some college students who end up becoming video game developers in the late 1990s and beyond. I’m currently around 60% through it and I’ve been absolutely hooked since I started reading it 2 days ago.
2. Podcast – I loved this interview that Colin & Samir did with MrWhoseTheBoss (real name: Arun), one of the world’s biggest tech YouTubers. The interview was, incidentally, filmed in my flat in London a few weeks ago 😂 I generally love all the interviews that Colin & Samir do, but this one was especially interesting. Arun’s approach to YouTube, the obsessive focus he has on quality, and his relationship with metrics and goals, were particularly interesting for me, given the stage I’m at with my YouTube channel and business too. If you’re a creator, or interested in the whole creator economy thing, it’s a great listen.
3. Video – I recently discovered this video that a chap made breaking down my style of making videos. It’s really well put-together, and very flattering. It also helped me appreciate that “ohh this is what my own style of videos is” which I hadn’t quite realised before. If you enjoy my YouTube videos and you’re interested in someone else imitating them masterfully, this is a great watch.

🎬 My New Videos

💻 6 Side Hustle Ideas for Students in 2023 – So side hustles literally changed my life, and in this video I explain how they can change yours and share 6 specific ideas that could work for you as well.

✍️ Quote of the Week

“Technology does not drive change. It is our collective response to the options and opportunities presented by technology that drives change.”